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What's a good chip for a stock truck? I have no mods. I hear that chips will give you a little more power and smooth out your shifts. I tow a 28' camper and a 16' horse trailer. Neither are extremely heavy. Advice on tunes would be helpful to. If I call Riffraff, will they just pick tunes for me?
Rich speaks the truth. I bought a chip for mine shortly after I got the truck. It did help but there are definitely drawbacks to just settling for the factory tunes. Even towing light trailers I would definitely recommend you get some gauges. They're really not all that expensive and easily installable if you're a halfway decent wrench. Lots of guys will chime in with references and suggestions as far as tuners. Before too long I hope I can get my ts-6 chip reburned with custom tunes.
Thanks for that. It's at the dealer now. Been on their computer 2x in the last month. They say that everything is checking good. About a year ago I had to replace the pcm. Ever since then it's been sluggish. Now they say that the pcm may not have been programmed/calibrated as well as the original Pcm. So they suggest getting a chip to improving shifting and power. What is a pcm flash?
I will also reiterate that ensuring that your truck is 100% before installing a chip (great advice imparted by some really knowledgable members of this forum when I was in a similar situation). Without doing this you will uncover your weak points very quickly.
As for a specific chip, I have decided on the PHP hydra chip. These come with full access to PHP's library of tunes. I am also going a step further and getting custom tunes from Gearhead pre installed on the chip. There are many different programmers / tuners out there, but Matt / Gearhead came highly recommended. He also provides free updates as you (if you choose to) upgrade your truck.
The hydra had the great ability to download tunes to the chip via your computer (whether emailed for your choice of tuner, or from the aforementioned library) without having to pull the chip and mail it in to get re-burned. The hydra is an open platform, and can hold 18 different tunes from multiple different tuners, and of course can be switched on the fly.
Thanks for that. It's at the dealer now. Been on their computer 2x in the last month. They say that everything is checking good. About a year ago I had to replace the pcm. Ever since then it's been sluggish. Now they say that the pcm may not have been programmed/calibrated as well as the original Pcm. So they suggest getting a chip to improving shifting and power. What is a pcm flash?
Did you take it to the Dealer for lack of power issues or some other problems. Why was the pcm replaced in the first place? Having to add a chip to get your truck running right seem like a bizarre request from the Dealer. Now if there just saying your truck is a dog (like mine was) and a chip will help that's a different story.
I run the DP Tuner F5 if you do a good job picking the tunes you will need from the get go there will be no need to add additional tunes later.
If your running high performance injectors and other high performance equipment then maybe the custom tuners would be better...
It was simple for me I have pretty much a stock truck with e99 injectors. I picked 1. stock tune 2. 30HP tow tune, 3. Decel tune (acts like exhaust brake)4. 60HP tow tune, 5. 60 HP econo tune
You will need gauges if you go with a chip or any tuner..
You would contact DP for assistance and recommendations on tunes. There are youtube videos that show how to install. With DP you can change tunes on the fly just by pushing a button.
Gauges: For analog, I have dual EGTs and fuel pressure - the rest of the good stuff is on the OBDII port, and all you need is some inexpensive tech to read all of it.
Many questions on the OBDII gauges can be answered in the OBDII link in my signature. With that, you get the benefit of logging your sensors, and there are several members here that can read the data in the logs and share their analysis. It would be like having your own dealership computer and recording what your vehicle does in the real world... for less money than it took to have the dealership to hook up those two times.
The dealer is also my father in law. So things get a little tricky. He gets upset when I ask about something I've read on here. Yes I agree, installing a chip right now seems weird. That's why I'm here and I've been asking questions. I have some data from dash command but couldn't get it to load. Nothing seemed obviously wrong from what I could tell. I'll try to post again this weekend. Thanks to everyone.
It's possible that the previous owner could have installed a program on that old pcm with a programmer through the OBT II port. You would not have known it was done but enjoy the benefits of the extra performance. Then when you replaced the pcm it was gone and so was the performance. I think if your towing DP or a performance tuner would be great but as said gauges to keep an eye on egt a must
I might pop the old PCM back in just to see if there's a difference. I removed it because there was a code. Don't remember excactly but, it meant that the PCM was faulty or failing.
If you eventually do chip, be sure to get input from those who have "played the field". Getting only one chip and a set of tunes from one tuner isn't a deep well of experience. There are those here who have whaled on the testost-O-pedal behind products from 2, 3, or more tuners. Strong opinions form quickly when you try more than one tuner. There are also the "Palm readers" that focus on the lines in data logging graphs - they know who's tunes are friendlier on the engine (and which tunes and/or tuners to avoid).
I might pop the old PCM back in just to see if there's a difference. I removed it because there was a code. Don't remember excactly but, it meant that the PCM was faulty or failing.
Probably a P0605 due to having an aftermarket performance calibration flashed to it....which is normal and not indicative of failure.
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