Ford Racing ProCal Tune

[Regs]

First, happy that you are safe from the hurricane. Second sounds like the dealership kept you in back of the line. I hate how dealerships operate and was glad I was able to do it myself with a warranty. For me, it felt instantaneous, but I didn't get used to it until the second day. The turbo spooled so much quicker and that second gear is vicious. I have the base gears so my second gear is likely a little longer. I have had it for the last 6 months and I can't imagine going back. 4500k and above feels like it has a lot more purpose and with an intercooler even better. I would recommend keeping a close eye on your oil as driving harder with a overworked turbo will thin it out quicker. Mine was dark after I changed it at 8500 miles. Check after 6000 miles.

Sponsored

 

[chewie]

Just to be clear, if there's an engine issue AFTER the 36mo. / 36000mi. FP limited warranty, the engine issue may not be covered by Ford if it is determined to have been caused by the FRP tune?

 

[kiszl]

[MENTION=24468]Regs[/MENTION] thank you for the kind words and insight man. I'll be sure to keep an eye on my oil moving forward!
[MENTION=31014]chewie[/MENTION] my understanding is that you lose the long term powertrain warranty so once you're 36000/36 mo is up you're on your own.

 

[TorqueMan]

Just to be clear, if there's an engine issue AFTER the 36mo. / 36000mi. FP limited warranty, the engine issue may not be covered by Ford if it is determined to have been caused by the FRP tune?

Is that a question or a statement? If you're asking the question the answer is no one here knows for sure. Some people claim to have been successful in obtaining warranty service on an engine repair after their FP warranty expired, others claim to have been told in no uncertain terms by their dealership that any engine problem attributable to the FP tune will not be covered by the basic Ford factory warranty.

If you want a straight answer you need to get clarification from the dealership where you take your car for warranty work AND someone from Ford. If you're told the Ford factory warranty will cover all engine repairs after the FP warranty expires I would ask to get that in writing. I certainly wouldn't base any decisions on what you read on a forum like this.

 

[Rick B]

So roughly 20 HP lower than the Lion's dyno with an intercooler. Intercooler upgrades are supposed to be about 20hp, looks about right. What revision is your tune? I thought they corrected that dip?

I am very interested in that revision you mentioned. Any dates or revision numbers would be appreciated. Any info would be appreciated. So when I call Ford Racing I won't be talking out of my ass. (Ala Jim Carey)

 

[lizardrko]

I am very interested in that revision you mentioned. Any dates or revision numbers would be appreciated. Any info would be appreciated. So when I call Ford Racing I won't be talking out of my ass. (Ala Jim Carey)

Just search TheLion posts in this thread he has mentioned the revision number a few times. I havent noticed much with the revision myself, but others say to have. it was supposed to fix a blip in the middle of the rpm range. Lions dynos show the blip so its obviously there. Curious to see a dyno with the new revision

 

[yomamma219]

Once I pay last month's credit card bill this will be the first thing going on there! Can't wait, just broke 27k miles so am getting to the point where it might not be worth it.

 

[vic_2.3]

Anybody have an idea of the particular reason for limiting the Ecoboost to 124MPH even after the FP tune?

 

[TheLion]

I am very interested in that revision you mentioned. Any dates or revision numbers would be appreciated. Any info would be appreciated. So when I call Ford Racing I won't be talking out of my ass. (Ala Jim Carey)

Guys, use my dyno as a baseline ONLY. I'm running a unique setup that pretty much nobody else is here, at least not with the FP tune. Recall that I am running a manual trans with 3.73 ring and pinion.

My dyno numbers will be a bit higher than most due to the combination of short gearing AND manual trans. So I'd expect auto's and 3.31 manuals to be slightly lower to the wheels power due to higher gearing.

Gearing absolutely affects power to the wheels. It's a torque multiplier . Power is a ratio of torque and RPM.

By the way, I flashed back to stock just out of sheer morbid curiosity to see how the stock tune felt with the ATM inter cooler and was really surprised at how little fade there was on the top end. Power actually felt flat across most of the range. The ATM FMIC works very well with the stock turbo. It provides cooling roughly on par with the big full sized FMIC's but without the necessary volume and with lower pressure drop. For those still on the fence about the FP Tune who are also running the stock FMIC, first upgrade you FMIC and drive the car for a month. It's pretty good overall and more what I expected it to be from the factory. Then upgrade to the FP tune and it will be really good. Finally after you've hit 36k, assuming the car is still mechanically sound, step up to the Livernois 91 tune.

