After months of reading up on these forums, I've decided to go with the XCal3 with VMP tunes. I was thinking about going with 87 performance, towing, and economy. Is there really much difference in the three? I really don't want to be paying extra for 93 octane, but if there isn't a big difference between those three 87 tunes, I might throw in a 93 tune. Anyone use an 89 tune?

I have a '03 Scab 5.4L F150 with 285/75 R15 tires, drop in K&N air filter, and the "Gotts" intake: https://www.f150online.com/forums/ex...take-pics.html

The main reason I'm looking at getting a programmer is for more power for my sluggish truck and of course better mpg's.

Any help is greatly appreciated as I am driving myself crazy trying to read over all these posts!

 

The 03 body style F150s really benefit from 93 octane. I'd highly urge you to go with a 93 octane performance, 93 octane towing, and a 87 performance tune. The 93 octane tunes are going to give you better mileage which makes up for the cost. It will come out nearly even. Factor in the added power and torque and it's a easy decision. When it comes down to it, even if you weren't getting any more mileage, you'd only be spending around $5 more per fill up so it's easy to see that it's very possible to come out nearly even once you get better mileage.

Once you get them, you'll be wondering why it took you so long to get them, it'll be a whole new truck. I've used Justin's tunes in my 2006 F150 and my 2008 Mustang and have nothing but good things to say about them.

 

just ordered my tune just a regular ol 91 oct tune for my mods

 

Thumper,

Is there really much difference b/t the performance, economy, and towing tunes as far as power and fuel economy? It doesn't seem like the economy tune does much from your recommendations. Does it really not help your fuel mileage all that much?

Do I need a towing tune if I was to tow anything or can I use the performance tune? I think Troyer's website recommends not using a performance tune while towing. As far as what I can tell, the towing tune just creates different shift points. I don't tow a whole lot, so I don't know that I really need it, although, I've read about different people saying that they use the tow tune all the time b/c of how it drives.

I'd like to have a 93 performance tune in there to use every now and then, but I think I'll be too cheap to ever use it. How does a 93 performance, 87 performance and 87 tow or economy tune sound?

I think I'm putting too much thought into this. Thanks in advance for your help!

 

X2

His Performance tune are bad ***, i too had them!

 

I wouldn't bother with the mileage tune. Go with 87 perf. 87 tow and 93/91 perf or whatever the highest octane you can get.

 

Well ... I never ran a mileage tune in my truck. However, I do have one in my Mustang. I can get 23 mpg with mixed driving with the 93 octane performance tune. I can get 26 mpg with the 93 octane mileage tune.

As far as the towing tunes. It's always better to have a tune that is a towing tune. However, Justin usually tells people it's "okay" to tow with a performance tune as long as it doesn't exceed a certain amount of weight. I'd ask him what it is but I want to say it's ~4,000 lbs. So if you're not exceeding that than I say just get a 93 octane performance tune, 93 octane mileage tune, and a 87 performance tune. The mileage tunes will give you the same WOT performance, they just limit part throttle power. Like I said, the 93 octane really helps out on your body style. Justin can give you exact numbers but I know Justin and Mike T. always recommend going with 93 octane for those body styles since it helps out so much.

 

Anyone on here have or used the 87 mileage tune for the 97-03 F150's? Just trying to figure out if they are worth it or not. From what I understand is that they drive like the stock truck, but have a punch to it at WOT. Does that sound right?

 

No. It's going to have more power all the way through the power curve.

 

My performance and mileage tunes are still safe to tow with due to the way I set them up, but I can make a few more tweaks with a tow specific tune.

The mileage tune will give you 1-2mpg better while crusing, if you do all city driving, it does not help much, but if you do some highway driving it will help. The mileage tunes do not cost any WOT power, but they do slightly reduce part throttle power.

The performance tunes add power at WOT and part throttle, with no decrease in mpg, some actually see a small increase.

As Mike said, for an older body truck, there are some improvements to be had on 91-93 oct with a matching tune. The new trucks do great even on 87, but the old ones are much more sensitive to knock. Alot of the older trucks, like my 97 4.6, would knock from the factory.