2006 Grayhawk Ford e450 v-10: Power increase

rentman99 wrote:
"Depends what you call better."

Driveabilty. Downshifting to 4k rpm every 3-4 miles was miserable.

We're not talking NO2 boost here, just better power management. I wouldn't expect Ford engineers to be able to ship one ECM program that is perfect for all drivers/applications.

You seem concerned about the transmission stress. I'd much rather pull a transmission than an engine. In the bigger picture, I think proper maintenance like clean fluids and changing the filters regularly is the best thing you can do for engines/transmissions.

"You don't get more horsepower for free." Eh, I'm not so sure Ford had my RV at the top of they're list when optimizing the ECM patterns. It's not all about HP anyway.

I get what you're saying about after market mods, but when you have users posting improvements w/o increasing fuel consumption (sometimes even improvements), you're really just talking about better power management.

I know first hand the chassis you have was designed specifically for an RV. The guy that designed the engine/tranny combination for those was a friend of mine, and they program the ECU for the application.
On the other side, I agree with you that Maintenance goes a long way. Changing the programming will affect your lifespan. The question is: Do you care? Will you use it 300K miles?
Now, if you don't believe me, I can offer proff of this. Cruise America buys their RVs custom made, and their deal with Ford is that they have full warranty for the life of the coach until the coach is sold. Ford granted such warranty ONLY if they agreed to customized Tow/Hawl mode on at engine start up. They did this because the transmission will run the engine higher, and it suffers significantly less at higher RPMs. Ask anybody who bought an ex-rental from Cruise America and they will tell you their tow/hawl mode is on always.
As you see, Ford does customize their chassis for the specific application, and they understand exactly how their components are affected by changin parameters.
To your point, you may be OK with your engine/tranmission only lasting 100K-150K, and that is OK. I just wanted to make sure I shared the knowledge so you could make an informed desition.
On a different note, if you want to play with engine parameters, the Ford platform is the best one to do it. It is the most reliable platform you can find in RVs. I would even put it ahead of some DPs.
I an a Dodge and Chrysler guy, but my daily driver is a 2000 Town car Cartier L (Long), just broken into with 521K miles.