[coolhandluke]

I found an XCAL 2 for sale locally that I plan on purchasing today. The guy used it on his diesel truck but it is the SCT Xcalibrator2 FORD Power Tuner. This will work on my 06 regardless of what vehicle it has been used on as long as it is unlocked and I purchase and upload the custom tune right?

This should be the XCAL that I am looking at buying...

SCT XCalibrator 2 OBD-II Flash Tool 1996-2007 Ford Cars and Trucks

Thanks again guys...hopefully this will be the end of my xcal questions.

[Trick Tuners]

Yes. Its probably a SF version, but they can be converted to the regular version to accept custom tunes, but cannot be returned back to the SF version after that.

[TheUNZippee!]

Call me crazy, but I'm paranoid about purchasing a used tuner that is used to change the parameters of the main brain on my 30 thousand dollar car, all for the sake of saving, what? 20, 30, 40 bucks?

Obviously that's easy for me to say, as I don't know your personal financial situation. But were it me, I would save for anew one, and purchase it from one of the vendors of this site, such as bamachips, brenspeed, or trick tuners^

[06BeastGT]

Originally Posted by TheUNZippee! Call me crazy, but I'm paranoid about purchasing a used tuner that is used to change the parameters of the main brain on my 30 thousand dollar car, all for the sake of saving, what? 20, 30, 40 bucks? Obviously that's easy for me to say, as I don't know your personal financial situation. But were it me, I would save for anew one, and purchase it from one of the vendors of this site, such as bamachips, brenspeed, or trick tuners^

I agree 100% with that!!!

[coolhandluke]

Originally Posted by TheUNZippee! Call me crazy, but I'm paranoid about purchasing a used tuner that is used to change the parameters of the main brain on my 30 thousand dollar car, all for the sake of saving, what? 20, 30, 40 bucks? Obviously that's easy for me to say, as I don't know your personal financial situation. But were it me, I would save for anew one, and purchase it from one of the vendors of this site, such as bamachips, brenspeed, or trick tuners^

I'm looking at $195 total for the xcal 2 and tune from Trick Tuners vs. $379 for the new tuner + the additional cost of the custom tune.

What issues can you run into with purchasing a used xcal 2? In the limited amount of time that I have been able to research I haven't heard any negatives other than purchasing a locked xcal or the fact that it isn't cost effective ($200 for the xcal + $115 for tune vs. $379 new).

I thought that the custom tunes were more of an issue in regards to risking damage to your car than the actual tuner it's self.

[TheUNZippee!]

Originally Posted by coolhandluke I'm looking at $195 total for the xcal 2 and tune from Trick Tuners vs. $379 for the new tuner + the additional cost of the custom tune. What issues can you run into with purchasing a used xcal 2? In the limited amount of time that I have been able to research I haven't heard any negatives other than purchasing a locked xcal or the fact that it isn't cost effective ($200 for the xcal + $115 for tune vs. $379 new). I thought that the custom tunes were more of an issue in regards to risking damage to your car than the actual tuner it's self.

The main problem you can run in to when purchasing a used tuner, is that the unit has never been unmarried from the vehicle it was purchased for. Meaning, that the owner never uploaded the factory tune from that tuner back to the car. Until that is done, that tuner is 'married' to that car.

Obviously, you can have your other typical problems, the tuner doesn't work, it's physically broken, etc.

I'm not trying to scare you off used units, as many members here have bought and use them with success. I'm just putting my own feelings of paranoia out there regarding used electronics. lol

Any custom tune is a risk, but only if it's done incorrectly. Any of the three vendors here I mentioned will give you great tunes, and on the off chance you have a problem with a tune, they will also take great care of you and fix anything you need.

[coolhandluke]

Originally Posted by Trick Tuners Yes. Its probably a SF version, but they can be converted to the regular version to accept custom tunes, but cannot be returned back to the SF version after that.

What do you have to do to convert the SF unit to accept custom tunes? Does it have to be sent into SCT???

[07KenneBellChargedGT]

Don't buy a used tuner man.
I got sent one from stangmods.com and it was, as mentioned above, "married" to the other car and would not allow me to use it.

[coolhandluke]

I think that everyone is right...

I'm just going to save up the extra $200 and buy the X3 with the custom tune from Brenspeed for $379. No sense in screwing up my pcm or being stuck with a locked/ married tuner. It will be alot less work in the end too...

Joe, if you guys sell the x3 with the custom tune I will look at buying one from you first since you've been so much help.

Thanks.

[TheUNZippee!]

It's worth the wait man.

[beefmobile]

i paid $250 for a used one on ebay and it was outdated AND locked. so i raised hell and had them pay me $120 to get it updated/unlocked. Be careful with that, but it could turn out to be a perfectly good tuner that u can use....but again...the risk....

[coolhandluke]

The guy said that it was unmarried/ unlocked and that he had used the xcal with custom tunes and returned the truck to stock.

He also said that if I bought the tunes he would even load the tune onto the car so that I could see that it worked before purchasing.

Sounds like a great deal for $155...that's why I was up in the air about buying the used instead of the new.

[07KenneBellChargedGT]

Good luck to you whichever way you go brother.

[beefmobile]

If he offered to do that, then i would go for it. The main risk comes in when they're all the way across the country and try to convince you it will work.

[06RedfireGT]

If it is local I would go for it because then you can make sure that it is unlocked.

[joeice14]

I would go with Joe at trick tuners... Hes a great guy and will help you out and walk you through everything... He got me through a couple problems having to do with my ECU...

[coolhandluke]

Originally Posted by 06RedfireGT If it is local I would go for it because then you can make sure that it is unlocked.

If I go to the guy's house and hook it up to my car without my custom tune loaded, what should the unit say if it is unlocked?

Joe from Trick Tuners stated that it may be an SF unit that would need to be converted before you could run a custom tune. If he he was already running a custom tune for his truck on it that means that I should just be able to get the tune from Trick Tunes and it would work without any conversion right?

Dang...you guys are making me flip flop more than a politician on this one.