Excuse my ignorance here, but let's say I get an XCal2 from Troyer. How does Mike do a custom tune to my individual truck without me driving across many states to his shop?

For instance, do I just tell him the mods that I have done to my '04 F150, and he can do it with just that info? ...or is it more complicated - like having to get it dynoed and send him the results? (like getting your actual A/F ratio measured so he knows how to tune it)

Thanks in advance!

 

Hi.

You should probably give them a call to discuss this in detail and/or Search for the many posts where Mike already explains all this, but in a very brief nutshell:

1. Order by calling their Sales line

2. They send you (email) a set of docs to fill out describing your truck, mods, & preferences ( i.e - octane, towing, etc). Need the PCM code & strategy code if you can get it.

3. You send those back, completed.

4. You wait for your tuner - this could take a while, depending - if it's shipped blank, it's quick

5. Tuner arrives - either blank so you can read the strategy & call in that data, or loaded with your tunes. For blank - tunes will be emailed later.

6. Load tunes & begin to look like this --> . Enjoy.

7. You are either done now, or you can proceed to datalog. ( Mike's tunes are usually dead-on out of the box - but it depends on your mods too ( e.g intake).

8. Optional but recommended: Datalog - either by yourself, or at a local dyno facility. Supplied are exhaustively detailed instructions on how to do this, either way.

9. Send back the data. If this is done within 60 days, it's no additional cost. That right there should tell you the importance Mike attaches to datalogging - escpecially on 04+ trucks, given their lean tendencies.

10. Wait some more. This is the real painful part lol

11 Load new revised tunes if necessary

12. Have a , knowing you chose the best tuning there is for the F150


It's this ability to remotely (and iteravely) fine tune the vehicle if required that allows this method to work. But it also demands that the tuner knows the platform backwards & forwards, and has the requisite amount of experience. Oh, and skill. Mike has all of that, in spades.

Crap - not so brief - sorry about that - I'm gettin' old ! Hope this helps you until Mike has a chance to reply - or you can,as I said, simply call directly.

*Mike - help - I AM gettin' old - 30 years in IT as of today. They gave me a nice pen, though LOL!*

Cheers
Bubba

 

You rock MGD - that's exactly the info I was looking for!

 

One more question for anyone who can answer:

Currently I'm using the Edge. I absolutely love the gauges; can I still use the Edge for displaying my info with the XCal2 as the tune?

 

Thanks & good luck bud. Let us know how it works out ...

Cheers
bubba

 

Absolutely!

 

Sweet! Bubba you just made my day. Although, probably not my wife's day after she finds out that I dropped more moolah on the truck.

 

LMAO ! Yup been there, done that, slept with the dog

Have a great weekend!

Cheers
bubba

 

Hi Curio,

As usual, MGDFan did an excellent job of describing our mail order custom tuning process.

Many trucks do not need to be datalogged at all - now if I had my "druthers", I would rather that every truck got datalogged, simply because I'm a tuner and I love data - but the reality is that with most intake kits on the market today that are actually worth having (and there are only a couple), we already have developed transfer functions that dial in the A/F ratios so they do not need further correction.

It all depends on what other modifications are done to the truck - if it's supercharged, or has an intake kit we do not feel is consistent enough, then we like to see data on the truck, and we provide complete step-by-step instructions, written for the first timer, on how to do that - and the XCalibrator 2 will datalog everything we need with the sole exception of the Air Fuel ratios, and for that most people drop by their local dyno for a coupla-few quick pulls and they're done - then they email us that info and we make any adjustments if we feel they are actually needed.

Again, most trucks using good parts do not need the datalogging, because we specialize in these trucks - for example, just in 5.4 3V 2004 & newer F-150's alone, we have tuned about 5000 of them alone! We've specialized in F-150 tuning for 15 years, so we've seen just about anything you could possibly do to them many times before and dyno;d them here.

If you have any questions about your vehicle specifically, please feel free to give us a call, and if you want to know if you will need to be datalogged, you can ask for me personally - just give our staff your screen name here and tell them that I asked you to call me personally, and if I am available, they'll put you thru to me, OK?

And yes, you can easily use your Edge unit to still view it as a "gauge center" even with our tuning installed, that is no problem at all - in fact, we have had *many* Edge owners do exactly that, they hear about us and switch over to our tuning to get the best performance results and driveability, and then still use their Edge unit to view various PCM parameters.

I hope that info helps!