A lot of the FP guys run Livernoise tunes on their own cars. Really the big difference in tuning is the fact that FP is still limited in what they can do by emissions where Livernoise isn't, so there's some decent gains on the top end which still fades even with the FP tune after about 5800.

Now for context, even though you will loose 50HP on the FP tune from 5800 RPM to 6500 RPM, your still up about an average of 75 hp from the stock tune, so FP was still able to provide some good, solid gains. The only real difference in power curve with Livernois and FP is that Livernois holds torque better, you don't go from a 30 degree drop to 45 degree drop in torque starting at 5800 RPM. So with the Livernois 91 you hold near the peak power all the way out to 6500. Your only down about 10~15 hp from 6100 to 6500 instead of being down 50 HP from 5800 to 6500. BUT, if you have emissions you will need to swap back to stock once a year or once every other year for a couple weeks to get it passed, but it's rather easy to do, 5 minutes so not a big deal.

 

[TorqueMan]

Anybody have an idea of the particular reason for limiting the Ecoboost to 124MPH even after the FP tune?

The top speed limit is deleted for performance pack-equipped cars. The performance pack includes a larger radiator. Heat rejection (or lack thereof) is the primary reason for the speed limit. The engine will overheat at the sustained power output required at speeds greater than 124 without the larger radiator.

If you add the larger radiator from the power pack you should be able to safely run the car at it's mechanical speed limit, although I don't know if you'll be able to convince a dealer to delete the speed restriciton for you. You'd probably need to get a copy of Forscan and figure out how to do it yourself.

 

[TheLion]

Once I pay last month's credit card bill this will be the first thing going on there! Can't wait, just broke 27k miles so am getting to the point where it might not be worth it.

You might want to consider waiting, because of your mileage, until 30k~36k and just going straight to Livernois.

The two companies are intertwined quite a bit (FP and Livernois), but they target different audiences and FP has more restrictions to work around than LMS so their tuning has some limits due to those restrictions, namely emissions and varying grades of fuel where LMS isn't restricted by emissions nor are they tuning for changing fuel grades (adaptive octane learning).

If the FP tune held power out to 6500 like the Livernois 91, I wouldn't bother with Livernois as they would be nearly identical in power, but that's the one thing I still hate about the car's power curve even with the FP tune, that top end is still drops power and it makes the car feel much slower than it really is.

I've always hated it since I bought the car. I'd almost rather have less peak power and have a flat power curve than a fading one, at least from an enjoyment standpoint, even though a fading curve with a higher peak is still more area under the curve.

For a street car, I think it's a balance of fun to drive and actual performance. and the FP tune got me 90% of the way, but I want my 10%, darn it!

 

[TheLion]

I am very interested in that revision you mentioned. Any dates or revision numbers would be appreciated. Any info would be appreciated. So when I call Ford Racing I won't be talking out of my ass. (Ala Jim Carey)

The new revision as a B at the very end of the software ID. When you connect to their server with ProCal, the available version will have that B at the end. I'm betting though that if you more recently bought the power pack, after they released the new revision to fix the dip (which you can see in my FIRST dyno), the older rev won't even be available.

 

[TheLion]

Just to be clear, if there's an engine issue AFTER the 36mo. / 36000mi. FP limited warranty, the engine issue may not be covered by Ford if it is determined to have been caused by the FRP tune?

If the engine issue is determined to be caused BY the FP Tune, then NO coverage is offered after 36k. If the engine issue is NOT deemed to be caused by the FP Tune, then your standard 60k power train warranty will still be in tact until of course 60k. The FP 36k warranty is supplemental and covers damage even IF it was deemed to be caused by their engine tuning.

However, the PCM data will be sent to Ford engineering for analysis, if nothing is found outside of the ordinary that would indicate the Ford Performance software caused the issue, then it would be a case of warrantied repair.

Here's the thing, literally every single tuned car that failed a bottom end except the sole Livernois tuned car that failed, failed well before 36k miles. In fact I believe they all failed before 29k miles.

The sole livernois tuned car that failed made it to 65k miles and was, believe it or not, covered by warranty which I was surprised to hear. My guess is that in his case, they sent the PCM data to Ford and didn't find any signs of detonation or pre-ignition recorded in its internal log during that drive cycle, so it was likely deemed a factory defect and the owner DIDN'T flash back to try and hide it as far as I'm aware, so the data was there for them to analyse.

Flashing back without driving the car and completing a drive cycle erases all the drive cycle data. I think one is better off leaving the tune on there in the case of a failed block and just being honest.

