I used to pull my 29ft camper with my 01 expedition with a 5.4L engine. I got a new truck last fall and we're getting ready for camping season. This is a 2005 F150 with only a 4.6L engine. I can tell just by pulling up my driveway to test, it's not going to have as much power on the hills as expected.

I don't have a large budget (really no budget but I will do what is necessary) so can someone recommend a chip or programmer that I will see decent results when towing, but that won't cost too much? I guess I'm looking for the best bang for my buck but I don't need to create a race car, just get my camper up the hill easier.

In addition to just being a less powerful engine, it seems like it never wants to downshift into "passing gear" when I'm pulling and above around 40mph. This may just be how the truck is geared but I'm not sure if that is something extra I need to worry about or not.

Thanks all,

Ken

 

Hate to break it to you but you can't program in more torque on a naturally aspirated(non turbo) engine, you can program higher shift points and get a little bit more peak horsepower but that won't make any difference at lower rpms.

 

Which chip/programmer to help motorhome with V10?

 

Anyone out there have a Motorhome with a V10?
I could use some help getting more perfomance out of it.

 

What??? everything I've read about every tuner shows how much torque and HP will be gained. I can change timing alone and change torque curve on ANY engine. I guess I'm curious about the no torque increase on naturally aspirated. What is the logic or reasoning.

 

I'm going to guess you read about the increase in torque from the same sites that are selling the chip? For what you want to do, you need to change something on your motor first to get you the torque then you tune the computer to work with it.

 

It's simple, as it stands the EFI systems on these newer motors is designed to maximize output at all rpm, the computer already applies as much ignition advance as the engine will tolerate under the given conditions so there is really nothing to be gained with a chip or tuner... especially at lower rpms where total ignition advance is limited by detonation. On early OBD1 systems there is some room for improvement with ignition timing but that still only applies to unloaded and non towing conditions, hang a trailer off it and you will have to back the timing down again to prevent detonation.

 

Emissions man, emissions. They are tuned to an allowable performance that meets low emissions standards. Their are always ways to mod performance with tunes. maybe not allot , but they can improve. Wow you must really hate tuners.

 

No I don't hate tuners I have one for my '90.. a Tweecer RT.

Sorry man you have been fed a pile of old wives tales, that is simply not the case.

Yes.. exactly, some gains can be had but in the big picture it isn't enough to justify buying a tuner for an otherwise stock motor.