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OBD "tuners" for performance gain. Snake oil or legit?

dntsdad

dntsdad

Central California
Joined
May 19, 2020
Member Number
47
Messages
1,269
Loc
Central California
A guy was telling me about them for my E350, 5.4 gas and was singing the praises of getting it "tuned". I have heard of it before of course but never really looked into it.

Bored tonight and started thinking about so off to Google.

Found a couple places making promises but who knows.

Anyone?

www.performancechiptuning.com

Stage 2 Performance Chip Module OBD2 For Ford

Buy online performance chip for your car such as ECU chips, power and Flash programmers and Custom horsepower tuning.
www.performancechiptuning.com www.performancechiptuning.com

5startuning.com

1998-2014 E-Series 4.6L/5.4L SCT X4 with Choice of 5 Star Custom Tunes 7015 - 5 Star Tuning

Why Tune My Vehicle? From the factory, your vehicle?s computer is calibrated for the masses, designed with the average driver in mind, not the performance
5startuning.com 5startuning.com
 
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dntsdad said:
A guy was telling me about them for my E350 and was singing the praises of getting it "tuned". I have heard of it before of course but never really looked into it.

Bored tonight and started thinking about so off to Google.

Found a couple places making promises but who knows.

Anyone?

www.performancechiptuning.com

Stage 2 Performance Chip Module OBD2 For Ford

Buy online performance chip for your car such as ECU chips, power and Flash programmers and Custom horsepower tuning.
www.performancechiptuning.com www.performancechiptuning.com

5startuning.com

1998-2014 E-Series 4.6L/5.4L SCT X4 with Choice of 5 Star Custom Tunes 7015 - 5 Star Tuning

Why Tune My Vehicle? From the factory, your vehicle?s computer is calibrated for the masses, designed with the average driver in mind, not the performance
5startuning.com 5startuning.com
Click to expand...

Not really going to wake up a gas e350 much, most of the benefits would likely be in transmission tuning.
 
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I would be happy just picking up a little ummmppphhhh going uphill and of course a few more MPG would be nice
 
My brother has a plug in thing on his 24v. It was a noticeable difference. I think it claimed 75hp. I think banks made it.
 
IMG_9062.jpeg


This y pipe from five star tuning is supposedly good for 33 hp and 1 mpg on the v10.

The E450 I drive doesn’t have the choked down F350 style y pipe, it runs all the way up to the limiter without choking out at 4000 RPMs.
 
www.lethalperformance.com

SPD Exhaust Y pipe (2000-2004 Super Duty and Excursion) - SU0004AL

This is a custom manufactured mandrel bent exhaust Y Pipe made here in the USA for the 2000 to 2004 F250, F350, F450, F550 & Excursion 2 wheel drive and 4 wheel drive 6.8L V10 and 5.4L V8 applications. It has two 2.5″ mandrel bent pipes transitioning to 3″. Ford’s factory y pipe downsizes to...
www.lethalperformance.com www.lethalperformance.com

May not be California compliant.
 
M92PV4U said:
www.lethalperformance.com

SPD Exhaust Y pipe (2000-2004 Super Duty and Excursion) - SU0004AL

This is a custom manufactured mandrel bent exhaust Y Pipe made here in the USA for the 2000 to 2004 F250, F350, F450, F550 & Excursion 2 wheel drive and 4 wheel drive 6.8L V10 and 5.4L V8 applications. It has two 2.5″ mandrel bent pipes transitioning to 3″. Ford’s factory y pipe downsizes to...
www.lethalperformance.com www.lethalperformance.com

May not be California compliant.
Click to expand...
Well then, it should work just dandy then. :laughing:
 
Ran a bullydog tuner on the 7.3PSD e350 short bus. it definitely woke it up a bunch and gained 3mpg. Would do again.
 
If you get a SCT or similar and download a real tune from 5 star or Oz or another good tuner you will get more power and better shifts.

I am looking for a cheap SCT for my E350 currently. The Oz tune on my F150 is awesome. I bet it added 70 hp on e85.
 
dntsdad said:
I would be happy just picking up a little ummmppphhhh going uphill and of course a few more MPG would be nice
Click to expand...
You aren't picking up "a few more MPG" with a tune. Manufacturers are having to do everything they can already to make these vehicles as fuel efficient as possible to meet EPA requirements, even when the fuel efficiency efforts are negatively impacting everything else. "A few MPG" is a lot. You're talking like a 15-20% gain in that vehicle. If you can develop a tuner that'll do that you'll be a billionaire.
 
Why are people comparing diesel tunes to gas? Totally different animal being able to add fuel to a turbocharged diesel.

