Hey peeps, New guy on the site and new to owning a diesel truck. I have the 6.4 SD with the Spartan (Ndash) tuner. I tried going to their forums but was unable to find any info about what I am looking for, nor was I able to register for their forums. Anyway, What I am wanting to know is if there is anyone who is running this spartan tuner and what recommendations they may have. I live in Key West and the speed limit is less than 40mph (yes, it sucks not being able to romp on it every now and again, I do however smog out the occasional hippie when I have the chance ). What tune do you guys who have this set-up, recommend i run with that will give me the best fuel economy, and also allow for enough load to not destroy the engine from running to low of a load.

 

wha



Welcome to FTE,




First and foremost there is no completely safe tune, adding power is adding risk. So before you start down this path I just like to sure you understand the rick and cost. A replacement engine installed can run over 17,000.


What other mods are completed. If you have the stock intake I would not recommend going over the 150 HP tune as that's about all the stock air filter will support without tripping the air filter minder.


If you have a aftermarket cold air intake I would recommend the 210 performance, if you are going to tow id run the 210 tow performance.


from the 210 HP tune down all the safety's are built into the tunes to help prevent engine damage. Tunes over 210 starting at the 250 and up have no safety's and will cause engine damage if you push it to hard.


I generally tell people to stay around 1250-1300 EGT or less towing and you will be safe with the 210 Tow performance tune. If the EGT's hit 1400 it will de-fuel regardless.


as for fuel mileage the larger tunes are going to give you the best mileage. For me the 275HP tune was the best for mileage, but I usually run the 210 TP.


The next question is do you early torque convert lock or late, this will be based on the size tires your running and axle ratio.


Make sure you follow there procedure tuning the truck. Make sure you have a battery charger set-up if its your first time, the tuning can take up to about 45 minutes so you want to make sure you have the time. Once you start you cant stop tell your done, if you interrupt it during the tuning process you will damage the PCM and possibly the TCM

 

Thanks for the reply first and foremost. I got the truck from my dad as is so I am not sure what exactly is done to it other than simply looking from the outside. I do know it has 4" exhaust (I think) 33x12.50 tires on 20" rims and an S&B intake. If anything else was done, it was by the previous owner and I have no clue what it is.

I just drove from Orlando to Key West and got about 15 mpg calculated, doing 75-80ish mph on the highway and 55 once I hit the keys. I got on it a few times on the way down just playin around but nothin crazy. I couldn't help myself, its such a fun truck.
Calcs came from going 10 road miles and comparing with the lie-o-meter at 10.5. I figured at that rate at 100 road miles I was doing 105 lie-o-meter (LOM) miles. At 400 LOM miles I filled up and guesstimated 380 road miles divided by 25 gal of fuel.

Not sure why I had to put that in, but I just wanted to make sure I was doing it right.

 

Yes these trucks can be a lot of fun with good tunes. Please don't smoke people out. It makes all diesel owners look bad. Yes, this comment makes me a hypocrite because I've done it intentionally myself, but that was before I really thought about it.

Sanddemon gave you good advice.

Take good care of it, keep the filters changed at 5k miles or less and remember to drain a little fuel/water off the fuel filter on the frame after every fill up. You never know when this will save you a lot of heart ache from getting bad fuel from the station.

 

1fast, thanks for the advice on the fuel/water. Again i am new to these trucks so I will have to look for the fuel/water filter.

As far as smoking people out, I only do it if they are being complete and utter morons. i.e taking up a whole lane on their beach cruiser or just going across the street without even looking!!