GT350 FORScan Tweaks

[Epiphany]

Feels good getting rid of that double horn honk, eh? Whoever thought it was a good idea....ugh, it was a terrible idea.

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[Spart]

Also, I saw choices for rev matching and a gear indicator. I didn't turn them on (and I assume the Tremec in the GT350 doesn't have the hardware needed to activate them), but I was tempted to try.

This is the GT350 forum. We only do fully organic, all-natural heel-toe downshifts around these parts.

Active rev matching is for people who don't want to learn how to drive stick.

 

[Hawkeye1]

This is the GT350 forum. We only do fully organic, all-natural heel-toe downshifts around these parts.

Active rev matching is for people who don't want to learn how to drive stick.

I completely agree and I am not worthy. My heel/toe sucks, but I swear I'll practice it 100 times a day and never be tempted again to enable rev matching (unless it actually works; then I am totally going for it.)

 

[Spart]

I completely agree and I am not worthy. My heel/toe sucks, but I swear I'll practice it 100 times a day and never be tempted again to enable rev matching (unless it actually works; then I am totally going for it.)

On a serious note, learning to do heel-toe made me love driving stick all that much more.

Matt Farah has a pretty good video on how to do it that works for the big footed among us:





Now back to FORscan tweaks...

 

[Hawkeye1]

Spent some time researching the fake engine noise and found out how to turn it off. Freaked out the first time I saw the 'Checksum Error' message, then read through the forums and realized you can ignore it and write the new values. (Thanks to all the people who've taken the time to teach the rest of us.) The difference in sound is subtle, but it's there. The car is even quieter with the flaps closed, and doesn't make my ears buzz with the valves open and the throttle floored. The perceived location of the sound moved toward the rear, and though I'd take more induction noise, the car sounds great and I'm not sure why they ever added the fakery in the first place.

 

[Stang 19]

Spent some time researching the fake engine noise and found out how to turn it off. Freaked out the first time I saw the 'Checksum Error' message, then read through the forums and realized you can ignore it and write the new values. (Thanks to all the people who've taken the time to teach the rest of us.) The difference in sound is subtle, but it's there. The car is even quieter with the flaps closed, and doesn't make my ears buzz with the valves open and the throttle floored. The perceived location of the sound moved toward the rear, and though I'd take more induction noise, the car sounds great and I'm not sure why they ever added the fakery in the first place.

So, do the GT500 cars do the fake sound, too?

 

[Hawkeye1]

So, do the GT500 cars do the fake sound, too?

In candor I don't know for sure, but it's likely they do. The feature is there and the sound inside the cabin is something all car companies spend time calibrating. The fake noise makes their job easier. It's less expensive and faster than altering exhaust components, etc.

 

[Spart]

The perceived location of the sound moved toward the rear, and though I'd take more induction noise, the car sounds great and I'm not sure why they ever added the fakery in the first place.

It's not fake engine sound like it is in the V6/EB, it's Active Noise Control or ANC. The fake engine noise is Engine Sound Enhancement or ESE. Some vehicles have both, some have one or the other.

That said, the ANC gave me headaches. Can't really explain it but as soon as I disabled it, they went away.

 

[Hawkeye1]

It's not fake engine sound like it is in the V6/EB, it's Active Noise Control or ANC. The fake engine noise is Engine Sound Enhancement or ESE. Some vehicles have both, some have one or the other.

That said, the ANC gave me headaches. Can't really explain it but as soon as I disabled it, they went away.

I’ve heard it both ways, including commentary in the V8 F150 and Mustang GT forums. Some have said the V8 cars don’t augment the sound (as you did). Others claim there are separate codes for ANC and the Sound Symposer in our cars and that both are active. I’m not sure which task I accomplished, but the sound is different and, in my opinion, better. I’m open to guidance, and experimentation.

 

[Spart]

I’ve heard it both ways, including commentary in the V8 F150 and Mustang GT forums. Some have said the V8 cars don’t augment the sound (as you did). Others claim there are separate codes for ANC and the Sound Symposer in our cars and that both are active. I’m not sure which task I accomplished, but the sound is different and, in my opinion, better. I’m open to guidance, and experimentation.

Depends on what you mean by "augment."

The I4 cars literally play a different engine note through the speakers. That's not what's happening in the GT350.

In the GT350, they're cancelling out "unwanted" engine harmonics. Obviously you and I would agree that they're wrong, but it is what it is.

ETA: and to be clear, none of this is active in the 15-17 GT.

 

[Wraith272]

I have a 2020 GT350 and used ForScan tonight to turn off the double honk (successful), splash the red R screen (successful), add a fourth blink when changing lanes (successful, and silly) and turn off the engine noise enhancement (unsuccessful). The first three were simple, and I was able to do them using the 'easy' method, without having to know the precise addresses and hex codes. I could not find an 'easy' method for the sound enhancement, so will look through the Google Docs to see if those addresses still apply to a 2020 vehicle. Also, I saw choices for rev matching and a gear indicator. I didn't turn them on (and I assume the Tremec in the GT350 doesn't have the hardware needed to activate them), but I was tempted to try.

I'm wondering if the Tremec in the GT350 actually does have the hardware needed for gear indicator or revmatch, it already senses 6th gear for the active exhaust. Is the Tremec in the Mach 1 a different part number than the GT350?

 

[Hawkeye1]

I'm wondering if the Tremec in the GT350 actually does have the hardware needed for gear indicator or revmatch, it already senses 6th gear for the active exhaust. Is the Tremec in the Mach 1 a different part number than the GT350?

I ignored all the people who said I should get better at heel / toe, and just enabled Engine Rev Matching in the appropriate module this evening. It didn't work. The car wouldn't accept the parameter change, returning an error like 'configuration unsupported' or something like that. Oh well. Time to practice my footwork.

Also, for those who are looking for other parameters to experiment with, I would stay away from 'Video on Demand'. I have experience with a similar feature on BMWs and never had a problem. It allows you to watch DVDs on the Nav screen while the car is in Park. Not so with the GT350. I enabled the parameter, but the DVD I inserted wouldn't play, so I went back into ForScan and put it back the way I found it (Disabled). The car didn't like that at all, and forgot that it was a GT350 (got the standard 'Ford' splash screen), forgot it had Navigation (no map on the Home screen) and forgot it could pair with my phone. It was a pucker moment...

To fix it I went back into 'Video on Demand' and enabled it again. The 'R' splash screen and all the other functions magically returned. As an experiment, I disabled it one more time and the bad behavior did not repeat. Everything was fine. Can't explain why it freaked out the first time, but the car is back to it's original config (Video on Demand Disabled) and I have learned a valuable lesson. Gremlins exist and always back up your configuration before playing.

 

[Lurker_350]

I just want to point out again that the Engine Sound Enhancement AKA Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) defeat that is listed in the GT350 spreadsheet is wrong.

For example, the lines in that spreadsheet for the 2017 Convenience Pack are stated like this:

ACM 727-01-01 1850 F000 44CC ANC disabled
ACM 727-01-01 1850 FA00 44D6 ANC enabled

Which would be better represented as this:

ACM 727-01-01 xxxx x0xx xxxx ANC disabled
ACM 727-01-01 xxxx xAxx xxxx ANC enabled

But this is wrong. Putting a 0 in place of an A in that position doesn't just tell the ACM to turn off ANC, it also tells the ACM that the front tweeters are absent.

The correct value in place of an A is actually 8. That disables ANC and leaves everything else alone.

So the correct listing for that would be:

ACM 727-01-01 xxxx x8xx xxxx ANC disabled
ACM 727-01-01 xxxx xAxx xxxx ANC enabled

This is confirmed on my 2017 GT350 Tech Pack car.

Further, a more thorough defeat may also include:

ACM 727-01-02 xx00 xx ANC disabled
ACM 727-01-02 xx88 xx ANC enabled

Those lines appear to control the mixing by channel of the noise control.

And as it happens, if you do both of those, the as-built in your ACM will be identical to a similarly equipped GT's as-built, which comes from the factory with no ANC.

@Spart - I am comparing a 2016 tech engine sound enhancement disable to what you stated might work best for a 2017.

For a 2016 Tech, the spreadsheet lists:

727-01-01 1801 C000 0009: Disable
727-01-01 1801 3A08 008B: Enable

I also found the following on TMO:

ACM 727-01-01 1801 C000 0009 Engine Sound Enhancement Disable 2016 Tech (didn’t work for
me, I also tried 1801 3808 0089 and 1801 3008 0081 with no change. What finally worked to disable fake sound was 1801 F808 0049)

For the 2017, you suggested:

ACM 727-01-01 xxxx x8xx xxxx ANC disabled
ACM 727-01-01 xxxx xAxx xxxx ANC enabled

or

ACM 727-01-02 xx00 xx ANC disabled
ACM 727-01-02 xx88 xx ANC enabled

I suppose this is kind of a "why is the sky blue" type question, but here it goes anyway:

Why are the digit locations and values that need to be modified different between the 2016 and 2017? I understand there are certainly hardware and software differences, but I figured they would be more similar than the changes suggest.

