sct??
 

everybody says sct is the best for 6.0s.. can somone tell me why. i have 4 in exhaust, hopefully git cold air next week and pillar guages but i dont no wat programmer to use? what tunes would be the best for me?i do some pulling horses trailer and enclosed car trailer , some racing when people get mouthy and just normal driving. i am young and am tight on money but not just looking for smoke. i dont like fixing things that can be prevented.. some help would be appreciated

They are the best because you can get custom programs written specifically for your truck, which you can not with other programmers. Most other programmers aren't even programmers, rather they're "foolers" they just tap in line of your stock PCM and send false signals to fool the truck into adding extra fuel and timing. They can run a LOT of timing on some of them, which as you can tell by reading the forums doesn't help the issues with the already weak headbolt/headgasket setup. The SCT is also one of the ONLY one's that can access the TCM and properly tune the transmission to handle the power from the programmer. That is the single most important part in my book.

Don't waste your money on the intake, the stock one is VERY good and can support up to 500+rwhp.

When you get gauges, I highly recommend a fuel pressure gauge for a 6.0, it is one of the most important.

Pyro is a must if you have the programmer

Engine oil temp and engine coolant temp would be great to monitor.

Trans temp is kind of useless on a 5R110 unless you're towing a LOT of weight often. Boost gauge is also kind of pointless, more of a wow factor. Not necessary.



For what you've told us, I would call Innovative Diesel, order an SCT X-cal 3 and start with a street tune, an aggressive tow tune (which is rated for 10klbs plus, the street is good up to 10k), and maybe an extreme tune (either street or race) depending on how daring you are.

Plan for headstuds now, because you will want them, and an EGR full delete would be a great investment.

I also recommend the coolant filtration setup for 6.0's, like the one from www.dieselsite.com

Just read around here a bit and go through some of the older threads, you will learn quick. Good luck! Get a pic of the truck up!

mdub is 100% on the money. in my case i went with the sct livewire instead of the X-cal 3. i did that because i wanted the built in guages that it came with (it cannot watch fuel pressure so u need an extra guage for that) but it can watch just about everything else.

honestly its all personal preferance as to what version of the sct u get but i wouldnt get anything except sct for a ford

SCT is the only way to go. I once outran a Eclipse and I was towing a trailer with a EB and Sami on it!:tu:

I am looking at getting the SCT here before too long, just have to sell the old 6 Gun. I saw that guages were mentioned as musts, primari;y the fuel pressure. But what about the pyro? Bring it down Barney style for me and let me know what guage that is please.

A 6.0 should have a fuel pressure gauge from the factory. It is one of the most important gauges you could have on it. It will tell you if you have issues with your fuel supply and will save you from starving injectors. The injectors dont get their fuel, and they start failing. 55psi is where it should be. Some of the hot tunes with the SCT will drain your fuel pressure right down in a hurry, so it's nice to keep an eye on. With that said, yes the pyro is a good gauge as well. Pyro is short for Pyrometer, which is a heat gauge. It goes into the exhaust manifold (preferred location) and measures your EGT's, or Exhaust Gas Temperatures. This will help you keep an instant eye on what is going on in the truck. When you mat it with a hot tune, you watch that gauge climb quick. 1250 is the magic number. You can go over it, but short bursts only. Heat is the biggest killer of any diesel (for most of us). If you're towing a trailer up a hill and your gauge is at 1500, you want to back off immediately and let it cool down.

Tranny temp to me is pointless (even though I got one....) because these trannies run so cool it's ridiculous. If you tow a lot though, get one yes.

Engine oil temp and engine coolant temp are also two great gauges to get. Those two temps should never exceed 15 degrees apart. If they do, you're starting to experience an oil cooler failure, which leads to headgasket failure.

When I got my gauges two years ago, I got pyro, tranny temp, and boost.

Knowing what I know now, I would get Pyro, Fuel pressure, ECT, EOT.

i just put in a s&b intake and i have autometer boost tranny temp fuel pressure oil temp and tranny temp guages. i tried calling innovative a few times but no one answered but ill keep trying. hopefully if they answer i will be ordering my sct in the next week or so.

