You mentioned wanting something you can set on your dash, and with the fancy gauges. If that's what you want you need to get the sct livewire. It comes with canned tunes but don't waste your time. Get some tunes from a good custom tuner (5 star, mpt etc) and really wake that ecoboost up!

 

What are things I could screw up?

 

The engine and transmission, if you don't know how to set things, and by your questions it's fairly obvious that you don't, it's not an area where you want to "just try settings" leave that to the people who know what they are doing. Custom tuners.
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Get the 5*, it's fairly conservative. They are the only ones to offer an optional power train warranty. They wouldn't do that if their tunes were harmful.

Tips. Let your truck warm up before you hammer on the throttle. Change your fluids on time with quality stuff and enjoy the new power. You will be fine.

 

Just be aware, you'll be spending quite a bit more money on the devices with fancy displays. It seems neat at first but I think the novelty of it will wear off soon and the whole thing will end up sitting in a drawer somewhere. I suggest getting a basic device and putting the cost difference into a good custom tune. But if you really want the fancy display then go for it.

There are several different platforms on the market (SCT, Diablo, Hypertech, Livernois, etc...) and each comes with whatever tunes are advertised. Don't be misled, these tunes will make a lot more horsepower than stock. But people often want a tune that is more refined so they buy a "custom tune" from a shop that sells their own tunes. You can even go another step further and work with that shop to personalize the tune to your vehicle so things work as well as possible.

SCT is the most widely used platform so if you buy an SCT product it will give you access to the most custom tuning shops out there. The SCT X4 data logs and will do everything you need to be able to work with a custom shop.

 

I thought the SCT 87 octane tune was okay but I didn't like the SCT 91 tune at all. There was too much drama at part throttle. Upshifts, downshifts, upsetting tires, sudden revs. Frankly, it sucked. The transmission was getting a constant workout and the engine sounded like it was straining at full throttle.

My custom 91 tune has a much more refined transmission strategy without any of that drama, and yet the transmission is quicker to make decisions. It also has a more linear throttle response and the engine runs silky smooth now. It even eliminated a little intermittent miss at idle that I've had since the truck was new. Very glad I spent the extra $100 on the tune.

 

Leave it alone;" if it's not broken then don't fix it"

 

Oops! You accidentally posted in the wrong thread.

 

Does the Yates tuner work on the 11-14's?

 

I have and SCT X4 with tunes by 5 star and I like them! I expected it to wake my truck up a little bit more...but I drive with it on 93 performance for DD and like that a lot! Transmission is much smarter, motor doesn't have to work as hard under normal conditions, and is flat out dangerous if I want it to be. Really though, I almost crashed the other day lol.