Having 4.56's installed next month, all else stock except a 6.0 trans cooler. 265/70/17 tires. Towing will shift between a 16' car hauler, all steel deck with 3200 lb rock crawling buggy on it for day trips. Longer trips will bring the 26' gn with a slide in mounted to the front and the buggy on the back. Will scale north of 18K with the gn.

I see perf/tow, just tow, just trans, performance and economy. What are you guys running? What is the difference in the tow only and trans only tunes? I want to make sure I get the proper tunes for my application. Truck is daily driven as well.

Thanks

 

I have the 87 octane eco, perf and 87 & 89 octane tow tunes. I run the 87 perf tune if not towing heavy. If towing anything of significant weight or height for wind drag(camper), i use the tow tunes. The only drawback to the tow tunes is that it will hold gear up to ~2800 rpm before shifting. It gets annoying in traffic or city driving. I am going to the 89 octane perf tune to do my towing in. I can modulate with the skinny pedal when I want to shift.

As for the trans tunes, It will help shift strategies, firmer shifts, Torque converter lock up schedules(cooler trans temps, power to ground).

If you buy a tuner and tunes, you will be able to adjust trans options for firmer shifts, shift points etc. You will need to decide on what octane you want the tunes in. I notice a definite improvement in towing with the 89 octane tune.

Once you get tunes, you can have 5 Star calibrate them for how you want the truck to perform based on the tunes characteristics. Say you want the truck to hold a gear up to 70% throttle opening before downshifting, or you want to go into open loop fuel enrichment at 55-60% instead of 70%. Basically 'tune' your tune.

They have a " free tunes for life" program. Read their page. You could start with a 87 octane perf, tow and 89 octane tow or perf tune to start with. You should get 3 tunes with the tuner. If you want more, you get them for free if you meet the programs criteria.

 

My SCT tuner came from 5Star with 5 custom tunes (on a nice Memorial Day sale) 87 Octane Economy, Tow, Performance and 89 Octane Tow and Performance.
My V-10 Ex currently serves as our dedicated tow rig for our 11K TT, so traveling we roll across the scales at 19K-ish lbs.
The Econo tune will get the TC locked up by 35 MPH with light pedal pressure around town unloaded.
87 Tow as well as the 89 Tow do hold gears longer while accelerating but I didn't care for how quickly they drop out of OD when climbing grades.
87 Perf does a much better job (for me and my driving style) than the Tow tune while pulling. All shifts are quicker and crisper and the trans will hold OD on a climb with higher throttle opening, making better use of the torque without loosing a lot of MPGs by dropping a gear and revving higher than needed for the job.
89 Perf is just like the 87 Perf, only better! Same better all around seat of the pants feel and it holds OD even deeper into the skinny pedal on climbs.
I do match my fuel Octane to whichever tune I'm running, the 89 does seem to run better and feels like it may have a bit more giddy up. If my trip is mostly flat terrain I sometimes run the 87 Perf but most trip and any that include the mountains I run 89 and the matching Perf tune.
The tunes do much more for the trans strategy than they do for actual motor output, the small output increases are nice but the trans improvements alone are worth the price in my opinion.
I haven't run with the stock tuning in a few years now, just seems sluggish after getting used to the tunes.

 

Ordered tuner today. Got 87 economy, 87 tow, 87 perforrmance, 89 performance and 93 performance. Looking forward to it and the gears.

 

Did you tell them you were doing a gear swap?

 

Absolutely

 

Looking forward to reading your impressions after some use!

 

I got several tunes with mine several years ago. I have run the 91 perf tune whether towing or not pretty much the entire time.

Buying 91 sucks but it is worth it to me as I'm not racking up a bunch of miles. Noticeable difference too.

If I could find 93 octane easily I would've gotten that!

 

Just got back from the first test drive with the gears and 87 performance tune.............

And ya'll say the 89 tune is even better.....and I've got a 93 performance tune to try out as well.

And I've got stock exhaust. I can't imagine if I had your exh, We3zs.

I'm blown away by the difference

All hail Mike's 5 star

 

I knew you would be very happy with the tunes and gears. Now just wait until you run the higher octane gas and those matching tunes!

 

Well....where to begin.

87 performance tune while towing. I'm not comfy with towing at 70mph but set the cruise at 70 once across the bridge outside of Memphis on I-40. Turns 2500 rpm at 70, will still drop out of OD on grades but it did gain speed vs losing once it dropped out. I pulled into a rest area after 50 miles and shot the diff with the IR.........280* WTF!!! I sat there for 30 minutes, it got down to 160* and I left. Throttled it down to 63-64.

Stopped for fuel around 200 miles into the tank. Mileage suffered considerably. I have made this same haul, same load numerous times with the 3.73's running 63-64.....high 10's to 11 mpg.....8.1mpg on the first tank. IR showed 200* diff temp on this stop.

Next leg was more 55 mph than 60+....8.2mpg, still 200*

Now lets talk about pinging.........I swear I thought the motor was going to scatter every grade I pulled....it was pinging like crazy, I mean scary crazy.

All in all I'm not so sure I did the right thing with this gear swap and tuner. Maybe I'll try the 87 tow tune or the 93 performance next haul.

 

Talk to 5Star about the pinging, I do get a little ping sometimes but if I lift or throttle up a little bit it typically clears up. I never tow with cruise control on.
Talk to your gear installer about the differential temps, they are a good bit hotter than what I see. I run a sensor in the rear housing and monitor the diff temp with a stand alone (engine oil temp) gauge and have seen it go as high as 245* briefly when pulling the 11K TT on a long hill. On most trips it gets up to 210-230* and hangs there while towing at 65-ish MPH. Back when I swapped my rear to the 4.88s and installed the gauge I researched the Mobil 1 oil I use and if I recall correctly it is supposed to be stable up to 320-325*.

 

I ordered a Mag Hytec cover and 6 qts of Royal Purple. I'll throw that at it when it comes in. The next trip is across the same stretch but the 26' GN will be in tow on that run with a gross of about 18K.

 

When I had the gears replaced in my truck, they put on a factory finned diff cover that held more fluid. Not sure how much more though. I have not checked temps while towing.

Make sure you get the longer bolts for the diff cover.

 

The longer bolts come with the cover I ordered.