Al Kohalic

Unlike most other tuners, you can tow up to the trucks max tow rating with any of the perf/tow tunes. I can assure you from the Cat EGT numbers I have seen from my Torque app pulling 4800lbs in 101+ South Texas (San Antonio)heat that you will be fine towing your boat with the 93 perf/tow tune. The Cat EGTs never got close to 1450F with cruise set at 65 even on some hills, and was well below 1550F in some quick passing sprints. I know it is not raw EGTs and that Cat EGTs are usually around 500F hotter then raw EGTs on these engines from what I have been told, but it is the best thing I got at the moment. Engine coolant and tranny temps were also fine within normal temps. With the Cat EGT protection not kicking in until 1800F(from what I have been told), I would not loose any sleep over towing heavier weight with the 93perf/tow tune. I will re-post some numbers when I finally get a chance to do some real towing with heavier trailers, but it will not be for a while.

grimsweeper

I am more concerned with the actual reflash-would be nice to have tech support available. What about towing with 87 octane tune? Boat is about 5k lbs.

Deerhunter4

Mike has awesome customer support and will address any emails or phone calls very quickly.

If you have the 87 perf/tow tune you can pull up to the maximum factory rating for your truck. A 5k lb boat is no sweat.

These tunes are awesome. I had some hardware problems with my X3 tuner and was without it for about 2 weeks. Driving the truck stock sucks after having it tuned. I got it back yesterday and am already tuned again. I'm running the 88 perf/tow tune and wouldn't be afraid to tow anything. I've seen a 1 mpg gain with the tune on average.

grimsweeper

Thanks for replies,may reflash this evening,anxious to try it with custom tune, as still impressed with performance stock-hauls boat with no problem now. Deerhunter-why is it necessary to return to stock tune when you had to return x3?

Deerhunter4

I returned to stock to try and update the X3 to the newest firmware. When I did this I got an error that SCT could not fix over the phone. Turns out they replaced the Motherboard in my tuner and sent it back to me. Works great now. You always want to return your vehicle to stock before you update the tuner just in case something like this happens. If I had not done this I could have lost my stock tune as it was stored on the X3.

Al Kohalic

If you follow Mike's Facebook page here, he has some of these videos of him towing 10,000lbs with the 87 perf/tow tune.

This is what he is towing.




This is a cruising video with the 87 per/tow and 10K (a little boring). EDIT: Mike posted this in reference to the Cat Temps and EGTs on the monitor in this video.
5 Star Tuning those are CAT temps they run about 1400 , raw egts are about 1000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKUdZ...ature=youtu.be

This one is a 0-60 sprint with the 87perf/tow and 10K on the back. I counted him starting at :04 and hitting sixty at :21. That is 0-60 with 10Klbs in 17 sec. DAMN!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBM40...ature=youtu.be



Edit:To put things into perspective, I wanted to find out what current 3/4 ton diesel trucks would do pulling 10,000 lbs 0-60. The latest test I could find is this 2010 WardsAuto HD Truck Shootout where the 2010 GMC 2500 Denali 6.6 Duramax pulled 10Klbs from 0-60 in 20.27 seconds and the 2010 F-250 Powerstroke did it in 20.4 seconds. I also seen this video(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKj6kwZ1m7k) of a 5 Star tuned 6.2L SD pulling 10Klbs 0-60 in 20 seconds so 17 seconds is not bad at all for a little TT3.5L. With pulling power like that, why would Ford need to put a small diesel in these trucks?

grimsweeper

87 octane tune now on truck, no problems w/install. Download of stock tune only took about a minute, upload of custom tune took almost 10 min., also said "engine" on x3 screen, I assume it also controls transmission; does all this sound normal? Test drive of about 5 miles on interstate-definitely feels gas pedal is directly connected to throttle body, no more lag from stop, no more hesitation at higher speeds. Transmission shifts about same(didn't do any drag race starts). Hard to tell about hp and torque improvement, seat-of-pants dyno already impressed with stock power.

Deerhunter4

That all sounds just like how my install went and yes the tune also updates programming for the transmission. I agree that the throttle response is awesome (how it should have been from the factory). I took mine out last night and did a 0 to 80 mph run. Wow. I generally run my truck easy and I just got the tune for the low end and shifting improvements, but there is stupid power there when you need it. I will be doing some towing here in the next few weeks (a 5k lb tractor and fairly heavy trailer) so I'll post up some towing reviews. Glad to see that yours worked out good. Also I've noticed if you keep your foot out of it I can see a 1-2 mpg gain in normal conditions.

jake17201

Just ordered my 5star tunes and device. Thanks to all for the reviews.

Deerhunter4

Good choice. You will not be disappointed.