Just ordered a 5 Sar Tune. . .

As the title states. They have what seems to be a good sale on a tune for the 05-14 Expedition, $270 for a programmer and 3 tunes. That's cheap enough I'm going to give it a shot. Everyone seems to be rather impressed with their 5.4 tunes from them so hopefully I didn't just throw money away.

I have not seen any decent before and after videos of normal driving improvement, if anyone cares I will make one for those that might be on the edge one way or another.

I've really had no idea what these things do except burn extra gas, so I look forward to hearing about your experiences with it.

Trainmaster said:

I've really had no idea what these things do except burn extra gas, so I look forward to hearing about your experiences with it.

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Me too. I doubt if I would ever buy one in fear of messing things up for a little more horsepower but 40 years ago I would have bought one in a second..............they did have chips back then.

I'm mainly looking for the improved transmission tuning. Adjusted shift points, as well as firmer shifting. Currently it is slow to change gears and sluggish when it does. This thing drops it into 4th gear as fast as it can and then chugs right along. I would like to have a little more use out of my first 3 gears without having to mash the pedal.

I have searched for peoples opinions at nausea and the vast majority have had very positive things to say. I don't think I have ever read an in-depth review of it making things worse on the 5.4 3x, and 6r80. The reviews I did find that were negative were I didn't like the firm shifting.

I'm in the middle of freshining everything up before I actually install the tune, New plugs, Filter, and a fuel treatment. I might need to replace my fuel pump here soon, its noisy sometimes.

The last thing I'm worried about is MPG, its a huge boat that doesn't get many miles put on it.

Either way, hopefully I didn't just burn $300 but I will try to post my experience.

Any updates?

I did a bunch of work to the truck before I installed the tune so I knew it was healthy.
new plugs, fuel filter, air filter, made a huge difference. I'm sure my fuel filter was pretty plugged up, it was heavy, and that was the final piece that netted a noticeable difference in drivability. most notably at part throttle while going up grade.

I installed the tune last weekend. I got the ITSX or whatever and the process took FOREVER!!!! just flashing the tune took over 30 minutes. It was taking so long I walked away for 5 minutes and it said tune failed to load when I came back.

I installed the 87 Perf/Tow tune

I had a wrench on first start and test drive. There was some clunking and harsh shifting, so I think the tune took. Second start the wrench went away.

After about 200 miles I would have to say I'm impressed.

The shifting is just as smooth as stock, yet its significantly faster. Before it was a slow sluggish gear change, now it is quite snappy yet smooth. The torque converter locks up more frequently and gives you that manual transmission connected feel more often.

Initial slow acceleration is significantly quicker for the amount of throttle applied. Looking at my OBD scanner, its telling me that 80% throttle is being applied sometimes when I'm only at 15% throttle commanded, not sure how I feel about that one. Seems like a gimmick. Its almost hard to accelerate slowly now.

Passing power has been improved. It is much quicker to downshift and take off. Before it would say downshift to 3rd when it could clearly go into 2nd. After the tune it will go down into second and let the rpms climb.

Overall acceleration might have slightly improved, but its hard to tell really.

MPG according to the display is identical, but I haven't manually calculated after the tune yet.

Overall I got it for the improved transmission tuning and so far I'm quite happy with it for the money. I would say that with the 87 Perf/Tow difference I couldn't see myself spending anything more than $300. If I spent $400, or $500 I would be sorely disappointed. We have 89, and 91 octane here so I got those tuning profiles as well. Not sure I can convince the wife to run that high on an octane in the truck though.

max78 said:

I did a bunch of work to the truck before I installed the tune so I knew it was healthy.
new plugs, fuel filter, air filter, made a huge difference. I'm sure my fuel filter was pretty plugged up, it was heavy, and that was the final piece that netted a noticeable difference in drivability. most notably at part throttle while going up grade.

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How much work was it replacing the fuel filter? I just found out the manual recommends no more than 15% ethanol, which means I can run E15 stock. I tried blending a few gallons of E85 in my 93 fill up, and it boosted the OAR, but now it's stuck at -.3 and I can't tell if it's from crap in the fuel system, or something else.

JasonH said:

How much work was it replacing the fuel filter? I just found out the manual recommends no more than 15% ethanol, which means I can run E15 stock. I tried blending a few gallons of E85 in my 93 fill up, and it boosted the OAR, but now it's stuck at -.3 and I can't tell if it's from crap in the fuel system, or something else.

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On my 2009 5.4 its on the fuel tank closest to the engine side, right under the drivers side seat essentially. It was a bit of a pain at first, after I realized how to undo the blue clip going to the engine it was stupid simple. The clips holding it on from the tank side were brittle and fell apart, I had to go to the parts store and get replacements.

What are you referring to with the -.3? Fuel trims, knock, or something else?


Blue clip removal

and the other clips that broke were simple. The replacement parts are Dorman 800-023

Thanks for sharing.
Ecoboost learns octane within a -1 to +1 range, with -1 being full spark advance achieved with 91+. When I use 87 I'm usually around -.5, but so some reason I got stuck at -.3 on my last tank. I'm actually sitting in the truck now and it's back to -.4. Throttle body failed so I had to come to my wife's job and replace it. It's relearning now.