The general consensus is to stay away from canned tunes. Custom tunes, written by a competent tuner, will greatly outperform what you are planning to buy. DP-Tuner is my favorite. Diesel tuning products for Ford PowerStroke

Other options are Tony Wildman, PHP and the like burned to a TS chip. Any of these will work. Whatever you get, start with gauges - EGT, transmission temperature at a minimum. Boost and fuel pressure are nice as well.

 

In the event that you decide to go with DP tuner, ( which I highly recommend ) they are running a sale for $50 off your order until after Dec.31st. Check their website for details. Don't feel pressured tho! ?


e'99 F250 7.3, CC, SB, Lariat, Auto, 4x4, 265/75R16's, 3.73 Gears, K&N Drop-In, 3.5" Turbo Back Straight Thro.

 

What RT said , get the gauges first then look seriously at DP tuning, you'll have the service and back up support when you call or email them.

 

+1 for DP
Really happy with my 80hp tow and I have the 6 speed also.

 

I'm happy with my PHP Hydra, though I don't have anything else to compare it to. But if anyone has used both PHP and DP tunes, I'd be curious to hear how they compare.

 

But if anyone has used both PHP and DP tunes, I'd be curious to hear how they compare.

Bill Cohron is the guru behind the tunes at Power Hungry Performance (PHP). His wife Angela runs the business while Bill does the technical stuff.

Jody Tipton is the guru behind the tunes at DP-Tuner. His wife Diane runs the business while Jody does the technical stuff.

Both Bill and Jody are certified gurus when it comes to understanding the logic required to write a good program (tune) for the 7.3L. They worked together for a while at DP-Tuner, but Bill wanted to run the show so he broke off and started PHP. Before that Bill was the tuning guru that wrote most of the generic tunes for Edge Products.

Jody and Bill probably won't agree, but their tunes for the same performance are almost identical. I've had both, and couldn't tell any difference. 80-tow for trailers up to around 8,000 pounds max weight. 60-tow for trailers up to around 12,000 pounds max weight. 40-tow for even heavier trailers up to 20k or so. I also had Jody's 80-economy, but couldn't tell any significant difference in his 80-tow, so I rarely changed from tow to economy.

I also had Jody's 100-performance and 120-performance, but rarely used them. I didn't need more performance than 80-tow gave me, and any "performance" tune is going to blow more smoke than a good towing tune.

If you order a tuner from Jody, he'll also include the best of the many Ford OEM stock tunes. You need that if you want the tech at your Ford dealer to be able to diagnose any problems. Plus it's interesting to compare the performance of your engine with a stock tune compared to a custom tune.

If you want switch-on-the-fly capability, then you want a multi-tune chip with a tune switcher. Tuner/programmers require a couple of minutes to switch from one tune to another, so you can't have switch-on-the-fly capability. So if you want Jody's Decel (exhaust brake) tune, then it's useless in a tuner but works great in a multi-tune chip with a tune switcher.

 

Go with DP tuner. I have there programmer and am completely satisfied with them and what they do for my truck.

 

kt performance sells a ts 6 position chip with php custom tunes for 250 bucks. hard to beat.

 

The Hydra has quite a bit more features than a TS chip. FOR ME it be worth the little bit of extra $$. It's $375 from Alligator Performance and comes with 15 standard PHP tunes, interent updatable via USB without removing the chip from the PCM. And it's supported by SEVERAL vendors.

 

I just can't do chips. Can you get those DP tunes in a tuner?

 

Yes. Click on this link:

Programmers - Chips, Programmers and Tuning - 1994.5 - 2003 Powerstroke 7.3L Truck - Ford Powerstroke

But don't include Decel or the idle RPM tunes for your tuner, because the tuner is not shift-on-the-fly.

 

Thank you, it looks like they can add tunes to a SCT tuner that I guess already has tunes on it. I'll have check into that. Sure wish they could use my Superchips 1855 that is updatable with a wire to a laptop. If possible that would be most cost effective.

 

I have experience with both. I will saw php is less smokey and the pedal has more of a linear feel to me. The dp tunes ive experienced have a very touchy pedal and half pedal was pretty much full throttle.

this is my opinion only. thought id stir the pot :thumbsup:

 

I have also read this from a few other users that have ran both. Also running lower EGT's. And I know a guy with a windowed blocked laying in his shop that was running DP tunes.

 

My man, Happy New Year. Linear Huh?

 

I like php because egts are low and pretty much no smoke. But their transmission tuning isn't as good as dp. Dp has good trans tuning.

And ya nick half pedal shouldn't be full throttle. Pedal to the carpet should be full throttle. Sorry if I am unclear lol

And happy new year nick! I got a day off work so I'm happy lol