I have a 2005 SuperCrew 5.4 3v with 91,000 miles on it. I haul my race boat all over the country (mountains too). I live in central Illinois and do most of my traveling in the Midwest and east coast. The only mod I have is a K&N drop in filter. I have read the great sticky posts but I am still unsure which product would be right for me. I plan on adding an aftermarket catback exhaust and a CAI. Any other simple mods besides reprogramming? Thanks!

 

With your planned CAI and 5.4L 3V you need a programmer with custom tunes before/same time you install the CAI.

This limits you to SCT and Gryphon.

The SCT programmer line can be tuned by PHP, Troyer, or VMP although each tuner has limits on the programmers they will custom tune.

The Gryphon can only be tuned by PHP.

https://www.f150online.com/forums/ch...unes-read.html

All three are excellent tuners, but wait times for custom tunes vary. Each programmer has its pros and cons - really depends on what features you are looking for.

Start your research!

 

shotgunz, it seems you are a wealth of info for the members here, but I find a glaring discrepancy with this post...

You say he will NEED a custom tune for his CAI, and thats not necessarily the case, as we offer awesome canned tunes in the Predator and trinity for several different CAIs.

Even without the highly developed canned CAI tunes we offer, SCT and Gryphon are NOT the only options for proper custom tuning..we have been doing this longer than anyone else, and have some great software available (CMR), check it out!

Thanks
Mike

 

Sorry Mike - I keep forgetting about Diablo's 'canned' CAI tunes.

Since I have you on the line (so to speak) - how does Diablo account for the various PCM calibrations (hex codes) in their 'canned' tunes?

 

Tunes are developed in house on our dyno and on the street for each 5 digit family of calibrations. The Predator or Trinity will read the stock tune, and select the appropriate 5 digit based tune from the available tunes for that application. It is amazing to some how many tunes the Predator can actually hold

 

I'm sure that other members will find this helpful (I did).

Thanks!

 

I find it helpful too, Mike. So the Predator and Trinity actually come "equipped" with many different tune parameters and then they "build" the custom files based on the PCM that they see? So, if I had one of these on my non-commercial CAI equipped truck and then traded it say, for a 2008 model WITH a commercial CAI, I'd be able to move the Predator to the new truck? (Assuming I'd set the old vehicle back to stock of course).

Actually though, isn't this what all the "canned" tune programmers do? (Without accounting for commercial CAIs.) This is where the Predator and Trinity really shine, isn't it? They can compensate for those intakes.

I haven't heard you say the tunes are built specifically for each "brand" of intake though, so I'm guessing the "intake tune" is one that satisfies the most demanding of the intake brands and the others are all happy with it. So, it's a step above what we all recognize as a "canned" tune, but is not quite a "custom" tune?

And please, don't read what I'm saying as any kind of a put-down - it's not. I'm very impressed with Diablo for taking the time to work out safe tunes for CAIs, since they are such a common mod. Seems like all makers of programmers could have done the same, to provide a more versatile product.

- Jack

 

Yes, your theory about going from say an 05 to an 08 truck is dead on...

As far as the CAIs go...we do actually base them on specific CAIs.

Each intake is flowed on our in-house flow bench (we are the only tuning company that has one of these with the capability to flow any CAI) to create a perfect 30pt MAF curve, then we transfer that curve to the tune, which gives us a base tune for the CAI that is usually right on the money, and makes dyno and street tuning a much simpler affair for development. The curve is then perfected on the dyno and the street through extensive datalogging, and finally turned into a canned tune for the end user.

Currently, we have specific tunes in the tools for the Airaid, JLT, K&N and Roush CAIs for the 5.4, and Roush and Airaid CAI tunes for the 4.6, with more to come.