My EcoBoost story

[EdTR]

Hello all,

Just hit a lil over 4k on my new '16 EcoBoost Premium. I feel a little bad because this is my first "new" car I have ever bought and I am modding it and all :( Dont get me wrong I love it, but everything feels new to me. I came from a '99 Honda accord LX so thats one massive jump!.

I changed a few physical appearances on my 'stang and I love it even more. I know you guys love photos, so I will post a few down below. The main reason why I am on this forum today is to ask for some wisely advice about the "health" of my pony. I want to keep it under warranty as much as possible so the only real mods I have done is a Roush CAI and a JMS BoostMax chip. The BoostMax chip is Plug and Play and doesnt actually flash the ECU so it should be warranty friendly.. But with that being said I'm sure if I take it to the dealer they would notice higher boost levels than normal. For those that dont know what a JMS BoostMax chip is you read a quick explanation here: http://www.jmschip.com/boostmax-performance-for-ford-ecoboost/

It's pretty much self explanatory and I am in no means an expert in tuning, flashing, or modding. I am arriving to my question soon... So I run this chip (with a controller) around 60% and no more. The reason being if I dab it all the way to 100% the engine will "knock or ping." Here in Washington State we have 92 octane being the highest available at your local shell or chevron pump. I Purchased a octane booster (Royal Purple) BoostMax and mixed it to the recommended ratio and switched the knob to 100% and ran a 0-60 Test. The results were unbelievable. 4.9s. Coming from a '99 honda accord like a said previously this is a impressive number to me. Anyways I will finally get to the question. Being almost a complete noob in modding my question is: What kind of mods, or upgrades should I get if I am pushing my pony to the limits? (I count it being the limit for me) Take into consideration that I do not race, or take the car to a track. It's a daily driver for me. I apologize in advance for making no sense because I am only running on 2 hours of sleep for the last 48 hours...

Yes it is an ecoboost, I put on a GT Grill...

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[nolezack]

But seriously, take the BoostMax module off the car if you care about engine health/reliability. We've seen past members have issue with them as it is not a real tune for your car. The JMS BoostMax stories I've seen have usually resulted in "I had a BoostMax for 4-5 months... My engine just blew." Grab a Cobb APv3 and then get a custom e-tune through a reputable tuner like Tune+.

 

[EdTR]

But seriously, take the BoostMax module off the car if you care about engine health/reliability. We've seen past members have issue with them as it is not a real tune for your car. The JMS BoostMax stories I've seen have usually resulted in "I had a BoostMax for 4-5 months... My engine just blew." Grab a Cobb APv3 and then get a custom e-tune through a reputable tuner like Tune+.

Fak, waste of money... I don't want to learn the hard way so I will head your advice. Any users reports issues when taking the car to the dealer after flashing the ECU? I know it can be flashed back, but does the ECU have some kind of flash counter that gets tripped?

 

[marjen]

Yes, there is a counter but from what I know it's based on key starts. Also warranty work for a tuned car will be different dealer to dealer.

 

[ReppininJPN]

Boost max is evil
Boost max doesn't care if your car blows up
Boost max is a piece of crap

Seriously , for your own good , get a tune , slap on some nice tires , do some mods .
There is so much info on here and with some investment , your car will be , can be amazing
I have never heard of a professionally tuned Eco , or any Eco for that matter with a tune from a reputable maker Blowin up . And trust me , some of us push these car HARD:amen:

First mod though , def an intercooler . It won't even void warranty

 

[tw557]

I just don't know for sure the Boostmax is a total piece of crap. Unleashed Tuning does somewhat endorse them and thats who I got mine from. Also I see the Shelby ecoboost mustangs they are now making come with the Boostmax installed. I mostly just ran it with the red chip to be on the safer side though. A/F ratios always seemed fine and the stock ECU seemed to adjust accordingly. I never had any pinging with 93. But I did just recently sell it to get a Pedalmax. This works better for my needs. I seldom go to full throttle and with the pedalmax I have significantly more power at any given throttle position then before. Of course no more full throttle power then before though. 0-60 very little gain but big gains for daily driving.

 

[ststang]

Can not vouch for the Boost Max thingy. I do agree with you on the grill, I already have my upper GT grill and lower GT delete grill ready to go when I get my car.

In my research for how I will proceed with mods, I came to the conclusion getting a professional tune is the way to go. Working with one who knows what YOU want to do with the car will help keep costs in budget and a smile on your face for a long, long time.

 

[TunaFish15]

Boost max kills all Eco stangs! Get a cobb ap3 with a lifetime tune+ and never look back. I was in the same boat last year and Adam's tune is one of those things you have to experience in this lifetime, live with no regrets.

 

[tw557]

I would love to get a full tune but just can't bring myself to lose my certified pre owned warranty. Not sure the boost max at 60% will hurt anything. No doubt it will not give near the performance and options a custom tune will give though.

