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Old 01-20-2020, 04:26 PM   #101
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Thinking about DP Tuner

UPDATE:
Thought I’d write this here, seeing as how most of the issues we’ve had are chronicled on this thread.
I have removed the DP tuner from my van, while I enjoyed the increased hp, it proved troublesome and unusable for me in the end.
Just to recap, I experienced the same surging, high EGT’s, wonky shift points and lots of black smoke on the higher hp tunes. In several emails and conversations with Jody over the course, he claimed he hadn’t heard of these issues before, and similar to what people have said here, pointed to other items as possible culprits, rather than taking responsibility for the fact that his tunes were causing the issues, he suggested a live tuning session (logistically impossible) or sending in a recording of data (??). At some point, Jody told me he had updated all his tunes for the van, so I sent my $75, downloaded the new tunes but did not find any discernible difference with what I had. Same issues.....I basically gave up using it to avoid any possible premature wear or issues with the torque converter locking/unlocking, plus was sick if that surging, and any resulting issues from the high EGT’s
FAST FORWARD:
I just had a John Wood transmission installed (sweet!!). In talking things over with John, I mentioned the DP tuner and the issues I (we) were all having. He told me he used to use the DP tuners as well, and experienced many of the same issues, and after he tried working with Jody to remedy, he ultimately dropped using and recommending DP tuners in favor of Power Hungry Performance Hydra tuners.
John sent a Hydra tuner along with the tranny for me to try out to one of his recommended installers/mechanics, Mike Nelson in Garden Grove (had a bunch of other things addressed/fixed too, did a great job!). The tunes are all downloadable for free from gopowerhungry.com, Mike had the software and I requested he load a 40hp tow, 65hp daily, high idle and a whisper mode. It also comes with a factory loaded no start, includes a similar little button module to change tunes on the fly, and a USB dongle to interface once the chip is installed.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS:
While I had both a new built up transmission along with the new tuner installed at the same time, I am able to feel a huge difference in the power delivery with the Hydro tuner. No more surging, no black smoke, pulls and shifts as it should, without any of the quirks I had come to find with the DP.
I have yet to put it to the tow test or pull up a grade, so I’ll report back with that info. I’m picking up our camper this week and towing it down to el Centro for storage before going down to Baja, so I’ll just have a short time towing to give it a true test. Hope this info helps
FOR SALE: DP TUNER loaded with-
0-no start
1-stock
2-60 daily
3-40 tow
4-decel
5-1200 rpm high idle

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Old 01-20-2020, 04:52 PM   #102
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Since this popped up I guess I’ll add an update on my experience as well. Similar to REF, Jody continued to blame other things as the cause for the wrong shifts and said he’d never heard of any issues with his tunes before, even after I pointed him to this thread. I never put more than about 100-miles on the van with his tune installed so didn’t experience the other issues people have mentioned. He primarily blamed my HPOP and injectors, which are new, but couldn’t explain why the issues only happened with his tune running and not stock and just kept blaming other components. Eventually gave up on him completely and just run the stock tune and never looked into another, although I may look into the Hydra that REF talks about now.

I did keep the Infinity Mini that I bought from him. It works pretty well, does have some some software glitches but overall does what is intended. It’s nice to be able to pull and clear codes and have various gauges and still keep my grab handle. E-motion makes and supports it, and they’ve been pretty responsive to issues as I’ve had them. Didn’t seem like many people were using it when I was looking for information before buying it so won’t go into much detail unless somebody has specific questions. I will say if you buy it from DP don’t get the pillar mount from him; he lists one that is for a F-series as being for the E-series and last I looked hadn’t changed it.
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Old 01-20-2020, 05:03 PM   #103
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Great feedback! Bill at Power Hungry Performance did the programming on the original Superchips back in 1997 with the 7.3L. He then worked for Edge who did the original 6.0 PCM and tranny tuning. He then left and started PHP and continued with 6.0 tuning and branched into FICM tuning. Their 80 HP tune is the one I'm running. I also have their Atlas40 FICM tune.
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Old 01-20-2020, 05:11 PM   #104
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Good info. I to have a DP 5 position tuner and have similar issues: black smoke too easy, low rpm surging and high EGT's.

I'm sure the John Woods fresh tranny had something to do with your new found performance but fixing the other issues would have to be tunes only.

