Hey, guys.
Adam here with americantrucks.com.
Today, we're taking a closer look at, installing and dyno testing,the 5 Star SF4/X4 Power Flash
Tuner by SCT, available with Three Custom tunes for all '09 to '10 5.4 F-150s.
And before we jump into all the details of the X4 here and the tunes, what do you say
we had right on over to the dyno graph to take a look at some results?
All right, so we have our 2010 5.4 F-150 strapped down to the dyno, Keep in mind, guys, this
is bone stock under the hood.
It has 35-inch tires on it along with 93 octane in the tank.
We ran it with our stock, tuned to establish a baseline run.
We walked away with 227 horsepower, 265-pound-feet of torque at the rear wheels.
We then, of course, uploaded our 5 Star tune, ran it under the same conditions, walked away
with 254 horsepower, 326-pound-feet of torque at the rear wheels, that's good for peak gains
of 27 horsepower and 61 torque at the rear wheels.
Those numbers alone look really, really good, especially from a simple 93 octane tune with
really no power adders under the hood.
The torque curve and horsepower curve is looking even better.
We're seeing gains of as much as 46 horsepower and 75 torque at the rear wheels under the
curve.
Now we're seeing that torque come in at the low end, around 3,000 to 3,500 RPMs.
Those numbers at the low end are really gonna be useful for our truck out on the road, especially
with these bigger wheels and tires.
Having that torque down low is gonna be make this truck feel so much more alive, and we're
really seeing impressive gains all across the RPM band.
So overall, I'm super happy with this tune.
Now breaking down the tunes from 5 Star a little bit further with our X4 device here,
5 Star takes a number of things into consideration from the factory tune to really maximize your
truck's performance.
Now you'll have three options: 87 and 91 and a 93 octane tune, 93 octane of course being
for the guys who really want to maximize their performance with that higher octane fuel.
87 is a good option for maybe a daily driver looking to be a little bit more economic with
their fuel mileage while also getting a little bit more throttle response and acceleration
out of their truck without going all-in on the high octanes, so there's options for everyone.
Now from the factory, the fuel strategies of that stock tune here are a little bit limited.
They do have a small delay timer before adding some of that extra fuel, especially at wide
open throttle.
5 Star is going to address that adding a little bit more fuel at the top end of the RPM band
here to make sure guys that you're getting a little bit more power and torque out of
the capabilities of your truck.
The drive-by-wire delay is something they take into consideration too to give you that
throttle response and acceleration.
Drive-by-wire delay is essentially the delay in time between hitting the gas and getting
your truck off the line and going.
That's altered to make your truck feel a lot more alive and that comes in huge when adding
bigger wheels and tires to your truck like we have here with 35s on our 2010 5.4.
So having that throttle response altered will make it feel like your truck's no longer as
sluggish as it was once you started adding those bigger wheels.
There's a number of other parameters taking into consideration.
Torque converter is gonna be stay locked longer and block sooner in order to give you guys
more access to each gear.
You'll notice that your truck moves through some of those lower gears really quickly,
getting you to fourth through fifth gear very fast.
And what that means is your truck can start to feel sluggish again at those higher gear
ratios.
So locking the converter a little bit earlier and staying locked longer gives you access
to some more of that torque.
The X4 here comes with a number of other features aside from just the tune itself.
You have the gauges and datalog screen to take advantage of.
You can monitor live engine vitals on the fly within arm's reach of the driver seat.
Can monitor things like coolant temp, air/fuel ratio, intake air temp, battery voltage, and
a number of other options.
As a matter of fact, you can track up to eight engine vitals at once on the screen with customizable
gauges and I'll show you guys that in just a little bit.
The datalog feature is gonna be a great option for guys who want to record your engine's
performance, monitor that and maybe even communicate it back to 5 Star, that way you can communicate
back possible revision capabilities within the tune itself.
You can do that all on the X4 device using that gauges and datalog screen.
Now the DTC code reader comes in handy anytime the check engine light comes into play, you
guys can monitor that, read the code, get a description and clear it right on the device.
No need for any extra OBD-2 module.
