Tuning Revisions

I have owned my 1998 E350 diesel van since new. At 750,000 miles my original injectors were tired and it was then that I added the Hydra chip, single shot injectors, new turbo and exhaust. I didn't really know what to expect but was told it would help my towing. The tunes that I was supplied with were just generic and although I certainly had improved performance, it was not ideal. It was nerve wracking pulling hills with climbing EGTs and shifting all over the boards. It felt uncontrolled. I put up with this for a full year because I didn't know it could be made better through the tuning. Reading blogs and hearing others comment on the importance of custom tuning made me curious. I watched a YouTube video that mentioned Brian and Jelibuilt as a great source for custom tuning. So I reached out and Brian sent me tune updates based on the parts set up I had and from the driving response info I gave him. This made a world of difference. Much better driving experience. His custom tunes gave me the best performance given the limitations of the injector size and turbo I was running but it was still far from ideal when towing. His tunes were good, but the parts set up wasn't right for what I was doing. More research and a failed injector led me to upgrade to 180/30 injectors and a KC Turbo Gen3 Stage 1 turbo. These parts created a whole different animal. But once again, the old tunes were not perfect with these new parts. Yes I had way more power. Yes this turbo is a game changer in boost and in lowering EGTs. But the tuning was not correct. So I reached out once again to have Brian customize the tunes for my new set up. OMG what a difference! This van was now FUN to drive!!! I had never said that about the van before. Yes it could tow anything. Yes it was reliable. But it wasn't exciting to drive. Suddenly that had changed because of Brian's tuning. There was still one final adjustment I needed him to make. I found that the transmission would shift into overdrive in the Daily Driver, Light Tow, and Heavy Tow tunes at 50mph no matter what! This was way too low and the van would struggle to accelerate at that point until it reached 60 mph. Imagine trying to merge into traffic that is moving at 70mph when you're towing and making no power in Overdrive lugging at 50 mph. It was nerve wracking and really not safe. I didn't know if it was the fault of my transmission or the tuning. But I knew it needed to be addressed. My transmission was suspect so I upgraded to a BTS transmission. This required a tuning upgrade so I gave Brian the adjustments BTS recommended and that I hoped he could make revisions to account for that drop into Overdrive at 50. He quickly sent me the new tunes, I wish everyone reading this could drive my van now and experience just how amazing the transformation is. The new tunes are amazing!!! It is stunning how quick it is up through the gears and also how smooth it shifts...how perfect the "hand offs" are from gear to gear. The final shift into Overdrive is close to 60mph and that is exactly where it should be. It can launch now from that point in Overdrive to 70mph or higher no problem. The tuning is perfect. The performance is awesome! Even towing light or heavy...it shifts perfectly at just the precise moments it should. I was expecting the EGTs to climb greatly but that isn't the case at all. It just PULLS smoothly and powerfully. I feel like I gained 100 horsepower! I get it now. I understand what this Hydra chip is all about. You can upgrade parts on the 7.3 platform - bigger injectors / different turbos / better exhaust set ups / better performance transmissions / etc. etc. But to really appreciate a harmony of these parts, you need custom tuning. To get the most out of your parts upgrades, you need custom tuning. That's what the Hydra is for and Brian is a wizard at this. This is where all his experience at tuning 7.3s becomes invaluable to each of us trying to improve our trucks. He gave me exactly what I hoped my van could be and then some!!! It's just a pure joy to drive now. No matter what I'm doing I have the perfect tune for it and the performance is awesome! Thank you Brian! It's FUN to drive now!!! -Karl

Had a great experience with Brian while sorting out the new revisions on my 7.3.

Great clean tunes!