6.0 Powerstroke Tuning

[SICKS-O]

I am interested in getting into tuning my early 2004 6.0 F350. I have done gas tuning and transmission tuning before. I was a powerstroke tech and have modified these trucks for customers as well as the 2 06s I used to own but I always ran custom tunes done by a vendor. I have downloaded the demo and some files to check things out and obviously things are very different then what im used to with gasoline tuning. I have a good understanding of diesel engine theory and how these 6.0s operate. Ive done some reading on here and it seems there is more than one way to accomplish increased power output. I would like to tune mine without fooling the ECM or FICM into increasing pulse width & timing. The max effort tunes im used to had a light switch throttle effect that id like to avoid completely. I would like to build ECM & FICM tunes that work together to achieve different levels of power output. I have had my ECM/TCM flashed back to a good non inferred ebp calibration and will be having the FICM flashed with a good original 03/E04 calibration. If anyone is willing to educate me a bit on how to tune this it would be greatly appreciated.

[JaegerWrenching]

Play around, flash a bunch, and play around some more! 50/50 calcs are kinda a waste of time because they don't tell the whole story.. Understanding when to use a split like in higher mg,MM3/stroke while also in higher rpm can be helpful. Let's say 2800rpm and beyond during WOT think about starting to bring in the timing and aim for a 90/10 BTDC split with hydraulic delays accounted for by 3400ish rpm. Below that rpm and fuel amount mess around a little!! Look at your stock full boost and no boost tables to see what the OE's were doing. Maybe set it to a 50/50 split everywhere and drive it that way for a week or so then change it back to see how different it sounds and acts overall. If you want to get aggressive with timing well i suggest you get some head studs and get it on a dyno! Then you can get into the 120+ degrees BTDC in the higher rpm-mg/stroke areas to make sure it's actually helping or even worth it.. Read up on pilot timing/mass affects but don't really stress or worry too much about it, you could leave it alone for a while as it's not a huge factor in most cases, you can also see the PCM turns pilot off above certain RPM,pedal and fuel amounts. Think of your torque based fuel quantity pedal (3681) as your engine's theoretical max output, pedal map (7151)(7154) is the percentage of (3681) that is allowed based on accelerator position. IE: if you have 50mg/stroke in your max torque map and your pedal map is asking for 50% you'll get 25mg/stroke, if you were WOT you'd get the entire 50, unless some other limiter is in play IE3669) Vs boost Lo Altitude. You can bump your max fuel map (3681) and start moving limiters out of your way to achieve that higher numerical value for a higher torque output. You can also bump up the PW map in the FICM which will also add more fuel... just FYI the ECU and trans would be unaware of that torque output increase when altering the pw map, not saying it's wrong at all just giving you that info. I'm sure most good tuners probably do a combination of both in the right areas. If you increase either one or both you could also decrease your pedal map percentage in the lower torque output areas to keep actual torque output and pedal feel closer to stock. Say stock was 50mg/stroke but you upped it to 60mg/stroke, well 50% of 50 is 25mg/stroke and 50% of 60 is 30mg/stroke, to maintain that stock 25mg/stroke you'd want 25/60 or 41.666 percent of 60. That should help get you started and messing around, the best thing you can do for yourself is make sure your truck is in good working order HPOP wise and confirm no small leaks are present.