Do you see any limitations with the values specified to disable ESE/ANC (however you want to call it) in a 2016 tech? Should there be a revision to the 727-01-02 values? (address not listed in the spreadsheet for either 2016 or 2017). What is the difference between the 2016 tech spreadsheet values and the ones proposed at TMO?

Thanks!

EDITED to refer to TMO values for ESE/ANC disabling on 2016 tech.

 

[JAJ]

@Spart - I am comparing a 2016 tech engine sound enhancement disable to what you stated might work best for a 2017.

For a 2016 Tech, the spreadsheet lists:

727-01-01 1801 C000 0009: Disable
727-01-01 1801 3A08 008B: Enable

while for the 2017, you suggested:

ACM 727-01-01 xxxx x8xx xxxx ANC disabled
ACM 727-01-01 xxxx xAxx xxxx ANC enabled

or

ACM 727-01-02 xx00 xx ANC disabled
ACM 727-01-02 xx88 xx ANC enabled

I suppose this is kind of a "why is the sky blue" type question, but here it goes anyway:

Why are the digit locations and values that need to be modified different between the 2016 and 2017? I understand there are certainly hardware and software differences, but I figured they would be more similar than the changes suggest.

Do you see any limitations with the values specified to disable ESE/ANC (however you want to call it) in a 2016 tech? Should there be a revision to the 727-01-02 values? (address not listed in the spreadsheet for either 2016 or 2017).

Thanks!

It's complicated and it's simple, all at the same time. The numbers and letters are hexadecimal shorthand for binary strings - rows of ones and zeroes. If I recall correctly, there's only one single 1 that has to become a zero to turn off sound enhancement. That's the simple part. The complicated part is that every one and zero in the entire expression does something, so there's no simple "just put this entire ten-character string in and it'll work" instruction.

What you need to do is to look at 727-01-01 and see what the 6th letter/digit is when you start. If it's an "A" then change it to an "8". Binary "A" is 1010 and binary "8" is 1000, so you can see that the second "1" in the third position from the left has become a zero. If it's anything other than "A", then you need to figure out the binary version of the starting point and change the third "bit" to a 0 and figure out what that binary version maps to in hexadecimal (0 - F) notation. That's the letter that'll change the sound without changing anything else.

Easy, right?

 

[Lurker_350]

It's complicated and it's simple, all at the same time. The numbers and letters are hexadecimal shorthand for binary strings - rows of ones and zeroes. If I recall correctly, there's only one single 1 that has to become a zero to turn off sound enhancement. That's the simple part. The complicated part is that every one and zero in the entire expression does something, so there's no simple "just put this entire ten-character string in and it'll work" instruction.

What you need to do is to look at 727-01-01 and see what the 6th letter/digit is when you start. If it's an "A" then change it to an "8". Binary "A" is 1100 and binary "8" is 1000, so you can see that the second "1" has become a zero. If it's anything other than "A", then you need to figure out the binary version of the starting point and change the second "bit" to a 0 and figure out what that binary version maps to in hexadecimal (0 - F) notation. That's the letter that'll change the sound without changing anything else.

Easy, right?

Maybe...I read the Wikipedia page so I must be an expert now!

If I take the "enabled" value of:
727-01-01 1801 3A08 008B, where A is the sixth digit after the 727-01-01 address, the wikipedia lookup table says that is binary for 1010. I will confirm that my 727-01-01 values are the same as this.

If I look at the TMO sound disable string:
727-01-01 1801 F808 0049, I see that sixth digit went to an 8, which is 1000 in binary. What do all the other changes do? And what is special about the sixth digit? Shouldn't the sum of the binary values matter?

Seems like the binary comparison of these two would tell me something, but it doesn't.

Enable: 1 1000 0000 1 11 1010 0000 1000 0000 0000 1000 1011
Disable: 1 1000 0000 1 1111 1000 0000 1000 0000 0000 100 1001

Maybe I should be asking these questions on a computer science forum instead of polluting this thread!

Anyway, just trying to gain some understanding. I appreciate the education @JAJ!

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