I had a tune on a 05 5.4 3v. It woke it up a little, mostly noticed less tq. management and better throttle response. No perceivable overall hp gain. 93 octane tune there is a slightly noticeable difference but not worth the $ in gas.

I cant speak for 5 star, I have been eyeballing it for my 7.3 gas, but cant justify the cost in my feeble brain.
 
east_beast said:
You aren't picking up "a few more MPG" with a tune. Manufacturers are having to do everything they can already to make these vehicles as fuel efficient as possible to meet EPA requirements, even when the fuel efficiency efforts are negatively impacting everything else. "A few MPG" is a lot. You're talking like a 15-20% gain in that vehicle. If you can develop a tuner that'll do that you'll be a billionaire.
Click to expand...
He has a 7.3. An econo tune that adds a bunch of timing (advances start of injection) can help with fuel economy.
 
I had the 5 star a few years ago on my Winabago F53 chassis V10 Class A noticable improvement in performance and transmission shifting.

The way it was explained to me is the commercial V10's have a conservative tune and trans shifting for durabilty in a fleet setting. Also commercial engines designed to run 83 octane found in those way out areas.The tuner basically adjusts engine to stock light duty parameters and 87 octane settings. The trans was remapped to shift at lower rpms for more comfort.

I was super pleased but did not like the trans going into overdive at around 55mph. My class A lost all momentum. They, for free, sent me an updated tune with the trans changed to go into overdrive at 65mph, way way happier with the vehicle performance now.

I would spend the $550 or whatever again, something like 40hp and 50lbs torque, I could feel the difference. Vehicle way more enjoyable to drive. Call them, they were very helpful.
 
jeepkevin said:
I had the 5 star a few years ago on my Winabago F53 chassis V10 Class A noticable improvement in performance and transmission shifting.

The way it was explained to me is the commercial V10's have a conservative tune and trans shifting for durabilty in a fleet setting. Also commercial engines designed to run 83 octane found in those way out areas.The tuner basically adjusts engine to stock light duty parameters and 87 octane settings. The trans was remapped to shift at lower rpms for more comfort.

I was super pleased but did not like the trans going into overdive at around 55mph. My class A lost all momentum. They, for free, sent me an updated tune with the trans changed to go into overdrive at 65mph, way way happier with the vehicle performance now.

I would spend the $550 or whatever again, something like 40hp and 50lbs torque, I could feel the difference. Vehicle way more enjoyable to drive. Call them, they were very helpful.
Click to expand...
So much this. I am constantly toggling the overdrive lockout button on the shifter because of that!!
 
It is hard to paint tuners with a broad brush, but yes, there are some good ones.

I have the SCT with 5 star tuning on my 2016 E450 28' V10 Motorhome.
I don't think I picked up any power or fuel mileage, but the transmission programming was way better making the RV a way better driving experience.

I also have a tuner on a 2019 Ford Raptor. It was a seat of the pants horsepower difference.
 
I'm not a huge fan of the handheld tuning devices, even if they do allow custom remote tuning. Find someone who can remote tune it with HP Tuners. Of course, you will have to buy the hardware and the tokens for your Ford and it will cost more than one of those SCT handheld units, but it is way more versatile and capable. Side benefit is you can use youtube university to start learning to tune yourself with the HP Tuners set up.
 
The van I believe is detuned from factory for fleets. Probably pick 10-15 hps to match the truck. The torque management on the transmission is where the magic happens. It will make the vehicle more responsive and enjoyable to drive. But the only way to really fix it is an LS swap...
 
east_beast said:
You aren't picking up "a few more MPG" with a tune. Manufacturers are having to do everything they can already to make these vehicles as fuel efficient as possible to meet EPA requirements, even when the fuel efficiency efforts are negatively impacting everything else. "A few MPG" is a lot. You're talking like a 15-20% gain in that vehicle. If you can develop a tuner that'll do that you'll be a billionaire.
Click to expand...
Emmissions regulation comes at a tradeoff with efficiency. You can run an engine lean during cruise and save fuel, but the NoX output will be higher and the catalyst will cool and be less effective. If you tune for max efficiency and don't worry about emissions you could easily gain 10% off the bat. More if you do a lot of highway cruising.

Same as a diesel going into regen and literally pissing fuel away down the exhaust to burn the particulate filter clean. That's an efficiency hit. But they don't care because the emissions metric is more important.

Max power won't change much with a tune because the engine already runs rich and emits more because it's supposed to be a rare state to run the engine in and the cats will clean most of the output. Advancing the timing maps will get power at the expense of requiring a higher octane fuel. Is the 15hp worth filling a 50 gallon RV tank with 93 instead of 87?
 
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