Hey guys, Joe from AmericanTrucks.
And today I'm going to be reviewing and showing off some of the features of the Superchips
Dashpaq In-Cabin Controller Tuner fitting all '15 and up 3.5 EcoBoost F-150s excluding
the Raptor and '19 Limited.
Something like this is going to be perfect for the EcoBoost owner who's looking to utilize
some of that power left on the table with the factory ECU tune, as well as monitor and
adjust some of the critical parameters of their truck.
When Superchips calibrates a tune they're not held to the same rules and restrictions
that Ford is when they tune this thing at the factory, allowing them to utilize some
of the power that's left on the table, especially with these turbo motors.
And that's achieved by adjusting the fuel and spark maps as well as the drive by wire.
You're also going to be changing your shift points and the shift firmness as well.
Some other great features about this tuner is it will allow you to upgrade your speedometer
if you change the size of your tires or regear your truck.
You'll also be able to diagnose and clear those check engine lights.
And also you'll have the choice between three tunes: performance, towing, and economy.
So, we have our '16 EcoBoost gassed up with some 93.
Let's flash it with the performance tune and strap it down to our Dynojet and see what
we make at the wheel.
So, let's take a look at the numbers and they are really surprising, actually.
This thing did pretty well.
And with 93 in the tank we saw peak gains of 38 horsepower and 74 torque.
Horsepower jumped up from 309 to 347, and torque jumped up from 341 to 415 at the wheel.
Now that is really good.
And again, applying a conservative 12% drivetrain loss, we're looking at 471 torque at the crank.
And that is very close to the 500 crank torque number, and that is really astonishing.
There's pretty much no other mod for around 450 bucks that's going to make that much power.
Now another great thing about this tune is we saw even bigger curve gains.
So under the curve we saw 82 torque and 48 horsepower both at 3,100 RPM, and that is
something you're going to feel daily driving.
3,100 horsepower is something you hit on a daily basis.
Whether it's on an onramp or just getting up to speed from a light, you're going to
feel that 82 torque and 48 horsepower almost all the time, and that is a huge, huge difference.
And again, there's almost no mods out there at this price point that are going to give
you that much power.
And it just goes to show how much is left on the table from Ford.
Now if you wanted to take that a step further and get a custom tune written specifically
for your truck, this thing will hold up to 10 tunes, so you have the space to grow.
Now like I said earlier, another great thing about this tuner is you can monitor up to
six real time parameters of your truck.
It features a two-and-a-half inch display, and you can have many readouts on there such
as boost, coolant temperature, air intake temperature, spark timing, battery voltage,
throttle position and much, much more.
And the kit also includes a suction cup for you to mount this to the windshield so you
can easily put this in a position where you can see it all the time and make this a permanent
modification.
This also comes with a bunch of options for you to change the color scheme and where those
readouts are positioned too.
This guy also has Wi-Fi capability as well.
So, if you ever need to download an update, you don't have to take it out of your truck,
go and plug it into your computer and download any software.
You can do it right in your driveway.
Now on top of all that, with all the power gains we've seen and the functionality of
this thing, here's the real kicker and this is the CARB number.
So, if you live in any of the more emissions restrictive states, this is going to allow
you to pass inspection every time.
So, for all this functionality and all this power, what are you going to pay for this?
Price is going to be around the $450 mark, which is beyond a bargain.
Like I've said earlier, there's no other mods out there that are going to give you 38 horsepower
and 74 torque.
And this is a heck of a deal, especially when you consider all the added functionality on
top of that price.
Install is going to be extremely easy as well.
I'm going to give it a one out of three wrenches on our difficulty meter.
Should only take you 15 minutes to be up and running.
So let me show you how that's done, then I'll show off some of the features of this thing.
Installation, like I said, is going to be really easy.
We're going to grab our Dashpaq, flip it over and plug in the HDMI end of our OBD2 port
in the back.
And then after that, all you're going to do is plug in the OBD2 port.
And from there we have power to our device.
Now if you wanted to mount this permanently, the kit includes some zip ties for this wire
as well.
And this windshield mount we have already mounted up here, so we're going to rest it
on there.
And the first thing you're going to be met with is a warning here letting you know to
read the user manual and know how this thing works before you go poking around.
But I'm going to show you how to do it so you can click yes to that.
And here we are at the first menu where we're going to choose our car.
So obviously we're going to go with Ford.
After you click on that, it will ask you to put the key to the run position.
Now you're not actually going to turn the truck on, just to the accessory position,
and then you can click yes through that menu.
It'll give you a Ford loading screen.
it will now ask you if the vehicle is equipped with a manual transmission.
If yes, you'll hit the arrow key, and if no, which most of the trucks aren't, you'll hit
the home button here.
So here we are at our master screen, and as you could see, factory this has the battery
voltage, RPM, miles per hour.
You have our exterior temperature as well as our boost pressure here as well.
Now this is great, but we're going to mess with some of the settings in this.
So you could click your home button.
And here we are at the main menu, and you can see we have a lot of options here from
the screen layout to the mileage coach and settings as well.
