question about tuners.
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Senior User
Joined: Jul 2010
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question about tuners.
Good morning guys,, quick question. I had said for xmas santa was bringing me a tuner,, i was gonna call either eric or matt. I have put this off so far because all that i have done to the truck so far was for preventative maintainance . I feel like the tuner would be abuse. I dont tow anything hardly and treat the truck like a queen, but as you can see i already have a "super chips". Some on here say that this is bad for the truck. I dont have studs yet and no HG problem. Question is would a "matt" tuner for example be ok or even better (safer) then the super chips. So if i'm worried about a tuner with no studs, should i already be worried with the super chips. Would a different tuner be more worry free then the super chips. I don't mean to run down what i have,, i'm only going on what i have read here. Thanks.. Herb
Postmaster
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 3,956
Likes: 6
From: Abilene, Texas
It's not that other "non-custom" tunners are bad for the heads without studs persay. It's more that they are known to cause problems with the torque shift over time. No question that a custom tune will be much safer for your ride. There have been lots of guys that stretched the tty bolts running stock, so IMHO I don't really think a tunner in it self makes the problem worse. I can see that a tunner could make it worse if someone went from babying there ride all the time stock. To put a tunner on, and start hammering it down all the time. In that case it's really not the tunner that caused the bolts to give it's more of the driving habbits change. See what i'm saying. In the end I would put a custom tunner on there in a hart beat no question!
Post Fiend
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 10,626
Likes: 7
From: Plano TX and Brentwood TN
Well it's going to depend.
I would say that some off the shelf tuners are unsafe in how they generate their HP. Due to the limits of how they are able to get higher HP, some due it through increased cylinder pressures, not good for longevity.
Shift on the fly tuners use "trickery" to achieve their end result. They send a false signal to the truck's computers in order to get the truck's computers to give a certain response which translates into more HP(for the most part). Unfortunately, this is along the lines of what I would think of as "right hand not knowing what the left is doing."
Now, I would not say that having a tuner on your truck will in of itself mean that you are going to have issues. Like texans said, you can have issues on a stock truck. You might already have an issue, but due to the nature of a tuner, that issue might be exposed to you quicker with a tuner then without. Doesn't mean that it was the tuner that caused it though.
Tuners aren't quite as cut and dry as one would like to think.
I would say that some off the shelf tuners are unsafe in how they generate their HP. Due to the limits of how they are able to get higher HP, some due it through increased cylinder pressures, not good for longevity.
Shift on the fly tuners use "trickery" to achieve their end result. They send a false signal to the truck's computers in order to get the truck's computers to give a certain response which translates into more HP(for the most part). Unfortunately, this is along the lines of what I would think of as "right hand not knowing what the left is doing."
Now, I would not say that having a tuner on your truck will in of itself mean that you are going to have issues. Like texans said, you can have issues on a stock truck. You might already have an issue, but due to the nature of a tuner, that issue might be exposed to you quicker with a tuner then without. Doesn't mean that it was the tuner that caused it though.
Tuners aren't quite as cut and dry as one would like to think.
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Senior User
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so if i were to decide to get a custom tuner, I now have the edge insight that plugs into the computer port all the time, , i've seen (least i think i've had) where the custom tunes have a monitor, or display on the dash. What happens then,, how do you plug both of them in,,, am i missing something here??
Post Fiend
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 10,626
Likes: 7
From: Plano TX and Brentwood TN
so if i were to decide to get a custom tuner, I now have the edge insight that plugs into the computer port all the time, , i've seen (least i think i've had) where the custom tunes have a monitor, or display on the dash. What happens then,, how do you plug both of them in,,, am i missing something here??
If you already have monitor, disconnect it from the port. Plug in your tuner into the port. Upload your tune. Disconnect tuner from port when uploading process is complete(whatever all that entails). Then plug your monitor back into the port and your good to go.
Postmaster
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 3,956
Likes: 6
From: Abilene, Texas
there are what we call shift on the fly tunners (SOF), but those are the ones that tex was talking about being bad for the truck. There are no SOF custom tunners that I know of. Yes there are some that have monitors built in. Like the SCT livewire is one, but since you already have a monitor there is no reason to spend the extra money on a tunner with a built in monitor. All custom tunners you have to shut the truck down to load/change tunes. Think of it this way your truck is a cpu. On your home cpu when you install new programs, most of the time, you have to reboot the cpu for the changes to take effect. Your truck is no different.
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Post Fiend
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 10,626
Likes: 7
From: Plano TX and Brentwood TN
texans has you covered on that one. If they are all in one, they share a port if it has custom tunes. If it's Shift on the Fly all but one(bullydog) as hookups under the hood that you have to connect into for "tuning" to work.
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