Confused Newbie!

'05Smoke · #1 Sat, October 2nd, 2010, 03:08 PM

Hello Everyone,

I'm new to the diesel world...and I have alot of questions, so please be patient and any help would be appreciated!

I own a 2005 F-350 6.0L Diesel with 35" tires, 5" Banks Turbo Back Exhaust, no Cat, Aftermarket CAI, ARP studs and gaskets, EGR Cooler Delete kit. It is my daily driver, includes Canadian Winters, but I also tow my 8000lb travel trailer every weekend (summer only).

I want to inquire about FICM, ECM, PCM,TCM??(most of which dosent mean alot to me right now and how do I know what I strategy's I have?) and other things I can do to make my truck run and get some better fuel mileage!! After being to the dealer for a problem...the mileage is terrible!!! I dont know where to start or what would be right for what I need. Some more power to tow would be great, mileage please, but most of all reliability!! I dont want to blow anything up like the tranny!! There alot of programmers out there...everyone promises the world, but few deliver, hence the reason I'm here. Any and all help would be great!!

'05Smoke · #2 Mon, October 4th, 2010, 12:10 AM

Anyone?

F-127 · #3 Mon, October 4th, 2010, 02:48 AM

Well, looks like you have a real nice set of upgrades for reliability and economy. I would say your next step for power, economy, and reliabilty(PHP seems to be regarded as one of the safer tuners, for gas and diesel), is a FICM reprogramming and ECM/TCM rollback(hover mouse over blue letters/words for a description). This would be partially dependant on what your current strategies are now, but it is likely that you might have a less desirable one if you recently had mileage drop after the visit to the dealership. I'd say here are you two likely options:

1: FICM reprogramming and ECM/TCM rollback, then purchase a Gryphon and use that for power programming and monitoring.

2: FICM reprogramming and modified ECM/TCM rollback. The modified ECM/TCM rollback can be your power programming, but you will be unable to change at your leisure. Gauges wouldn't be a bad idea for this being you wouldn't have a Gryphon to do your monitoring.

ECM engine control module- engine management, just as it sounds
TCM transmission control module- transmission management
FICM fuel injection control module - I'm going off of memory, but in one conversation I had with Bill, I believe he described it figureatively as a 'fuse.' You can have all the programmer you want, but if your FICM isn't programmed for it, the FICM won't allow the extra juice.

Hope this helps!

Oh... and welcome to the PHP Forum!

'05Smoke · #4 Mon, October 4th, 2010, 06:55 PM

Thank you for the reply!! So from what I understand I need a FICM reprogram and a few other things. Can I do the FICM only and will the Gryphon do the rest? First how do I get what strategy's my truck is running currently? I will buy a Gryphon, but how do I get started in the mean time?

F-127 · #5 Tue, October 5th, 2010, 02:43 PM

If you know you'd want a Gryphon, you could get that ordered and it could be used to remotely reprogram your truck.(not sure if Gryphon CS/CTS can do that, I don't think they can). In the mean time, if you'd want to get started, you could borrow a tuning device(SCT or Evolution, likely others too) that could read your ECM/TCM code. This is where Bill would come in. I'm sure he is familiar to whether or not it is worth the effort to do a ECM/TCM rollback. You can then decide if you want custom tunes for your current ECM/TCM strategies or if you'd do a rollback first. Custom tunes are strategy dependant so it is important to get the most desireable strategy first.

Here's a good thread to read through that I was trying to find the other day but didn't.

http://forum.gopowerhungry.com/2003-...ollback-3.html