New to the Forum but have purchased an X3 from Matt. He sent some tunes but not sure what I have. Would anyone have a summary of what to expect from each of his tunes. Looking for things like HP/TQ, required upgrades, recommended upgrades, shift charactaristics, what changes in Tow/Haul mode, etc. Also, has anyone had success with the UE/H. He sent that initally but it was a bad tune, truck bucked and surged. What kind of custom tweaks do you normally have done to his basic tunes and what user options do you normally change? Differences between various tunes such as UE-H/UE-T, Aggressive Tow/Heavy Tow, Aggressive Race/Basic Race. I know Matt's a busy guy that's why I ask these questions here, maybe if I don't need to bother him he can get some more tunes out.

 

what year is your truck? Biggest thing you should do is an custome exhaust and a pyro gauge to drop and monitor egts.

 

Yount,

Let me dig up the information on the ratings.. General rule of thumb is most of our base line tunes are built for lightly modified to not modified.. We don't tweak/increase settings unless a) we find it to better suit a stock engine or b) customer advises up what modifications he has such as Exhaust, Head Studs, etc.

Some of the most recommended modifications I tell the customers is Exhaust and Gauges.. Larger free flowing exhaust is going to help our more higher tunes keep EGT's within specs as we can exit the exhaust more quickly and increase volume capacity. 4" Turbo back exhaust is one of the most highly recommended, 5" if your running a heavily modified engine. Gauges are critical, not only do they help us when things occur, but they also keep you at peace with your engine. If tunes create issues, items such as knowing Boost PSI, EGTs and Trans Temp at that time will help us determine if it's mechanical or programmable. Sometimes the tunes can be within specs, but there may be underlying situations particular to your vehicle that causes our baselines to act funny. Such as a EGR Valve thats so coked it doesn't properly close when we disable it (common with bucking/surging). You could have a condition of wear on the clutches that will do the same, sometimes that just needs a good transmission flush. I've experienced that this past week with 4th gear locked at 3600 rpms and not shifting.. Good transmission flush solved that.

Air intake is perfect, there's no need to change that.. You could also look at moving into something such as the Banks Technicooler which will increase the intercooler capabilities, lower your intake temp charge as well as reduce the EGT's because of the intake temp be less lower.

 

Are EGR valves disabled on all your tunes, I don't think that was the reason for the bucking and surging. That was the only tune that did it. Truck is a completely stock 07 Lariet Outlaw with 20k, all highway miles and occasionally some light towing.
Can Tow/Haul mode be programed with another tune or just a few parameters available for adjustment. What changes in Tow/Haul mode with your tunes, i.e. jake brake, shift charactaristics, HP/TQ. Which tunes can be safely ran if driven normal without an EGT guage. I plan to install one but it's not in there yet.

 

These posts get buried fast, I'm still interested in learning the difference's in available spartan tunes, what changes in Tow/Haul mode and if anyone is running the UE-H.

 

What would qualify as a highly modified engine? In other words what would be the min. done to the engine to say you've gone from mild to heavily mod?

 

Heavily modified usually means stage 4 or larger injectors, big single or compound turbos.... and all the extras that would go along with that level of modifications (studs, fire rings, etc etc). Basically you're gunning for 650+ RWHP. Also don't forget a 5" turbo back kit doesn't fit without firewall modification too.

There's kind of a grey area between mild and heavily modified though.... All the injector sizes up to about 200mm^3 fall in that category and of course what goodies you add on top of it

I guess you'd call that area "moderately" modified

 

I ran the UE-H for a few weeks when I first got my Xcal3 from Spartan. I liked it alot, except for three issues.

First, I didn't want that much power when towing my trailer (drive-ability was excellent with this tune, lots of power, very smooth). I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to control myself when towing I never tried towing with it, my trailer is around 8000 lbs and Spartan listed the limit as 6500 on their web site.

Second, the mileage was the best I have achieved with my truck (around 21 highway at 65). Unfortunately the around town mileage was worse then normal, as I determined (and Matt confirmed) that when accelerating, the truck uses more fuel then stock. Once up to speed, the mileage is great, but my around town involves many stops and signal controlled intersections, and this tune just didn't like it.

