[Power Hungry]

Since Cody hasn't apparently "sharpened up" yet... ... I'll give this a stab.

First, it's very easy to eliminate much of the cold-start smoke associated with older trucks. A mild increase in ICP and an additional 1-2 degrees of timing in the colder oil temps will usually clear that nonsense right up, especially the timing although, as you've seen, ICP can certainly help that issue out as well.

In regards to the shifting, what you described would be an ideal setup. The problem is that it's not terribly feasible because the transmission would be shifting in and out of gears and locking/unlocking the converter every time you so much as breathe on the throttle.

Years ago I worked on a calibration set that took all the converter lock functions out of the equation, making it basically a 4 speed, open converter transmission. I got the shift points lined up where I thought the felt good (having to overshoot a little considering where I'd intended to be bringing in the converter lockup) and then brought the converter strategies back in. I will tell you, it shifted like crap. With the converter unlocking between each gear it, would cause all sorts of crazy RPM fluctuations that just didn't feel right. It always had that feeling of not knowing what gear it wanted to be in.

Believe it or not, Ford actually did something that was not too far off from ideal with their '01 strategies. At light throttle, the converter doesn't lock until 3rd or 4th gear depending on how much throttle you're giving. At heavy throttle, the converter will lock in 2nd and stay locked through 4th in order to provide more direct power to the transmission and reduce heat buildup and ballooning of the converter. This is actually one of the more ideal setups. Later strategies ended up busying up the transmission and really made the shifting horrible.

Shifting is always a hard function to get nailed down because of the number of factors to take into consideration, including customer preferences. We do the best that we can but sometimes you just have to accept the limitations and settle for some middle ground.