Hey, guys.
I'm Justin with AmericanMuscle.com, and this is my detailed review, dyno test, and drive
of the Edge Evolution CS2 device, loaded with three Edge tunes, the performance, economy
and towing tune, available for your 2015 and up 5.0L F-150.
The Edge CS2 is gonna be for any F-150 owner out there looking to take advantage of a pre-loaded
tune and device combo, offering a performance, economy, and towing tune, along with some
of the best miles per gallon in the category.
Now, it's also gonna be a fantastic choice for someone who wants to take advantage of
those pre-loaded tunes but also wants to get most of the features of Edge's flagship device,
the CTS2, but without the massive touch screen and without the big price tag.
In this video, I'm gonna talk about why you might want to choose the CS2 over some of
your other aftermarket tuning options available here at American Muscle.
We're gonna talk about the power improvements over stock, the fuel economy benefits, and
of course, the drivability.
But hang out with me.
We have a lot to talk about in this video, including walking you through the CS2 itself,
taking a spin later in our tuned 5.0L truck.
But first let's talk about the power improvements you can expect when using this tuner.
Hi, guys.
Now before we made any pulls with our F-150, we replaced those big, heavy 35s in the rear
with a factory wheel and tire setup, just for the most accurate results with our Dynojet.
We then proceeded to grab our baseline run, using 87 octane in the factory calibration.
We then drained all the 87 out of the truck, filled it with 93 octane and uploaded the
Edge 91 Octane Performance Tune, re-ran the truck one more time, and here are those results.
Baseline run using our 2015 5.0L F-150 on 87 octane gave us 278 HP and 316 TQ at the
rear wheels.
With the Edge 91 Octane Race Tune, the truck made 282 HP, 328 TQ at the rear wheels, 4
HP and 12 TQ peak, and 15 HP and 14 TQ under the curve.
Breaking down these numbers a little further, guys, the blue line is our baseline pull,
using 87 octane with basically a factory truck.
However, with our 91 Octane Race Tune installed or uploaded, the truck definitely did a lot
better throughout the entire RPM range, especially down low here.
We picked up a good amount of torque in your big operating RPM range, basically 2,000 to
4,000 or 5,000 RPM.
The truck has definitely a lot of torque here, and that's what you want when you're driving
one of these rigs around all day long.
Now overall, guys, you're probably wondering why these numbers aren't as good as some of
your other options here on the site.
And the answer's pretty simple.
Edge designs their tunes to work for 87 to 91 octane.
They don't design a specific 93 octane tune, and as such, they can't be as aggressive with
things like ignition timing, for instance, or air-fuel ratio, and again, the numbers
suffer because of that.
Now overall, they're still a very good tune.
You can just use them with a lower octane fuel.
You're not gonna see as big as numbers as you might see with an SCT or an MPT, for instance,
but overall, still a very solid tune.
So with the numbers out of the way, let's get back to the table, and we'll break down
the Edge Tunes a little further.
Now, guys, the Edge Tunes are 50-state legal, and they are carb-certified.
So even F-150 owners in tough states like California, for instance, will be able to
take advantage of the Edge tuning here without any issues.
Just to remind you, guys, you are getting three pre-loaded tunes here with the Edge
CS2.
You're getting an economy and towing tune, which can be used with 87 and higher octane
fuel.
And finally, that race tune, which needs 91 or higher octane in order to function.
Now again, this is nice because you do have some options when going with the Edge Tune.
If you go with a different pre-loaded device, such as an SCT here, for instance, they're
only gonna offer you a performance tune.
So to have a few options with the Edge is definitely a nice little feature.
Now, in order to see what the Edge Tunes and the CS2 were all about, I've been pounding
the pavement in our 5.0L truck all week long with this device and the tunes uploaded, just
to get a better overall feel for the drivability, the power improvements and of course, the
fuel economy.
Now, even though the Edge tunes didn't make as much power as some of your other options
here on the site, it absolutely decimated the competition when it comes to miles per
gallon.
