Hi, I bought my dad a Predator tuner for his 2000 F-250 with a 7.3 PSD. I have two questions. First, will the truck be noticeably faster with better fuel mileage while the rest of the truck is stock. Secondly, can this modification hurt the motor in any way. At first, I planned on using the 85 hp increase tune for regular driving and then switching it to the 60 horse tune for when it's time to pull the boat which is 8,000 lbs. While I myself am a gear head with my Lightning, my dad is not so I don't think he will be interested in looking at any gauges to monitor the engine. He does know that the truck needs to idle for a while after being used hard but I'm sure he doesn't want to have to worry about watching gauges like pyrometers now that he has the predator. What should I know? Thanks a lot.

 

Set it up for towing and leave it. Your dad probably won't want to mess with changing it every time he hooks up a trailer. Heck, I have a Predator for my 5.4 and don't want to mess with it when I pull a trailer. So I backed off the timing and leave it on that setup. Around town I am not going to push it hard enough to see much difference between the two tunes and I don't have to worry about someone jumping in the truck and hooking up a heavy trailer when I'm not around to change the tune.

 

The predators are notorious in diesels for running VERY hot. If he's not going to watch guages (or even install them) then I would definetly NOT run it in 85hp mode or get a different porgrammer. In the 80hp mode he will hit the 1250* redline engine temps alot faster than you think. Heck even in 60hp it can be hit as well. A couple things will help keep temps down so you can stay in it longer. The first is an open air intake, the other is an open exhaust. The first you have your choice on, but stay away from K&N as they've had problems letting dirt past. As for the exhaust either cut out the muffler and run a straight pipe, put a BTM muffler in place of the stock one, or do a full 4" turbo back exhaust. Both of these let the turbo spool up faster and more allowing cooler temps. I wouldn't recommend running a tuner on a diesel truck without a pyro and boost guage no matter what. Otherwise if you are giving him a tuner I'd look at the Edge or the Superchips as they run cooler than the Predator (the Edge being the coolest). Also don't plan on much increase in mileage. Some get 1-2mpg others get none, and other yet lose ground. Its hit or miss at best. Also expect alot of black smoke from the Predator, quite a bit more than others. They make alot of power, but it gets hot so fast that you can't stay in the throttle for more than a few seconds and they smoke so much that driving it gets hard at times. I've also heard claims that the Predator has caused rod failures in some trucks, but nobody has substantiated it yet.

 

Good info powerstroke