 

[Busser48]

I would love to get a full tune but just can't bring myself to lose my certified pre owned warranty. Not sure the boost max at 60% will hurt anything. No doubt it will not give near the performance and options a custom tune will give though.

It will hurt your warranty when you blow your engine. You can't simply just turn up boost in the car and run it safely, that's what this module does. I get wanting to save money and be cheap, but I promise you there's a reason everyone is screaming red flag red flag!!!!

 

[Cmw458]

Coming from someone who WAS/IS tuned...AND had his motor go...

Go ahead and get a tune. If the motor is gonna go...it's gonna go man. I drove my car like a normal person outside of the occasional "hey I'm on the highway let's open her up a bit".

I had the OTS cobb stage 1 tune on at the time of the accident, once it happened I immediately Uninstalled the tune and put the accessport out of sight. Took the car to the dealer, they did a complete tear down...and i was covered under warranty. NOT EVERYONE HAS HAD THE SAME LUCK, but from what I've seen most that HAVE NOT been covered were full bolt on and one I know of even had boost Max and he wasn't covered.

At the time of my service I only had the MAP intake installed and that was it.

I know have their intake and also their intercooler installed and have been running their OTS tune...no problems whatsoever. Prior to that I was still running Cobbs but their harsh shifting caused me to switch to the MAP.

I'm adding a downpipe here soon and also deleting my resonator within the next few weeks and then I plan on finally...finally...finally getting a tune from TUNE+.

Long story short is drive the car...RESPONSIBLY mod the car...if the engine goes immediately take the tune off and flash back to stock.

After having tunes and then detuning...this car is absolutely horrid to drive stock. I hate to say it but I had more fun driving my optima sx stock over our cars stock. And I f'ing LOVE OUR CAR...but it's a snoozer stock. I know I can't be the only one who feels that way.

Good luck with the ride...love the look so far. And don't be ashamed to have a GT grill lol. I just had a GT hood installed on mine. No f's given whatsoever.

 

[Bullitt]

Op, this should tell you all you need to know about the JMS modules: http://www.mustang6g.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35826

I have never heard of a professionally tuned Eco , or any Eco for that matter with a tune from a reputable maker Blowin up . And trust me , some of us push these car HARD:amen:

Looks like you're new to these forums but there's been several tuned EcoBoosts that have blown, it's all we talked about back in April. Some tuners are safer than others and it's hard to tell if the tune caused the issue in many of the failures but I believe all tuners have had at least one failure. They blow up from time to time, especially early production 2015 models. As you'll see here, the vast majority don't though.

 

[TheLion]

Op, this should tell you all you need to know about the JMS modules: http://www.mustang6g.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35826



Looks like you're new to these forums but there's been several tuned EcoBoosts that have blown, it's all we talked about back in April. Some tuners are safer than others and it's hard to tell if the tune caused the issue in many of the failures but I believe all tuners have had at least one failure. They blow up from time to time, especially early production 2015 models. As you'll see here, the vast majority don't though.

I'll bet my bottom dollar some of those cars had factory IC's that blew with tunes. It's a gamble weather the PCM can pull timing and throttle fast enough to prevent severe TDC detonation with the factory IC, especially if you've been sitting in traffic and hit the throttle hard. Take a look at some of the inter cooler data that's around, it's very well documented at this point the significant deficiency of the stock IC even for a completely stock car.

High outlet temps are the mortal enemy of reliable FI engines and always will be!

 

[stang77]

I'll bet my bottom dollar some of those cars had factory IC's that blew with tunes. It's a gamble weather the PCM can pull timing and throttle fast enough to prevent severe TDC detonation with the factory IC, especially if you've been sitting in traffic and hit the throttle hard. Take a look at some of the inter cooler data that's around, it's very well documented at this point the significant deficiency of the stock IC even for a completely stock car.

High outlet temps are the mortal enemy of reliable FI engines and always will be!

You are probably right saying that some of the cars that blew had the factory IC still. The factory IC is garbage. Plain and simple.

 

[TheLion]

You are probably right saying that some of the cars that blew had the factory IC still. The factory IC is garbage. Plain and simple.

It's not just garbage, that would be bad engineering. It's sabotage, literally it is a targeted component for under performance to meet internal project / marketing requirements of minting a 125HP difference between lower tier Mustangs and the upper Tier V8 in order to maintain targeted V8 sales.

It's sad because the 2.3L EB engine, while not matching the NA V8, in it's original inception would be within spitting distance, but with far better fuel economy and the slightly better handling due to weight reduction. I think it would have been better for them to offer the higher end NA V8's as upper tier options, the 3.5L TT V6 in place of the V8 and the 2.3L as the base, doing away with the NA V6 and 5.0L V8 all togeather.

But they wanted to sell base V6's as the lowest tier option, EB as mid and V8 as upper...most likely because production was already set up for V6's and V8's as prior to 09 EB engines didn't even exist in the Ford portfolio.

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