Timeless Superchips option here for some of the best miles per gallon in the category.
Now guys, my drive to and from work does include some highway and back road driving, and with
the factory calibration on the 87 octane, I was seeing roughly 11 to 12 miles per gallon
on average.
It doesn't sound that great, I know, but keep in mind our truck is lifted six inches, we
are hauling around some 35s, and I have a heavy foot.
Now, with the Edge 91 octane economy tuner installed or uploaded, I was seeing anywhere
from the high 15s, even 16 miles per gallon.
That's approaching EcoBoost territory here.
Again, even more impressive when you consider the set-up of our rig.
As far as pricing, guys, here's what you can expect when looking at the CS2.
Now, essentially, you're getting a miniature version of Edge's flagship device, the CTS2,
for just north of $400, which in my opinion, is very, very good.
Now, granted, you're not getting a large five-inch touchscreen, but you are getting most of the
features of the big brother here for $200 less, and they're even tossing in a windshield
mount.
Now, even though I can sit here and talk about all the features with the CS2, you'd probably
prefer to see me plug it in, and actually use this thing, and then we'll take the truck
out for a drive.
All right, guys, so driving around in our F-150 with the 91 octane Edge tune-up loaded.
Let's hammer it a little bit here.
As you can see, it definitely ripped off a big downshift.
Yeah, we're motivating, man.
Here we go.
Definitely stronger than before in factory trim or the factory calibration.
Overall, the truck feels good.
I mean it definitely feels a little bit more powerful than it did before in factory form,
especially over 87 octane.
The transmission settings, I have to be honest.
I was a little disappointed.
The trans feels a little soft for my liking, personally.
Preferably, I like to see a little bit more shifting, especially here with the 5.0L truck.
This thing likes to see those higher RPMs.
I would've liked to see maybe more shifts to get me up in that higher RPM, a little
bit more downshifting, I should say.
But overall, again, this is gonna be geared more towards somebody that might be a little
bit more, you know, after a towing-specific tune, or maybe even more of that fuel economy.
Again, because the Edge Superchips are both kind of in the same ballpark in regards to
fuel economy, and they both did astronomical.
I mean, the truck, for being lifted six inches, we're hauling around these 35s, to get the
miles per gallon I was seeing with this thing all week long, again, it made me kind of reconsider
my EcoBoost F-150, because I was impressed.
I mean, I'll be honest, on 87 octane, factory calibration, this thing is a pig, especially
with these wheels and tires, especially with the lift.
For making a little bit more power, but still picking up that kind of fuel economy, that's
huge.
The nice thing too, with the Edge pre-loads is just how easy it is to switch tire size,
switch axle ratios, things like that.
I mean, the device itself...all of the devices I tested from Edge are very user-friendly.
So I guess to summarize, in driving the truck around with the Edge pre-loads, 91 octane
race tune.
Again, you're gonna see similar power using their economy and using their towing as well,
as long as you're using the same octane, but the drivability is slightly different as well.
So you're seeing a little bit more throttle response with their race tune.
The tune is a little softer with their economy tune, as far as all-throttle or part-throttle,
but again, I mean, the economy is as advertised.
You're seeing a ton of economy, and that really, if you couldn't tell, I mean, that's the big
seller here, I think, with the Edge products.
Honestly, at the end of the day, if you're after a tune that's gonna be very pleasurable
to drive every day, as far as it won't be snapping you around.
I mean, some people might like the snappy shifts.
Some people might like the fact that this thing shifts very soft and very easy.
You know?
I mean, if you're basically happy with the truck being a little smoother, maybe riding
a little bit more like a Caddy or something like that, then you might prefer the softer
shifts of the Edge products.
But overall, I'm pretty happy with how this thing's driving.
Now let's head back to the shop, and I'll walk you through the operation of the device.
Now, the CS2, guys, is going to be the little brother to Edge's flagship device, the CTS2,
and basically combines all of the great functions with that bigger, more expensive device, the
CTS2, shrinks them down into a smaller little package here.
