Hey gang, 

Pulled with my 2 week old (to me) 2002 today.  Took my 78 ford on my tandem car trailer 50 miles to a paint shop today with mixed highway, 2 lane driving.  First, I was surprised as to how much it was taxing the engine, until I pulled of a ramp and smelled brakes burning and found my drivers e-brake was hung up. After that I could not believe this motor. Pulling my 78 with ease, up grades at 65 mph light pedal would not even be a fantasy in my old 08 super duty. I got 15.5 mpg round trip today, temps in the high 20's. 

 

So, what I'm here to ask is if my power curve is normal. My truck is an auto, and is shifts great.  Truck pulls out fine, and when the converter locks up on the highway it pulls my truck and trailer like it was only a sack of cement in the bed.  The question I want answered is about 2nd and 3rd gear  Its as if the truck runs out of power at 2500 rpm in 2nd, then 3rd gets better but similar.  Its as if the truck wont build power after 2500, or that the transmission wont get out of the engines way.  I can press the throttle, to the floor but gain in rpm is minimal after 2500. could this be something with the APPS? Its almost as if I'm not getting the fuel I'm demanding in those gears and RPM range. First gear I can take it past 3000 rpm, so will 4th I'm sure of it (though I haven't tried it yet)

How about you other auto guys?

AP

UPDATE:  I re-installed everything and took it for a test loop. No more defueling, tons of power! First time I took the truck to 3K rpm and it was still pulling hard.  It was definitely worth the effort because I thought it was the trans just not being able to take the motor. 

 

 

Won't do much more than keep the CEL from lighting up. It will not extend your fueling map. So your fuel map will still tapper off at the same point just no error codes. 

 

 

Well I'll be the monkey here ........ I thought the boost fueling not only prevented CEL ... but also prevented defuel due to MAP sensor too high.

 

eg ...

http://www.madselectronics.com/faq.html

• Yes, all the the softwares in Smarty have modified boost tables in order to allow higher boost without defuelling.

 

^^ Indficates to me that if you exceed the MAP and overboost you will defuel - hence require boost fooler.

 

 

Also .... with regard to the gate ..... generally on a stock auto there is not enough fuel to push well past the gate settings. What I mean is if your set at 25psi ...... even at full fuel youll be lucky to get to 35psi. So thats not a huge drop in performance.  So the only thing that makes sense to me here is the gate wasn't closed ... it was in fact open ........ so it just added extra lag and EGT to the truck ..........

 

OP - if you want your truck to really do what its capable of with pulling and driving ..... the same mods are night and day. In fact ... if you can find someone with a smarty that will download onto your truck to let you take it for a ride .... then take it off ..... best way to test if you like it or not ........ you dont want to keep it on without a trans VB at minimum.

Edited January 24, 201411 yr by JOHNFAK

Different story using a Smarty vs. a MAP Sensor boost fooler.

 

With Smarty they are rewriting the fuelling table to continue fuelling to its limits without a over boost code but make use of the last enter holding max fuelling.

 

Now with a MAP sensor boost fooler the fuel table is unchanged and has the stock tapper off effect designed into it.

 

In either case there is much more than 22-25 PSI (unknown exact number) as a limit on the ECM fueling table. Beyond that there is no more table. There isn't the room hardware wise to extend the table either.

But if hes throwing a P0234 - then he wont be able to fuel to normal fuel table correct ? Meaning he needs a boost fooler so that he can extend is MAP pressure without defueling.

 

Then the gate ....... if it was fully closed it would result in quicker spool and higher boost ............

 

So I still only see 2 reasons for symptoms .....

 

 

1) his gate was open and lag from being open feels like loss of power .....

 

2) His gate was closed ..... he over boosted the MAP ... triggered a P0234 and defueled.

 

He doesn't have boost fooling ...... so thats why he triggered the code.

Gate was stuck closed- hard.  No CEL, only knew it from the key trick. Truck would die after 2200, thought it was just how these trucks with autos were- I just sold a Super Duty and got the Cummins 800 miles ago.

Waste gate cleaned and functional now, truck pulls well into 3K rpm range.  0234 MAP over boost, not sure if the code will go away on its own or not.

I don't have any fooler or programmer, but thought it would be a cool option because of the stories of people breaking off the arm trying to free the gate, since some people j-hook and fool for more power.  Problem is if you j-hook and don't fool your truck is a code-throwing dog. 

Either way , that's the down low. 

AP

P0234 means he past the usable fuel table and went into the red zone fuel table when starts cutting fuel.

 

Like saying for example... 18 PSI = 100%, 19 PSI = 100%, 20 PSI = 100%, 21 PSI = 50%, 22 PSI = 25% (Unknown to actual settings)

 

So as he gaining boost the stock ECM table starts cutting fuel to protect itself. But now add a boost fooler (plugin between ECM and MAP sensor) which is nothing more than a regulator it will stop at about 18-19 PSI it might fuel past it a bit more but the ECM is blind and can't figure any more than 18-19 PSI and timing for such.

 

Then the gate ....... if it was fully closed it would result in quicker spool and higher boost ............

 

 

Quick to 18-19 PSI after than it would fall on its face.

 

1) his gate was open and lag from being open feels like loss of power .....

 

 

Rare but possible.

 

2) His gate was closed ..... he over boosted the MAP ... triggered a P0234 and defueled.

 

 

Which is the most common.

Timing is not based on boost, it is based on fuel quantity.