TRUE FICM GAINS (rumors put to rest)

[MWilbur516]

OK folks, we have done the research all thanks to Power Hungry Performance in Winder GA. Today we did several before and after pulls on PHP's Mustang Dynometer on 20+ trucks. Our results were consistent and impressive. I would like any and all participants at our PHP FICM tuning and dyno day to post up their dyno gains as well as fuel mileage and throttle response gains.

Overall, the trucks without a tuner gained 10-20rwhp and 20-40lbs-ft of torque and the trucks with a tuner picked up around 10-15rwhp and 10-30lbs-ft of torque. These numbers are with healthy 48V FICM's. My truck was the only one dynoed with a 58V FICM.

I'll start. On the dyno I picked up 8RWHP and 19lbs-ft of torque. The throttle response is now almost gasser fast and very smooth. I cannot believe the difference in sound and response. As far as fuel mileage, I havn't checked yet, but I will post up again in a week or two with those numbers.

I did go out and crank my truck this morning to see how it started in the 18* weather without being plugged in. It was rough for about 30 seconds. The inductive heat strategy was hiding some stiction. I plugged her in and I'm gonna try to start it again in about an hour or two. It only ran for around 2minutes so operating temp was not achieved by any means. The EOT was reading only 48* when I shut it down. I may go ahead and add the REV-X as well.

[Wed Turner]

I picked up 21 peak rwhp and 43 peak rwtq. Where I think the big story is the average numbers. Average I picked up 19rwhp and 42 rwtq. This means that the gains are pretty even all across the board. I've attached my graph and you can see that it's a pretty consistant gain. Looking at how bumpy the graph is, Bill and I came to the conclusion that I might be starting to have some injector problems. I've got some Rotella T6 and some Rev-X that I picked up ready to go in in hopes of clearing up the problem before it gets any worse. All in all, I'm very happy with my results. Glad to find out that there is nothing seriously wrong with this truck that I just got. That was about one of the first questions my wife asked, "did you find out anything bad about the Excursion?" I'll post up some mileage results after our next road trip. Prior to the FICM tunning on our last trip we got 19.03 MPG going up to Nashville last weekend.

[sargar]

So.. after reading the two previous posts I go out to start the truck. It was not plugged in and the ECT read 32 on my insight. Truck popped right off but was a bit rough which it has never been before. That puts truth to the inductive heating theory. I'm not too worried about it.

I use a tank a week. After the new wears off of it I'll post up some mileage numbers. Prior to FICM tuning I was doing 15.1-15.4 MPG back and forth to work currently and slightly better in the summer. I guess maybe the blend and the fact that it will sit outside on high idle for 5-10 minutes before I leave right now. I keep very good fuel records so mine will be almost scientific.

Truck felt like a fire breathing monster when I left last night.....but it may be because I was still so pumped from an awesome day. Once again, when the new wears off I'll report back.

Bill determined my "stock" truck wasn't stock. He assumed it had a 60-70 horse tow tune in it. My torque jumped by 15 in the max catagory and on average was up by 28. My horsepower jumped by 13 in the max catagory and on average was up by 12. The average of 28 more ft-lbs is well worth the $100 spent. I can't remember who but I believe it was Wed, we both agreed we had spent more and got less on other vehicles and in some cases slowed them down.

I know the sheet is hard to read once scanned so here are the numbers.
HP before tune 352, after tune 365.
TQ before tune 639, after tune 654.

I am pleased with my stock truck..no really, I haven't done anything to it.
The one I am amazed at is Bingo's truck. That truck really came to life with a tune and a sketchy air filter. I can't wait to see the flak Chris gets when he posts up "stock air filters kill power on 6.0 Ford".



No jokes about the poorman's scanner...I'm having technical difficulties this morning.

[gsracing38]

Ok, my truck is stock(for now) and I picked up 17rwhp and 5twtq peak numbers but there is about 10-15 hp/tq gain across the board. I had the same cold start issues with rough idle today at 41 degrees outside. I'll plug it in tonight to see that difference in the morning. I haven't noticed any throttle response gain or power for that matter. I think it's because I'm looking for it though. When I quit paying attention, I get that "oh hey, thats better!" feeling. I'll hand calculate the next few tanks but my mileage gauge has always been pretty close. I reset it yesterday and so far it's looking like I'm up about 1 mpg.

[wright337]

Ok, my truck only has egr delete, dozer diesel's high flow banjo bolts, blue spring mod, zoodad mod and 4" straight exh. I picked up 19 hp and 18 ft/lb from the ficm tune. And I do notice better throttle responce. Well worth the money in my opinion. I will check the fuel mileage here soon.

[MWilbur516]

The Rev-X went in the truck today. I let her high idle for about 10 minutes then turned off and allowed 8hr cold soak. Went back out and my ECT/EOT was around 38*. She fired right up with about 3 "lopes" before smoothing out. I think Rev-X will be added in the winter from now on and I'll be getting into a habit of plugging her in.

[MWilbur516]

The inductive heating strategy was Ford's answer to hiding stiction issues. It seems to have done that very well, but it also was why FICM's started cooking off. I'm glad the band-aid is gone and I can address the real issue (that I didn't know I had). We'll see what the Rev-X does. I already run full synthetic T6 on 3500-4000 mile oil changes.

[sargar]

Left mine unplugged tonight, as it was last night. I'm wanting to see how she does in the morning. I generally plug mine up in colder temps to get the kids some heat on the way to school and it makes the transmission much happier. I put very few miles on it today but it seemed smoother and maybe even liked to cruise at a slightly higher speed, you know how they find a happy spot and just fall into a groove. I reset my mileage when I left PHP, I figured the dyno pulls and it outside on high idle for an hour didn't help my mileage. Right now it looks like I am DOWN about 2 MPG but I'm not trusting the numbers yet. I'll update with hand calc numbers.

Not only did she beat me but when questioned about a rough idle or skip, Bingo reported smooth as glass on this mornings cold start, dangit.

[Bubba88]

I am very glad Bill gave us the opportunity to do the before/after dyno runs on so many trucks because, like Matt said, this will help put an end to ALL of the questions about what the FICM tune does. For the price, you can't beat the hp/tq gains as well as the fuel mileage that will pay off in the long run.

[sargar]

Now that I have a few miles on it and the new from the tune has worn off I notice that the truck is much happier in the 40-50 zone. In town, in and out of traffic the truck is much more responsive. I had a passenger today that may ride in the truck once a month comment that it felt and sounded smoother from the passengers seat. It also still wants to cruise at a higher speed out on the road...the popo may have something to say about that.