Talking to my neighbor about his 3.5L EcoBoost tune made me look at my own truck differently

He's a mechanic at a Ford dealer in Tulsa and said most guys just slap on a cold air intake and call it a day, but the real gains come from a proper dyno tune to fix the factory torque curve. He showed me his logs and he's pulling an extra 80 lb-ft at 2500 rpm just from a custom 93 octane file. I always thought a tune was just for top end power, but now I'm looking into getting my own done to help with towing my boat. Has anyone here gotten a custom tune done locally and noticed a big difference in daily driving?

3 comments

3 Comments

masonm7015d ago

Yeah that factory torque curve thing is real. I got a custom tune on my truck and the biggest change was how it pulled from a stop, not just top end speed. Made towing my camper way less of a chore.

king.wyatt15d ago

Ever read about how factory tunes are made for fuel economy tests, not real world driving? That's exactly what you're talking about, @masonm70. Makes you wonder why they don't just build them right the first time.

simonh743d ago

Actually, I see it a bit differently. Those factory tunes are a tricky balance act for the car makers. They have to meet really strict government fuel economy and emissions rules, which are tested in a lab on a set cycle. So the tune is built to pass that specific test, because if they fail, the car can't be sold. Real world driving is just way more messy and varied than a lab test. It's not that they're trying to build it "wrong," they're just building it to pass the test they're graded on.