Looking forward to more feedback on the new PHP tuner as you use it.
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Old 01-26-2020, 12:24 AM   #105
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UPDATE 2.0
So I just got in a few hundred miles towing our Lance camper from Lancaster down to El Centro using PHP’s 40 HP tow tune, there’s a fair bit of driving up some grade passes along the way. I gotta say, so far it’s a 1000 X’s better than what I experienced with the 40 HP tow tune on the DP. Yes, maybe a small part of it may be the new tranny and how John sets it up, but the tuner is what’s delivering the goods.
So with the DP, when starting up a grade, it just wouldn’t down shift easily without mashing the gas peddle, so it held gear too long and I’d start bogging, blowing smoke and my EGT’s would quickly spike to where I’d have to manually shift into 2nd, take it out of the tow tune back to stock and back off, not the case any more. Hallelujah!
With the PHP, I did have a few times I had to manually take it out of overdrive, but I do that even without running a tune when starting up a grade to hold the rpm’s up, so that seems reasonable. I also felt there is a difference in how it’s tuned, meaning with the DP, if you put it into a tune, say 60 daily, you’d notice the engine jump or hop up a fair bit, not the case with the PHP, the engine rpm’s remain neutral.
So I think what that tells me is that most of the gains with the DP seem to be stemmed from just advancing the timing and because of the smoke, it’s dumping in more fuel than what can be burned, that seems to be poor mapping, especially with that torque converter constantly locking/unlocking.
The PHP seems to have much better overall mapping. It doesn’t hop up the engine when put into a tune, I don’t have that annoying surging, I have yet to see any black smoke coming from my tailpipe and the EGT’s remained in the safe zone while pulling grade, it just pulls and feels stronger. Overall, very happy to have a tuner that actually works without all the frustrating side effects.
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Old 01-26-2020, 01:05 AM   #106
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Thxs for the updates REF!

Yep, my DP-POS “out-of-tuner” just occupies a spot on my dash due to the same problems many of us have had. Black smoke, EGT’s climbing fast, surging at part throttle around 50 mph. Did not take more than a few experiences of any of those, especially the surging, to avoid using anything but the high idle when we are needing the inverter to run a high draw appliance. I guess we ALL have a bad HPOP and injectors and ????.... wtf Jody?

I am going to discuss PHP options with John Woods’ guys and decide if I am going that way, too. PHP does not sell direct. Fingers crossed!
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Old 01-26-2020, 08:44 AM   #107
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Just an observation but based on lots of diesel forum lurking. The difference is that one tuner is a vendor who has learned how to tweak the code and the other is an actual engineer who writes code and probably knows more about PCM tuning than the FORD engineers.
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Old 01-26-2020, 10:09 AM   #108
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Thinking about DP Tuner

Quote:
Originally Posted by 1der View Post
Thxs for the updates REF!
I am going to discuss PHP options with John Woods’ guys and decide if I am going that way, too. PHP does not sell direct. Fingers crossed!

John Wood I know has them, at least a few, he sent me the tuner along with the tranny. I’m not sure who else carries them, was not aware they didn’t sell direct. If anyone’s interested, give PHP a call to at least get a vendors number to order one up. Here’s a link for PHP and the Hydra chip.

https://gopowerhungry.com/hydra-chip/
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Old 02-17-2020, 08:01 PM   #109
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Does anyone else run a Bully Dog Tuner? I have had mine since 2005. It si variable:
1)stock
2) 75 HP
3)100 HP
4) No Start
I have been very happy although I glue my eball to the EGT's on 100HP.
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Old 02-18-2020, 05:55 AM   #110
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The options listed for the hydra chip sound great. Lots I hadn’t heard before. Whisper mode sounds interesting... Nothing mentioned about being for a van, just the trucks. Do they have van specific tunes?

I currently have a ts tuner with a 5 position switch. Stock, 50, 75, 120hp options. The anti theft mode wasn’t available for the van for some reason. Place that installed it said to just park it on the 75 option and forget about it. He said I didn’t have supporting mods to safely utilize the 120hp feature. It’s provided me a 1-2 mpg gain and some hp. Does some shifting stuff too, but hard to describe. I only see excessive smoke if I really get on it. Overall happy with it, but it does do some weird stuff coasting downhill with the cruise control on.
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