Ford Performance Tune for 2018+ GT

[ice445]

Well, the early verdict is in, and wow that's different. With the muffler no longer contacting the bumper all the time, the behavior of the KR system is completely different now. It will actually keep adjusting the KR for much longer on my log compared to before, where it would add or subtract for like a second or two and then stop.

The simple outcome of this fact is that the car is WAY more responsive and feels quite a bit faster, even on the stock tune. It's comical I lived with that for so long and thought it was normal, lol. Car no longer feels like a dog with anything less than full throttle.

I put the tune on recently and only had time to test it once, but the car feels pretty meaty with it. It was a cool day (IAT around 80F), but I left the shutters enabled to force the car to run hotter to get a more valid test. That ghastly rattle seems to be gone, although I can still hear what's likely ping if I goose it at low RPM. But at least now it's not as loud and only lasts for like a second before disappearing. Could just be the phasers honestly. I'm running 5W30 now so that's also a different variable than before.

The only real negative is that on my log I'm actually seeing more knock retard than I remember seeing before. Like up to 5-6 degrees on some hits. This was with like 217F CHT, but still. I'm curious if the car will actually learn this and scale things down (after all this log was after a fresh KAM reset), or if this is just how it is on 91 octane. I'll leave it on for a bit and log stuff some more and see if anything changes. Otherwise it's likely that the tune pushes my particular car over the edge on this fuel and that's fine. Seems like total timing likes to end up somewhere between 24 and 27 degrees. But I need to log some WOT only pulls. I would love to see the logs of some of you guys who are stuck with 91 only in hot climates.

Either way, I'm glad that I went through this arduous nonsense because what I learned help me find a legitimate issue, lol.

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[ice445]

Also, if anyone else has that problem of the PCV tube hitting the throttle body and doesn't want to run a catch can, you can just get the GT350/Bullitt/Mach1 PCV tube which is GR3Z-6A664-A

It's not quite a perfect fit (it's slightly short so some of the PCV slack is taken up) but it works no problem.

 

[ice445]

Final towel thrown in, fellas. Part throttle ping is back now that its getting cooler. It's right in that 1000-3000RPM range where they throw all the extra torque at. It doesn't matter if the ambient conditions are ideal either. In fact it seems to make it worse, because for whatever reason the car is expecting to be able to run more timing in lower ambients and hits the same wall every time. I was logging the last few nights with low 50's IAT, and pretty much like clockwork as soon as I come off idle and crack the throttle, or shift to second/third and get back on it, there it is for a moment. It seems to make the noise when the borderline brings you right into knock before the car can correct for it.

I can safely say I tried literally everything. New spark plugs properly gapped, catch can, no catch can, new PCV valve, cleaning the MAF, swapping the MAF, fondling the exhaust, crank relearn, reflashing, switching to 5w30 etc. You name it, I tried it. To ya know, get my money's worth. The only thing that consistently works is keeping the CHT under 200, but that's not always possible for obvious reasons. I even had an oil analysis done and everything came back great. There's just something wrong with this tune file, or the way it's interacting with my particular vehicle. Here's an example of what I'm dealing with. On the stock tune, -5 or -6 is easily achieved in the same ambient conditions.

I know it's real knock because of the way it shows up and the way it progresses. The false knock from before has been eliminated. And to the tune's credit, the car does run well and feels quick despite this. Responsiveness with the false knock removed is still WAY better as well. But the same applies to the stock tune, but stock is actually more crisp now because it doesn't have to pull back. I just don't see how there can be such a wild swing in outcome with a few degrees of borderline adjustment. Could I just learn to live with the ping? Sure, but I'm not going to. I get substantial knock retard under WOT as well, which I do not with the stock tune. Doesn't seem worth it. Even though it's technically safe, it's still somewhat abusive to the motor to let it go like this for many thousands of miles.

With all of that said, I do appreciate the learning experience this provided for me, and it allowed me to solve a significant problem affecting the car. The car is way better to drive now, FP tune or not with that resolved. So much more crisp, doesn't feel like a turd all the time and I don't get mysterious throttle closures anymore. At least I really put in some time to get after this, so it doesn't feel so bad to give up for the final time. And the ProCal has some limited usefulness once in a while, so that's nice. Thanks for the good times everyone.

