Ford Racing ProCal Tune

[TrueBlue]

Finally pleased with this program!

Update: It took nearly 200 miles of driving but the program is working as expected. I do not have good times for you as our temps have dropped and my tires will not hook up. The car is now fun to drive. The power is much more linear all the way to redline. The torque improvement is very greatly appreciated. The car sets you in the seat and pulls pretty good throughout the rpm range.

I had an opportunity to go head to head with a 2015 GT PP/MT. We conducted several runs at different speeds and states. While the GT is faster it is not much faster at all. Very close. If I catch a GT sleeping I can beat them to any legal speed limit.

I do not understand why it took so long to learn the program but I can say I am very happy with the purchase today. :cheers:

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[marjen]

First full day with the FP tune. 90+ mile commute. It was crappy weather this morning so was conservative with the throttle, averaged 30 mpg on the way in. On the way home was closer to normal driving as the weather improved, ended up 27.9 MPG for the total 90 mile commute. Much better than the 24-25 normal. The car feels so much smoother and tons of power. Hope this is how it is going to go long term.

 

[TheLion]

Update: It took nearly 200 miles of driving but the program is working as expected. I do not have good times for you as our temps have dropped and my tires will not hook up. The car is now fun to drive. The power is much more linear all the way to redline. The torque improvement is very greatly appreciated. The car sets you in the seat and pulls pretty good throughout the rpm range.

I had an opportunity to go head to head with a 2015 GT PP/MT. We conducted several runs at different speeds and states. While the GT is faster it is not much faster at all. Very close. If I catch a GT sleeping I can beat them to any legal speed limit.

I do not understand why it took so long to learn the program but I can say I am very happy with the purchase today. :cheers:

I believe 1 drive cycle is between 100 to 150 miles. It may take several drive cycles to optimize from what it sounds like, so I would say by 200 to 300 miles you should be pushing.

I am experiencing what you were, the car doesn't seem to pull even as much as it did with the stock tune (although it is fairly consistent across the power band), but I only have 60 miles since yesterday.

Before I hit 30 miles it was even worse, very flat power band, I thought I might have had a boost leak at first because other than the initial NA like touchiness under light throttle it just didn't make power.

This seems to be a common theme that you won't really get the full power until the car has run about 200 to 300 miles, and it's very anemic under 30. I'll have to keep racking up the miles and report back after I pass 300 (just to be sure it has had plenty of time).

 

[Jayhawk Jake]

I believe 1 drive cycle is between 100 to 150 miles. It may take several drive cycles to optimize from what it sounds like, so I would say by 200 to 300 miles you should be pushing.

I am experiencing what you were, the car doesn't seem to pull even as much as it did with the stock tune (although it is fairly consistent across the power band), but I only have 60 miles since yesterday.

Before I hit 30 miles it was even worse, very flat power band, I thought I might have had a boost leak at first because other than the initial NA like touchiness under light throttle it just didn't make power.

This seems to be a common theme that you won't really get the full power until the car has run about 200 to 300 miles, and it's very anemic under 30. There may be stages of learning for the PCM and this might be why it takes a while, I would expect Ford Performance to be very thorough on their R&D and this self calibration period may be part of that process.

Mine felt faster immediately, but it definitely opened up as I drove further. I now have gone 250 miles or so and it's noticeably faster than day 1. The car is crazy quick and unbelievably smooth.

 

[Jayhawk Jake]

That sounds like some BS to me. I've had 3 tunes on this car and 4 on my ST and the results were immediate.

The Lion: your thought compared to the Liverwurst tune?

It sounds crazy but my experience backs it up. I didn't feel like it was sluggish immediately, it was faster right away but it has almost certainly gotten better over 200 miles. The car feels smoother and quicker than it did on the first day.

 

[Motoboy]

For the guys that had this installed at the dealer. What was the cost for them to do it?

 

[TheLion]

Just to be clear, I don't think the car is actually slower. I just feels slower because the power band is very smooth and has a very shallow curve, you don't get the "surge" of power which makes an engine feel faster than it actually is. It's almost electric motor like.

I did run a known distance, normally on the stock tune I can hit 70~71 by the time I pass a street sign. This morning I hit about 73 with a slightly botched launch (traction in first gear from 10mph) and shifted a bit early. With the Livernois 91 tune I can hit about 77~78 and with Livernois 93 I managed 79.

At the present time, the Livernois Stage 3v7 tunes in either octane flavor have a significant and very noticeable advantage in power, however I only have 60 miles on the FP tune, once I pass 300 miles on the odo, I'll report back with another comparison, especially on a known distance which is a reasonable approximation.

With Livernois tune, I don't feel you get "more" as you pile on miles. It does get a bit smoother, but not discernibly faster, it feels as if you get just about everything right form the get go.

With the FP tune, after about 30 miles the throttle response improved noticeably all of the sudden. I am expecting at this point further improvement of the FP tune once I approach 200 to 300 miles.

I experienced something similar with the stock tune, it seems to have taken a while for the PCM to optimize, I know this because I did an experiment and re-flashed from stock back to stock just to wipe it out and the car definitely lost a noticeable amount of pull that was there before (with 450 miles on the tune). It feels as if the timing is very conservative, like the engine is holding back, especially when you've felt what that little 2.3L can do. Over time it seems I'll start to notice more and more pull on the stock tune and it seems to take several hundred miles to fully settle in. I am thinking the FP tune will react in a similar manner.

