Hello Guys,
I just joined the forum, and just bought my first F-150 got a 06 King Ranch I had a 2000 Powerstroke before that and I like the F-150 better. I had a programmer on my powerstroke and loved it, but it ate transmissions. I want a programmer now just to help my MPG and not hurt my transmission. What programmer would you guys recommend for my truck? Thanks

 

I don't think you will get much better gas mileage with a programmer. Some people have posted better gas mileage but I have not noticed a difference. You will get many different opinions on which programmer is best. I have an X-Cal1 tuned by Mike Troyer and really like it. Most now have the X-Cal2 tuned by Mike Troyer. I have seen a few have posted with the Edge programmer and seem to like it. You will have to decide what you want.

Kevin

 

I gained almost 2 mpg HWY (mostly) on my first tank with the edge (that included some testing and tuning too). It requires you to run premium fuel though. I had been getting high 15's and very low 16's. My first tank with the Edge, i got 18.0 mpg (running 80+ mph). This tank is looking good to as well. I had a 1714 Superchips programmer and gained "0" mileage with it. Check back with me in a week or two and i will let you know if my gains stayed (i think they will).

 

Hi Sudsmaster,

Welcome to F-150 Online!

Performance tuning is done for the purpose of improving performance first and foremost, but just to give you an idea of what our customers generally report back to us, they typically report back anywhere from roughly about a 1.0-3.0 mpg gain, with an average of about 1.5-2.2 more mpg.

This of course depends on how they drive their vehicle, and the quality of fuel they use. Some of our drag-racing hot-rodders see no gain, and some of our customers report 3.5 mpg gains, and everything in between. Fuel quality is one of the important keys (as is the tuning) to getting the best possible mpg, as well as performance and keeping the fuel delivery system and the engine clean. We provide complete info on fuel quality, maintenance info and much more detailed info with every custom tuner we provide, so that our customers have much more detailed knowledge on how to get the longest service life & best MPG & performance from their F-150's.

What you have is a very heavy configuration of F-150 with that King Ranch - that is, as you probably already know, the top of the line model F-150, and a beautiful (and very expensive!) truck. Given that, it needs help in the performance & mpg departments even more than the lighter F-150 configurations do. We tune a lot of King Ranch models, literally tuning them every day here at Troyer Performance. Your transmission is *not* going to be hurt by our custom tuning - the transmission in your truck is a good, durable transmission, significantly upgraded over the previous generation F-150 4R70W unit it replaces. Just to give you an idea of how durable, typically when installing a mod like a supercharger adding say, 150 HP at the crank, there is no reduction in service life with proper calibration (tuning). In fact, the supercharger kits we provide even include a 36/36 powertrain warranty, and have been thru Ford's complete battery of durability testing, including things like 200 hours non-stop at full-throttle. So that is generally not something you have to worry about like you have seen in some of the tuners for the Powerstroke diesel with the 4R100 trans. When tuning *those*, you have to be careful and do certain things in the control program to avoid transmission failure. Those of us who know that transmission can do a couple of simple things to help it's durability as well, and we have a number of PSD owners who have 350K miles on their diesels with our tuning and no such problems.

The bottom line is, what will get you the best results for your new King Ranch F-150's tuning is our custom tuning, as we have specialized in tuning the F-150 platform for 14 years, longer than anyone else, and we custom tune more of them, so we know the platform's needs & limitations very well. We also provide assistance to a number of companies making various performance products for these vehicles.

We can provide you with tuning where you can still use 87 octane fuel and pick up significant power gains, as well as tuning for premium gas for maximum power gains, tuning for when you need to tow a heavy load, or if you just want maximum performance etc. We provide a set of 3 different custom tunes that are done from scratch for each individual vehicle and it's owners' needs & preferences. That's really the only way to do it right, is to set each individual vehicle up one by one custom, based on the owners preferences, driving conditions, any other modifications, etc.

What I would suggest is to give us a call at our number listed below so we can go over this in proper detail with you, so you'll get a solid overview of all of that and can make your decision from a fully informed position. We're happy to do that with no sales pressure, and we provide registered members of F-50 Online like yourself with a special discount as well.

The actual hardware (tuner) we use is the most advanced unit available, with complete diagnostic capability, including the enhanced manufacturer-specific capabilities, and the highest-speed datalogger made, for those who like to see just what their engine *and* transmission are doing at any time. that can be viewed in real time as you drive, and can also be recorded for viewing later as well. It's a modular design with Internet-updateable firmware, USB connectivity to your PC, and can be programmed for any 1996 & newer FoMoCo vehicle. It can also take future options such as a large dash-mounted touch screen, etc.

I hope this brief info helps, & congratulations on having a beautiful brand new 2006 King Ranch - that is quite the vehicle!

Please feel free to give us a call and we'll be more than happy to go over everything with you in proper detail so you can give it some thought, & best of luck with your new truck!