On Dec. 26, 2012 I had he local Ford place, Tommie Vaughn do a Pro-Cal tune on my 2013 GT, manual with 3.73 gears.
Since then, no check engine lights or anything that would lead me to think that there was any problems. Since I drive a company truck I drive just a little faster during regular driving than the neighborhood little old lady. On the streets, the car rarely sees >4,000 rpm.
Today, just a little more than a week after the FRPP tune, I take my car to G-Force Pearland, a highly respected speed shop near Houston, and wanted to put the car on the dyno. Before the FRPP, the car dyno'd at 390 rwhp uncorrected and I wanted to see what the car would dyno using the same dyno-jet and almost the exact same weather.
The guys got the car strapped down and the tuner ran the car to about 4,000 and shut it down. He claimed it sounded like marbles were in the engine. I got in the car with him and he revved it up again and I heard the sound. Due to his experience, he unstrapped the car and shut it down. He took my hand held FRPP tuner and redid the tune, looking to see if there was some sort of octane setting. I run 93 Shell premium from a major gas station with a lot of traffic, which should have fresh gas, versus some 2 pump Mom and Dad gas station.
I called my man from Tommie Vaughn Ford who oversaw the tune and he stated it sounded like bad gas.
The gentleman from G-Force was a bit hesitant to buy into this, but he said it made sense
(I work in the electric industry and know zero about tuning cars. I did operate the FRPP hand held tuner and saw where to plug it in, but when it comes to tuners, I'm pretty helpless and I have to count on people I trust.)
So I called Ford Racing. The gentleman at G-Force called it detonation and Ford Racing stated (paraphrasing) something like this marble sound in the engine was normal and that the engine was learning.
G-Force wouldn't dyno the car, which was fine by me.
One of the mechanics (he was assisting with the dyno and he also heard the noise) parked the car in the parking lot, and I asked him to go for a ride with me. We found a desolated street and I ran through the gears as he instructed me and we made it to 4th gear running about 5,000 rpms and he stated he didn't hear that noise.
Now, I'm in a dilemma. I have full faith in all the mentioned folks, the folks at Tommie Vaughn, the folks at G-Force, and Ford Racing.
So I drop off the G-Force mechanic and I attend to the CEL which came on after the G-Force tuner reloaded the tune. Now, it's on me. I call Ford Racing and I'm now the man with the tuner, and thankfully they taught me how to check for codes and how to clear them. Thankfully it wasn't that hard, and I had to find out the code, and clear the code. It was a crankshaft learning code, which I finally cleared.
After leaving G-Force, about 20 minutes later, I called them and thanked them for their help. Come to find out they haven't done a dyno on a FRPP tuned car in a year or more. Perhaps a shop that did more FRPP tuned cars would have gone ahead and made the dyno run, but this was not the case.
No matter what, I appreciate G-Force playing it safe, versus going ahead and making a dyno run they were uncomfortable with doing.
Has anybody else ever run into this problem? I'm just curious to see what other have to offer about what happened to me today.
Bad gas? Bad tune? G-Force too conservative?
edit: if this is the infamous 'ping', my apologies for starting this thread. noco5.0 on this site mentioned this could be the 'ping', but Ford, G-Force, or Tommie Vaughn never called it that, and I never connected the terms until I read his post. Thanks to noco5.0 for pointing this out to me.
Since then, no check engine lights or anything that would lead me to think that there was any problems. Since I drive a company truck I drive just a little faster during regular driving than the neighborhood little old lady. On the streets, the car rarely sees >4,000 rpm.
Today, just a little more than a week after the FRPP tune, I take my car to G-Force Pearland, a highly respected speed shop near Houston, and wanted to put the car on the dyno. Before the FRPP, the car dyno'd at 390 rwhp uncorrected and I wanted to see what the car would dyno using the same dyno-jet and almost the exact same weather.
The guys got the car strapped down and the tuner ran the car to about 4,000 and shut it down. He claimed it sounded like marbles were in the engine. I got in the car with him and he revved it up again and I heard the sound. Due to his experience, he unstrapped the car and shut it down. He took my hand held FRPP tuner and redid the tune, looking to see if there was some sort of octane setting. I run 93 Shell premium from a major gas station with a lot of traffic, which should have fresh gas, versus some 2 pump Mom and Dad gas station.
I called my man from Tommie Vaughn Ford who oversaw the tune and he stated it sounded like bad gas.
The gentleman from G-Force was a bit hesitant to buy into this, but he said it made sense
(I work in the electric industry and know zero about tuning cars. I did operate the FRPP hand held tuner and saw where to plug it in, but when it comes to tuners, I'm pretty helpless and I have to count on people I trust.)
So I called Ford Racing. The gentleman at G-Force called it detonation and Ford Racing stated (paraphrasing) something like this marble sound in the engine was normal and that the engine was learning.
G-Force wouldn't dyno the car, which was fine by me.
One of the mechanics (he was assisting with the dyno and he also heard the noise) parked the car in the parking lot, and I asked him to go for a ride with me. We found a desolated street and I ran through the gears as he instructed me and we made it to 4th gear running about 5,000 rpms and he stated he didn't hear that noise.
Now, I'm in a dilemma. I have full faith in all the mentioned folks, the folks at Tommie Vaughn, the folks at G-Force, and Ford Racing.
So I drop off the G-Force mechanic and I attend to the CEL which came on after the G-Force tuner reloaded the tune. Now, it's on me. I call Ford Racing and I'm now the man with the tuner, and thankfully they taught me how to check for codes and how to clear them. Thankfully it wasn't that hard, and I had to find out the code, and clear the code. It was a crankshaft learning code, which I finally cleared.
After leaving G-Force, about 20 minutes later, I called them and thanked them for their help. Come to find out they haven't done a dyno on a FRPP tuned car in a year or more. Perhaps a shop that did more FRPP tuned cars would have gone ahead and made the dyno run, but this was not the case.
No matter what, I appreciate G-Force playing it safe, versus going ahead and making a dyno run they were uncomfortable with doing.
Has anybody else ever run into this problem? I'm just curious to see what other have to offer about what happened to me today.
Bad gas? Bad tune? G-Force too conservative?
edit: if this is the infamous 'ping', my apologies for starting this thread. noco5.0 on this site mentioned this could be the 'ping', but Ford, G-Force, or Tommie Vaughn never called it that, and I never connected the terms until I read his post. Thanks to noco5.0 for pointing this out to me.
Last edited:
