True Flex Fuel Tune

[Rolls]

@Rolls a lot of us here in the US would love a single car workshop version like you offer to those in AUS.

Please give us this ability. Some of the single use buyers would get the full version.

It will happen once training material is available. If you are willing to help produce said training material we could sponsor/discount the cost of the full workshop package.

This would require some basic video editing skills, good english and technical ability to help produce something like this. We are looking for a video and text format. Here is our Falcon guide (we need one for the US vehicles).

HOWTO: Custom Operating System Features - Falcon HOWTO Guides - PCMTEC Forums

Here are some draft videos showing what we are after.
MultiTune Wizard demo


Sales demo


If you (or anyone else) is interested in helping produce something like this, hit up support with a bit of a resume etc and we could potentially offer you a substantial discount.

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[WildHorse]

It is an addon for existing customers. You can simply purchase a tune + this combination from them. Fill out their online form and say Roland from PCMTEC referred you. If you PM me your name and the Lund ticket number I'll chat to Jon and offer any additional assistance as it will be one of the first. This may be a few weeks away as they are still setting up the beta on their vehicle.

If you can video the entire process we will even sponsor the credits (~$375 USD) for you.



We really appreciate the support everyone has been giving us to date.

Can do ! Will do ! Thanks !

 

[WildHorse]

It will happen once training material is available. If you are willing to help produce said training material we could sponsor/discount the cost of the full workshop package.

I'll give this a go as well !

 

[mejohn50]

If you (or anyone else) is interested in helping produce something like this, hit up support with a bit of a resume etc and we could potentially offer you a substantial discount.

Message sent.

 

[engineermike]

Folks I've been working on a "safe" flex idea and at this point, I'm very confident in it. But managing the switch back to gasoline is still an area of concern and requires some driver-attention to ensure safety. That said, I would really like it to be completely seemless to the driver. The only thing stopping me at this point is the fact that the learning freezes up regularly. I need it to learn constantly, minus fuel cut scenarios. I've tried the min flow for learning from 2.4 down to 0, min ego switches/events from 10 to 1, and min time in flow range from 10 to 1. No luck so far. This is what I'm talking about:

You can see I'm at steady state with combined fuel trims well over 20% but the learned alcohol just flatlines. FWIW it took it about 6 minutes to learn 70% when starting at 10%; probably would have been around half that if not for the pauses. Anyone have any luck preventing this freezing, or have ideas on why it's doing it?

And BTW, I haven't had it prematurely lock in since adding the fuel line mass parameters via PCMTec.

 

[K4fxd]

If you just want it to constantly learn, IE; never lock, put it in Brazil mode.

 

[engineermike]

That wouldn’t fix this. It’s still in learning mode and hasn’t matured yet, but still just flatlines often.

 

[K4fxd]

I'd give it a try and see if it still flatlines.

 

[K4fxd]

@engineermike

Did you try Brazil?

I stumbled on another Flex parameter that is zeroed out. Gen 3 is auF62265 Rate at which flex fuel may update. The F150 is set at 0.01
Gen 2 is auF35090 also 0.01

 

[engineermike]

I haven’t tried Brazil mode and I probably won’t. I want it to mature so that other diagnostics still work.

I had changed that max update rate before and tried values from .01 to 1.0. I’m using .15 now. It seems like it learns at a faster rate when it’s learning but didn’t stop it from stopping the learning periodically.

 

[shogun32]

That wouldn’t fix this. It’s still in learning mode and hasn’t matured yet, but still just flatlines often.

There may be a while loop with a hard coded sleep(). Unless the length and period freq of the sleep is parameterized.

 

[K4fxd]

I want it to mature so that other diagnostics still work.

I'm pretty sure other diagnostics will still work. They sell mustangs in Brazil and the only gas there is E25 and E100 so the car has to operate on any percentage between the 2. I don't see any Brazil only ECU's or strategy so this switch should be it.

I don't have any learning issues or pauses but I will try this switch today and see what happens if anything.

 

[engineermike]

I'm pretty sure other diagnostics will still work. ..

My concern is that some diagnostics uses the fuel trims to infer a bad O2 sensor or air leak. If the Ethanol % never matures, then the fuel trims will never stray far from 0.

I don't have any learning issues or pauses but I will try this switch today and see what happens if anything.

Can you post a log of your learning right after a fill-up?

 

[engineermike]

I've been testing a flex fuel method lately that is showing some promise. I'm using basically all the stock flex parameters from a 2019 F-150, except for timing. Ever since adding the PCMTec fuel line volumes, I haven't had it lock in too early, which is a huge win. But the potential issue still exists where it can still run E85 timing on 93 immediately after a fill-up. In order to minimize the risk, I have it adding no timing up until 55% alcohol, then adding 8 deg borderline between 55 and 56%. In this way, it doesn't take it very long to "turn off" the additional timing when you fill up with gasoline. Using this method, you can monitor the dash A/F gauge. 55% coincides with 11.5/1 A/F. So if switching to gasoline, once the A/F at steady state exceeds 12/1 then you know the additional timing is turned off.

That said, it takes 0.5 lb of fuel use before any of the new fuel reaches the engine, and another 1-1.5 lb of use before all of the old fuel is purged. At light load, this can take 12 minutes (longer at idle) but at WOT this can take only 10 seconds. So flooring it as you pull out of the gas station lot isn't going to end well. Or, at least, will require some knock sensor intervention.

Interestingly, Ford released a GSB in 2016. The last bullet points were to not alternate between fuels if possible, only fill up when you need more than 5 gallons, and give it 5-10 miles to adapt. If you do this, then the above method will work fine.

I'm working on an alternate "safer" idea right now. I need to make a transition to gas later this week to verify if it works. More on that later.

 

[K4fxd]

On gen 2 Brazil mode does lock. It learned 74.1% which is real close to what I tested. I tested at 75%

I do have all the flex parameters on along with the Brazil switch. I am going to try flex off and Brazil only.

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