Is Whipple's Tune Garbage?
 

Hey guys,

It's been a while since I checked in here, but I've been having some issues lately. I'm not sure it's even directly related to my S/C or the tune, but I thought I'd at least get started with some feedback that might help point me in the right direction.

I have an 06 Mark LT, and last summer I had the Whipple kit installed. According to Whipple, all my factory fuel stuff is suppose to be sufficient to operate safely and put out around 8psi (although the most I've ever seen it do in the last 9 months or so is 6 to 6.5 psi). I think the only thing that the kit came with was different spark plugs to use.

Ok, on to the issue I'm having; for the past month or so I've noticed that sometimes when I put my foot in it to do something like, get up to speed on a freeway on ramp, my truck will (and I'll try to explain this as best I can), kind of jerk like it's mis-firing or something. It doesn't do this all the time, so that's what has me confused. The first time this happened to me was the worst. My truck was vibrating and shuttering just driving down a surface street doing about 40 MPH or so. I took it to my shop and they plugged some sort of reader into the computer and the tech told me there were no mis-fires logged or anything coming up to let him know what the problem was. He then took it on a drive himself and he didn't experience any issues at all. He told me it's possible that I may have got some bad gas.

I've been getting gas at the same Chevron station for years and never had an issue before. And ever since I supercharged it, I make sure to get the 92 as that's the highest I have available to me here in WA. Today I went to a Shell station and used their V-Power 92. I'll run a couple tanks of that to see if somehow that makes the difference, but knowing me, it's not going to be something that simple. LOL

So I'm wondering, does this sound like a fuel deliver-ability issue? Maybe my fuel filter needs to be changed, or I'm in need of a bigger fuel pump, maybe an injector isn't spraying right (although all this stuff was working fine up until a month ago). Or possibly belt slipping issue, tranny issue? I just don't know where to even start.

Lastly, regarding the subject of this post, I'm wondering what the general opinion from the group is, about tunes that come from these S/C manufacturers. I had to send my PCM into Whipple and they flashed it with their canned tune and sent it back. That's all I've been running with since I've had it, and it's been "fine" (meaning no issues up until now, but I don't feel like I"m getting all out of my S/C that I could). Could this be something that may be fixed with a better tune?

I don't race my truck. It's lifted on 37's and the only thing I tow is a Side By Side on a flatbed, which weighs a total of about 2,300lbs, which should be no problem for my truck to handle even without blower.

Any advice or help would be much appreciated.

Thanks guys.

All can tunes from any SC manufacture is going to leave a lot on the table. Custom tuning is the way to go. Also 6-6.5 psi is the norm for the stock kit.

As for your issue. Sounds like plugs and/or coils are in need of replacement. The code reader is useless for this if the truck didn't do it for an extended period. Usually 10 seconds straight. Otherwise no code is set.
Need to know how many miles are on the coils? Are they stock or aftermarket? How many miles are on the plugs and what are they gapped at?

PS...I would replace the fuel filter no matter what. Cheap insurance.

Hey Twin, thanks for commenting.

My truck has 51K miles on it total and I believe the coils are probably just the original factory stuff. I'm not sure what the plugs are gapped at. Is that something my mechanic would do upon installation, or are they already "pre-set" (as you can tell I know very little about this stuff, Lol)? I called Whipple and they did confirm that new plugs were sent, but I'm not sure if the gap is set by the tune or?? The new plugs that Whipple sent, have approximately 5K miles on them or so, as that's about how many miles I've put on the truck since I've had the blower installed.

I'm sure this has been discussed in length in another thread, but what tuner would you recommend, and who would you recommend to build the tune for me?

Thanks in advance.

I would recommend JDM for the tune. The coils should be fine. 51k is roughly half a life span for the coils. O2 sensors should also be ok but it wouldn't hurt to check. No reason for them to be dying out this early. They usually start getting "slow" around 70k. I would find out about the plugs. Should be gapped at .030-.032. If it's larger then you may need a new set at this point. The HTO's and Ford Motorsport plugs are great plugs and you likely have one or the other. The Whipple tune as with any blower "canned" tune is going to be very rich to keep things safe. That richness leads to carbon build up quick. Carbon build up causes misfires. The spark will take the path of least resistance which is the carbon build up instead of firing across the gap where resistance is much higher.

It could just be the plugs are out of tolerance and just need to be replaced.

One quick question. When this shuttering takes place, are you accelerating slowly, average, or quickly? Also how is idle quality?

Want to rule out the torque converter and make sure this is electrical or fuel related.

