Tuning the ecoboost

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TobyU

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I had to watch it 2 more times. Let the kids fight over scraps. Buick has nothing left to prove.
 

Mike Wolfe

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Only drove about 15 miles in city traffic today after loading my perf/tow tune. I'll admit I'm a total n00b and don't know the first thing about engines, etc., but the punch was very noticeable! I also felt like the shifting was much better and still buttery smooth.

Do you lose the gear indicator next to the RPM gauge when you have a tune loaded, or did I accidentally turn it off?

How do you like your tune so far?
 

rjdelp7

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I had to watch it 2 more times. Let the kids fight over scraps. Buick has nothing left to prove.[/QUOTE
I had to watch it 2 more times. Let the kids fight over scraps. Buick has nothing left to prove.
Buick farmed out the mods, Toby U posted just about the entire history. They only made 547. If they were selling, they would of kept making them. Buick decided front wheel drive sedans are more there speed.
 

JasonH

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How do you like your tune so far?

That's all I wanted to know. God did this thread go off track. Word of advice...if someone persistently posts misinformation and doesn't provide a source, ignore them. Don't feed trolls.

I'm seriously thinking of getting a Five Star or Livernois 91 for towing my 27' bumper pull (I run 93, but would like the extra margin of safety). The truck usually does very well towing, but I haven't done many hilly areas. And more power would be useful for merging into freeway traffic, especially with big rigs rolling in the right line.
 

TobyU

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Well, as with most tuning threads.....here we are. We started on Earth and now we are over on Neptune.

Anyone ever tune their lawn mower? I’ve heard the Briggs and Stratton’s can make some serious gains with a 93 octane tune.


I love off topic. That's how we learn stuff. It's all good.

Actually the 93 tune makes no differnce on a briggs or other mower engine. That's what I do everyday mower repair etc shop.
They run the same on 87 or 93 until you start force inducing them.
They are well suited for a blower etc since the comp ratio might be 8-1 on a good day with a lot of carbon build up on head an piston.
Now by blower...I mean leaf blower. That's the easiest.
You get a leaf blower and then you need the 93 higher octane maybe.

You plumb the tubing snorkel etc from blower into intake air filter box or briggs . You can hook a up a simple flap to fall down and suck open when blower is off so engine can breathe and then it closes under "boost" when blower tube pressurizes.

You need to add an "injector" like the 7th injector they made for turbo Buicks. ( I know back to that again) but it's related.
You can do a siphon tube actually or a small pump and tubing.
You just need fuel to enter the tube of blower so it gets blow in with the air to keep from leaning out the briggs.
You can use fixed orifice tube/hole or a spray bottle tip with screw adjustment.

Once you get it all dialed in you can take that whatever max hp briggs at whatever rpm it gives you peak and crank the boost an fuel up and really get some hp increases.


There's your mower backyard supercharger tutorial for today.

I'll call this Saturn for off topic. We never came close to Neptune. We are still talking about tuning a forced induction engine.
Mowers = saturn
Turbo Buick V6s = Venus
Thread Turbo V6 ecoboost = earth

Maybe we all leaned something.

I have learned at least 2 things in this thread.

Maybe some have become aware of actually how awesome the Turbo Buicks really were/are.
He didn't even touch on the fact that probably 90+ % of them today are modified and all run faster than the fastest stock GNXs did.

It's actually a rule in racing that you can make anything fast if you put enough money into it. The Turbo Buicks just got fast a lot easier and cheaper.
 

TobyU

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That's all I wanted to know. God did this thread go off track. Word of advice...if someone persistently posts misinformation and doesn't provide a source, ignore them. Don't feed trolls.

I'm seriously thinking of getting a Five Star or Livernois 91 for towing my 27' bumper pull (I run 93, but would like the extra margin of safety). The truck usually does very well towing, but I haven't done many hilly areas. And more power would be useful for merging into freeway traffic, especially with big rigs rolling in the right line.

I see 5 star is a sponsor and while I have no experience with a tun on a ecoboost I think most tunes on cars today will provide you with very happy giggle inducing results over stock....at least wide eye smile producing results.

I guess the whole issue is who to go to. Takes a lot of research . Be happy you can get it all at your fingertips.
In my day in 92 with my first GN we had no internet and no manuals to tell us how to hot rod them.
We had to go to race track and find other owners esp ones faster than ours and make friends and find out how to do it.

I was fairly lucky than I live right near Ohio George Montgomery who got into them too. Anytime I walked into his shop I would see 3-5 of them bare blocks lined up on the floor in the waiting lobby.

Almost everytime I saw another on the road we would pull over and make a new friend.

Once the websites came out like buick gn-t type...you could just read the recipe for how fast you wanted to be.
So much easier.
Before that there were companies you could take it to to mod it.
One said 2-3 days and 1299.00 and they guaranteed low to mid 12s.

