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7.3 Hydra tuner

I just put one in my truck, with swamp injectors. Def pepped it up a step. I would have to look at what tunes I have but I think there are like 6 of them on there. I know in the heavy tow it wanted to spin the tires if I got into it at all pulling away from a stop.
 
Wizzle said:
how is it better than a ts6?

my buddy keeps raving about his. Ids much about anything other than fuel economy
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Curious also, been running a "canned" ts6 for years on my 97, helps, but the 90cc injectors can only do so much. Especially with 335k miles :laughing:​​​​​​

I'd like to do some stage 1 injectors or whatever and send the chip in at the same time. But these just keep working fine.
 
DozerDan82 said:
I just put one in my truck, with swamp injectors. Def pepped it up a step. I would have to look at what tunes I have but I think there are like 6 of them on there. I know in the heavy tow it wanted to spin the tires if I got into it at all pulling away from a stop.
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The one I just ordered has 17 tunes pre installed. I can’t really see why I would need a custom tune but it’s possible if you want to hook a laptop to it.
 
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MurderYota said:
The one I just ordered has 17 tunes pre installed. I can’t really see why I would a custom tune but it’s possible if you want to hook a laptop to it.
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Lots of people swear by the custom tunes. I think it only really comes into play with more modifications. Once you have different injectors, hpop, turbo, built trans, ect.
 
YotaAtieToo said:
Lots of people swear by the custom tunes. I think it only really comes into play with more modifications. Once you have different injectors, hpop, turbo, built trans, ect.
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I had the Jody Tipton (DP Tuner) 60hp tow tune on my 2000, a 4" exhaust and an AIS air filter and that was it. Turbo lag was much better, fuel economy was WAY better and it raised the line pressures in the trans so it ran cooler and would hold OD better. I did it when I got the truck with 40k on it and sold it with 252k and no engine problems other than a water pump and a serp belt tensioner. Original trans too, (installed a big-ass cooler as well).
 
I mostly run mine on 25 horse towing. If you tow heavy gauges are a must. You can get high turbo temps fast.
 
Say goodbye to your 4r100. I went through 2 running a 80hp tune with stage 2 injectors, a better fuel system and hpop and turbo.
 
Wizzle said:
how is it better than a ts6?

my buddy keeps raving about his. Ids much about anything other than fuel economy
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Never had a t6, but a hydra will hold 15 tunes. I'll get the jelibilt tunes when I get bigger injectors
 
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Wizzle said:
how is it better than a ts6?
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It holds more tunes and they can just be emailed to you to be loaded on it without to sending it in. It's possible to run tunes from different tuners on it at the same time.
 
My 97 F250 has a Banks Stinger plus kit on it. Truck hauls ass, doesn't smoke and the transmission shifting is greatly improved. Banks claims 81hp and 172ft lbs additional torque and I believe it.
 
I have a TS6 with Swamps tunes in mine, cant see the need for any more than the 6 tunes i have. That said.....

Jraoffroad said:
It holds more tunes and they can just be emailed to you to be loaded on it without to sending it in. It's possible to run tunes from different tuners on it at the same time.
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...now theres a selling point. I couldnt care less about have 10-15 different tunes, but being able to load the tunes myself w/o having to send the chip back? Thats pretty cool.
 
Wizzle said:
I have most of that kit on my truck, I’m pretty sure the trans commander was killing my transmissions quickly(I drive like an old man) and once I took it out of the equation I haven’t had an issue since, even with a jasper reman.
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Interesting......

I want to comment but don't want to jinx myself and end up with a blown transmission so im keeping my mouth shut. :laughing:
 
I have the Hydra with the standard PHP tunes on my mildly modified 2000. I basically only use four tunes on it (80HP daily, 80HP tow, No start, and high idle), but the switch on the fly aspect is so much nicer than the Super Chips Micro Max 1705 tuner I was using before (my cousin gave it to me for free). The power doesn't seem much different between the two though. The main reason I dropped the money on the Hydra was the switch on the fly capability and the ease of installing custom tunes since I eventually want to put some "hybrid" injectors in my truck to replace the worn out stockers (256,000 miles).

