Ford News: Can Ford keep up with changing market conditions?

Hey, I said I was starting to see the appeal, not that I’m going full Mad Max and ripping all the computers out of everything I own! One of the things that really made me question it though was when Moates went out of business. For the OBD1 stuff, that was pretty much a death sentence for tuning. Luckily they came back, and you better believe I bought a few extra J3 chips, but what happens if/when they go under again? On the flip side, I can’t imagine a scenario in my lifetime where I couldn’t buy a Holley jet kit. EFI and electronic ignition is definitely the superior combination for reliability and drivability, but if you can’t service it, that becomes a major problem!
 
MadMikeyL said:
Hey, I said I was starting to see the appeal, not that I’m going full Mad Max and ripping all the computers out of everything I own! One of the things that really made me question it though was when Moates went out of business. For the OBD1 stuff, that was pretty much a death sentence for tuning. Luckily they came back, and you better believe I bought a few extra J3 chips, but what happens if/when they go under again? On the flip side, I can’t imagine a scenario in my lifetime where I couldn’t buy a Holley jet kit. EFI and electronic ignition is definitely the superior combination for reliability and drivability, but if you can’t service it, that becomes a major problem!
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Not to mention when the EPA crackdown happened with SCT/bullydog they overnight pulled accessibility to certain parameters in the Pro Racer software that we had to take tests to regain access. What happens if there’s another crackdown that’s more severe? What happens if the parent company derivesystems goes out of business? Pro racer will go with it.
 
Yeah, we got the front edge of the electronics revolution hitting ignitions.
EEC4 worked, was effective, but those processors were too lightweight for doing too much, we offload other functions into other boxes; abs,climate,radio, cell phone.
Now they want a networked,satellite-connected ad-serving,auto-driving, home office and mobile theater combo, any portion of which bricks the car if it doesn't work.
With our eec V processors and sct software, I should be ok for the future.
If sct goes away, we are screwed. I think files already on disk can be loaded to xcal device without dongle, so I've written tunes for all my heads/piston/cams combos, just in case. :)
 
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XR7-4.6 said:
Not to mention when the EPA crackdown happened with SCT/bullydog they overnight pulled accessibility to certain parameters in the Pro Racer software that we had to take tests to regain access. What happens if there’s another crackdown that’s more severe? What happens if the parent company derivesystems goes out of business? Pro racer will go with it.
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This is why I never let my computer with Advantage on wi-fi, and I never update the program. Granted the burn counter never resets but I've settled into a happy spot where I've not needed to write any tunes for years.
 
I think EFI is great and the aftermarket systems are cool too. I am curious to see how reliable/durable the aftermarket systems are over time when compared to OEM. That said, if I had the choice between some brand new CAN bussed 5000 separate modules late model car and something from the 60's with carb and points that i couldn't upgrade to electronic ignition, heck yeah I'm taking the car from the 60's. Honestly, I'd take the car from the 60's regardless, BUT you get my point. Technology is great up to a point until it becomes burdensome and unreliable. I believe we have reached that point.
 
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