SCT Performance’s new X4 Power Flash offers a number of new features, including wireless updates
By Steve Turner
Photos by Steve Turner and courtesy of Matt Alderman/SCT Performance
When it comes to modding modern Fords, you can’t change much without telling the computer running the show what is going on. If you don’t do so, you are asking for trouble. What that means is tuning your vehicle’s powertrain control module with a handheld flash tuner.
Here is the sleek, new SCT X4 Power Flash handheld tuner. It’s new color screen is but one of the exciting new features. It will hold 10 different custom tunes, so you’ll be able to dial in your performance Ford for any conceivable configuration.
In our travels chasing tech stories for SVTP it was quite common for tuners across the country to pull out a X3 Power Flash tuner from SCT Performance to do that job. Well, as successful as that unit was, the realities of production meant that some of the parts needed to build that unit were scarce. It was time for something new.
“It was time for a change,†Tim Roi, Director of Marketing at SCT Performance and Bully Dog said. “Even though the X3/SF3 product was the most popular tuning product on the market, getting components for it was getting harder and harder. It was at its end of life and our customers wanted more features.â€
Well if you are going to build a new device, why not make some upgrades along the way? That’s the way it is with electronics. We always expect a few more bells and whistles from the next generation. With those things in mind, the tuning specialists at SCT Performance developed the new X4 Power Flash handheld tuner, and it sports a number of new options.
When you are buying new tech, the packaging connotes much about your purchase. In the case of the SCT X4, one look at the box tells you you’ve picked up a top-notch piece of kit. It typically retails for right around $400.
“A bigger color screen and on-screen data monitoring with gauges are a few of the new additions,†Tim explained. “The built-in WiFi has also been a big hit. Updating our devices in the past was not a great customer experience. Adding WiFi and making this process easier is one of the best features it has.â€
Yes, the headlining new features are the color screen and the built-in WiFi connectivity. Certainly the new screen looks great, but you might ask why the wireless connection is important? Well, if you have ever needed to update your devices firmware and didn’t have a PC handy, you’ll be stoked to have the WiFi there to simplify the job.
“Our customers love it. It’s small, reliable, has all of the features they asked for and close to the price of our X3/SF3 devices it replaced,†Tim added. “It’s a connected world so the possibilities are endless. But for now, it is just to help make using our products easier.â€
To see the new X4 in action, we stopped into SCT headquarters to see SCT calibrator Matt Alderman developing some new built-in tune files for a full Kooks Custom Headers exhaust on a Coyote 5.0 using his 2014 Mustang GT project car. For this installment, Matt’s ride was warmed up with Boss 302 heads, a custom cam setup up, a Ford Racing Cobra Jet intake, and a Ford Racing Cobra Jet cold-air intake, so it was a good candidate for the full exhaust system.
When you unbox the X4, you’ll immediately notice that it is a smaller, sleeker device than the popular X3 Power Flash it supplants in the SCT product line. It definitely looks like a more modern tuner. The plastic cling on the front of the device warns you to update the firmware before you start loading tunes into your car. Fortunately the X4’s new features make this much easier.
Once you have updated your X4 firmware, you are ready to plug it into the OBD-II port. However, before you starting uploading a tune, you’ll want to make sure there are no trouble codes lurking in the processor. If they are present, you’ll want to fix the issues and clear the codes with the X4. If you get the all clear, you are ready to tune.
Ah, now we can get down to the good stuff. Once you select one of the 10 onboard tunes—either preloaded tunes from SCT or custom tunes from the tuner of your choice—then you can flash the vehicle.
Once you pick the tune, particularly the out-of-the-box tunes, you may want to tweak some things like the axle ratio to ensure your speedo is correct. Once you make the needed adjustments, you can start the flashing process.
First the X4 saves your vehicle’s stock programming in case you need to return the car to its stock configuration down the road.
With the stock file securely stored aboard the X4, the process continues by uploading the tune file into the PCM.
Now you are ready to run. Whether you are just driving it around or hitting the dyno, you might want to put it in gauge mode and datalog a few key parameters—like air/fuel and boost—to ensure everything is running properly. You can log most OBD-II parameters and even input any 0-to-5-volt signal from an outside source.
When we dropped by to check out the X4, our pal and SCT calibrator, Matt Alderman, was wrapping up some tune files to be included on SCT devices for a complete Kooks exhaust system on an ’11-and-up 5.0-liter Mustang. Naturally, he was using his familiar ’14 Mustang GT as the test bed. As you can see, he had also recently installed the Ford Racing Cobra Jet cold-air intake to develop a tune file for that intake as well.
Matt installed Kooks’ complete exhaust system for 2011-2014 GTs (PN Bundle6; $ as configured: $2,775.23). It includes the company’s 1 ¾-inch headers (PN 60-41-175) and the catted mid-pipe (PN 60-42-CATX) seen here. Working with the complete system made it simple for Matt to deliver an off-the-shelf tune for those that want to run this system.
From the headers back, the Kooks system is 3-inch stainless and it terminates in this 3-inch after-cat exhaust equipped with Kooks Polished Oval Race Mufflers that feature 4-inch tips. It looks and sounds great on Matt’s high-revving Coyote.
Here Matt is flashing his ’14 GT with its new Kooks-friendly tune. One really cool feature of the X4 that you might overlook is the removable cable. You can see the cable here plugged into the to of the device. When you are done flashing and datalogging, you can divorce the X4 and its cable to make storing the device much easier. Likewise, if you ever have the misfortune to damage the cable, you can always buy a replacement and plug it right in.
As you can see, Matt has made numerous changes to his car since we last saw it. That’s the nature of a test car owned by an SCT calibrator. The baseline run here was pretty much as we last saw it with the exception of the Ford Racing CJ cold-air exhaust. Replacing his mix-and-match exhaust system with the complete Kooks setup and applying that new tune with the X4 Power Flash yielded peak gains of 30.01 horsepower and 9.97 lb-ft of torque.