I agree with Mdub. No matter where you look people are going to recommend an SCT with custom tunes. Eric at Innovative is said to have some of the top tunes for a 6.0l or any of the powerstrokes for that matter. I personally run Innovatives Extreme Street and Extreme Race tunes, but have never ran anyone elses tunes. I am satisfied with how my truck runs on both tunes and I know its running safe. Gauges are very important even on a stock truck. They will save money in the long run if you keep things monitored. Do some research on what tunes will best suit you and go from there. You won't be disappointed with the SCT.

ordered my sct on friday. hopefully be here tomorow. i got tow agressive street and extreme street. i cant wait to get it put on and see what i gain out of it.

Good choice on tunes. I would suggest if you have a lead foot like I do, to run the street as your daily driver. If you are responsible enough the extreme street will offer the best mileage though. I love my tow aggressive from Eric, towing my camper is actually enjoyable and makes towing fun.

like how big of a heavy foot are you talking about?

If you have to ask, I would suggest running the street tune haha. I ran x-street primarily, and I've had two sets of headgaskets replaced already... once with ARP's in too. (I blame the last one on faulty install at the dealer with the studs but that's a different discussion...) I personally have been running a milder tune on mine to make it last a little longer. Some guys have no problems with it, others do, but again some guys have problems with stock trucks so what does that tell you? Don't be afraid to run it, but be smart about it. I'm at 67,000 miles and I'm on my 4th set of tires, so does that tell you how hard I drive?

haha ok. i aint hard on tires they r to expensive to leave em lay on the road haha. but i deff wont be scared to run it i just didnt know the limits of leaving it on extreme street all the time.

Like I said, just be smart about it. Dont flog on it before its up to operating temp, dont let your EGT's get out of control for long periods of time, and let it cool down before you shut her off. You should be fine. I would be more worried about how you're going to hide that ear to ear grin on your face after your first ride.:pca1:

i got my sct yesterday and iv only played on street tune so far and i love it!!

Go on... try the extreme! haha.

i put it on extreme about 2 hrs ago and i am amazed. never imagines having this much power

Drive it like that for a week, then put it back to stock tuning and feel how slow it is. It's sad. I don't know how I drove mine stock for so long... :c:

i was running the sct "canned" tunes til eric got me the custom tunes, while i put it back on stock and was going to upload the custom tunes. Go figure i had to run somewhere quick and same story, omg that truck is a dog on stock! I run the street tune and have plenty of get up and go, little to no downshifting on hills, it is way easier to hold 55 mph now! And it is a pretty clean tune, not too much smoke

what about the head studs has that been a problem

head's are always a problem on these trucks. I blew two sets of headgaskets on mine before 60k. Once with stock TTY bolts and once with ARP studs, but they were dealer installed studs, and the heads were not decked. I think the whole job was mucked up. I have been running tunes again with stock TTY bolts back in it with the same heads and it's holding fine now... so what does that tell you? Some stock trucks have issues with it.

i have pushed 27-28 psi on stock bolts and have yet to have any issues, and i have been beatin the piss out of this truck

I've hit 35+psi with my current setup on the stock TTY bolts again... still holding, but it's already blown twice.

It's not so much the boost, the timing is really what does it. Timing drastically increases cylinder pressures.

if ford knows they have a problem with the head bolts then why dont they recall them

They've turned the blind eye to it. It's far easier to blame the guy with the truck by saying he was using a programmer or something. International originally designed this motor to have less than 200 hp from what I remember. Ford bumped it up to 325, and added emissions controls to it. The head design just sucks. There is only 4 bolts per cylinder, instead of 6 like the 7.3. They did make the bolts larger on the 6.4 (still a 4-bolt per cylinder design) and they seem to hold a little better, but still a problem.

The real issue lies with their specs for flatness on the heads and how they check it, and the fact that they will not deck or machine their heads at all. I've heard NEW heads from Ford come in out of spec sometimes.

