About the EVAP- There has been some discussion lately about topping off the tank and how it can lead to EVAP canister problems. I top off the tank (not enough for it to spill out) and have never had a problem. It seems a few people around here have had this issue. Sounds like this doesn't apply to you.

As for the clogged cat. Well, I have heard that over-fueling can cause problems with the cat. But I have never took the time to actually research the claim. So, I can honestly say I don't know.

When Mark gets back he will most likely be able to help you a bit more with your tuning problems. I hope you get it figured out.

 

Have you downloaded and read the URD U-Tune Guide??

www.GadgetOnline.com/U-Tune.pdf

I am real sure all your questions will be answered there.

If you have any other questions that are not answered in the guide, you can always email us at support@URDUSA.com. We are always eager to help folks out there.

Gadget

 

I looked at it through www.Splitsec.com

I'll look again when I get the USB cable, if that works.
If not I'll just leave it the way it is. Fix it till it's broken.

 

Oh, I forgot to mention, NEVER RUN ANYTHING LESS THEN THE HIGHEST OCTANE PUMP GAS YOU CAN GET IN YOUR AREA.

You will not save any money by running midgrade fuel. What you save in fuel cost will never make up for the engine damage.

There was a guy a couple of years ago that ran cheaper fuel in his truck. He said it felt like it ran better. Everyone told him not to, but he knew better.

Well, a week later his engine was running like crap, would not idel, and was blow oil out of the breather. When his engine was torn down, three of the 6 pistons had holes in the tops.

Please do not be mean to your truck like that.

Gadget

 

I ran the fuel just for trips where I would just be in cruise control most of the time.
I'll stay with the premium.

I was just reading another post about a bad smell coming from a truck, and it made me remember that just in the last 3 weeks my truck has been smelling pretty bad when I first start up. Think this can be a sign to have the cat replaced again?

 

I'm a bit cranky this morning, but the short of it is that I can't do a whole lot until he slows down and stops changing things ad hoc. And then he has to get a decent USB->Serial adapter and firm up the connection from the laptop to the FTC-1.


4RF: The latest thing with the fuel swap wasn't a good idea. I've thought about running lower octane fuel, but the bottom line is that you're only saving about $3/tank and by the time you save any real money, you'll have caused some real issues with your engine and be spending a LOT more cash.

If you decide to get back into tweaking the FTC-1, then read Gadget's guide. It's even written directly for the box you have.

 

ditto everything mdidwall said

 

I get tired of people complaining of the cost of having to use premium gas. It's 10 cents more a gallon than mid-grade.Thats $1.70 more a tank in a Taco.Get over it.

 

I never complained. I was "testing".
I usually fill up with Sunoco 94 which is usually ~$0.20 more a gallon than premium.
I just tried it for longer trips to see if I can get away with it just for using it for cruise control.

I get no ping from Exxon 93 @ $2.199/gal, but like to use Sunoco 94 most times when I feel like going out of my way a little.

EDIT: The fact that I can burn $50-$75 worth of gas on a trip down to south Jersey and back in one day does get a little annoying.
$50 to Seaside Heights, NJ from Upper Saddle River, NJ.
200 miles round trip with some cruising in between.
Then there's always Wildwood, NJ.

 

peh. Come on out here to the upper west coast. I'm paying $2.64/gallon for 92 octane.

Put the right stuff in it and your "testing" won't become a new engine.

As for your long trips, keep it in perspective. If premium is running $0.20 more per gallon, then that's about 9%. So, running cheap gas would save about $4.50 on your $50 trip. double peh.


If the price of premium is bugging you THAT much, then pull the S/C, pull the fuel mods, sell them and be done with it. It's really very simple - do it right or don't do it. The last thing that anyone wants to hear is someone crying about the price of a new engine when THEY burned it up.



edit: side comment removed since 4RF changed his sig.

 

What was in my sig that I changed, I don't remember.

Gas price doesn't bother me, if it seems that way I am sorry.
The 10 MPG drop for the power I have now is just unjustified in my mind.
I was trying some stuff out with MPG and ping since I read a thread on here that said you get better MPG with a lower octane.


I think about pulling the S/C sometimes, because I feel it's not worth the $6,000 I spent to get some more power and have to struggle with another stock 4Runner. And since people can chirp 2nd and do some burnouts doesn't help either. I don't want power to do this all the time, I would just like to see this power. And as far as the racing, I do it just to gauge where I came from as stock to where I stand now.

As far as tuning it, I have some more questions that someone may be able to help out with.
It involves the loss of power while driving.
I can drive with my foot and it'll cut out, but it I use cruise control, it won't.
I made the exact trip 3 times this week down the shore under almost the same conditions, (temp changed by degree or two) and I drove the same route in cruise and no loss of power. I am using premium.

On one trip, there was a stretch where it must have cut out 15-20 times over 15-20 miles w/o CC. This is not fun at all when merging into traffic.

Yesterday on the way down to the shore, I had a CEL with P0300. random/multiple cylinder misfire.
As you can all tell, I am not the pro at this stuff, but I am LEANING from you guys. Afterall, it was YT that made me try my own brake, which made me so much more confident that I am not going to break stuff, and be able to stop.

I would like to get this settled before I play with the FTC, and maybe make this Alaska trip where people can poke fun at my slow/powerless ride.

I also need to start with some other mods before I make this trip with the front end steering creaking, and a new suspension. I think hauling bags of rock pretty much killed it as I hit the bumpstops with people in the rear seats.

I don't doubt that there SHOULD be more power for what I have. The initial tune from Gadget made a nice difference. I am just curious to where all my tire chirping/burnout/stock 4Runner beating power is.

BTW, has anyone heard of some 100+ octane thats like $7/gal and is purple? Nothing should happen if I run it, correct?

 

Did you ever get those wires soldered?

Feel free to come back down any time. I would live to see the cut out thing first hand. It did not do it when I was driving it, in fact I thought it ran very well.

Gadget

 

Gadget hit the main thing I was going to ask, which is "how's your power feed to the FTC1?".

Beyond that, I wanted to focus on one of your points...

Personally, I don't know of anyone that can do "unassisted" burnouts (i.e., not a brake torque) in a truck that's rigged for off-road, but I'm sure they're around.

There are basically two factors that come into play to make that happen, friction and the power (as it translates to torque) to overcome it. Applying the power is important as well; for example you can do a burnout with 10hp if it's applied right.

Friction comes from the tires of course, and surface that they're sitting on. The tires alone have a number of factors, size, compound, air pressure...

My point is that a LOT more information needs to been know about the people that can do a pure burnout in these trucks. _I_ can do a burnout in my truck, but it's actually a brake torque - that's an important difference.

Chirping has a similar sense of factors involved... I can tell you that I can chirp my tires in the shift from 1st-2nd, and that's _with_ a slipping tranny and no IPT work. But... it's a trick statement and you need to ask me how I do it. If I'm going around a _right hand_ corner with my foot to the floor and catch the shift, then I can certainly chirp the tires. The statement is true, but the method is cheating, since I'm basically unloading the driven wheel.

Now, that's not to say that you can't "expect" a chirp on a straight road, but you have to go back through the variables to figure out what's out of whack for you right now.

Again there's friction and power, but now there's a variable of how the power's getting to the tires. The 1->2 shift is tricky - the engine's running high at the top of first and the gearing for 2nd will try to load it down. To accommodate a _smooth_ shift (and to reduce wear elsewhere), there's a certain amount of slipping factored into the stock tranny. Enter IPT... When John does his thing, he can tighten up that slipping (or loosen it of course) but the _degree_ of tightening comes into question.

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being full-race-mode (i.e., NO slipping), at "10" you'll get your 1->2nd chirp (with all other factors being equal) but you'll also put a real serious load on the rest of the drivetrain. The tranny is no longer absorbing _any_ of the torque load, and it has to go somewhere, so the U joints, driveshaft, rear end, etc. all will play a harder role in this game. For a race situation, that makes since 'cause you're rebuilding the drivetrain all the time anyway. On a daily driver, that's a bad idea.

As a real-life example, there's a guy on the forum that just got his valve body back from John. Going into it, he told John that, on the 1-10 scale, he wanted a 6. John gave him a bit lighter because he towed a 6,000lb trailer at times, and the 6 would give the trailler a pretty good jolt. So, without the trailer behind the truck, he says that "the truck _wants_ to" chirp 1->2nd, but doesn't quite get there.

And, that leads me into asking you... When John did the work on your valve body, what did you tell him that you wanted?


My bottom line (this time around) will be to point out that you HAVE the power to chirp the tires. You have to address how it's applied to the tires and look at what the tires have to overcome to break free. As well, it's important to keep that power constant through the shift, which means that you need to REALLY secure all the connections to the FTC. Soldering EVERYTHING isn't a bad idea, but at least do the power leads and make sure you have a GOOD ground.

 

Yup, connection are solid. I may just be checking them again though. I was palying around by where I have it in the center console while doing an amp and radio installations, but it seemed to start after I tried to connect to the FTC.

I may be heading down that way towards Busch Gardens over the summer.

As far as it running well, that was because you tweaked it.
It was stumbling when you adjusted it, but not too bad. Now people can feel it cut out when I'm giving her gas.

I am wondering if it has maybe something to do with the colder months or the gas used in colder months.

 

I told John I wanted it a little stiffer than what he does the rest that came (or mailed) from YT since he told me it can be softened back up, but to make it stiffer, it would have to be worked again and the labor is more $$$.

The IPT mod has "broken" in and is a lot less "kick you in the ass and snap your neck" now.
(O man, when I got that done, I had a smile plastered on my face the whole ride home)

As far as traction, I have a post on YT about my CEL and VSC and TRAC lights coming on a long time ago, and I was able to spin a tire for almost a block.
Tires? Well I was playing with my truck late last night, and I held my foot on the brake and stepped on the gas to just play around, and I did it again and WTF!!! a tire actually broke loose. I didn't hold it to see how long it would do it for since it was late.

 

Do you have this stumble when you are moving the throttle or holding it steady? It might be a bad TPS, very common problem on Fords.

I am telling you that your truck was running great when I was driving it, but would like to sniff it over again. When you decide when you are heading this way let me know and give me lots of advanced notice so we can hook up.

Now, I have to ask you again. Are the FTC connections soldered or not?

Gadget

 

While my wife's 99 SR5 is NOT s/c, I recently replaced the TPS. The car would not idle properly and would surge/stumble during acceleration. Above say 2500 RPM and the stumble went away. New TPS= good as new.

 

Yes they are soldiered. I will run over the connections again, just in case something may have come loose. I couldn't today with all the rain.

I'll look into the TPS.
Do you think a bad cat can be causing this? I did have this problem before and the cat was replaced, and it went away soon after from what I recall.

And you know what sucks? My truck just came out from warranty and I get the stearing creaking. Would have been nice to have all the "grease" fittings replaced with zerks.

I know many people may not pop into this thread, but those who do, do you know how you go about getting and extended warranty? Is it worth it for me since they may find the fuel mods?

I took it in for warranty work once or twice while I had the URD stuff installed, and one time was for the front cat.

 

The following is from: http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/dir....ee95049/10631

10637 of 10760 Re: [sjohnson2] by zeetech Apr 15, 2005 (9:21 pm)


Hello!
I don't know if this problem is already fixed or not. I'm a master tech (independent),and I have fixed this problem on few Toyotas- the dealer failed on it. The problem is the TPS (throttle position sensor) .There is a glitch on the variable resistor inside the sensor. Will not set the CEL (check engine light) and it can be detected only with a labscope -the dealer must have one- it must be set on a slow time, and the throttle must be fully open and close to see the glitch on the scope. CAN'T be detected with voltmeter. An average signal is : about 0.5 volt with closed throttle and about 4.5 volts with WOT (wide open throttle) What happens is, during the opening the signal voltage drops to 0 for few milisecond, that what makes the ECM nuts. The test wont take more than 20 minutes, however I like to test it when it's cold and warm. I don't usually run the engine but warm up the sensor with a heat gun or a good hair dryer. I hope this will help.
Good luck!
Zee

 

Still wanna meet up? I think I may head down in in July. I have to see where I can schedule vacation.
Maybe I can drive/ride in both yours and Gadgets trucks to see what real power is supposed to feel like