dmp

As my friend says, Everything changes when you have a LARGE displacement (5.4L) inefficient engine to work with. I had originally purchased a XCalibrator 2 from TroyerPerformance.com (the F150 Go-Fast KING) for my wife's truck as part of her Christmas gifts. Low and behold UPS messed up the shipping...The product arrived on a day she was home. No big surprise for her I guess...The good news is, now I get to play!

First off, I read the instruction book. Well..skim..but yeah.

Then, I removed the Fuel Pump relay fuse, and plug the thing into the Diag port:



Viola! the magic box comes to life!



A few buttons pushed and the ECU starts learning....




I took the truck out for a drive. As the engine warmed up I started to have some fun. Prior to the program, the truck would light up the 33" BFG A/T's from a stop on wet pavement, pretty easily. I'd floor the pedal and the tires would spin as the transmission lazily shifted into 2nd around 4,000, 4500 rpms...blah blah...(snore).

Well tonite...from a roll no less, about 40mph...I go WOT and the trans SNAPS down a gear. A heartbeat later, ello? what's this now? the ***-end of the truck is coming around a bit. I broke 'em loose at near 40mph. Yeah, wet roads, blah, blah, but it had NEVER come close to anything like that prior. Huge gains in how smooth the engine idles and runs - the thing actually pulls up top a bit now. I'm pretty excited to get the truck out to an open stretch of road and test it's passing power.

Anywho - geesh folks...if ONLY it were this easy on the Renesis, ya know?

:D

if YOU have an F150, visit TroyerPerformance.com. I was a skeptic. Until tonite. Now I'm a believer.

Steiner

Cool beans. I saw that thing reviewed on the SPEED channel a few weeks ago. They used a turbocharged F350 diesel though. Produced some awesome gains.

dmp

It's not the machine as much as it's how Troyer builds CUSTOM tunes into them. He sent me 4 pages of questions about the truck, and wrote 3 programs for me - an 87 Octane 'Economy Tune' an 87 Octane 'Towing' tune, and what I'm using now, a 92 Octane "Performance Tune".



I'm going to have to get my wife to race my RX8 - $10 says her truck will beat my 8 to 40 mph...prolly to 50.

Steiner

Race for pinks.

BTW...chicks driving big trucks are sexy. Yee haw!

snizzle

Now I have heard that these work for a while but then the ECU responds and you lose the gains eventually. Any truth to that?

dmp

She mostly runs errands in the thing...





But when she lets ME drive it:

Muddy! - Save Target As

dmp

I'd say it's impossible, see, this device removes the stock ECU parameters and replaces it with new code.

If..just IF the ECU 'responded', it'd be easy to remove the performance tune, upload the OEM tune, then do it all over again.

the product also datalogs (if I had a lap top) and will read CELs for every OBD2 Ford.

Japan8

What dmp said. Devices like XCalliber from SCT, Diablo and Sniper are ECU REFLASHERS. If you order the full SCT kit... it also includes a PC interface where you can datalog, create your own maps and even adjust other parameters. For example for one magazine SCT adjusted the electronic throttle response and Kenne Bell talked about others like the variable intake manifold. Basically... this thing is a programmable version of what the dealers have. All the OEM data is replaced by what you send it.

Now THIS is what the RX-8 needs... not the emanage and not the interceptor. Using the Interceptor-X (while it looks like a great product.. so I'm not really trying to knock it) wouldn't yield the best results.. at least it doesn't SEEM so. The "spanish oak" ECU used in the 2005 mustang is really complex... changing the electronic throttle body settings can help improve performance. Watching the knock sensor SYSTEM is important... as posted in another thread... the ECu is programmed for Premium Unleaded... thus agressively, but the car is sold as regular unleaded. Managing the timing, etc. changes needed is all done by the ECU. Don't forget about the variable intake manifold either. So just taking control of fuel and spark isn't necessarily going to give you enough control and/or the best results. The RX-8's ECU seems equally complex... reflashing will prove to be the best solution for all but ridiculously high horsepower situations.

SSJ 909

Thats your wife?? Damn man, no doubt!

Chrisbert

I thought at first you had the Diesel. Then I re-read and saw the pic too. Damn, that is some nice gain.

Around here, Diesel's with mad HP are all the rage.

BoosTED

iTrader: (2)

Ha my cousin has an F150 with an intake exhaust and the ECU flash and says he raced a Corvette and beat him on the freeway. It definitely has some torque but I think he is a storyteller. Guy in the Vette even stopped and said he had never been beaten by a truck before. He complains about mileage being low though. You'll have to let us know how much of a savings you can get with the conservative flash. I am sure he would like to hear that one. No need to run performance in the winter for him.

dmp

I beat 'vettes all the time.....















CHEvettes... :D

http://memimage.cardomain.net/member.../384998_25.jpg

rx8wannahave

I know...I know, dmp...don't remind us...lol

dmp, be careful with the wife pic's....the leg humpers are sure to follow...lol



I wish RB would come up with a reflash already or a similar product. Like you said, the Interceptor is a nice product...but for me at least it's too expensive.

dmp

Especially considering this little box was less than HALF the price of an interceptor, and I didn't have to buy a laptop.

:D

This thing corrected the speedo, removed the speed limiter, added massive amounts of power (knowing it's always easier on big-displacement engines which weren't the tuned optimally from the factory), and took fewer than 10 minutes to do.

BoosTED

iTrader: (2)

That is what I told him. Then I said it was probably one of those V6 versions... he said probably and dropped his head
I was laughing my a$$ of on the inside.

V6 Corvette

Moostafa29

Ike

I swear I run into someone like your cousin at least once a week. They get a chip and a loud *** exhaust and suddenly they think they're the fastest thing on the roads...

mikeb

I thought this was gonna be about those stupid chips from ebay

dmp

I mean, you could at LEAST see if they said something like:

"And I was lined up against a c4 vette - the light went green and i had him until about 40mph or so...."

Now, there ARE a few fast big-***-trucks. Those diesels? Add propane and up the boost and you've got a 13 second truck - or faster.

For my wife's truck, Intake, Catback, this programmer, electric fans, and maybe one other bolt on which I can't remember, equals about 60-80hp. If we did a 4.11 swap in the rear end, I could see this truck running deep into the 15s. It'd probably do better at 1/8 mile, however, as the frontal area is HUGE; REALLY bad for high speeds, etc.

Xyntax

Nice! I wish those companies would work on our cars. Most of them are domestic fans though, and would never touch imports (well, asian imports anyway).

As for beating a Vette, you gotta give the guy a break. Vettes are the "car to beat" in the streets. If you could suprisingly take a Vette (for any reason at all), you won't forget it.

zoom44

dmp did you put the battery on a charger while programming?

oh if only someone were making these compatible with Mazdas..

dmp

No - Just removed the fuse to the fuel pump, as per the instructions, put the key in when prompted by the read out, removed the key when prompted, unplugged and voila!

rx8wannahave

dmp…what are you doing to us, stop with the

lol

How could you d-ball your cuz like that, even if you suspected it don’t prove his lack of knowledge…lol.

BoosTED

iTrader: (2)

He is a good kid but when he tells stories like that I feel he is thinking I wouldn't know if he kept it up. He D-balled himself.

My brother and I tried to set him straight but he just goes deeper. Exageration is a pet peave of mine. Unless it is for fun (telling a joke).

rx8wannahave

^I see...I had a friend in Jr High who could not tell the truth if his life depended on it, put it this way...back in 1990 or 1991 he said the Spider man movie was comming out...he was right, just 13 years or so late...lol.