If Fox's dyno's are any indication, I would expect the FP tune to give the Livernois tune a run for it's money since some people asked, but we shall see as I'm only at 60 miles so far and I feel the only real improvement of the FP tune at this point is the top end holds power much better and the throttle response is improved which is what likely accounts for the extra 2-3 mph on my known distance runs. I think there's more to come however. Environment, car mods and fuel quality will certainly also affect his process, so some may take more time than others to fully calibrate. I also asked my Ford Performance contact about this to see what their official response is on the "calibration" process.

 

[TheLion]

That sounds like some BS to me. I've had 3 tunes on this car and 4 on my ST and the results were immediate.

The Lion: your thought compared to the Liverwurst tune?

Too early to tell. Lets give it some time, see my post above for information on a comparison AS is at only 60 miles. The Livernois tune however is very much like you described your other tunes, you get everything it has or nearly everything right from the start.

But again that wasn't my experience with the stock tune either, which seems to take time before it provides full timing and power as I just did an experiment prior to install the FP tune to prove that out (well at least somewhat). The stock tune seems to really hold back timing until you reach around 200 to 300 miles and then, at least with a 3.73 rear end and FMIC, it's actually not bad and somewhat enjoyable with a decent pull up to about 5700~5800.

Keep in mind some of these reports, myself included can be very subjective, without running the car on a dyno at 0 miles after a flash and then again after 300 miles after a flash, all you have to go by is the "butt dyno" which can only detect significant or large magnitude changes. Incremental changes can be hard to detect (aka frog slowly boiling in the pot of water vs. throwing him into an already boiling pot).

 

[Jayhawk Jake]

For the guys that had this installed at the dealer. What was the cost for them to do it?

2 hours of labor, so $210 or so

 

[tcman54]

I am encouraged by the positive remarks regarding the tune but I am still leery of the air intake that comes with it, many people have described it as ugly and noisy at high rpm.

If I like my car on the quiet side is the air intake going to bother me?

TC

 

[Jayhawk Jake]

I am encouraged by the positive remarks regarding the tune but I am still leery of the air intake that comes with it, many people have described it as ugly and noisy at high rpm.

If I like my car on the quiet side is the air intake going to bother me?

TC

I don't really hear anything. Ugly is in the eye of the beholder, it's not pretty but I don't look under the hood that often.

 

[TheLion]

I don't really hear anything. Ugly is in the eye of the beholder, it's not pretty but I don't look under the hood that often.

I'd agree, I don't think it "looks" bad, it looks a bit more "high tech" than the stock unit, but no it's not a "show piece" you might expect to see under an actual show car. But that's not it's purpose, you don't drive around with the hood open...most of us use our S550's as daily drivers or weekend toys. I'd agree that I don't really hear much in the way of additional noise, in fact, in my opinion its actually more pleasant at high RPM as it's less drony or hollow sounding with a bit of turbo intake noise (not much).

 

[TheLion]

So I finally got it installed and I'm not sure what to think...

My before times were
0-60: 6.1
1/8: 9.1 at 79mph
60ft was 1.9.

I just did a few runs with it installed and my best were
0-60: 6.7
1/8: 9.3 (doesn't tell me the mph unless I break the record and I wasn't looking)
60ft: 1.7

I mean I guess it could be user error, but I launched it exactly the same... I'm wondering if they didn't flash it correctly. It was the first time they did it at my dealership and they seemed like they didn't really know what they were doing with the software. I don't know guys...

The one thing that I noticed is that it gets kinda laggy around 2500, which it didn't use to do.

I experienced the same thing during the first 30 miles. It had VERY conservative timing with any significant throttle, felt like you push and it just doesn't have any torque. After 30 miles it got better and seems close to the stock tune still still not quite as much pull as the stock tune (which had 450 miles on it before I reset it).

This might explain why your 1/8 mile and 0-60 is actually slower. I think you need to run the car for at least 200 to 300 miles before the PCM has fully calibrated. Then repeat and see what you get. I also experienced this phenomenon on the stock tune. Reset your PCM and you should notice the torque is significantly reduced by just resetting the PCM, as if the engine is just not advancing timing despite the throttle commanded. Over time it improves until you get that torqy pull we all know and love.

 

[Motoboy]

2 hours of labor, so $210 or so

Ok, thank you. Wanted to know how many hours I should be getting charged before I call the dealer for an install.

 

[TheLion]

FP's response is below to my inquiry about the time it takes to learn the octane. I'm guessing the baseline is assuming 87, at least on the stock tune.

Some one on this thread, I forget who, told us FP informed them that technically even the FP tune can use 87 in an emergency and will adjust over several hundred miles, but you would need to keep off any heavy throttle to avoid knock until it does. I'm a bit skeptical of that as the FP tune documentation makes no reference of being able to be used with 87 under any conditions...

At any rate, it gives a lot of credit to the fact that at the very least, the consistent experience is that the tune does improve noticeably after several hundred miles. How much it improves seems to vary from person to person, but that's good news for those who just flashed and are not experience any significant improvement.

The octane modifier learn function will be learned over the course of a few hundred miles but it can be learned more quickly by performing 3 to 5 moderate accelerations. Accelerate from 50-75mph in 4th gear with 50% throttle.

If you ran 93 octane in your car consistently before our calibration was installed, it probably was optimized for the higher octane. Installing our calibration essentially returns to a baseline for the PCM and it must relearn to optimize for the premium fuel. Timing will be retarded until premium fuel is learned by the new calibration. It does take time for the timing to be optimized for premium fuel to make the maximum power.

Hope this helps.

Mike Goodwin

[email protected]

(800) FORD-788

www.fordshowparts.com

www.fordperformance.com

www.performanceparts.ford.com

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