Yes they will know it's tuned, but they can also see if there was anything going awry. The fact that Livernois does R&D for Ford and FP may also give them a little more leniency than say some of the other 3rd party tuners who have no association with Ford at all. The same applies to FP after the 36k point because if the problem is deemed to be caused by the FP tune, your footing the bill.

Bright side is, with 2-3 days of work in your garage, renting a small engine lift, you coudl swap in a lightly used 2.3 for about $2500~$3500...or if your top end is still in tact, you could swap in a built street bottom end from several places for about 3500~4000 and you'd have a bullet proof engine. A built bottom end on the FP tune or Livernois tune would last darn near...forever. I'd say it's about as reliable as durable as the stock tune on the stock bottom end but you get to enjoy 360 crank HP and nice power curve unlike the stock tune.

 

[Juben]

I got my spare long block from LKQ for $1,800 with 3k miles on it. It even had the turbo on it. You could do something like that with a Manley H-beam upgrade for $400'ish and it'd last a very long time. The stock pistons are nice pieces and will stand up to quite a bit of abuse. A BSD and H-beam upgrade would take everything you'd throw at it on the stock turbo and be reliable. I'm surprised more people haven't went that way for those wanting reliable with a mild build sheet.

 

[yomamma219]

[MENTION=25093]TheLion[/MENTION] I appreciate your advice, so let me give you my reasoning for sticking with the FP Tune to see what you think. I will probably be right at about 28k miles by the time the tune is installed on my car. Which has made me consider going with a different tuner. The reasons I have decided to stick with FP for the time being are:

1. I have the 100k mile powertrain warranty that came with my Ford CPO mustang, and I feel (just an opinion, nothing factual to back me up) that I would have a slightly better experience with warranty issues if anything goes wrong after 36k.
2. I don't have an FMIC upgrade yet or any other "real" performance bolt ons (I don't cound my cat-back), which the FP tune is explicitly designed to run fine with. (Yes I know all the benefits, but FMIC is lower on my priority list, to each his own)
3. The FP tune runs around the same, cost wise, as any other tune setup out there and I can always upgrade later if I desire.
4. I believe FP Tune, is probably the safest tune on the market, short of getting a custom one, which likely would have no guarantees behind. I have seen posts of blown engines with custom tunes but haven't seen any with a FP tune, but to be fair I haven't looked that hard.
5. This is basically the first car I've bought myself, by far the fastest car I've owned, and by far the newest car I've owned. It will be the first time I've tuned a car, and have only known one other person that electronically tuned a car and that welt poorly for them (VW GLI if you care). So I feel the FP Tune is my best bet for getting my feet wet in the world of tuning while still putting sufficient patch on my need for a bit more speed.
6. It seems you feel the main thing the FP Tune lacks is the top of the range power. Honestly, I rarely go above 5500 RPMs as it honestly scares me due to the feeling of the power drop and my general consciousness of over stressing the engine. I unfortunately also have not had the chance to take my car to a track as I haven't found a convenient one, and its been a busy summer. So I don't think the RPM deficiencies are something that I will notice for a while. :shrug:



Side note:

[MENTION=25093]TheLion[/MENTION] I must throw a little shade on ya for what I read in a recent prior post by you:

"Gearing absolutely affects power to the wheels. It's a torque multiplier . Power is a ratio of torque and RPM."

You always seem like a very smart guy so I just like teasing you on semantics as I believe you know your technical misrepresentation with this statement, and I will leave it at that..... ;)

Thanks for being a great forum member!

:cheers:

You might want to consider waiting, because of your mileage, until 30k~36k and just going straight to Livernois.

The two companies are intertwined quite a bit (FP and Livernois), but they target different audiences and FP has more restrictions to work around than LMS so their tuning has some limits due to those restrictions, namely emissions and varying grades of fuel where LMS isn't restricted by emissions nor are they tuning for changing fuel grades (adaptive octane learning).

If the FP tune held power out to 6500 like the Livernois 91, I wouldn't bother with Livernois as they would be nearly identical in power, but that's the one thing I still hate about the car's power curve even with the FP tune, that top end is still drops power and it makes the car feel much slower than it really is.

I've always hated it since I bought the car. I'd almost rather have less peak power and have a flat power curve than a fading one, at least from an enjoyment standpoint, even though a fading curve with a higher peak is still more area under the curve.

For a street car, I think it's a balance of fun to drive and actual performance. and the FP tune got me 90% of the way, but I want my 10%, darn it!

Sponsored