Quote:
Originally Posted by sonic blue l
I think you guys need to estabilsh a base line.
To do that you will also need to know what ficm version you had stock. The first inductive heating flash worked well at combating sticktion, however it supposedly causes ficms to fail. (hard to say for certain as i've replaced bad ficms that never had the induction strategy in the first place) Ford then came out with a softer ficm strategy.
Lets say you had a truck that had sticktion so bad it would start and stall, if you updated it with the original ficm inductive heating, it would usually fix the concern. Now lets say you program that truck with the later updated ficm strategy, well now it still starts better then the start/stall, however you will have misfires when cold due to it not combating sticktion aswell as the original inductive heating strategy.
So now if you had the early inductive heating or have a ficm with the original inductive heating and comparing to php ficm with the later inductive heating, then your not comparing apples to apples. Now if your ficm was the later inductive heating and your comparing to the php, now one can do a proper comparison.
BTW personally i feel your truck should run great before you start adding or reprogramming as if it does not, you may just be compounding the problem.
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Hi Sonic,
I couldn't agree with you more about knowing what we have and what we're starting with for comparison purposes. I do have a pretty good handle on what configs have been run in my truck, and what works vs what doesn't. I'll run through quick just for documentations sake, maybe it helps figure out the problem some how in the end.?
I'm the second owner of an '06, I bought it last July, so this is my first winter.
Based on the oasis report I pulled after buying it, the truck had never been in the shop for anything engine related... however I can't confirm what ECM and FICM strategies were when I got the truck. About 1 month after I had the truck, one injector died, and after that warranty work, the truck was returned with the VXCF7 ECM and FICM updated per TSB 9-7-11. Truck ran great, and I must say I could tell no difference in power/driveability from the truck I originally bought. During this period in the summer, I was running 15-40 dino oil, and could take off after startup immediately with no problems anytime (no apparent injector stiction issue).
So then I decided I wanted to try the FICM update, I bought a spare FICM, the seller claimed it had latest update in it per TSB 9-7-11 when I bought it. After getting it, I put in my truck and ran it for a full week plus before sending it into PHP. During this time, the truck ran no different than my stock FICM. All seemed good (no apparent stiction issue), off the FICM went to PHP.
Upon return (with PHP tune), in goes the modified FICM, start up and the truck chugs/lopes and smokes like a pig. Mind you, it's still August and the ambient temps are still in the 80s-90s here. Truck ran great with PHP FICM once hot, but I can't sit and wait 10 minutes everyday for the thing to smooth out, and it was obvious that it chugging on startup was dumping fuel and killing my mileage. Is it purely injector stiction, or something else? I don't know, so... Out with the PHP FICM, in goes stock, no problem, runs great. Out with stock, in with PHP, problem is back. I pull the access covers off both, verify both FICMs have 48VDC output. I give up on the PHP FICM for time being and shelve it (to wait for updated software per messages I've had back and forth with Bill).
So now as winter approaches and temps drop, even running stock starts to show some injector stiction/rough start issues (but not anywhere as bad as the PHP FICM was on hot days in summer...). By this time, I have an Edge Evo, I find that running the truck tuned with the Evo level 4 (with stock FICM) makes the truck start worse than with stock ECM strategy (VCXF7 still). So I revert back and pretty much ran stock all winter. I did switch to 5-40 synthetic in mid winter, and notice an improvement in how much warmup time it takes for truck to run smooth, but it wasn't a complete solution, as I still had a few minutes of warmup or about 1-3 miles of driving before the truck would really settle in to running smooth. That's basically where I'm at now.
So I'm still completely stock tuning wise (my EVO is at PHP to turn into a Gryphon), and I'm running the oil additive 'stuff' which is to clean out and solve injector stiction. For all intensive purposes today I can hop in my truck in the morning (30s-40s), and go immeadiately with no real wait or warmup.
I still haven't gotten back to the PHP FICM, perhaps in another week or two assuming truck continues to start great, or upon return of my Gryphon, I'll give it another whirl. However, I still don't have much hope, I have a gut feel that there is something just wrong with the updated FICM program that just isn't working with what ever strategy I had going. NHRA has basically taken the FICM hardware out of the equation, as he reflashed over the PHP tune with a Ford program to solve his problem. I'm confident on my situation also about the hardware end, as I tested voltage and ran the FICM a week before sending off. Seems it is a software glitch of some sort.
Long winded, I know, just trying to layout the facts as I know them in an effort see if others have the same issue (with same strategies?) and to get a positive resolution (ie, updated FICM tune that solves my startup issues). Maybe in the end it takes the Gryphon, with a custom tune by Bill, working in conjuction with his updated FICM software for the truck to run great. If thats the case, great, I can't wait to try it out !!
I know for some, the issue is a big problem if they only have one FICM. For me, I'm rotating between a stock and tuned FICM, so I'm not hurting to bad. I'd just love to start using the tuned FICM for all the benefits it is supposed to bring!
NHRA, if you have any of the background knowledge of what strategies you had or have been through during the time you had the PHP FICM (and prior), could you share just for comparison sake?
regards,
eric