I've noticed it mostly when I've accelerated average and also quickly (like when I'm merging into the freeway, etc). I cannot recall an instance where it happened when I was accelerating slowly.

Would the carbon build up happen to, or on the actual spark plug itself? Is the only way to get rid of that by replacing the plugs, or is there some type of "fuel system cleaning" that would remove that?

As far as the canned Whipple tune, my wideband A/F gauge shows me between 14-15 when at idle or not in the boost. But when I hit it and I'm in the boost, it will drop down to between 11-12. But sometimes this gauge either doesn't read right, or the wideband 02 sensor is a POS, or I really am having issues due to the tune (or something else). I'll notice that many times, the A/F gauge will read that I'm between 9-10 when I'm just driving normal. It seems like the needle itself gets stuck or something else is going on. And other times, the needles will be all over the place and practically useless. It's an AEM wideband and I have the AEM analog gauge to go with it. If it really is running that rich all the damn time, then what you described makes perfect sense, as far as carbon build up.

And the idle quality seems good as far as I can tell. The truck doesn't shake or shimmy at idle. Just now I started it up and let it sit and run for a few, and it seemed to idle around 800-900 RPM's or so. It seem to fluctuate as every 15-30 seconds or so, something would kick on under the hood (I didn't have the A/C on, so not sure what it is that comes on and off every now and then like that).

The carbon build up takes place within the combustion chamber but specifically on the spark plug. Electricity takes the path of least resistance and when the plug becomes covered in carbon the electricity follows the carbon instead of jumping across the gap like it's supposed to. When this happens you don't get a spark. You can use fuel system cleaners. Don't count on them to clean the plugs. Do some homework on the plugs. Pull a few. Examine them and find out about the gap. They should be a light brown color with a .030-.032 gap. If they are anything else report back. Change your fuel filter so that can be ruled out. If it idles smooth we can rule out vacuum leaks and the plugs might just be ok. You've got stock injectors in there which I've always been against but Whipple and ProCharger both utilize stock injectors and ramp up fuel pressure in the tune to make the injectors delivery enough fuel. It's a stupid thing to do. But it is what it is. Hopefully your stock injectors are not acting up. I would encourage you to get the A/F gauge fixed or replaced. That will help a lot.

The fuel filter is like $15 and pretty darn easy and quick to replace, but that's all the useful info I've got for you. Definitely check yours out and find a video on how to remove your particular one based on clip-type on the fuel line. Other than that, once you know what type of clip you have, it's easy and something that's good to knock out. Motorcraft ones are available at regular parts stores too.

Thanks KMAC0694. My buddy said the same thing in regards to replacing the fuel filter. If it's that cheap, I might as well replace it, to rule that out.

No problem, man. Granted I've been driving less aggressively, but I've gotten significantly better mileage too recently, and I don't acknowledge changes in anything unless they're substantial. I think the one I replaced was original and had 90k miles on it. So worth getting a clean one, and they're only good for 30k miles.

Thanks for the feedback twin. As always, you're a tremendous help. I'm going to schedule an appt. tomorrow to get some of these basics knocked out and then see where we're at from there.

I wouldn't be surprised if one of your cats is going. That same thing has happened to me twice now! It idles fine, but just out of nowhere, it starts kinda of sputtering and loses A LOT of power. Just giving you another thing to look at just in case it isn't a spark plug issue.

A little Update
 

The shop called me today and here's a little update:

He couldn't get it to miss at all when he drove it. In fact, for the last 2 days before I took it in, I couldn't get it to do it either under various load conditions and speeds but I just thought I had been having a few good days. Lol. The only thing I did differently was switch to using Shell 92 octane instead of Chevron's 92.

He said that he's experienced what I described before and most of the time it was a coil. However, his scanner was unable to pinpoint which one because it wouldn't miss at all for him when he drove it. He checked the plugs and said they're a little dark, but not enough to cause a miss (in his opinion).

I was told that if I wanted to rule out coils, it's like $900 to replace them all (that's with the shop labor too of course). He told me in his opinion that I shouldn't just do that to rule something out, as it's an expensive process of elimination. Lol

So for now I'm just doing fuel filter and a tranny flush with new filter(s) as I think it needs to be done anyways (truck has 51K miles and I don't think I've ever had this done).

I'll update again when I know more.

Motorcraft coils run $45 a piece at Rockauto.com and are extremely easy to replace. I can even walk you through the process over the phone if you would like. Pm me. Hopefully they aren't failing this early in the game though. Perhaps it was poor fuel quality. You made the right call with the trans flush and fresh fuel filter.