Bowtie Brody's Namesake 96 454

[BNielsen]

Brought the camper home today, suspension wise the air bags make quite a difference! I've only got 5 pounds in them, so 15 or 20 should make an even bigger difference.
As far as pulling power, it's still about the same, it doesn't take as much throttle to get going but taking hills is a bit of a struggle.

Should I throw the coil and ICM on? It's still the factory original, and like I said, the shop didn't replace them, and I wonder if it would make a difference?

 

[Supercharged111]

If the coil and ICM aren't broken, there's no need to replace them.

 

[BNielsen]

If the coil and ICM aren't broken, there's no need to replace them

A point of concern I've had is if I take the truck on a long drive/get it in a hard pull, it would start misfiring and misfire so bad after continued driving it would be barely able to pull, I was under the impression it was either the cap and rotor or coil.

I just don't want any major hiccups is all, and I'm a little salty I paid good money for a good coil only for it to not be installed.

 

[letitsnow]

This won't make you feel any better, but if the 7.4 is like the 5.7 - your coil is riveted on. You will need to cut the rivets off then replace them with bolts.

 

[BNielsen]

This won't make you feel any better, but if the 7.4 is like the 5.7 - your coil is riveted on. You will need to cut the rivets off then replace them with bolts.

They already drilled out the rivets; only to bolt the old coil back on.
At least that's what they told me, I knew they were riveted on; that's how I knew it was the original coil.

 

[BNielsen]

AD244 swap = done!

The old CS144 has been making some not-so-fun noises for quite some time, so I figured I should finally get around to swapping the new alternator on, it's only been on a shelf since 2020....
I can tell a big difference, before the truck would load down with all the lights on and the AC set to kill, now? It purrs like a kitten with everything on.

I'm fighting with the brake controller now, it keeps reading "Output shorted - no brakes" so I really need to address that.

 

[Mangonesailor]

A point of concern I've had is if I take the truck on a long drive/get it in a hard pull, it would start misfiring and misfire so bad after continued driving it would be barely able to pull, I was under the impression it was either the cap and rotor or coil.

Plug gap for these engines needs to be 0.045-0.050" to prevent misfires. This was dyno-proven with RVs and reported on FSC.com a long while back. So, gap your plugs down and tow like that.

Also some proper tuning to get your VE table in order, your spark advance vs commanded AF ratio, and your PE commanded AF ratio would help. You need more fuel to help cool the air charge and prevent detonation. Maybe even a cooler plug would help?

 

[BNielsen]

Plug gap for these engines needs to be 0.045-0.050" to prevent misfires. This was dyno-proven with RVs and reported on FSC.com a long while back. So, gap your plugs down and tow like that.

Also some proper tuning to get your VE table in order, your spark advance vs commanded AF ratio, and your PE commanded AF ratio would help. You need more fuel to help cool the air charge and prevent detonation. Maybe even a cooler plug would help?

Plugs are gapped to .050; I pulled them even though the dude at the shop said he checked them, after that debacle i don't think I'm going to put much stock into their words.

I'm going to bring the laptop and my HPTuners with me, and I think I'll datalog a good portion of the trip.

 

[BNielsen]

Brake issue I believe is solved, the ground for the controller at the 7/4 pole is broken off, going to crimp on a new ring terminal and hopefully that'll fix it.

Going to swap out the dreaded brake light switch this evening, hopefully that will fix my lockup issue; I also picked up a new multifunction switch since the 4-way flasher decided to work intermittent; and just replacing the switch hasn't fixed it.

@Mangonesailor; is the tow/haul function turned on in my 0411? I'm going to finish up the wiring for it tonight, but I can't remember if it's been activated in the tune; and I have no clue how to check that.

 

[Mangonesailor]

@Mangonesailor; is the tow/haul function turned on in my 0411? I'm going to finish up the wiring for it tonight, but I can't remember if it's been activated in the tune; and I have no clue how to check that.

Just checked: YES, it is enabled. If you click Trans -> "Shift General" tab You should see a option under "General" called "Perf Option" and it'll be set to "One switch" if you have tow/haul.

The shift tables for "Performance Mode" in the "Shift scheduling" tab are the tables used after you've clicked the button. BE CAREFUL IN THOSE!!! I once accidentally had my trans banging between 2nd and 3rd after a download trying to accelerate hard and tune. Wasn't very excited about that... so triple check your stuff if you mess around.

I'll give you my latest tune and you can test out my shift points and see how you like them when you come. They may not work well as your speedo and etc is probably still off? I don't think you did that yet, did you?

Also, what VCM editor version are you running? I haven't updated past 4.8.7 . You should be able to read my files but if I edit something for you then you won't be able to simply download, you'll need to copy/paste everything.