I'm lifting my truck and adding some bigger wheels and tires (6" lift, 20" wheels, 35" tires). I have a k&n filter and flowmaster exhaust. I've been reading quite a bit about php and gryphon and I've yet to hear anything negative. Will gryphon give me the power I'm losing back? My biggest question is can I expect some real improvement in my mpg?

 

Unless I'm totally wrong here, your lift and bigger tires are going to reduce your acceleration times and are going to hurt your fuel economy. But, they will improve your off-road capability somewhat. The filter and exhaust probably have negligible effect.

Will a Gryphon help you? Yes, a bit. You SHOULD get back some power and it CAN improve your fuel economy too. I just wouldn't expect miracles.

The mods you've done have increased your frontal area, probably increased wind drag due to turbulence under the truck, your rolling resistance, and effectively put you into a higher transmission gear setup than stock.

But, your truck looks cool, right?

- Jack

 

The wheels and tires will cause you to lose 1 to 1 1/2 mpg. The custom tune can help you get a little of the mpg back, but the 30 or so horsepower wii get your power back.

If it were me, I would NEVER run the K&N on a 2004 5.4 without a custom tune from PHP. Way too much risk of running lean. You are not even getting full benefit from the CAI without a custom tune. Just not worth the risk.

 

Wasn't he just talking about a drop in filter, Jim?

- Jack

 

You may be correct! I just assumed CAI. If it is the dropin, ignore all I said about the CAI and running lean!

 

Yep, it's a drop in

 

I'll be up front with you... there is a negative to going with Power Hungry, and that is that you'll be waiting for your custom tunes. Bill does his best to get customers taken care of within 4 weeks, but some of our customers have waited up to three months. It all depends on the number of customers waiting in line behind you when you place your order. Below is something that I posted on our forum to explain things a little bit more. I really think someone should have all the information so that they can make an educated decision, and if the wait is an issue, then you might want to go with Troyer or Justin at VMP. I've heard nothing but good things about their tuning.

I've never actually been asked this question, but I imagine that many customers have thought about it once or twice.

This is paraphrased from the FAQs page on our website:

Most other tuners sit at their desks and custom tune all day. Bill, PHP's calibration engineer, is also a computer engineer. Simply put, in addition to custom tuning, Bill also writes all of PHP's software, maintains our website and forum, and is subcontracted by another company to maintain its Ford calibrations. For what it's worth, most of the time, he's also on the phone all day as our Support Tech! He really does do it all!

If we could only clone him, our customers wouldn't have to wait so long for their custom tunes! We have found, though, that based on Bill's reputation, our customers are generally willing to wait patiently for Bill's expertise -- and even if they get antsy along the way, they're always thrilled when they run their new tunes. We've never had a customer complain that the wait wasn't worth it.

In addition, no two calibrations are identical. Even if two customers have identical modifications to their trucks, we consider other factors when writing custom files such as: At what altitude does the customer live? Does the customer tow anything, and if so, how much weight does he pull? Is the terrain flat or mountainous? What are the customer's driving habits? Unlike some other popular tuners, we customize every single tune to the customer's needs. We don't have some master file that we pull from just because one customer's truck is similar to another customer's truck that we've already tuned. There's no doubt that everything might move along a little faster if we did that, but from our perspective, if a customer is paying for a custom tune, he shouldn't be getting the tune written for someone else's truck. NO TWO CUSTOMERS WILL EVER HAVE EXACTLY THE SAME PHP TUNES.

If a customer has a modification that we haven't tuned for yet, we take time to research the specifications of that aftermarket product to achieve the best gains possible. Each set of files can take anywhere from a few to many hours depending on a customer's needs. In addition, there are more than 100 parameters that we take into consideration for each file, which is what sets our custom calibrations apart from “canned” tunes and quite honestly, sets Bill apart from many other tuners as well.

 

You order the Gryphon, you get the canned tunes to play with until your custom tunes arrive. You will have to wait a month or longer on anyone else's custom tune if they are good at what they do, and have a lot of business.

 

did you get the custom tune.

 

Ive gained 1 mpg since getting my custom tune...Would be better but I can not keep my foot out it.

 

I'm sorry, I can't help pointing out the obvious (to me at least) and it's probably the biggest reason I've jumped on the PHP bandwagon. They're totally upfront with everything - the good, and the bad!

Groovy Chick (Corey) is demonstrating in her last post, some of the honesty that I count on from PHP! If you talk to either Corey or Bill, you'll come away with the same feeling: These are people you can trust!

I think this is a rare commodity these days and it's one that should be rewarded.

Thank you Corey and Bill, for putting your customers first!

- Jack

 

I've averaged between 2-3mpg city increase with the gryphon 91 octane custom tune. I have 33x13.5" tires.

 

Judging by everything I've read, here and elsewhere, I can definitely tell that PHP is a great company. Nothing but Gryphon owners raving about the customer service, product quality, and performance enhancement. I definitely plan on buying one in the next few months. Just bought a lift, wheels and tires, so the funds are tight. Just wanted to say thanks for everyone's honest responses.

 

I was curious how you get this information. Its not a question on the order form. Do you call us to see what were towing and where? driving habits? altitude etc.?

 

In my case, I added anything I thought would help Bill create the tune I wanted in an email that accompanied the order.

- Jack