Never had a Ford and my last was a Malibu, every vehicle I've had has had a fairly linear throttle where I actually have to press it to go.
I also experience this "hiccup" under acceleration....It's an up and down feeling at times. Especially from a dead stop as the turbo spools up. When I get in my Acura the differences are very appearant...Smooth acceleration from a dead stop or not. I just accept it on my Ford being a 4 cylc turbo truck.
The Ford tune is the only one you have (or should have to retain the warranty) a dealer instal. All the other aftermarket tunes are DYI. Doc has the Unleashed tune and I'm running the Livernois tune and both are very good and really make a huge difference in how the truck performs. Not just in overall power but the shifting is much smoother too.
I'm out of factory warranty, is there some other limited warranty on these that I would void? Was thinking of getting the Ford extended so I have all the damn electronics covered
You have to add the extended Ford warranty before the 3/36 is up. The electronics were the only reason I bought my extended warranty. If you ever had a problem they have to prove the tune caused this but they can still deny you and then you'll have to try and fight them over it. 5 star tuning has a warranty you can buy through them and IIRC it's around $1,000.
I think it changes from manufacturer to manufacturer. Subaru and Ford seem to have a "heavy tip-in" which appeals to some people. The OP had a Malibu, which has a very linear throttle, and similar vehicles to that throttle tip-in would be the Acadia, Tacoma, Silverado, Camry, etc. while Subies, Fords, BMWs, and other (mostly performance) brands tend to tip in a lot further.
I primarily commute on high way for work between properties so 100 mile stretches, typically on cruise (since the auto cruise or whatever kinda rocks!) I'm thinking i'm a rather normal driver lol.
Once flashed just unplug the unit. I like to keep it in my glovebox just in case there's a glitch it's with me. There are some temp reading in there so you can leave it connected for those if you want. If you decide you want to use it for those make sure you order the suction mount when you get the tuner.
After placing the order you'll receive the MyCal tuner. Then you upload your stock Ranger tune to it and follow the instructions to send it to Livernois. They usually send you all 5 tunes but in the notes just request that they do. Also let them know if you want A/S/S removed as I think they do that now unless noted. You'll receive an email that your tunes are ready then follow the instructions to download them to the MyCal tuner. Now they're all there for you to flash whichever one you want. I would allow a couple thousand miles to let the truck "learn" each tune. I love the 91-93 soft shift tune and and have running that one for the past 2 years.
I haven't because I have a Mac and my friend who's PC I used for the tune has moved. I've been happy with the older one for now until I can find someone else's PC to use. I don't want to partition the hard drive or run parallels just for this.
