| ford Power Stroke Platinum Edge Juice ford Towing
An early snowstorm had dusted the mountains behind Ogden, Utah, home of Edge Products. We had come to cover its annual Weekend on the Edge Drags and Dyno Day, a power party with live music, a barbecue, show-n-shine specialty vehicles on display, and all three of the Edge dynamometers open for testing. It was a bit noisy, as you might imagine.
We were covering our ears as a big propane-injected Dodge Ram pushed past 800 hp when Aaron Stewart, one of the company's army of technicians, motioned us aside. "Want to take a spin with the new Platinum Juice with Attitude?" Five minutes later, we were behind the wheel of an '06 Power Stroke F-350.
We glanced in the mirror to see if the 24-foot gooseneck horse trailer was still with us because, frankly, we couldn't tell. In level 2 "Tow Mode," the new Platinum Edge Juice with Attitude for the 6.0L Power Stroke was producing an extra 60 hp and an additional 120 lb-ft of torque. The TorqShift automatic in the tow/haul mode seemed quite happy to hold the steep grade at about 3,000 rpm. Coming down the backside of the hill, we tapped the brake pedal a couple of times, and the rpm jumped to 3,600 and kept our speed in check (you gotta love that 4,000 rpm redline). We were, once again, impressed with how well the trailer braking system on the '06 Super Duty performed. There were no horses in the back, so our exploratory panic stops went unnoticed by anyone except Aaron. He just smiled.
We stopped for coffee and turned the key off to get out, but the engine kept running! Aaron explained that one of the new features of the Platinum for the '06 Power Stroke was the turbo timer that prolongs turbo life by allowing the truck to continue running after shut-off until a predetermined exhaust gas temperature or length of time is reached. Cool! No more sitting for a minute or more at a rest stop or in your driveway tapping your fingers, watching the pyrometer slowly drop to a safe level. You can set the EGT you want the system to monitor, pull out the key, lock the door, and walk away, or you can override the feature by simply tapping the brake after you turn the key off.
Other great features of the Platinum Juice with Attitude include defueling during shifts, during transmission slip, torque converter clutch lock-up, and the ability to adjust shift firmness and torque converter lockup points. We flipped back and forth between normal and advanced modes, and the difference was quite remarkable. You can even tell the transmission under which conditions you want a firm shift, like between First and Second.
The digital screen also shows corrected speed by taking into account changes in tire size and axle ratio. There are selectable audio alerts for EGT, speed, boost, and engine and transmission temperatures. The Platinum offers automatic defueling to prevent excessive EGT, turbo boost, and transmission slip.
The Platinum Attitude displays all the information that a set of gauges would-and more, including rpm, boost, EGT, transmission gear, transmission fluid temperature, 0-60 and quarter-mile times, transmission slip, intake air temperature, engine oil temperature, torque converter slip percentage (when torque converter is locked), engine coolant temperature, load percentage, throttle percentage, and engine time on. It can also display and clear "trouble codes."
For race applications, the Platinum Juice with Attitude can remove the speed limiter. Like the previous Juice with Attitude, the new version dramatically improves driveability, towing performance, and mileage, with five on-the-fly adjustable power levels for 40, 60, 80, or 100 extra ponies-or even 115 more horsepower with the Hot Juice upgrade. Installation time is still only about 30 minutes.
The following day, when the smoke and noise had cleared, David Bigelow, R&D Engineer at Edge, walked us through the 30-minute installation of the Platinum Juice with Attitude. The instructions are very complete, allowing even an inexperienced shade-tree mechanic to do the work. In a nutshell, the factory PCM plugs are easily accessed on the driver's fenderwell behind the battery after removal of the plastic battery cover. The Edge adapter harness is plugged into these PCM sockets and then attached to the factory harness. The Juice module is attached with Velcro or double-sided tape to a convenient location near the power-steering fluid reservoir.
The EGT thermocouple is installed in the exhaust manifold by drilling a 5/16-inch hole and using a 1/8-inch NPT, available at most hardware stores; detailed instructions walk you through the process. The connectors are then attached to the leads from the Attitude monitor, and the adjustable back-lit monitor itself is snapped into its dash mounting bracket. That's as simple as it gets.
With the installation completed, there are various parameters we could set, such as target EGT for the turbo cool-down mode and max EGT, which defuels the engine if it approaches dangerous exhaust gas temperatures. The Cold Engine Protection prevents the Juice module from adding additional fuel until after the engine reaches normal operating temperature.
We strapped the F-350 on the company's Superflow Windyn dyno for some testing. We were specifically interested in the "best gain," which is where torque and horsepower cross paths around 2,750 rpm. In the "0" or stock setting, the engine achieved 225 hp and 430 lb-ft of torque. Punching the Attitude dash-mounted screen up to level 6, "Hot Juice," our peak horsepower jumped to 430 and torque climbed to 660 lb-ft. That's a gain of 120 hp, five more than advertised, and a 230 lb-ft increase in torque.
The Platinum Juice with Attitude has a suggested retail price of $1,099. Check your local performance shop for the best price.