Found out later how high that really was for and how easy it was to do it yourself.


Best of luck in your tuning selections.
 

TobyU

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Threads never really die. They just go dormant for a couple of years maybe more and somebody resuscitates them and then others complain about the person who revived the old thread.
 

TobyU

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Plus, it's not dead. What was This Thread about anyways? Yes tuning the EcoBoost. Is this just tuning one EcoBoost, what is it a 3.5 and the Ford trucks? Or is it tuning any EcoBoost? Don't they use that name for a bunch of there engines now? Tuning... Is that like with an open G string.
G-string. Now that reminds me of other things.
Tuning. Super tuners or super chips weren't those diesel tuners or at least truck half ass tuners?

So do all tunes (car performance tunes not songs or iTunes) see how easy it is to get off track... SQUIRREL!
do they all require the vehicle to go into a shop or do you buy a programmer or some other way.
I know people that have taken sports cars to a tune place with dyno and had it done. We swapped parts etc and had test and tune night.
 

Mike Wolfe

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@Mike Wolfe why did you go with 5star over Livernois for your GenII 3.5?

Thank you

Hello
Very happy with the calibrations I obtained from 5 star
Have a 2018 EXPY & a 2018 F150 with the 3.5L Ecoboost.
They have many choices
Had 4 Gen one ecoboosts previously
Had Livernois calibrations for them
Once you experience what a tuned engine runs like you will never go back to stock
Both offer good calibrations but I am in favor of 5 star at this time because they seem to offer more options

Now watch someone pitch a fit & get nasty because I offered my experience
Not sure what pleasure they get out of being nasty but some of them do :33:
 

Tom T

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thanks much @Mike Wolfe I see that you like the E30/50/85 tunes ;-)....good for you.

I am more looking for a mild tune with improved torque at the low end and better shifting. You would say that for this application both tuners are equal?
I just like the Livernois brand somehow....purely subjective....

one thing, when I read dyno charts, it seems often that the tuned graphs have less torque at the very bottom. Is this an artifact or is this really a fact?
 

Mike Wolfe

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thanks much @Mike Wolfe I see that you like the E30/50/85 tunes ;-)....good for you.

I am more looking for a mild tune with improved torque at the low end and better shifting. You would say that for this application both tuners are equal?
I just like the Livernois brand somehow....purely subjective....

one thing, when I read dyno charts, it seems often that the tuned graphs have less torque at the very bottom. Is this an artifact or is this really a fact?
I would say they are virtually the same
I do not feel any loss of torque
Throttle response from a stop is vastly improved
I am currently using the 93 octane performance/tow tune from 5 star
Trying it with E51 fuel
Works very well & performance is even better than what I have experienced with 91-93 octane gasoline & is safe for towing:33:
 

Tom T

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very much appreciated @Mike Wolfe
(and btw. these trolls here are worse than in other forums...we really ought to ignore them after the second answer just to keep it sane here and not feed the beast...;-)

One last question:
You mention that you use 91 fuel with the 93 tune. Would you also use 89 fuel with that tune? Meaning, Ford's tunes recognize the octane and adjust power (at least with the Platinum). Is this functionality also in place with 3rd party tunes?

I am asking as I live in Texas but will drive often to NewMexico where on some gas station they only have 89 (yes, I know altitude plays a role). But what if I have an empty tank driving back to Texas and refuel with 89 but have a 93 tune (most likely the tow and not performance)
 

Mike Wolfe

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very much appreciated @Mike Wolfe
(and btw. these trolls here are worse than in other forums...we really ought to ignore them after the second answer just to keep it sane here and not feed the beast...;-)

One last question:
You mention that you use 91 fuel with the 93 tune. Would you also use 89 fuel with that tune? Meaning, Ford's tunes recognize the octane and adjust power (at least with the Platinum). Is this functionality also in place with 3rd party tunes?

I am asking as I live in Texas but will drive often to NewMexico where on some gas station they only have 89 (yes, I know altitude plays a role). But what if I have an empty tank driving back to Texas and refuel with 89 but have a 93 tune (most likely the tow and not performance)

I have not had an occasion to use 89 octane with a 93 octane calibration
However I would expect you would be ok since the knock sensors should keep any detonation in check
I would be ok doing it myself
 

16plati

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I have not had an occasion to use 89 octane with a 93 octane calibration
However I would expect you would be ok since the knock sensors should keep any detonation in check
I would be ok doing it myself
Yeah that’s a bad idea using a lower octane on a higher octane tune. All reputable tuners highly advise against that
 

Tom T

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I have really no idea (and probably should shut up) but still thinking out loud

The engine has a knock sensor and hence the ECU should be able to reduce timing, boost, whatever to avoid knocking. no?

No reason that the electronics can not handle that. theoretically....;-)....
 
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