 

[Jaymar]

If it's that close, have you tried the lower thermostat? Forgive me if you mentioned it but it's been a long and arduous journey.

 

[ice445]

If it's that close, have you tried the lower thermostat? Forgive me if you mentioned it but it's been a long and arduous journey.

It doesn't matter unfortunately. With shutters disabled it's regularly like 190f when I'm driving around which is pretty good. But in higher ambients or traffic its gonna creep up no matter what you do and knock. I appreciate the suggestion though.

 

[ice445]

Lol, the plot thickens yet again. In my bored, covid addled state, I was doing some research and going through my stock tune logs. I already figured out that the ping is incredibly temperature sensitive, as I said in earlier posts. I noticed I can even see a bit of KR on the stock tune when CHT gets higher. And I know for a fact for the entire 3 years I had the car, the stock tune never pinged. So I got to thinking, and what was the first thing I did before ever flashing the FP tune? I put in new spark plugs. Not because it was really needed at 20K miles or whatever I was at, but because I wanted to just scope the cylinders for peace of mind before quitting my warranty state. And to see what I had, since I knew about the heat range change for my model year but wasn't sure if my car actually had the heat range 7 plugs, so it was nice to find out that it did.

Well, at the time, there was quite a lot of confusion about Motorcraft plugs, since they keep changing the part number. SP-589 is the current production, and it's been back spec'd for all 18-23 GT's. I was pretty confident that it was an exact match for my car, but it turns out that I was wrong. They actually did a sneaky and bumped the heat range of the plug back up by 1 number for the 22-23MY cars. Once I learned how the part numbers work, it all made sense. The plugs that came out of my car were CYFS-092-FT, whereas the SP-589 full part number is CYFS-12Y-T6. The first letters just indicate fitment, but the first number is where heat range is depicted. The "09" in my original plug is equivalent to an NGK heat range 7, while the "1" in the new plug is equal to an NGK heat range 6. So I literally put a hotter plug into the car on accident.

This is some pretty spicy information for those of you who go to change plugs eventually and have a 2020 or 2021 car. I have no idea why they went back to the hotter range, but probably as part of the general emissions downgrade the car got. It's no real surprise why my car is so unhappy with higher cylinder head temps and IAT's, especially with marginal 91 octane fuel. Going to order some NGK 6510's or 95605 Rutheniums since they have the correct heat range (my original plugs are hard to find since they're discontinued), slap them in, and then re-log the stock tune. I have no real convictions it's going to magically fix everything, but running the wrong heat range compared to what the tune expects to be working with is a big no-no. If the stock tune shows reasonably large gains in peak KR with higher cylinder head temperatures, then I'll consider trying the FP one again.

 

[Lbj]

Ice445
I sure hope you get your car working.
I know I'm happy with the Ford performance calibration

 

[ice445]

Ice445
I sure hope you get your car working.
I know I'm happy with the Ford performance calibration

I appreciate it sir. Currently it's working great on the stock tune, it has more power and response than it's ever had since I fixed the false knock. But having it work with the FP tune would be even better!

 

[junits15]

@ice445 Yeah I feel bad for ya, this sounds incredibly annoying.

Knock can be very VERY hard to diag, typically it requires two metal items contacting. From what I've seen in other situations, something like a metal bracket, or a plastic cover or a hose generally isn't enough to do it. Usually you need two large and heavy metal items to clack into each other very rapidly to get false knock.

I can't remember, did you do testing with torco to prove that its false knock? Because it could be real and that would be harder to fix.

 

[StangTime]

What spark plugs do Bullits and Machs have? I would be inclined to use the same plug and heat range as them. Those cars have similar performance with that HP bump that the Ford tune provides on GTs.

I keep thinking I want to try the tune again on my car. But I am kind of tired of messing around with it. My AC line is about 1/4 from touching the passenger side header. I used a ruler to verify the center of the motor is actually shifted to the passenger side. Might try moving it to the drivers side a little.

 

[Weyland-Yutani]

This is some pretty spicy information for those of you who go to change plugs eventually and have a 2020 or 2021 car.

Let us know.

Mine is an 18 with stock tune and it pings in the way you've described. I've thought I solved it several times before, but nope. The head gets hot and it pings with the lightest throttle input increase. All the time.

