mhagley24

I recently installed SPD Catted DP's, Turbo adapters, and intake. Unfortunately my SCT GTX tuner did not work with my 17 f150 3.5L so I am running no tune right now. The techs told me it was fine without tune and I have no current issues with drivability... Anyone think this is harmful to run without tune?

mhagley24

Any thoughts on this guys? Sorry if this is an exhausted topic... I was unable to find anything when searching.

Any thoughts are appreciated!

BadCon

Shouldn't be a problem in the short term until you can get the tuning situation sorted. About the only code you might throw would be emission system related due to the highflow cats, but otherwise it should be fine. You won't see any major power gains without a tune however.

mhagley24

Appreciate the response. With other vehicles I have always HAD to tune with DP's, but tech said I would be fine without. Around 500 miles and no CEL so I don't think I am going to tune at this point. Thanks again

w00t692

I would suggest you get a tune if only to actually gain power. The mods you've done do absolutely nothing without a tune. That's how torque-based ecu's work unfortunately. Gone are the days where the ECU doesn't know how much torque/horsepower the car is making. It knows exactly how much is being made and curbs a variety of factors (throttle angle, wastegate, ignition timing, etc) to meet requested torque and only requested torque.

mhagley24

I hear ya. I mean, I def feel some power increase without tune but I'm with you. Need to tune. Not looking to race the truck, just looking to optimize the mods and have a good healthy truck

w00t692

If it picked up a little bit, it'll learn to take it back out unfortunately. May be just the noise difference that feels like a power gain.

mhagley24

Really?? I assumed anything less restrictive would be beneficial, but never thought the vehicle would dial itself back. I come from german cars where I always tuned when adding downpipes because i HAD TO. Fairly experienced with those motors and applications but complete noob on Fords.

I do notice a good bit of heat soak with the afe intakes so power dies off after driving a few miles but maybe the engine is adapting too...

Good insight though and much appreciated!

w00t692

it targets torque, it can tell via a lot of factors how much torque the engine is making, and it'll dial back either boost, timing or throttle position to get back to where it's targeting. yeah it sucks lol.

yokev

Where does it pull its air from? Is it an open element under the hood?
Reason I ask, is what you described is what happens when your intake pulls air from the engine compartment . Of course it could be a lotta different things, and CAI manufacturers have gotten a lot better with sealing
When they first came out, a 'Cold Air Intake' was totally contradictory to what they gave you. An open element sitting in the engine compartment where it could only suck in hot air. I couldn't believe people actually bought 'em, but they did.
I did some testing with cool vs. hot intake air on a motorcycle on the dyno. Even just a 100hp motor lost 10hp across the board, and its power curve went stepped when the intake air reached just 100deg.
Again, it could be several different things.