You're not getting the touch screen, but you are getting a lot of the same very cool features.
So we'll navigate through it a little bit here.
Now, one thing I kind of found out during using this thing is that sometimes the buttons
can get a little confusing at first.
That's to be expected when you're getting something new or getting used to something
new.
I'm sure that if you use this thing, after a few weeks, you'll get the hang of it real
quickly.
But overall, pretty nifty little device.
But as you can see, this thing is very small.
I mean, the CTS2 is a five-inch touch screen device.
This thing looks like to be maybe a two-inch screen.
It's all button-operated.
This isn't touch screen whatsoever.
But again, you are getting a lot of the same usability and functionality out of this device
as you would with the CTS2.
So let's first, again, it starts you off here in the gauge screen.
Now, you do have two different screens you can pick from when it comes to choosing your
layout.
So we have the more modern device, and then we have the digital readout.
Again, you can fully customize these screens how you prefer.
You can go into them even, and kind of go into each one, choose what you would like
to display here.
For instance, right now we can choose a different PID, as they call them.
So here are some of your options when it comes to that.
You have your engine cooling temperature, engine load, RPM, your G-Force calculator,
if taking turns is your thing, and you wanna see how many Gs you're pulling.
Gear, horsepower, stuff like that, I mean, there really is a lot to choose from with
the Edge devices, is what I've found.
And a lot of it's pretty cool, and it's some stuff that you really can't find with the
SCT device, for instance.
Like measured horsepower and torque is one of those things, and we actually found it
to be pretty accurate, compared to our dyno numbers.
So it's pretty cool that they were able to do that, you know, trip odometer, things like
that.
Now, granted, some of this stuff is more of a gimmick thing, I would say, but a lot of
this stuff is very valuable and very useful, and I think you'll get some good use out of
the device itself.
So we'll go back here.
We'll bring you to the main menu.
Here's our main menu with the CS2, and then you'll see a lot of this stuff with the CTS2,
but we'll run down a little bit here.
We'll save the programming for last I'll show you how to flash the tune.
But here's the screen layouts I was talking about.
So we had the master already picked out there.
So let's go with the needles, and see what that looks like for our...so here's the different
needle gauges, for instance.
Again, maybe a little bit more of a retro theme for you.
It's really all up to you.
There are a few different options, as you can tell here, with the Edge CS2.
This one's probably a little easier to read than some of them.
And again, you can go into those, and choose which gauge you'd like to assign to each thing.
All right, so we touched on the screen layout again.
You can change your background even, and that's one thing that I think a lot of people might
like with this as well.
You have kind of a carbon fiber, fire, diamond plate.
So you do have a lot of options, as you can see.
We've got camo there, can't forget the camo.
Kind of a splatter pattern, so again, some different options there, and a lot of times,
this stuff is kind of silly but a lot of people at home really do enjoy having the functionability
and the options to change out your own layouts.
We're back to the main menu here.
Again, it is kind of operating this gauge can be a little clumsy sometimes because you're
essentially utilizing a home button and a back button as your yes or no, along with
navigating the control pad, or the directional pad.
So it does take a little getting used to, I will say that.
The touch screen devices are much easier, in my opinion, or even the SCT gauges, they
just seem to be a little bit more user-friendly.
All right, so we talked about the layouts.
This is your record screen.
Again, this thing does do performance tests as well, such as your 0-60, your miles per
hour, quarter mile, your RPM and of course, your transmission fluid temperatures as well.
It just keeps track of all the peaks of this, or your best, just to keep track of them,
maybe better than as you get some more modifications with your truck.
So back at the home screen.
Here are those performance tests I was just talking about again, 0-60, quarter mile, and
it'll actually measure your horsepower.
We talked about that a little earlier.
Just to give you a general gauge, if you don't have a dyno close to you.
We did find it to be pretty accurate, within a few horsepower of our actual dyno results,
so it's something you can go by.
The CS2, like a lot of the modern-day tuners, can be used as a data logging device.
As you can see, we're in the data logging screen.