There has been many lawsuits, buy-backs and lemon law cases with this motor and Ford. It pretty much put the last nail in the coffin between them and International, thus their new built in-house engine this year.

Some trucks are fine with stock hardware. I towed and dd on my SRL tune. My truck was tuned for 2 years straight, never went back to stock. Sled pulled and went down the strip. All on stock hardware.(Still stock too)

Exactly, you get guys like this who run tunes hard daily with no issues, and then some trucks just fall apart looking at them.

There is a guy in our local diesel club who has an 03 6.0 and runs Erics x-race daily, hasn't had a single issue with his truck.

I know the 6.7L is Fords Design But I Heard Navistar is still building it

I wouldn't say hasn't had a single issue Mike, I need tires again!!!

You heard wrong. Ford is building it. Peugot helped design it. It's still technically a Ford designed and built motor though. Navistar and Ford are no longer working together on the small stuff. I think they still supply Ford with motors for larger trucks.

I know most people are using the innovative custom tunes for their SCT and I like those but they're kinda expensive. Has anyone heard of MKM Customs they make the sinister egr deletes but they also do custom SCT tunes. Has anyone tried them? Are they any good?

I wouldn't use them. Remember, you gotta pay to play.

and FYI, there are cheaper, better options than Innovative.:tu:

Better in which way? There certainly are cheaper options. The term "better" is an opinion though. I haven't seen anything recently, but when I bought my tunes 2 1/2 years ago, there was a dyno chart floating around the interwebs of custom tunes for 6.0's, and Innovative was at the top of the chart.

yeah my friend has innovative and his truck is rediclous. the tunes are always good and exactly how he wants them. i think im gonna spend the extra money and get innovative. thanks

Two and a half years is a long time.

More power, smoother power, better shifting, better fuel economy, better TC lockup.

I also have a street tune from a different tuner that is better than my Street tune from Innovative.

Both tunes were cheaper than Innovative. Dont get me wrong, I love my tunes from IDP, but there are some other great tuners out there.

Different strokes for different folks.

And to add to this, if there is something you don't like, the beauty of it is, is you can always have your tuner adjust your individual tunes. I've also tried tunes from Spartan, Innovative, DJ's, Quicktrickautomotive (formerly DJ's), and one older elite tune. Each truck is different too, so some react better to certain tunes than others. It's all relative.

Innovative is the only one I can load up and run hard right off the bat. All the others have left a little to be desired, and some are worse than others. I will be trying GoGo soon, and want to try a GOS tune as well. So far, NO ONE has beat Innovatives customer service though, that's where they really shine.:rocking:

Any reason you're not telling us which tuner you're using? I might like to try them out! :c:





My guess is Doug @ GoGo.

You are absolutely right. I could get my innovative tune tweaked, but there is no point since I dont ever use my Innovative tune anymore. The tune I run now was perfect when I got it. No need to tweak anything and I got it the same day I ordered it.

Im not saying who it is because I know Chad wouldnt want me pimping a tuner who is not a sponsor. Ill send you a PM.

and no, Its not Doug.

Who care's if it's not a sponsor, we should still be able to discuss who we use, it's just one man's opinion. Sponsors have their chance to pimp their own products, that's the beauty of being a sponsor. The 6.0 section doesn't get much love from sponsors anyways. There are a small few, but not many.:pca1:

Well then, I like my Gearhead SRL tune a ton more than my Innovative X-street tune. I would bet that 90% of the people that have these two tunes would agree with me.

I've heard good things about it (the SRL). I just looked and I don't even see Innovative as a sponsor here and I talk about them all the time, as well as some of the other sponsors.

Again, it's tough to compare two custom tunes though, since they could essentially be endlessly modified. With that said, each tuner probably has their "own way" of making a tune, and though two will be different, the individual tastes of the end user are more than likely different as well, so it just might be what one person prefers over another. Hard to say that X is better than Y, but the point is, you should be using tunes from a reputable tuner, which both of these guys are. :c: