New Tuner and CAI causing Turbo noise and Engine Misfire

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JDAZGuy

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Hi All,

I tried to find posts similar to the issue I'm having but not finding enough specifics to point me to a cause of what I'm experiencing. So apologies up front, if this is asked somewhere on this forum and I missed it.

Yesterday I had an Edge HT2 Tuner installed and a S&B Cold Air Intake on my 2019 SCREW. They had set the tune to the 93 Octane tune and I have 91 octane gas in the truck. I didn't get a chance to really test it on the drive home but definitely could feel the difference in power. Today I went pheasant hunting and on the drive out I opened it up to see what it could do. I quickly got the yellow wrench light. I pulled over, turned it off and the light went away, so I continued on my way.

The area I hunted was very dusty and after the hunt (got 4 birds) I started home. As soon as I got up to speed the turbo started a very loud whistling noise, it didn't have that until after the dirt roads today. Worried that I would be stranded I pulled over and set the tune back to stock. The loud turbo whistled continued with the stock setting and within about 5 miles from home I got a check engine light and very bad idle and acceleration. Got home and plugged the Edge tuner back in to check the codes. I have P0300, 301, 302, and 303 DTC codes. Engine misfires on all cylinders.

I've read the posts that suggested maybe an air leak or that I now have an imbalance of air pressure form the CAI. Just not sure how to isolate it? The truck never went into limp mode but its bad enough I don't want to drive until I figure this out.

Is the tune not compatible? Is the CAI throwing my sensors off? Do I need a modified exhaust to have a CAI? I just wanted a bit more performance but not at the expense of my truck being reliable.

Would really appreciate some insight from you pro's.

Thanks
 

isis

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Not sure about problems but you really should start with an appropriate tune for the octane available to you. The noise is probably the turbos being louder through the CAI. I assume you just didn’t hear it before because you said you didn’t get a chance to test it. If their tune hampers the trucks sensitivity to detonation you really really need the proper octane fuel.
 
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JDAZGuy

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Thanks Isis. Symptoms are still there when setting it back to stock tune, 87 tune, etc.

As an update, I was in the driveway and noticed I have white smoke pouring out the exhaust regardless of the tune setting. Ive called the dealership to have it towed in an looked at. Hope I didn't do something stupid (aka. $$$$). Have done the same upgrades to other truck but never had an issue like this.
 

Joey DeLorenzo

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Well...white smoke typically means coolant is being burned and consumed, which is never a good sign, probably a good idea to have it towed to be inspected.

I'm not entirely sure who EDGE is or what they're all about, but aftermarket calibrations, especially from a company like that who seems to be primarily in the diesel business (based on a quick glance their media), doesn't seem to be the best. It's definitely a matter of you get what you pay for with these things. A company like Cobb, which has worked with smaller displacement, turbo charged, petrol engines, has millions of dollars of R&D to produce a steady and reliable tune. Yeah, their tuner is 1.5 times as much, or more if you get the TCM upgrade, but I personally believe it's worth it.

This all being said, these trucks seem to throw a wrench if you go WOT in some gears...but it DEFINITELY shouldn't be for misfire.

My guess is your tune/calibration isn't incorporating a "knock" sensing parameter and adapting, and because you were running an octane too low for the tune, the engine was detonating, burning unevenly and misfiring. This is a super car derivative engine with tight tolerance so detonation will never be a good thing.
 
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JDAZGuy

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You are probably right Joey. The Edge tuner was a recommendation from 4-Wheel Parts where I bought it. I was looking for expertise but possibly they pointed me towards "their" brand without much "expertise". Just hoping I didnt blow an O-ring over it... As far as lower octane vs. the setting, your comment makes alot of sense. But after clearing codes and setting back to stock I would have thought that would go away? Fingers crossed... I will report back on the outcome.
 

Joey DeLorenzo

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I guess really that depends on what "Stock" means to the EDGE EvoHT2....the Cobb Accessport copies the stock calibration (if you elect to do so) when you install a tune with it. So when you revert back to "Stock" it literally loads the file you had on the ECU previously, since all a tune is a calibration file and that file contains values the ECU sources, it should be "the same". If the EDGE EvoHT2 DID duplicate your stock calibration then, yes, the issue should've resolved itself within a couple miles when the ECU's "inferred octane" would have picked up it was 91 octane...unless the detonation caused damage (which would explain the consumed coolant)...although misfires could be caused by A LOT of issues...

Now lets say the EDGE EvoHT2 DID NOT save your stock calibration file and instead put a generic "Stock" calibration on it from who knows where, the issue could still be there.
 
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JDAZGuy

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Again, good point. Simmering on this hard lesson learned... I would love to drive it a couple a miles to see if the reset to "stock tune" resolves itself, but at this point Im going to protect my investment and have the dealer decide. But one question - taking the tuner out of the picture, do you think the S&B CAI could be an issue? As I mentioned above I didn't change the exhaust because I was led to believe I could do the CAI without changing the exhaust. What do you think?
 

Joey DeLorenzo

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I mean the white smoke is a pretty good indicator there is something wrong (and just to be sure, this definitely isn't the whispy white smoke on start up like on a cold morning, right?). If coolant is being consumed by the motor and put into the exhaust then something, somewhere, is leaking coolant in the combustion process. Even if the knock is gone and the fuel is burning evenly again, the coolant is still being consumed and that's still a massive issue, which could be causing misfires. I'm not @FordTechOne by any stretch, but in my very basic understanding, if coolant is making it's way into the combustion chamber, and coolant is NOT very compressible, in this tight tolerance engine, you could be seeing misfiring and timing issues. Again, I'm not a mechanic, just a dude on the internet.

S&B CAIs seem to be pretty good per users on this forum. I don't use a CAI. I prefer no bolt on mods on my vehicle(s) (past tense since I've never owned more than 1 at once) unless truly required. The less obvious it is to a dealership that the vehicle is modified the better because I'm all about that warranty.
 
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