It's maddening enough that it makes me want to ditch the car and buy a Prius.... J/K ...maybe.....

Also: Just curious. At low rpm and neutral throttle, do you get a pattern that "feels" like a timing/cam-timing change at 1 roughly sec intervals? Like __|--|__|--|__|--|__|--|__? That sh*t is also making my eye twitch.

 

[ice445]

@ice445 Yeah I feel bad for ya, this sounds incredibly annoying.

Knock can be very VERY hard to diag, typically it requires two metal items contacting. From what I've seen in other situations, something like a metal bracket, or a plastic cover or a hose generally isn't enough to do it. Usually you need two large and heavy metal items to clack into each other very rapidly to get false knock.

I can't remember, did you do testing with torco to prove that its false knock? Because it could be real and that would be harder to fix.

I actually had both, false knock overlaying over real knock. The false knock was harder to catch, but I was able to fix it. It would randomly shoot to +5 or higher right out of the gate. The real knock has a logical progression from 0 and then it slowly rises. I posted an excel table a few posts ago that shows one of the real knock events and how it progresses. That was on the FP tune.

What spark plugs do Bullits and Machs have? I would be inclined to use the same plug and heat range as them. Those cars have similar performance with that HP bump that the Ford tune provides on GTs.

I keep thinking I want to try the tune again on my car. But I am kind of tired of messing around with it. My AC line is about 1/4 from touching the passenger side header. I used a ruler to verify the center of the motor is actually shifted to the passenger side. Might try moving it to the drivers side a little.

I believe the Mach 1 and Bullitt have the same spark plug as their respective year GT. I could be wrong of course, but I haven't seen anything that would indicate otherwise. The GT350 on the other hand uses the colder plug, which is 09/7 depending on who's heat range chart you use. It also uses a tighter gap, probably because of the higher RPM limits. Which plug did you use when you changed yours? Also, the only thing that worries me about going back and forth is the nutserts on the intake manifold for the throttle body. They're just molded in place, so constant tightening and removal likely has its limits....

Let us know.

Mine is an 18 with stock tune and it pings in the way you've described. I've thought I solved it several times before, but nope. The head gets hot and it pings with the lightest throttle input increase. All the time.

It's maddening enough that it makes me want to ditch the car and buy a Prius.... J/K ...maybe.....

Also: Just curious. At low rpm and neutral throttle, do you get a pattern that "feels" like a timing/cam-timing change at 1 roughly sec intervals? Like __|--|__|--|__|--|__|--|__? That sh*t is also making my eye twitch.

Well, most 18 and 19 cars have the heat range 6 plugs, so swapping to the 7 might actually stop the ping for you. There has to be a reason Ford switched the heat range as a mid year change, after all. As for the last part, I don't get that. Maybe try logging the actual versus desired cam angle PID's on both sets of phasers.

I ended up ordering the 95605 Ruthenium HX since there was a 5% off with free shipping on NGK's website right now. But you can also do the 94862 if you don't want to spend as much. Guess we'll see what, if anything, changes.

 

[StangTime]

I believe the Mach 1 and Bullitt have the same spark plug as their respective year GT. I could be wrong of course, but I haven't seen anything that would indicate otherwise. The GT350 on the other hand uses the colder plug, which is 09/7 depending on who's heat range chart you use. It also uses a tighter gap, probably because of the higher RPM limits. Which plug did you use when you changed yours? Also, the only thing that worries me about going back and forth is the nutserts on the intake manifold for the throttle body. They're just molded in place, so constant tightening and removal likely has its limits....

I didn't change my plugs. Once we figured the OEM were NGK heat range 7 plugs (LTR7CP13) I abandoned that idea.

 

[ice445]

I didn't change my plugs. Once we figured the OEM were NGK heat range 7 plugs (LTR7CP13) I abandoned that idea.

Ahh that's right. Might still be worth changing them all. Could have one with a gap way out of spec or a cracked insulator or something that's preventing heat transfer.

 

[StangTime]

Ahh that's right. Might still be worth changing them all. Could have one with a gap way out of spec or a cracked insulator or something that's preventing heat transfer.

I didn't change them but I did remove every plug to check the gaps and inspect the condition. Most were gapped correctly. Those that weren't, were within .002" of spec and I corrected them before re-installing.

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