Now within that device, you're also gonna be able to take into consideration things
like your tire size and gear ratio so you can modify your speedometer.
Anytime you add those larger wheels and tires, your speedometer can be off up to 7 to 10
miles per hour, which can be pretty dangerous driving on the road, especially on highway
speeds.
Now with that, you'll be able to alter that within each of the tunes modifying parameters
to make sure that you're correcting speedometer calibration.
You're also gonna be gain access to WIFI capabilities so you can connect wirelessly to update your
device's software and firmware anytime SCT comes out with an update.
That's a good option, especially for guys maybe using the preloaded tune that comes
on the device here.
The device is gonna come in at right around 500 bucks and the install is gonna get one
out of three wrenches on our difficulty meter.
Anybody can tackle it in the driveway at home with about 30, 35 minutes from start to finish.
The longest part is saving your stock file to the device.
It'll load 0 to 100 pretty slow, but with some patience, you can have this done in no
time and especially cool because you don't need any hand tools to get the job done at
all, just what's included in the kit.
Now I'm gonna be show you every step of the process starting with tuning our 2010 5.4,
then I'll walk you through features.
Let's get started.
First up here guys, grab your X4 device and the plug included in the kit.
You're gonna be grab the fatter side of the cord and plug it right into the OBD-2 port
located under the driver side dashboard.
If you just follow your steering column straight down, you'll find it right there in the middle
and the other end here can plug right into the top of the device.
Now we can hop in and get to work.
First thing's first, guys, we want to jump into tuning the vehicle.
So grab your key, put it in the ignition and turn it to the on position, but don't actually
start your engine.
Once your key is in the on position, we're gonna be jump right into PROGRAM VEHICLE.
You want to hit continue on your STREET USE NOTICE, and again it's just letting you know
to keep the key in the on position, but don't actually start the engine and press CONTINUE.
Now, if this is a brand new device, it may ask you to connect to WIFI, there may be some
updates that need to happen.
If that is the case and those options do pop up on your menu, just make sure that you are
updating the device, connect to a WIFI network if you're close by and then let it do its
thing there.
Now we've already taken care of that so it jumps right into the tunes menu.
Now right off the bat you'll have custom tunes here that you've loaded.
Now we're focusing on 93 octane only, so that's what we have here and you also have a preloaded
tune.
So I'm gonna be jump right into the 93 performance tune to get us going.
All right, so we're gonna be hit CONTINUE on that CUSTOM TUNE.
Turn key on.
Now during this process, you may hear lights and sounds come on the dashboard.
You may also hear your fan turn on under the hood.
Those are pretty normal things when it's starting to access the ECU.
Right now it's saving your stock file, so it'll pull the stock file off of the ECU and
save it to the device.
Anytime you want to revert back to stock, you have the option right there on your X4.
From there, it'll jump into compiling the new 93 tune or whichever two new select and
then it'll flash the vehicle.
At no point do you want to unplug your device or turn the key off unless prompted to do
so on the device itself.
All right, so as you just saw, it just saved their stock file, it then asked us to turn
the key on which it already was on.
So you just want to give it a second.
It automatically loads into the next screen here preparing the processor and then it'll
start flashing your truck.
It can be a really long process.
Saving the stock file is the longest part of the process, we got that out of the way.
So again, just make sure you're having some patience and letting it do its thing.
As you can see now it's downloading the tune to the ECU.
So again, let it load to 100%.
It may ask you at the end to turn the key off and then back on, so you want to stand
by.
And again, don't unplug or don't turn the key off unless prompted to.
And there you have it, DOWNLOAD COMPLETE.
You can select DONE, it takes you right back to the main menu and you're good to go.
All right, so now I'm gonna take you guys through some of the features of the X4 device
aside from the PROGRAM VEHICLE option from the main menu.
Directly below that, there's GAUGES/DATALOG, this is super useful for guys who want to
track and monitor live engine vitals on the fly.
So from there, you want to make sure your key is in the on position in the ignition.
Press CONTINUE, it'll take you straight into the configuration selector file, at least
to give you some of the options to select that match your vehicle.
