Hello All. I am interested in purchasing a tuner with custom tunes. I am wondering if anyone can comment on the use of a tuner with the 4.6L engine? Most of the posts I read are from those with 5.4L.

I just wonder how much power, acceleration...performance is hidden in the 4.6L that a tuner will help bring out??

Thanks for all responses in advance.

Cheers
Steve

 

night and day difference for me man. vmp tuned.

 

I recently installed the Gryphon programmer in 2005 4.6L and find the canned tunes provide much better driveability than stock. All reports are that when the custom tunes arrive there will be another step increase in performance and just plain more fun to drive.To try and give it some perspective, it went from "Man,this thing is slow" to "Hey,this is kind of fun to drive now". I would recommend you buy one.

 

I went with Troyer tunes for my '05 4.6 Screw and the difference is immediately noticeable.

Troyer claims to provide around a 50 hp gain (more or less, depending on any other mods you've made) and I believe it. You won't believe it's your "little" engine.. LOL

There's untapped power in both the stock 4.6 and 5.4 engines that Ford chooses to suppress for various reasons. Custom tunes can unleash that potential, just do a little research and go with a reputable tuner and you can't go wrong...

Hear me now and thank me later..

 

go to a dyno shop that does excal 2 or 3 and they can adjust for anything. and you will get more bang for your buck instead og getting nickel and dimed with B.S. most programmers will screw with timing and reduce fuel to make power putting your truck at risk. I bought a programmer from a very well know shop and found out that the air fuel was 30 percent lean....tisk tisk. burned valves and a number of other potential f ups

 

I have a 4.6 tuned by Justin at VMP, night and day difference (mostly in the shift points) I had a hypertech on my '01 as the first mod (it was good for a canned tuner) and now I won't run anything but custom tunes on my fuel injected engines

 

and you didn't realize your truck was running too lean.......long before it suffered significant damage?

 

All programmers "screw with" timing and fuel to make power. Nobody's been able to find the magic parameter in the code to add 50 HP because it doesn't exist. Power comes from fuel and timing adjustments.

In light of your situation, I have a couple questions.

1. What year is your truck?
   
   
2. 4.6L or 5.4L? (I'm assuming a 4.6L)
   
   
3. Did you have a Cold Air Intake installed on your truck?
   
   
4. At what point was it determined that you were "30%" lean? Cruise? WOT?
   
   
5. How did you determine you were "30%" lean?
   
   
6. How many cylinders were affected? All? Some? 1 or 2?

The reason I ask is because *MOST* programmers do not alter the Mass Air Meter transfer table which is pretty much the only way to create a change in the air/fuel ratio under normal driving conditions. Even under WOT conditions I doubt that ANY programmer is going to change the Open-Loop fuel tables more than a couple percent. At the rate you're claiming, the vehicle was running 17.85:1 (assuming an ideal target of 12.5:1 AFR) and at that point there was no way it wouldn't have set a Check Engine Light and a P0171 and P0174 DTC for Lean Condition.

Look forward to your response. Take care.

 

I think we'd all like to know what well known or reputable programmer dialed you in to a lean condition.. Are you possibly meaning that you bought canned tunes? That could very well cause lean.. Hard to see any of the experienced custom tuners who'd be willing to risk their hard earned reputations giving out a tune 30% lean...

Just askin'..

 

Tex,

My biggest concern is where the lean was measured at. The only way to go that lean at anything outside of WOT is to cut the heck out of the Mass Air transfer function. Even at WOT I've never seen anyone go that lean. Honestly, and engine wont even run at that point. It would misfire, cough, sputter, and run like total crap well before then.

Honestly, I think it's a troll... but we'll see if he provides an explanation and/or documentation to back up his claims.

 

I was thinking about the edge evolution programmer and was wandering its effects on both the 4.6l and then a 2003 lightning engine

 

X2 let me say it like this I loaded the 87 tune I was like cool then I did the 93 tune backed down my street and made a sharp turn to the right stomping on the gas the truck started spinning the rears and fishtailing up the street till I backed off I was like wow didn't know just how much change the tune made to the 4.6 Best mod to date oh and Im running a Roush CAI and offroad cat back all tuned for that

 

JLT intake on 5.4 3v runs ~15.1 in closed loop and ~14.5 in open loop w/ LC-1

 

15.1 in a closed loop cruise is quite common. 14.5 in a WOT open loop condition is a problem. Also depends if you're measuring pre or post-cat, figuring .5 to .7 AFR increase across the converters. In either event, that's nowhere near the "30% lean" posted earlier back.

 

Yup exactly, backed out of run and applied 15% more to my Maf xf, and this was measured pre-cats. (12.6 is my number, thinking of trying 12.4 )

Did the 4.6 2v ever go to slot style MAS/MAF anyway?