I finally got my 2018 3.5 EcoBoost on the dyno after the tune install and the numbers were a letdown

Last Thursday at DynoTech Motorsports in Austin, my truck only pulled 385 horsepower at the wheels, which is way under what the tuner's graph promised. The tech found a boost leak in the intercooler piping I installed myself, a small but costly mistake. Has anyone else had a custom tune fall flat because of a simple install error they missed?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_fiona7d ago

Yeah, that boost leak will absolutely tank your numbers. I read a whole thread where a guy lost like 60 horsepower from a coupler that looked fine but had a tiny split. @henrycooper is right about the cheap parts causing the big problems. The computer is trying to hit a target and it can't, so it just pulls timing and boost to save itself. All that money on a custom tune and it's running worse than stock because of one loose clamp. It's a brutal lesson but at least you found it.

johnson.jason11d ago

Ever think a tune would fix everything? I used to until a bad O2 sensor connector made my own truck run like garbage. It's crazy how one tiny thing you overlook can totally wreck your results.

henrycooper10d agoMost Upvoted

Exactly. It's always the cheap part that kills you. A five dollar vacuum hose leak will make a thousand dollar tune run like total junk. Seen it with loose battery cables too. The computer gets bad info and just starts guessing. All that work for nothing because of a plastic clip.