Now, of course, we're in a 2010 5.4 gas vehicle, so we want to go FORD GAS 08 NEWER.
That matches our year range.
Obviously we're not in a diesel, so we'll hit CONTINUE.
It'll scan the datalog file, and that's sort of a baseline and then it loads up your gauges.
Now the default here is just two vertical gauges Here.
We have a CONTROL MODULE VOLTAGE OPTION and the COOLANT TEMP on the bottom.
You can see it tracking live.
Now if we wanted to change one of them, we would just go down and select say CONTROL
MODULE VOLTAGE.
You'd select ITEM then you have number of options to choose from.
There are so many options here, you can personalize it to whatever you'd like.
Now we have COOLANT TEMP the bottom, so let's put INTAKE AIR TEMP at the top.
Just select it, hit APPROVE, and it replaces that one gauge with whatever you selected.
Now say you wanted to go to the right here and change the gauge layout.
Go down to SELECT GAUGE LAYOUT and you have a number of configurations to customize how
it appears on the screen.
And that was just two gauges, we can monitor up to eight at once.
So if you wanted to select that guy.
Now obviously we have four on the right, four on the left, they're a little bit smaller
but there's a lot more data to keep track of.
And again, you can go in and select any of these and change them to whatever you want.
So let's say we want to put this one as CONTROL MODULE VOLTAGE and then hit APPROVE.
There you have it, it replaces it.
Now if you want it to record a datalog, you can hit START RECORD DATA from the right menu,
it'll record the gauge screen configuration that you have set up there and then you can
come over and hit STOP DATALOG.
Now when you hit STOP DATALOG, it takes you right back to the main menu.
Now the datalog feature, you can record and then again communicate that back to your tuner
for possible revisions and it's good to have there and you can do it all right on the device.
Now from that menu, you can also orient the different gauge layouts.
You can have it in portrait or landscape depending on personal preference and that can all coincide
with your windshield mount if you're using the SCT windshield mount that you can pick
up separately.
Under that, VEHICLE FUNCTIONS will give you the DTC code reader, diagnostic trouble codes
being your check engine light.
So if that light ever comes on, plug this guy in, read the code, get a description and
you can clear it right then and there as well.
SPECIAL FUNCTIONS most guys won't touch.
Cam relearn is inside of that, so that's there if you ever need it.
But from there you can hit EXIT, goes right back to the main menu.
VEHICLE INFO will give you your VIN number, it'll give you your ECU strategy code, things
needed for requesting new tunes, which you can do here, of course, you can hold up to
10 custom tunes on your SCT device.
DEVICE INFO will give you things like battery voltage, device serial number, firmware and
software versions.
You'll also be able to see your married status.
So it'll tell you if the device is married to a vehicle, which of course it will be,
If your vehicle is tuned.
Anytime you go back to stock, the device itself unmarries your vehicle and you'll see that
status there.
You'll also be able to see how many flashes you have left, which essentially means you
have the opportunity to use this device with other vehicles up to five times with your
SCT X4 device.
DEVICE SETTINGS, you can CHECK FOR UPDATES and use a WIFI network which kind of go hand
in hand.
So if you connect to a WIFI, you can then check for software and firmware updates, which
I recommend doing every so often just because SCT does update these devices actively.
You can orient the display from portrait to landscape here as well, not just in the gauges
menu.
You have a couple of simple you know, DEVICE SETTINGS that you can play with.
STARTUP FUNCTION is the last thing I want to mention here.
So if you find yourself using the gauges and data log screen more often than not, it may
be a good idea to set it to boot up straight to the gauges menu anytime you plug your device
in.
So as soon as this guy starts up, it'll go straight to that menu for you instead of you
having to navigate every day.
So from there you can go down and hit EXIT, takes you right back to the main menu.
And that's your X4 device.
That's gonna wrap up my review and install as well as dyno test for the 5 Star SF4/X4
Power Flash Tuner with Three Custom tunes, available for the '09 to '10 5.4-Liter F-150.
Now this guy here is available right here at americantrucks.com.