Now, if you wanted to go ahead and delete the data log, you'd basically just grab one.
It's really easy.
You record what you need to record.
It'll save it for you, and then you can offload that onto your computer.
Diagnostics, again, something that's very handy on today's modern devices.
This is gonna be where you go to read and clear your check engine codes or check engine
lights.
As you can see, we don't really have any here with our F-150 right now.
But if you did have some check engine lights, this is where you would go, and this is where
you would clear them.
Now, maintenance manager.
This is one of the big things with the Edge devices that a lot of the other devices won't
offer you.
It's very cool, very handy, and if you're somebody that likes to really do your own
maintenance at home, you don't prefer to take it to a dealer or a shop to do all this maintenance,
this will come in handy.
Now, you can turn this on, and basically at this point, set up your different maintenance
items.
For instance, it'll notify you when you need to change your air filter, change your axle
fluid, cabin air filter, engine coolant, engine oil, fuel filter.
This list goes on and on.
You know, it even lets you know when you need to check your brake pads, or even lube up
some of your drive shafts.
You know, fittings and all that stuff as well.
Lube your front drive shaft.
You know, so again, it does offer you a lot of flexibility.
There's a lot of stuff to play with, so if you're a gadget guy, this is obviously a great
choice for you.
The CS2 and both the CTS2 are gonna offer you probably the most stuff to play with in
regards to all the hand-held devices here on the site.
Obviously, this thing's shrunken down a little bit, so if you don't want that big five-inch
touchscreen with the CTS2 but you want all the same functionality, the CS2 is definitely
the good way to go.
Settings, this is something you're gonna find with a lot of modern devices as well here.
Again, this is where you can set up different alerts.
You can set up, like, for instance, if your air fluid ratio gets a little lean, or if
your trans temp gets a little high, this thing will notify you via a warning light, alerts,
things like that.
All stuff you can set up within the device itself.
You can turn the sound on or off, change the auto dim feature.
I mean, this is basically your userability stuff here when you plug it in.
So let's go back to the main menu.
Again, this programming tab.
Let's touch on this really quickly here, because this is where you wanna go when it does come
time to flash your truck.
As you can see, we have economy, towing and race.
Now when you do select one of these...and even stock here, if you do wanna flash your
truck back to stock at any point, obviously, that's what you'd do there.
Let's go ahead and check the race out.
Flashing the truck for the very first time is gonna take you a few minutes.
Obviously, you can see it saving your stock VCU settings now.
Again, if you do wish to revert to stock at some point, you're gonna need that.
But the first time you flash the truck should take a few minutes.
Very easy install, as you can see, guys.
You're really just hitting a few buttons.
Shouldn't take you any more than a few minutes.
We always have a little difficulty meter-rating here.
This is a 1 out of 3 wrenches on my difficulty meter.
Very, very easy stuff.
Anybody can really do it.
All right, guys.
Well, we just went ahead and flashed the truck using the CS2, the Edge programmer, and now
it's actually gonna prompt you if you want to change some of the options with the tune
itself.
So we'll go ahead and hit "yes."
So here's where you can have, basically, the option to change your tire size.
For instance, we have 35s on our rig but we would go down and change that to 35, which
is very cool.
Again, it's nice to have this option because this is just essentially gonna calibrate your
speedo.
Turn that off there.
Really, really handy to have, of course.
It's something you almost come to expect out of the modern-day tuning devices here.
But you know, speed limiter, your gear ratio, for instance, if you do end up changing your
gears eventually.
Fan temperature, you can have your fan come on at a different temperature for you if you'd
like.
So if you want it to come on a little lower than usual, obviously, you can see where to
do that.
And that's pretty much it.
So you can reset all these values.
You can change your gear ratio, your tire size, your speed limiter.
And from there, you just basically continue with the program, and you should be all loaded
up and ready to go.
So that's my review of the Edge Gas Evolution CS2 Tuner and Monitor, available for your
coyote-powered F-150.
And you can grab yours right here at AmericanMuscle.com.