Had a talk with a diesel tuner at a gas station that made me second guess my tune

I was filling up at a Shell in Phoenix last week and this guy in a built F-250 starts asking about my truck. He told me my 93 octane tune was probably hurting my daily driver because I'm not running enough timing for the heat out here. Has anyone else had a tuner tell you to drop a tune level for better reliability?

3 comments

3 Comments

pat_coleman20d ago

Did he also mention the 120 degree pavement temp making your intercooler useless?

diana2017d ago

Ngl @pat_coleman nailed it - 120 degree pavement turns your car into a slow cooker. Dropping a tune level is just smart if you actually drive it every day.

henderson.wesley20d ago

Yeah, that "drop a tune level for better reliability" thing hits close to home. Buddy of mine had a tuned F-150 he drove around Austin with, running a 93 tune like yours. He was chasing that extra power but kept getting knock readings on his datalogs in the summer heat. A tuner at a local shop told him the same thing, basically said it was cooking the engine on hot asphalt days. He dropped it to an 87 tune just for the daily drive and the truck ran way smoother, less heat soak, and he actually stopped worrying about it pinging on the highway. He keeps the aggressive tune for track days now, but for normal driving, the lower one just makes more sense.