Power Programmer for gas engine performance

I have tuners for my Mustang, Explorer, and F450. Only the Mustang has custom tunes. The other tuners make the vehicles shift more appropriately ... the Mustang is a manual. Before the tuner, the Explorer downshifted up almost any grade which was really annoying. They also correct the speedometer.

As long as you don't do the max performance tune you should be relatively safe. Either way, check out Ford-trucks.com for the tuners for that particular engine that seem to work pretty well if you go custom. Otherwise, the SCT basic models work pretty well for me for the F450 and Explorer.

I can't say they are "worth" it except for the Mustang custom tunes which is a blast!

I would not spend the money for performance or improved mileage.
Better shifting, lower shift points, speedometer fix from gear or tire change etc is the reason to buy.
(well those were my reasons to buy)

I use an Edge CTS for a monitor system, but their tuning kind of sucks. At least for diesels. And custom tunes ROCK!

What are you trying to accomplish? If your after better shifting as the previous guy said, that would be a benefit.

But if your after power..you won't see much in gas engines. I know Five Star Tuning is real popular with the Ford gas truck guys. I'd look there..but I do like the monitor system for all your pids with the Edge.


Tell us what your after and we can go from there. V10's in the '99's are weak, I think rated at 240 horse that one year. I had one. Meh.

We had a bulldog programmer in our 2012 Dosge Mega Cab 2500.
We had the truck over a year before putting it in and then it was in for two years as we recently sold the truck.
We loved it. Let us change the shift points, gave us better gas mileage and you could notice a set in Hp as well.
And when the trailer wasn't on the back it did even better with gas mileage and just cruising on the highway.
Also just added one to my wife's Avalache and already noticing a difference. Since we don't have a toy hauler we use her truck to pull the ATVs but other than that it is just a daily driver.
Was well worth the money and we are thinking about adding it to our new Cummins as well.

It's been since the late 90s early 2000s models since I've spent $ on gasser programmers. I'm sure they give a slight bump in power, and I mean slight, like first day you go "wow, this thing is great" and after a week you don't notice it.
The 2 features I found value in were firming up shift points and removing the top speed limiter. (I used to "commute" about 40kmi a year, a lot in the middle of nowhere desert, so 100mph + was the norm.)
IMO it won't hurt anything, but not much bang for your buck with a naturally aspirated engine. You can only suck so much air with factory intake, cam, pistons, comp ratio etc. whereas with forced induction, you have a much broader spectrum of parameters when you have a compressor force feeding air. That's why tunes work 10x better on turbo diesels and Eco boosts.
As a kid I thought it was cool, now I'd take that $500 and buy a gun or something if I was intent on spending it.

Nicholsfamily05 wrote:
We had a bulldog programmer in our 2012 Dosge Mega Cab 2500.
We had the truck over a year before putting it in and then it was in for two years as we recently sold the truck.
We loved it. Let us change the shift points, gave us better gas mileage and you could notice a set in Hp as well.
And when the trailer wasn't on the back it did even better with gas mileage and just cruising on the highway.
Also just added one to my wife's Avalache and already noticing a difference. Since we don't have a toy hauler we use her truck to pull the ATVs but other than that it is just a daily driver.
Was well worth the money and we are thinking about adding it to our new Cummins as well.

There are some decent dpf in tact, emissions systems compatible tunes for the new diesels. You'll get that 50-90hp and extra torque only at the expense of def consumption. But the big benefit for the new Rams is trans tuning to get rid of the crappy economy minded shift points that lug the 68rfe and to get rid of torque management. That comes at the expense of a transmission if you don't know how to use it properly and sometimes even if you do.
I like Rams power train, but IMO, they are posting the big numbers and then not unleashing them off the line to protec the trans.

I did a quite a bit of research for my ford gas engine and ended up going with a SCT tuner and custom tunes from 5-star tuning. Very satisfied with the results. Better shifting, much better throttle response and a slight improvement in mileage. If I recall I got the tuner on Amazon and 5-star emailed me the tunes. You can also buy the tuner from 5-star.

Crumm wrote:
I did a quite a bit of research for my ford gas engine and ended up going with a SCT tuner and custom tunes from 5-star tuning. Very satisfied with the results. Better shifting, much better throttle response and a slight improvement in mileage. If I recall I got the tuner on Amazon and 5-star emailed me the tunes. You can also buy the tuner from 5-star.

I have the same tuner with 5-star custom tunes, and my experience is pretty much the same as yours. Better shifting, throttle response, etc., but no real difference in power with the 87 octane performance tune. I haven't tried the 91 octane tune.

Thank you for all your input. We're learning more here much faster than we could have on our own. Keep that input a'coming!

It is part of the equation. Are you improving air flow (cold air intake, K&N filter, etc)? Are you improving spark (MSD, etc)? Do you have everything else dialed in?

My experience with custom tunes is they build upon the other overall improvements I have done. Standalone with nothing else they don't do much.

Also the custom tunes operate on a much finer tolerance. For example, I put a chip (yeah, the old EPROM style) on a 91' Chevy. It pinged like crazy. My distributor was 2 degrees off. That was within stock specs, but it was outside the tolerance for the custom program. Got it adjusted to perfect, and it ran great.

Remember, the stock tune is built to accommodate the common person in a wide spread of vehicular situations. Putting a custom tune on eliminates many of the tolerances built in to the stock program. Do you take good care of your vehicle with regular and proactive maintenance? Or do you only service it grudgingly at the OEM recommended minimums?

Cheap, low octane gas? Nope. Buy the good stuff. Marginal spark, air, or fuel delivery systems? Slight vacuum leaks? The new tune will find it. But if you are a 'car guy' and have your vehicle in proper working order, a custom tune will benefit you.

YMMV!
-Eric