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Performance, Tuning, and (LEGAL) RacingPost discussions about increasing performance, capabilities, and racing.
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I picked up an SCTX4 7015 for my 2008 F150 5.4L 3V last night. I installed it and ran the canned tune for my specific truck. I always run 91 octane fuel, I have a K&N intake and 3.73 gears. I point these out because those are the only options I changed on the canned tune when I installed the tune. The only difference was the SCT only gave me the option for a JLT CAI or stock. I chose JLT as I figured there's less of a difference there than there is stock to K&N. Drove the truck last night for roughly a mile and it drove great. Shifts felt snappy, and the truck seemed happy.
This morning... I jump in to head to work. Truck starts fine, let it idle for about a 1 minute and then I take off. Get about a .5-1 mile from home and I noticed while stopped at a stop light I have a CEL. The light turns green and a accelerate at a slow pace. The truck barely made through the intersection as it felt it was bogging out. I pulled over, shut the truck off and returned the tune back to stock. Drove about 12 miles to work with no issue whatsoever.
I wish I would have had a little more time to pull the CEL before returning it back to stock.. I was already running a little late for work so I didn't want to spend too much time diagnosing.
On a side note, after getting home with the SCT last night I tried updating the tuner to the latest firmware. It stated it had 339 or so files it needed to download. I left the tuner in the truck to update and went back inside as it was taking a bit of time and I didn't feel like sitting in my truck with the 28* temperatures. I checked on it about an hour later and the device had stopped at 162/339. It had froze up and I had no choice but to unplug it and plug it back in taking me out of the update. After doing so is when I installed the tune on my truck. Should I update the device before installing the tune? Could this maybe be the cause of my CEL this morning? Any help is appreciated.
Always update the device fully if it needs it. You don’t want something with a possible bug flashing your pcm. As for the CEL if you didn’t read the code nobody can help you at all.
10-4, I'll update the device this afternoon and reinstall the tune. If I get another code I'll be sure to pull it and follow up with the outcome. Thanks Unbroken.
Well, I updated the device, reinstalled the canned tune and the truck ran like ****. No CEL this time though. The truck totally bogs out when I try to give it any gas at all. Doesn’t make any sense to me. I don’t feel like I’m doing anything wrong. Any ideas?
I guess I’m kinda talking to my self here hoping somone will chime in. I put the 87 octane tune on and the truck was drivable. It felt like it was slower than stock though. I didn’t think to mention it until I saw US market in the device but my truck originally came from Canada. Does this make a difference when tuning or is it all the same? Also when accelerating from a dead stop the truck kind of hesitates to take off. When installing the tune the gauge cluster states a tire pressure monitoring failure. After that the tune begins installing the cluster then states something about engine fail safe or something. After the tune finishes installing and I shut the key off and back the error message goes away. Running a diagnostic check there are no CEL’s.
Can you try changing the intake option back to stock
I thought about doing that as well but haven't gotten around to it yet. I called SCT this morning and I will be reinstalling the 91 octane tune on my truck. From there I will plug the device in to my computer and SCT will remote in and look at the information on the tuner. (ECU strategy and whatever else they need to troubleshoot). I'll update this post as I find out more information.
It's weird to me that when I watch YouTube videos of people installing their tuner they have 5-10 different intake options where mine only gives me two: JLT CAI and Stock. I also updated the device over WiFi and have been told it's better to update it on the computer using SCT's software. Something else I'll be doing while I'm on the phone with SCT this afternoon.
Again I'll post any updates here for anyone that cares or has future questions.
Well, talking with SCT I guess my truck already has a tune.. So basically I was putting a tune on top of a tune, hence the running like poo. I don't dare flash my ECU to factory in case the cam phasers are locked out or something. Talking with a friend of mine who works at a Ford dealership said I should just let it be. It's not worth messing something up with not knowing what all has been done to the truck internally. I can't believe I didn't notice before but the truck also has a throttle body spacer as well. I'm only the second owner of this truck and I'd love to get in touch with the original owner to get an idea of what all I'm dealing with. I'm just drunk rambling at this point.... Just wanted to follow up and let anyone that's reading any part of this thread know that I was tuning a tune...? HA! Hope I didn't F something up.. Here's a picture of my throttle body spacer if someone wants to let me know what brand it may be..
01-22-2018, 10:19 AM
CEL After Tune