Third (and for me the worst issue) was the mechanical (not exhaust) sound of the engine was MUCH louder driving around. Matt confirmed that the increase in injection pressure to achieve the fuel mileage increase also causes the engine sound increase. Apparently you can't have one without the other. When driving down a residential street (lined with cars parked on the road) with the windows open, it is difficult to talk to the person in the passenger seat with the windows down. My wife really objected to this.

I am now running the UE-T tune, and the engine noise is slightly better, but probably still too much for our family. I also found the available engine power to be about the same as stock, not much fun to drive I'll leave this tune in till the end of October, when I will tow the next time.

Matt indicated he might be able to work with me some to see if we can quiet the noise without completely dumping the mileage increase algorithm. I don't want to mess with the "pre-canned" tunes from Matt till I tow first.

 

Thanks for the info n6nfg

Wish I could have run the UE-H but truck bucked and surged at low speeds, it also sounded alot different when running, not sure if it was good or bad. Maybe I didn't leave it in long enough to give it a fair evaluation but was kind of afraid of it after the way the truck sounded and acted. I also had a new X3 with the lockup problems that are now fixed.
Still currently running my stock tune until I can find out more about the tunes I have and what the differences are.
Hopefully someone at Spartan can chime in here and give us some insight as for what to expect from the various tunes.

 

Yea it would be nice to have a sheet that gave all the info HP, TQ, etc of the different tunes that Spartan puts out.

 

I just removed the UE-H, It surged and bucked under partial throttle. I will send a e-mail to Matt and Evan to see if there is a fix. I also just got ARP's installed along with a EGR sneaky pipe. I do love comp street tune and DAMN is it a smoker!!! I want to be able to run the economy mpg for the winter though

 

George,

I'm going to be issuing RWHP and Torque gain numbers for each different available file on our website soon. While they have all been tested; only the Aggressive Street Economy, Aggressive Race, and Ultra Comp Tunes currently have "assigned" performance numbers. They are as follows-

Aggressive Street Economy- 105RWHP, 180ft/lbs
Aggressive Race- 140 RWHP, 210ft/lbs
UltraComp Street- 170RWHP, 275ft/lbs

Aggressive Tow- 65RWHP, 135ft/lbs
Heavy Tow- 40RWHP, 105ft/lbs

Tow/Haul mode changes (both a more aggressive downshift and modified shift schedule) are available by request in any file we have. Same story with the available exhaust braking option.

As a side note, I am throwing the old Ultra Economy Highway tune in the trashcan. The Ultra Econ Tow seems to do reasonably well; but I have not been pleased much personally with the overall result from the UE-H. I already have a completely new file underway and should be releasing it sometime in the next two weeks.

I have gotten reports of some absurd mileage gains on certain trucks with it (just like we did in testing), but once released the gains seem to be erratic and the driveability not all that great. If the end users aren't happy with it, I'm not happy with it, and after three different attempts at correction with consistency it just has not come through...so in the trash it goes.

Be looking for the new file When it is released, I will open a new thread to invite user feedback and to make it known so that current customers can contact me if they would like a copy.

Matt @ Spartan

 

My driveability seemed okay but only picked up .1 MGP when compared to my older aggressive st file and was 1.0MPG/AVG less than stock. My concern was constantly in and out of converter lockup every time you let off the APP. It will then lock up once it realizes it needs to be locked(about 3-8 seconds). very annoying and may be where most of the extra economy went. I did not have any ICP surge or excessive smoke, it will smoke a little on first accelleration but clears up immediatly. I am patiently awaiting the latest flash...

 

hey evan if you're around, what do you suppose the HP figures are for this hybrid file i'm running , and also, did you ever get around to cranking up the shift firmness on it, it is a great tune, it shifts silky smooth, but like i say i like it hard..

also you can really tell the "jeckyl and hyde" personalities of this file when the hammer drops ! ! !

 

Danny,

Without solid and recorded dyno numbers to back it up I won't speculate as to the power gain of that file. Check your inbox for a present.