Quote:
Originally Posted by Chance
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It's sounds like you're knocking the tuner, but in reading the article you sited it gives a very positive review stating..."We found that on steeper
mountain grades under heavy to full throttle, when it was necessary to
downshift, the program kept the rpm
at a point where the engine seemed
to deliver the best power, and that
also helped reduce noise.
In all cases, on the more
moderate (rolling) hills, the transmission downshifted later and upshifted
sooner, and we crested all the hills
at faster speeds. The seat-of-the-pants driving experience was better
on all portions of the test loop and
the engine didn’t sound like it was
going to blast out of its compartment
because of long periods of high-rpm
operation. As expected, the additional
horsepower and revised shifting programming affected mileage
somewhat, but the loss was minor and
worth the improvement in drivability.
The baseline fuel economy over flat highway with a few low hills resulted
in 6.75 mpg. After reprogramming the
computer, we recorded 6.50 mpg.
After running the series of road
tests in stock and tuned form, we drove
the motorhome to a chassis dynamometer to confirm horsepower and torque
gains. Unlike the huge gains usually
experienced when tuning diesel
engines, the Ford V-10 gasser picked
up decent gains with the best improvement at 3,200 rpm. At this engine speed, rear-wheel horsepower went from 162 stock to 204, for a delta of 42 hp. Torque
went from 251 lb-ft to 326 lb-ft, a gain
of 75 lb-ft, which is respectable for a
gas engine, especially the V-10. Those are pretty impressive gains for nothing more than tuning the computer.