Hi i have a 2002 F150 with a 5.4 i was wondering what chip/tuner would give me the most power and would also improve my mpg. thank you.

 

Kraigk- I also have 2002 and I did alot of reading on this website,. Everyone on this site has there own opinion and half will say the Edge and half will say Troyer Performance. I did order an Edge unit and then I met Mike from Troyer performane and spoke with a couple of guys that had the xcal from Troyer and that changed my mind. I did not even install the Edge I returned it the same day UPS dropped it off. I know this post did not help you with your questions but I think you need to ask yourself what you would like out of a tuner. Performance I would go with Troyer and if you want a "canned" tune with the gauges the go with the Edge. Good luck

 

There is only ONE answer for this. Get your truck on a dyno and have it tuned. Check around your area for reputable tuners and let one of them tune it with an Xcal.

Other than that anything you buy will just be a generic tune and you will be leaving power on the table going mail order.

 

If you have spent any time at all reading here, you'd know that your response was somewaht innaccurate and myopic.

Plenty of dyno facilites, but few very knowledgable tuners who know the F150 platform backwards & forwards. It's NOT a 'stang, anad if one were to tune it as such, they'd likely be in a world of hurt.

A mail-order custom tune, done by THE expert, can be in fact a very accurate one. see link below).

How do I know this? I have one. Three, actually. Dead on (verified via datalogging & review). So - perfect on it's first iteration. And truly custom as it gets.

Does everyone experience this? Of course not, as the potential variables are enormous. But a lot do.

Do some serious searching - you just may learn something.

If you are lucky, Mike Troyer will respond. Question is - Are you open-minded enough to listen?

Sorry - no spoon, but here's just one of many to get you started....

https://www.f150online.com/forums/sh...2&postcount=20

 

I have an 01 and am pretty happy with my XCalII from Troyer...not overly, estatic like some others claim, but I am happy with it.

 

I would say the new Livewire device by SCT would be the best tuner on the market now. That device will hold up to 7 tunes I believe and give hp, torque, air/fuel and all other types of info. It is a little expensive, but SCT looks to have hit a home run with this device.

 

Have to agree with this one.

Once the 'version 1.0' bugs are worked out, it will be sweet.

Keep in mind it took SCT about a year before the Xcal2 was 'mature' and really hitting it's stride.

Still need end-user tools, a fix for the turn-off & retain settings issue, Vista support, and a less painful way to transfer an Xcal2's residual value towards a Livewire

Also be aware that an external wideband controller & sensor is required to display A/F's ...

 

Yeah. I would get the Livewire, if it would save the monitor settings and automatically turn of and on with the ignition. Don't know if I can wait for them to get the issues ironed out though. They need to spend a little more time testing these things, before they release them.

 

This is by far the funniest thing I have ever read in my life. While the F-150 is not a "stang" it is a Fuel Injected computer controled vehicle, as such in that respect they are all the same. I would very much like to hear what tunning method used on a 4.6 Mustang would kill a 4.6 F-150?

I don't care who you are, tunning a car from a conversation WILL NOT be as good As tunning the car with it on the dyno. Granted there are some crappy tuners out there but if you find one that is worth his weight there will be no difference in what he can do for you vs. what "THE extpert" as you so eliquently put it can do.

You lucked out, you got a tune that was dead on out the box, you said it yourself that not everyone will. I think you would be more the exception than the rule. Just out of curiosity how much do you know about tunning computers? Did you look at the data yourself and compare it to anything other than another persons word? Have you ever considered taking your truck to a dyno facility and having another tunner look at it? Every motor is different, and will respond differently to different tunning inputs. Just because motor A and motor B all have the same X, Y, and Z mods and both owners want the same thing does not mean that the same tune will have the same results in both. These motors are not put together with the precision of a NASA rocket, there are variables in every motor that could make a difference and without watching the data as you make adjustments you have no way compensating for that.

Will the sky open up and light shine down too? Sorry but that just seems like some brainwashed cult speaking right there.

Believe me the last thing I want is to be spoon fed by someone who believes everything he is told.

Ever stop to think about this, if 15 people use a specific tunner and they ALL come back saying:

"How do I know this? I have one. Three, actually. Dead on (verified via datalogging & review). So - perfect on it's first iteration. And truly custom as it gets."

How much more buissiness is that tunner going to get? Now if 15 people came back saying it took 3 tries for them to say it was perfect, but after that I took it to a dyno and the tunner there got me an extra 10hp and 15lbft, how much less buissiness is there going to be.

This post was in no way set to discredit or degrade the reputation of any tunners, just my thoughts on how tunning should be done after dealing with enough mail order tunes, dyno tunes, blown motors from crappy tunning ect. over the 15 years of my life.

 

Too lazy to bother Searching, eh Mr know-it-all? Because if you did, you'd actually note that on a point by point basis you are wrong.

Your '15' years do not make you an expert - and if you have blown a motor due to tuning, that proves it.

F150's weigh far more than stangs, and can be expected to carry significant additional weight since they are pickups - so just one difference ( of many) is how lean you can safely run it...

