Ok here is the deal. Some of you may remember I posted that I added my intake and exhaust and felt no gains… Actually I felt like my truck was running worse!! Well the other day I replaced my stock battery for an Optima Red Top. In doing so I must have reset the PCM cause boy I can feel it now… Its not a huge difference but the truck is running a lot better. When I installed the intake the instructions said not to reset the PCM unless I got a CEL… Well to this day I never got one but its obvious my PCM was having issues with the upgrades. Anyway just thought I would let everyone know that its probably a good idea to reset the PCM when making mods even if you don't throw a CEL. BTW ordered my Xcal yesterday!!

 

Mike’s custom tuning brings it all together so once you get your XCal you’ll be all set; it’s a night and day difference in performance.

My experience with resetting the PCM hasn’t had any dramatic effects as you described, but every truck reacts differently. Basically, all you do when you reset the PCM is clear the adaptive strategy and that comes back as quick as it left and constantly changes to adapt to the moment. If you ever feel like your truck is getting a little sluggish, a couple of WOT runs will turn it around

 

i reset, my PCM every 6 months, as part of my maintance cycle

 

Exactly, the tuning is required to get the most out of the intake.

And as John (jpdadeo) mentioned, there are some times in which it's not a bad idea to clear the PCM to let adaptive strategy begin again from scratch - some people do that every time they make *any* modification to their vehicles.

The point we were making early on with those using the AF1 or Airaid units without our custom tuning was that we did NOT want adaptive cleared after you installed the intake kit and did the original battery disconnect to allow adaptive to begin from scratch upon the original installation of the intake kit - we wanted people to do that once, and if they got a CEL afterwards, then simply clear the code to allow adaptive to continue making adjustments. There may have been some confusion about that, we did want everyone to clear the PCM upon initial installation of the AF1 or Airaid on the 2004 & up 5.4 3V's, but after that initial clearing, then just clear the code if it set, so that you didn't lose previous adaptive adjustments.

Another aspect of this is that if it's a daily driver, then usually most of it's driving is conservative, and in that case, clearing the PCM will always make it feel peppier at first, especially on the stock tune - but that will gradually go away again as the vehicle accumulates miles & drive cycles if driven in the same basic manner.

So there are a couple of sides to this, maybe 3 or 4 even - sometimes "it just depends," in other words.

 

Ive seen it where a dying battery can hamper your performance. That may have been the problem.....