Can tuner software hurt our old rigs?

[jimpascale]

Hello Gents,
I've been seriously thinking about getting tuner software for my just purchased '99. However, I asked my mechanic & he said tuner software is bad & can cause our trucks to break down more easily.
It's easy for me to jump on the bandwagon to "tune" my rig. But will it possibly damage it? Let's keep in mind Ford is a large company. Their original software must be good, right? It makes sense that trying to tweak our software to its limits, esp. on our old gen. 1 trucks, might not be a good idea? Just say'in. Your thoughts, pro & con deeply appreciated.

 

[Thermo]

Jim, this is how I look at it, if you are buying a plain jane tuner (open box, install, leave as is) and installing that, you are not going to hurt the motor. Sure, it is going to get you some more power, but it is not going to be anything that is going to alter how the truck runs to the point that it is going to cause things to fail.

If you get a tuner and have a professional do a custom tune to the motor, the odds of causing damage is very minimal. Again, the gains are going to be better than the plain jane tuner, but not going to be earth shattering. Again, go for it.

If you get a tuner and think you can tweak things and get something that is great, I would highly recommend against this unless you are very intimately familiar with the 5.4L engine. But then, if you knew the engine that well, you wouldn't be asking this question. You will more than likely do more harm than good.

Now, with all this being said, this also assumes that you are not doing anything else to the motor. You start trying to add other power adders (especially a supercharger or turbo), yes, you are risking damage to the motor due to changing how the forces are inside the motor, leading to things wearing differently. This is the same effect that causes cars that are used rough after some grandma drove the thing for 20 years to fail.

So, what do you have planned? Keeping it simple, then go for it. You want to max things out, might want to ponder a different plan unless you plan on keeping the truck for a long time and don't mind dumping some money into the motor.

 

[jimpascale]

Well said Thermo. I understand you completely.
Maybe I'll continue my investigation into tuning options.

 

[wakeboarderNH]

If it makes you feel better -

I got my 99 5.4 a superchip flashpaq for christmas. My truck has 152k on it, with factory u-joints, and the 93 octane performance tune on it. Still runs perfectly fine, and in the rain, burns some serious rubber.

 

[jimpascale]

Great! Thanks for taking the time to write!

 

[1997SCEBFEX]

I got my 99 5.4 a superchip flashpaq for christmas. My truck has 152k on it, with factory u-joints, and the 93 octane performance tune on it. Still runs perfectly fine, and in the rain, burns some serious rubber.

Hoping schips has gotten better. I took all my dyno info etc. when i lived on the west coast replete w/ the fill=out form and was actually worse than stock. Granted, this wasn't the more modern flash-type but shows how technology has evolved.