Of course the trucks are all different - including the fact that they have literally hundreds of PCM strategy revisions, unlike any other platform. That's why my tuner of choice advocates datalogging & review, and potential tweaking - INCLUDED in the price of the tuning. To be sure. The fact is he gets many right on the first iteration, not jut a few - that's because he's done it more times than anyone else on the f150 platform - it's what he specializes in. He routinely remotely tunes Rousch s/c installs, because he can do it safely. Sure - he'd love them to visit his shop to do it on his dyno, but understands that not eveyrone can...

Pick up the phone and call Mike Troyer - tell him the same story you just did here. Then decide. I really suspect you won't, as I believe you are either afraid or myopic or just plain dumb. Perhaps alll three. LOL!

I'm not brainwashed - the respect I have for my tuner of choice was earned. You however, are simply close-minded & ignorant.

 

Well I never claimed that my 15 years experience made me an expert in any way, I do not tune my own cars. My 15 years is experience with using different tunners, different mail order tunes, tunning software, ect. The fact that I have used more than 1 gives me a bit more insight than you have.

As for having blown motors due to a tune, that does not in any way say that I don't know what I am doing as I never tuned them, I did what you did and trusted a highly respected company to work on my tune via phone and e-mail. Fortunatly the company I used was willing to back up their mistake and had my motor replaced for me.

My point is simple and you seemed to avoid it like the plague. How DO YOU KNOW that your tune is as good as it can get? You are trusting what someone told you plain and simple then spreading it around here like it is fact passed down from the hand of god himself. Without having the car on a dyno and monitoring it in real time there is no way of knowing if it will repond better or worse to changes in the tune. Just because the tune keeps a steady a/f ratio does not mean that it is as good as it can get. Right now your tune might be safe, but who is to say with a few minor adjustments you couldn't get another 10hp & 10lbft out of it, only problem is without the truck on the dyno you don't know if thoes adjustments will work or not so you leave it where it is and then your tune is "As good as we can get it" not perfect.

As for a truck vs car with weight and loads that has NOTHING to do with the tune, yes you consider the weight but lets think about it for a second a Screw Harley weighs about 4600lbs, a Mustang comes in at about 3300lbs. What if I put 4 200lb people in the Mustang you are only talking a few hundred pounds difference now. Think about what you said, because the truck weighs more and it is expected to carry a load. How does the factory computer keep up with this? What if I tune the truck to perfection as is then I add a set of 33" tires that significantly increase rolling resistance on the drivetrain, in essence placing a greater load on the engine. Or what if I usually pull my boat and had a tow tune put together figuring a 5000lb trailer, but the day I go to pull my boat I also have a bed full of bags of cement that I don't feel like unloading so I decide to pull the boat with that extra load that was never taken into consideration. The computer will compensate for loads, once you change the tune it will maintain that tune under any load. If I set up my tune to hold a 12:1 a/f ratio, it will hold that if I am doing 20 or 180, if I have just me in the car or 4 200lb guys and 200lbs of weights in the trunk. If you set the truck up the same it will hold that even when you are towing a 5000lb trailer. Towing and performance most of the difference will be in the tranny control.

You are taking your experience with no substantial proof or basis for comparison and passing it off as the end all of tunning as if there is no other way to go than the way you suggest. You are dubbing someone as "THE expert" with very little to prove that. I am sure Mike himself dosen't even consider himself to be the only way to go.

 

Sounds like we have a conspiracy theory working here? My comments to this would be "believe what you want." Everybody who has a Troyer tune had it tuned to his truck for what he wanted. It could be for racing, towing, or just about anything. I can only talk about my experience and that is what people do on these forums, talk about their own experience. My truck is a daily driver and rarely hauls or tows anything. I love my Troyer tunes and never put it on the dyno and don't feel I need to. Drove my truck for 2 weeks without the tunes and it sucked. My 04 supercab weighs 6000 lbs so I don't know why a Harley is so much lighter.

Kevin

 

The Edge is great....

 

Nahh no conspiracy theory at all. You can talk about your experience and your opinions on what you have that is not the issue. You did not however hold up anyone or any particular company as the ONLY way to go or hail someone as the GOD of F-150 tunning, to the extent that anything other than that is wrong.

Maybe my opinion is scewed a bit as most of my tunning experience comes from race applications where I want every last drop I can get out of my motor while maintaining a safety net so to speak in the tune. I never set out to dump on any tunner or company I am just offering my opinion if you will to the effect that Troyer is not the only way to go, and it still is what it is a mail order tune.

ANY company that sends you a tune based on a conversation and or e-mail is a mail order like it or not. If you call company a or company b they will do the same thing. X motor, Y Tranny, C Exhaust, X Gears, ect. then they will dig into their database and put together a tune based on that and ship it out the door. If you take two identical trucks with identical mods, you WILL both get the same EXACT tune.

 

I'm new to the whole tuning thing....my gut said go with Troyer due to the possitive feed back and his reputation on this site. He seems to run a tight ship with excelent customer service! They have answered all my questions & returned all emails.
The way I understand it is once I get my tunes from them I get some dyno time and send Troyer all the data. He makes his tweaks and returns updated data. It's mail order but custom tweaked none the less.

Shane