Been a looong time since i have been here, I am looking for a california compliant tuner for my truck. I have the 5 star tuner on my V10 motorhome and it does help a little in the power dept and trans but it is kind of a drag to unload it and reinstall the factory tune and then drive it 100 plus miles before i have to smog it. Also i want to buy a y pipe for my truck how do i tell what i have and which one i need to buy?
2000 f250 v10 4x4

 

As I understand it, "tuner" and California compliant" are mutually exclusive.
But I don't live in California.

 

I also don't think the tune would come up in the smog test. Do they connect to the computer? or do a sniffer/dyno test?

 

To be honest i have NO idea how they smog the truck or motorhome. I called 5 star tuning and asked if the tuner was california compliant and he said no. I asked him if i needed to take the tune off to smog it and he said yes but to drive it at least 100 miles or so to let the computer fully reset? either way i loved the tune for the motor home as it added power but more importantly it put the shifts and rpm's perfect for pulling a hill and maintaining momentum better than stock. I got worse mileage but i am assuming it was from me and my driving with the tune. I averaged 6.5 mpg with tune and 8.6 with factory tune in RV 32.5 class A fleetwood southwind.

 

The motorhome might be only a computer scan, but maybe also an idle/high idle sniffer, depends on the year.

The truck might only be a scan, but I don't recall what the model year break off is so it might go onto the dyno as well as a scan. My '99 gets a dyno run & scan. If when you remove the tune it doesn't reset the computer you can go straight to smog. After removal plug in a scanner and see if the monitors are 'ok' or incomplete. If incomplete then you'll have to drive it 'till they set. That year is allowed at least one or maybe two incomplete monitors and still pass.

While they do plug in on a smog test I think all it looks for is incomplete monitors and faults so the tune may not matter at all.

If the motorhome tuner will work on my '99 V-10 truck and you wanna send it to me I have a friend who's a smog guy and he'll run a test on it cheap or maybe free if he's in the right mood, he likes to tinker like the rest of us. I can also see if removal forces a reset. I'm kinda ignorant on tuners and don't know if that one is swapable to different vehicles.

As for the Y pipe, if the pipes join in more of a T shape it's the restricted one, you'll also see that the tubing is necked down at the junction and the diameter change is obvious. If the connection is Y shaped and not necked down you have a good one that I believe doesn't merit changing. I have the non-restricted one and it appears to be a pretty good flowing design.

 

When a tune is installed, or the tune is "returned to stock" - the KAM is usually cleared in my experiences with my own tuner.

Which means, you WILL have the P1000 code (not all tests complete) code in there for the smog testers to see, and fail you

Hence, the "drive it for a while". You can hook up the tuner and read the DTCs after you return to stock, and then keep checking while you drive until it goes away.