My truck has the Donaldson AIS intake, 4" exhaust with the Banks "Power Elbow" that completely deletes the EBPV valve and removes that choke point, and a Wicked Wheel II compressor wheel in the stock turbo and a shortened waste gate actuator rod. In the 80HP tow tune, I have no issues with EGT, I think the highest I have ever seen (long 7% grade at ~70MPH slowly losing speed in 6th gear and grossing ~14-15K) was about ~1,175ºF. The only reason I switch between the "tow" and "daily driver" 80HP tunes is because the tow tune smokes less under load when lugging around 1,500 RPM. The only time I have used the lower power tunes was when I was towing my rig up through the 9,000-11,000' passes in Colorado because it was smoking a bit obnoxiously in the 80HP tune that I always use. I don't like my truck to smoke, and the 100-140HP tunes are too smoky for my liking. Honestly I don't notice much seat of the pants increase in the 100-140HP tunes over the 80HP tune I run all the time, but that could be due in part to my high-mileage injectors and HPOP; although my HPOP seems healthy when I monitor pressures, and the truck doesn't run rough for having original injectors still in it at over 250,000 miles.

Custom tunes are only really needed if you are running non-stock injectors, i.e. single shot injectors on a split-shot truck, larger than stock nozzles on your injectors, or B-code (6:1 hydraulic ratio) or "Hybrid" (5:1 hydraulic ratio) injectors. Otherwise, you are spending a lot of money to maybe squeeze out a couple of more horsepower over a "standard" tune.
 
MurderYota said:
Looks like I will be installing a 6.0 trans cooler and some pillar gauges before I use this thing for towing 🍿.
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The Mishimoto trans cooler is YUGE and bad ass. Way more expensive than a Dorman 6.0 cooler, but I don’t really trust Dorman anything
 
I have one, but on a 95. I actually do not like it at all. The free tunes, I haven't found one I was really happy with except high idle. Swapping between tunes with truck running will throw the check engine light.

I agree all those tunes are not needed but it was nice to try them in hopes one was good.

Have an old Banks towing chip like 50hp. It is the nicest by far better than any of the canned php tunes. I pulled the hydra and put it in again for now.

Way back I had gotten Tony Wildman custom tunes, loved them. After 10 years my 4 position chip went bad. So I bought the hydra thought things would be better, newer technology. I love the idea of it, but in the end I am going to put Tony's custom tunes back on it. I do not like any of the PHP tunes.
 
I have a 10+ year old dp tuner with 2 settings I think.... and I only use 3. Stock, +60 tow, and "economy". Above the economy setting it isnt really driveable unless you just want to boil the tires everywhere.
 
99 f350 I bought last aug has one. also an AFE intake and cross over? to the turbo.

I generally stick to 3-4 main tunes on mine. the 60hp tow for pulling my travel trailer, the 80hp tow for pulling my jeep and the 80hp performance for driving it to work through the mountains and the 80hp Daily driver for driving around flatlands. The DD shifts poorly when running up and down the mountain and drives me nuts.

I put a 3 gauge cluster to watch the egt's and trans and swapped the boost for water temp. stock inj and turbo.

I do know the tow modes make a difference. first time I was pulling the travel trailer on 80hp, couldn't hardly keep the egt's in check in the hills. dropped it to the 60 and now its rarely an issue. Haven't driven it enough without a trailer to get a good bead on the MPG on the 80dd vs 60 fuel sipper settings.... mostly due to mountains, those settings adust the shift points and its never happy on the hills.

I use the high idle once in a while, but now that we're getting into winter more, i may use it some more.

Would I buy it? not sure, I've never really modded stuff. but, it came with the truck and It seems to be a little nicer on the hauls for power.
 
Mine never comes off of tow mode unless I'm just blowing the cobwebs out. The truck has 35s and tow mode keeps it from going in and out of overdrive
 
SLOWPOKE693 said:
Why the fuck do you guys feel the need to have all these tunes??? I don't get it......

:confused:
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No shit, I really only use the highest hp setting, high idle and no start. If I'm towing heavy, I might turn the knob down to +25 hp or whatever, but it doesn't seem to change much.

2big bronco said:
I have a 10+ year old dp tuner with 2 settings I think.... and I only use 3. Stock, +60 tow, and "economy". Above the economy setting it isnt really driveable unless you just want to boil the tires everywhere.
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So you have 2 positions, and you only use the first 3, because the positions above that are too much? got it :flipoff2:
 
Takotruckin said:
The Mishimoto trans cooler is YUGE and bad ass. Way more expensive than a Dorman 6.0 cooler, but I don’t really trust Dorman anything
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Yes, I was torn on spending the $, but damn it is nice. Fit perfectly and WAY over kill but damn it is nice. I think the could cut half the price if the did not spent as much on the packaging as they do, but you get what you pay for.

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