[oldsouth]

I wrote this just to inform about my experience with this tune. I subscribed to this forum and one other to try to gain knowledge about tunes and options for the truck. My first Ram. I didn't realize there was so much controversy about different tune providers. I did my research and made a choice. Happy with it so far. I will provide accurate times when I get a more accurate device for acceleration..... and 100 mph is just fine in this truck.... I have been on several race tracks and have one car that will do over 200... no novice here

 

[oldsouth]

Tough crowd... Very little background info on why they feel its a bad choice or constructive information but lots of negativity to share..

I heard that...

 

[oldsouth]

Installed the transmission tune last night. I will do a more thorough review after I get several hundred miles on it. But I did a quick timed run on my phone today with Auto 4-wd engaged to prevent tire spin. 0-20 = 1.8 seconds same as stock, 0-60 = 6.756 over 2 seconds better than stock, 0-100 = 18.754 better by 6 seconds, 1/4 mile = 15.771 @ 93.3. I have about 500 miles on the engine tune now and my mileage is running 2 mpg better than stock including all this testing and a heavy foot trying the tune out. I would estimate in normal driving, the tune would add 3-4 mpg. There are no codes or anything abnormal going on so far.

And to all this ya-ya-ya about my choice of a tune, I wish you would start your own thread about why not to choose EcoDieselUSA and not hijack my review. I am just relaying my experience and wish anyone else with a generation 3 EcoDiesel tune to provide a review with performance measurements to compare. I tend to trust individuals over tuner claims. As far as I know there are 5 tunes (Celtic, EocDieselUSA - Reckless, GDE, Sofa Tune, & EcoDiesel Owners Canada) and only 4 of these have delete tunes.

My truck is a 2020 Limited with standard 20" tires, limited slip 3.92, and I have a tonneau cover installed.

 

[oldsouth]

By hand. 26.7 mpg. I was averaging 24-24.5

 

[oldsouth]

Well GDE, get me some times of 0-60, 1/4 mile, 0-100 and after Christmas I will post my times accurately. Preferrable with 3.92 gears for apples to apples. I will do a screen shot and post. The phone times above, as I have stated, are not accurate, Just consistent for comparison with what I got before. Phone GPS chip only updates 1 time per second but the Dragy is accurate. I guess you are talking about acceleration, because I know I have you on top end... From Randy's last YouTube post, your maps don't look that impressive.

 

[oldsouth]

PS-I would still like to have that thermostat...

Not trying to degrade your tune. I almost went with it. And I am glad you are in the business and provide a legal tune. But competition is what makes the world go round. Not good to degrade others work in my opinion unless there are hard facts.

 

[oldsouth]

Yes, but then it headed south.... To be continued.

 

[oldsouth]

Ok, her it goes...

After running the engine tune for a while, I kept noticing a couple of different noises when shifting or letting off the throttle. I contacted Randy and he said it was turbo flutter and would not hurt anything. I did some research and most of the information I found said that this is not good for the turbo. It was hard to record driving but to give you an idea, I recorded this just revving the engine from standstill.

I contacted a different tuner and he told me to check turbo boost driving a steady speed on to see what the boost was doing. Boost was all over the place and not steady. Martin (MR Tuning) told me that was rough on the turbo and at that time I decided not to run this tune in my expensive truck, especially since I no longer have any warranty, most probably, with this delete tune. Here are a couple of videos about the turbo surge at a steady speed.

I sent the ECU to Martin and am awaiting its return. Will report on how it does later.

In summary on the engine tune, I cannot recommend this tune. I feel it is rough on the turbo and just not a smooth tune. The tune did give the truck more power and the speed limiter was removed. Martin may can explain more about the details but not a good experience with EcodieselUSA tune. Transmission tune review to follow.

 

[oldsouth]

On the transmission tune, I received it several days later than the engine tune. It is very expensive because you have to buy an HP Tuner device with credits to access your truck, plus another device to go around the security. Not any instructions and rather difficult to do for a novice the first time. Best to do the trans tune at night and let the truck sit over night for the can bus to reacquire all the devices in the truck like the seat adjustment, a/c, air suspension etc. Things go kinda haywire after disconnecting the security device and takes a while to go back to normal.
First thing I noticed was the truck was holding 3rd and 4th gears at a low steady speed and running over 2000 rpms. Also, in 8th gear anything over 2100 rpms the truck would not downshift at all full throttle. Two videos of that here.

I contacted Randy and sent these videos to him. He was busy at the time but did show me how to adjust the shift points in the program. I made 7 different tunes trying different settings and got it a lot better but still not perfect. I ended up going back to the stock transmission tune. The stock tune did a lot better with the engine tune he sent than with the stock factory engine tune. It would hold 8th gear much better after the truck had more power.

I cannot recommend the transmission tune either

 

[oldsouth]

Trying to understand here....

GDE, if stock safeties are enabled on a tune, shouldn't that keep everything in check?

Do you purchase and test other's tunes and check B50 and B90 data? Hard numbers would be nice. Instead of throwing accusations, give customers some accurate comparisons. I wish I had seen some hard numbers on the Reckless Randy's joke of a tune!

If I were selling a tune, I would have hard data on why my tune was better than anyone else's. Unless it really wasn't......

I don't understand why you are always bad mouthing MR Tuning or "the tune from up north". You do not sell a delete tune, so comparison to that tune is a moot point. Compare your tune to his emissions intact tune. Things I have read concerning what you say about MR Tuning is why I went with Reckless. Thanks for nothing...

 

[oldsouth]

Initial impressions:

Finally got my ECU back and drove the truck a good bit today. This is a very good tune. I got the stage 1 delete tune and there is very little smoke. I have not gotten information on his transmission tune yet. The below figures are with the stock factory transmission tune. The only issue I have had is that the "DPF filter is nearly full" is showing up in the instrument cluster. I disconnected a sensor and that is supposed to fix the problem after I get the fault code erased. Not any instruction or guidance prior on what to disconnect but he does respond to texts.

0-60 = 6.68, 1/4 mile = 14.82@91.84

Much faster than Reckless's tune .
Boost is stable at cruise and there is no turbo flutter at all.
I think I will start a separate thread on the MR Tune Review instead of having it under this heading.

 

[oldsouth]

No, all exhaust components were removed but some of the sensors that were in the exhaust I just zip tied up. You need to actually disconnect them from the harness.

 

[oldsouth]

My old thread.... Thought I would give an update. I recently got Martins SOF tune on a second ecm. Pretty neat but has one glaring flaw. It resets to stock tuning every time the vehicle is started. So you have to select which tune you want every time you start the vehicle. I much prefer the regular 50hp tune that is the only tune on the ecm. Its the best all around tune. Maybe @GDE will get back in the game with the current administration. Good to have options and competition. At present, Martins delete tune is tops if you want to delete.