So we are going to scroll to programming and then you could click the right key to go into
that.
Here you have your choices of the stock tune.
You have an economy tune as well as a towing tune and a race tune.
Now we have 93 in the tank, we're trying to make power today, so we are going to go with
race.
And it's just going to let you know you need at least 91 octane.
And like I just said, we have that so we're going to click yes.
And the truck might ding at you or make some weird noises in the dash.
Nothing to worry about.
Pretty standard when you're reflashing a vehicle.
Just make sure you don't touch the ignition and make sure you have a good, steady power
source.
It might be a good idea to hook this up to a battery tender, make sure that the truck
does not die and the ignition does not move from the accessories position.
And as you could see, it's saving our stock tune right now.
So if we ever do need to go back to the factory tune for any reason, it will be saved on here.
So if you do ever need to revert for any reason you are A-Okay.
Once that's finished, it's going to let you know.
And then the next screen you're going to be greeted with is create a custom program, and
we are going to click yes there.
So once we have the stock tune saved on the device, we're now greeted with this menu to
start creating our new custom tune.
There's a lot of options in here and we're going to run though them real quickly.
Starting with the speed limiter.
Now that's currently set to stock, which is actually around 100 miles an hour, and that's
mainly to protect the tires.
We're going to bump that up since we're on the Dyno.
But before you do any fast driving on the road, make sure you have tires that are actually
rated for that speed.
Just a safety issue.
So we're going to bump that up to...
It looks like 150 is the max.
We're going to go with that.
Tire size, pretty self-explanatory.
We have some 33s on there, 33.1 to be exact.
We're going to dial that in.
Our gear ratio is stock and we'll leave the torque management on and so is the fan temperature
also stock.
So once that's dialed in, we could click continue programming.
It's then going to ask you to turn the ignition on.
Again, it should still be in the accessory position, so double-check that it is and then
press enter.
Will then ask you to turn it immediately to the off position, then press enter again,
and then back to the on position.
You'll get some pretty crazy warning lights as well.
Nothing to worry about.
So I see hill start assist, high coolant, low oil pressure, pretty much the gamut of
bad warning lights, but that's pretty standard when you're retuning an ECU.
Just disregard them, the truck's fine, and they should go away once we have this completed.
Now that only took about a minute or two, then it's going to ask you to turn the ignition
back to off and then press enter.
And the programming is complete.
Now you should be back at this screen.
And you could see at the top that our new current level is three, which is the race
tune.
So now we're back to the master screen and you could see this three at the top of the
gauge here letting us know we're on the race tune.
Now that I've showed you how to retune the truck, let me go through some of the features
of the Dashpaq here.
So we're going to hit the home button, and we're going to start with the screen layout.
Now the first option in there is the background, and we have that carbon fiber.
We also have fire, what looks like some concrete.
That one's green.
You could pretty much flip through.
It's going to be...
That one.
That one actually kind of looks like a Mustang.
Hexagon shapes, a street.
You could flip through, choose whichever one you like.
Below background you also have the choice of two layouts.
So for layout number one we have the master layout.
You could also go with the digital.
You can go with the retro, the needles as well.
Let me show you what digital looks like.
Now digital is going to be the one that gives you the most readouts, six in total here.
That is going to be the enthusiast-focused one.
And you have the same choice for layout number two.
And I'm just going to back to the master.
Moving right along, the next option is called records.
So here you have your zero to 60 time.
You have your boost pressure.
You have your miles per hour, quarter mile time, RPM, pretty much all of the parameters
broken down into a menu all saved right here.
And at the very top you have the option to clear all of them.
And going down further we have performance tests.
Now this is going to be your zero to 60, quarter mile time and trap speed, your horsepower,
and you also have some instructions there as well.
And next in the main menu we have our data-logging feature.
So if you are getting any custom tunes written, you could gauge how the truck is reacting
and all of the data will be saved so you could send it to your tuner for any revisions.
Below that, we also have diagnostics.
That will allow you to read and diagnose the DTCs, otherwise known as check engine lights.
You can read those and clear those in there.
Below that, we have the mileage coach as well, so if you're going for MPG.
And in here you could see your average fuel economy, your trip odometer.
You can even input the fuel price to get your mileage costs and your trip cost as well.
Next up is going to be one of my personal favorites, and that is the maintenance manager.
It's currently off, but basically this will allow you to input the last time maintenance
was done to your vehicle.
So oil changes, filters, fluids.
You could input that here in input an odometer reading.
This will track it and allow you to set an alert when those need to be done again.
And below that we have settings, so that will allow you to choose the backlighting, the
background color, menu time out, the dim, the vehicle weight, basically all of your
settings in here as well as a factory reset.
And that is going to be it.
You could dial this in however you like it.
And that is going to do it for my review in Dyno of the Superchips Dashpaq In-Cabin Controller
Tuner fitting all '15 and up 3.5 EcoBoost F-150s excluding the Raptors and '19 Limiteds.
Thank you for watching.
I'm Joe.
And for all things F-150, keep it right here at americantrucks.com.