Leaderboard

Having dealt with FORD computers since the late 80's through the early part of this century, I have a few opinions based on observation of literary hundreds of cars going through shop of my dealers ( i was a wholesale list of mustang parts) Add on chip or plugs ins do not work. The either change the parameters of the TPS or force the vehicle into limp mode with out turning on the CEL. Limp mode is simple max timing advance and max fuel pressure. These are usually cheaper any where from $49 up to $199 On the other hand (pun intended) Hand held programers of the proper type will copy your factory program and store it, then rewrite the installed Eprom to a new set of parameters. If the handheld is a cheaper model that doesn't copy your original program and save it. It will only change a few parameters where you may see an increase in acceleration. However FORD builds adaptive strategy into it on board computer, this will"learn" your car and driving habits and will adapt the vehicle to optimize its performance ( optimize includes fuel efficiency and emmission) not just acceleration. That is why the original factory tune must be "lifted from the ECU and an entire new program laid in. Most heard held units are available with a "canned" tune which will run the vehicle well. However these "canned" tunes usually are for vehicles like the F150 or Mustang not our lincolns. To truly get the most of a programmer buy one from a local dealer that has a dyno!! Usually the purchase price will include several dyno runs and on the fly tuning by the in house programmer, to get the best rear wheel measured HP and 1/4 mile times. These unit usually run from $200 to $800 dollars, beware used units!! Often they are locked or married to a particular vehicle, if so they must go back to the MFG and be unlocked or unpaired usually at a price of $150 or more, so used unit don't really save that much money. Remember the FORD computer will allow your car to run in Miami fl at 95 degrees and 100% humidity and drive to the top of Mt Ranier at 6000 ft above sea level and -5 degrees and still operate. At the opposite end of the spectrum racers will program their tunes for each run based on humidity temperature air pressure and other parameters to get maximum HP and acceleration, however you wouldn't be able to drive that car on a 10 mile loop around town. A quick mention there are several hand held and 1 or 2 wire in programmers that allow changing the tune on the fly so to speak. So you can hook up your camper and hit the switch and change the transmission shift points to maximize torque and increase drivability, then hit a button saturday for auto cross and then go back to standard on monday