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Joined: Dec 2004
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Campfire Member
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Are they worth the money? I'd like to get a bit more power out of my truck for pulling my enclosed trailer, which weighs about 42-4300lbs when loaded. My truck is rated for 7500lbs, she pulls the loaded enclosed trailer pretty easily but she sucks the gas and i'd like to improve on that if it's possible. Any suggestions besides "get a Cummins or Hemi"? What kind of truck you got? Does it have stock tires and stock ride height? I recently bought a Diablo ITune for my 2011 Silverado. I been running it for about a week and have seen about a 1 mpg increase mostly rural driving 35-55 mph speeds. I can't say there is a differenc in power but it does feel a little more responsive. Also the trans shifts crisper than before. The unit was 399.00 and it is a plug and play tune. You can chose between a 93,89 and 87 octane tune and a mpg tune. I'm running the 87 octane tune right now for a test. I'm going to try the others soon, I like to run a tune for a week normal driving to see if there are any differences. I ran a Predator on my 07 Dmax and loved it but you do not get the increase in performance with the gas engines like you do with the diesels. I mainly got the tuner because I'm going to put bigger tires and a leveling kit on the truck in a few weeks so I will need to change the tire size in the ECM. My experience has been whem you change the tire size it impacts the performance of the truck alot. I wish I still had my diesel, once you tow with a diesel you get spoiled. I thought I didn't need it anymore but now I'm buying a camper so things have changed. The camper only weighs 5200lb dry but loaded its about 7500 which my truck is rated for 8900 but a diesel would pull it a lot easier than my 1/2 ton. If you tow a lot then the extra fuel cost and such is worth it. However sometimes you have to do the best with what you got.
Last edited by jmt277; 02/15/12.
magnums the only way to shoot
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Joined: Mar 2012
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I have a Ford 7.3 diesel and love the tuner. Two cautions for all tuner users. Maintain increased airflow to control exhaust temperature, and don't tow with a hot setting. Tow with a tuner set-up for towing. Otherwise you can overheat and potentially blow-up engines. Talk to someone in a shop that works on tow vehicles a lot.
The only cure for life and death is to enjoy the interval.
George Santayana
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Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 2,386
Campfire Regular
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Are they worth the money? I'd like to get a bit more power out of my truck for pulling my enclosed trailer, which weighs about 42-4300lbs when loaded. My truck is rated for 7500lbs, she pulls the loaded enclosed trailer pretty easily but she sucks the gas and i'd like to improve on that if it's possible. Any suggestions besides "get a Cummins or Hemi"? What kind of truck you got? Does it have stock tires and stock ride height? I recently bought a Diablo ITune for my 2011 Silverado. I been running it for about a week and have seen about a 1 mpg increase mostly rural driving 35-55 mph speeds. I can't say there is a differenc in power but it does feel a little more responsive. Also the trans shifts crisper than before. The unit was 399.00 and it is a plug and play tune. You can chose between a 93,89 and 87 octane tune and a mpg tune. I'm running the 87 octane tune right now for a test. I'm going to try the others soon, I like to run a tune for a week normal driving to see if there are any differences. I ran a Predator on my 07 Dmax and loved it but you do not get the increase in performance with the gas engines like you do with the diesels. I mainly got the tuner because I'm going to put bigger tires and a leveling kit on the truck in a few weeks so I will need to change the tire size in the ECM. My experience has been whem you change the tire size it impacts the performance of the truck alot. I wish I still had my diesel, once you tow with a diesel you get spoiled. I thought I didn't need it anymore but now I'm buying a camper so things have changed. The camper only weighs 5200lb dry but loaded its about 7500 which my truck is rated for 8900 but a diesel would pull it a lot easier than my 1/2 ton. If you tow a lot then the extra fuel cost and such is worth it. However sometimes you have to do the best with what you got. Diablo makes the best tuners for gas engines IMO.
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 932
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On my 2000 Dodge 1500, I have a SCT tuner from hemifevertuning.com and it really woke my Dodge up. However, I will add this caveat, Dodge severely undertuned the 360s and 318s to deal with the leaky plenum. This is commonly referred to as the "deathflash"
I generally use the economy tune on the SCT and did notice around 2 mpg increase.
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Joined: Aug 2011
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Had an edge evolution chip in my 7.3 ford. Helped a lot. that being said - you can get a large gain just by the fuel. #1 doesn't produce as much power as the usld. #2 fuel if your truck will run it makes a noticeable increase in power and fuel economy.
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Joined: Dec 2007
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On the diesel side, it is a much different story. Would you elaborate? How do chips on diesels work? I have seen some that promise better MPG and more power - always thought these were mutually exclusive. How do the chips work for towing?
Ed
A person who asks a question is a fool for 5 minutes the person who never asks is a fool forever.
The worst slaves are those that put the chains on themselves.
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It is my understanding that chips work better on diesels because diesel engines as a whole are much more efficient than gassers, therefore they can make better use of the added performance given with a chip.
Adding performance without adding airflow causes EGTs (Exhaust Gas Temps) to go through the roof and ruins engines, towing also increases EGT's so you get the picture. As someone else said to run a tow tune on your chip not one of the high HP tunes. Most guys I know that run chips have a pyrometer and guages to keep a close eye on whats going on with their engines and transmissions.
ETA: The only reason I would chip would be if I ran a delete kit (EGR, DPF or Urea) to keep the dummy light off. I know they make crazy power but I would stick to the milder ones if I did it with the delete and straight pipes for better MPG and lower EGTs...
Last edited by TakeEm; 04/11/12.
Isaiah 6:8
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Joined: Jan 2002
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The reason they work for diesels is that diesel ECM's are programmed to produce low NOx. Remove that requirement, and the engine is much more efficient. FWIW, Dutch.
Sic Semper Tyrannis
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Chips and tuners work, but they extra air flow so that the engines don't overheat. I got about 100 hp on my Ford 7.3. If you want to tow with it just make sure you are in tow mode, not performance. Truck shops are full of blown engines because people try to hot rod heavy trailers.
The only cure for life and death is to enjoy the interval.
George Santayana
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Joined: Aug 2002
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With the newer gas engines the computer keeps updating itself to run at optimal performance, every time you change grade of fuel and even brand of fuel you change the equation.
My explorer was rated to run on E85, I would on occasions put E85 and the fuel mileage would drop dramatically the the computer light would eventually go on, back to the dealer I would go. The tech would tell me either go E85 100% or regular gas 100% since the computer would go nuts causing error codes to go off. Went back to strictly gas and never had a problem.
If you have screwed around with the gas, they told me disconnect the battery for a couple hours and reconnect, all the old variables will be erased and go to factory default setting. This way the computer will start anew
NRA Life Member. Illinois Rifle Assoc Life Member, USN,
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