Tuner Less Noticable with a Manual or Just Not Working Right - PHP Hydra

lincolnlocker · Nov 11, 2014

dsberman94 said:
My truck is nowhere near in 100% condition. I daily drive it on a gearhead all-out performance tune. Before that it lived in the hydra generic 120hp race tune. Even with modded injectors and a 38r, I still ran it in the PHP generic tune. Put the thing in the high tune and punch it and you'll know if it's working or not.

ironically, yours is a turd nugget but it responds in every tune though..

i too would figure out wtf is going on too.. something isnt right and without puting hands on the truck, for most of us, it will be hard to diagnose... hows your batteries and alternator holding up? whats voltage when running?

live life full throttle

jngreen · Nov 11, 2014

Freerider15 said:
Yeah I'll have to see. As I said its not like I can just hit the go pedal, so actually having to shift might take away some of the perception.

I don't hot rod my truck at all in reality...i'm light on the throttle.

This truck is essentially just my tow rig. I've had it over two years now and have put maybe 4k on it.

Freerider15 said:
So I got my PHP Hydra installed last night and took it for a spin. After hearing many stories of people having a permagrin after taking it for a spin (PHP or DP Tuner) I was looking forward to it.

However, I can't honestly really tell much difference, on 80HP Daily Driver

Normally I would think that the tuner isn't working, but the whisper mode and high idle I put in work just fine. When switching between programs, it flashes as it should...no errors or anything erroneous that would tell me its not working. The truck works just fine.

My truck is a 99.5 f-350 with the ZF6. Truck only has 129k on the clock, so a weak HPOP or injectors doesn't seem likely to me. Since I can't just get on the go pedal and go WOT, I'm wondering if it's harder for me to notice? I would however THINK that a 30%+ addition in HP (though in reality probably not a full 80 since I'm running stock injectors, turbo, and HPOP) would be rather noticeable in the SOTP feeling.

It does look like the previous owner had something installed. When I pulled the PCM, someone got over zealous in cleaning and pretty much all the pins were down to copper. While I might think this has something to do with it, I've read numerous other people saying they got overzealous and it works just fine, and I'm not having any issues with no start, and error codes, etc. I used to correct tuner codes, as I made sure I was using the correct hex code for my PCM.

So, anyone have ay experience with this? Is there an easy was to tell if the tuner is giving the output, and the PCM using it as it should?

Freerider15 said:
Allllllrighty...now for the numbers!

First off...I have to say the Torque Pro App is awesome! :clapping:

Considering I have all of $4.95 into reading the truck (friend gave me the bluetooth reader he got since he didn't realize it's not Apple compatible), I like it!

So, in the short of it...I'd say its working just looking at the numbers from what I've seen around?

I did a WOT (as much as you can with a manual) run onto the interstate in both stock and 80DD, what is what the numbers above represent.

I'd say its working, since it actually somewhat scared me in the WOT test with 80DD (though part of that is due to my draglink needing replaced since its got a bad TRE, and it drizzling/wet out).

Some of the reason I don't think I noticed it:
1.) These trucks are geared SO damn low that its hard to notice it in the lower gears.
2.) I kinda drive with a rather light right foot. In my truck, I'm not a throttle jockey...more of a graaaadual acceleration (I want my truck to last, not totally kill my MPG, etc.) My car on the other hand...I have a heavy right foot.

BUT, I think the MAIN reason I wasn't noticing it before...I was WAY low on oil. How low? Well, I wasn't even registering on the dipstick :fustrate:

I just recently did a complete HPOP reseal along with the RiffRaff FRx, and I don't think I realized how much oil I lost doing that. I filled the HPOP reservoir up after it was done, but didn't have any extra to put it the main pan. Well, of course I get the Hydra in and forget about needing to put more oil in since I'm like a little kid with a new toy...

Luckily I had maybe all of 5 miles of driving on it before the light went off in my head. I don't think I had enough oil to get the injector pressure up.

So...reviewing numbers...would the peanut gallery agree it looks to be working? Sometimes the power of suggestion can be enough to make a person think it is what it is, so I'd like to verify it with others.

Freerider15 said:
Oooookie dokie, back to the top with this.

So I sent the PCM and Hydra off to PHP. Had them re-tin the PCM and make sure the Hydra and PCM were communicating properly. So, all is good from that end...however...still no real "difference" in feeling between stock and 80DD.

I drove it around for about the last hour. Drove it in stock and 80DD with the ICP plugged in as well as stock and 80DD with the ICP unplugged.

I made sure to keep a baseline test. My test for the most part was 50% throttle from 1st through 4th gear. Didn't seem to pick up boost any quicker, or get to 45mph any quicker.

Only difference I noticed was the stumbly idle when the ICP was unplugged. From that, it would tell me the ICP is fine (though I'm still planning on replacing it).

So, I guess next thing to do would be plug the dongle back in, and do a loop while recording values over time and not just showing their highest and lowest values?

This is a wee bit disheartening...

The parts in red have me thinking that you don't really have a problem, other than you don't want to find out if the big tunes work. You aren't going to feel a big difference if you never go past 50% throttle. Your whisper tune and high idle tunes are working, so the rest of your tunes are working. Like I said before, you are over-thinking this whole deal. Load a big tune, grow a pair, actually go WOT in 5th gear, and let us know how much you like it.