GDE/SFT? Tune

3316 Views 59 Replies 15 Participants Last post by Bounty Hunter, 3 mo ago

z swind

Discussion Starter · 4 mo ago

Hey guys, new to the forum and a new owner of a 2018 ecodiesel thats fully stock.

I have been trying to figure out which tune to purchase and the research has been confusing to say the least. Some people say GDE is the way to go but also say their new EPA compliant tunes are trash. Other people swear by SFT but say they do shady business and their tunes arent reliable. I emailed GDE and asked a few questions and got very "EPA compliant" responses saying their tunes will not work with any EGR deletes (however I have been told that GDE's tune does disable the EGR?) When asked if their tune supports turbo back exhausts or straight pipe exhausts that delete the DPF, I was firmly told that the GDE tune will not work with a turbo back/ straight pipe DPF delete and it is ILLEGAL to do so quoting exact dollar amounts for fines by the EPA if observed. Not sure if GDE is just covering their asses via email and their current tunes do support DPF removed exhausts.

When I emailed SFT I was confidently told that their tunes disable the EGR and that their stage 2 tune requires a "fully deleted closed course exhaust" (not clear as to what this is? It seemed like SFT was very open about their tunes disabling the EGR and being DPF delete friendly.

I say all this to ask for advice and to hear from anyone that has purchased a tune from either GDE or SFT recently. My main goals for my truck are to run cleaner, get better gas mileage, and sound like a diesel should. I dont necessarily want to delete my EGR but definitely want it disabled. I also want to run a turbo back or straight pipe style exhaust (not sure if this is even reasonable).

Sorry for the long post, thank you for the guidance.

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Dennett

· #34 · 3 mo ago

John Jensen said:
Yep, my pre-ban averaged 643 miles

John, I've been reading and liking your tuning posts since March 2020, back in the days when Glenn Pearson was still posting his mileage tests of tunes by GDE, SFT and others.

Just for interest, my stock 2014 JGC does a regen every 320 driving minutes or so (about 120 km (70 miles)) with city driving here in Victoria, BC. When cruising on the highway (up to 110 kph, but slower when skirting towns and cities), my Jeep does a regen after 550 minutes of driving (about 550 km).

I bought the SFT Stage 1+2+Trans tunes in April 2020, plus EOC's Stage 2 hardware in mid-2022, but still have not installed any of them. I did not have a Windows laptop for installation back then, but finally bought an inexpensive used laptop last fall just so I could "get off the pot". I've promised myself to tune my 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee this year come hell or high water.

You have experience with tunes from both MRT and SFT… Did you also use their trans tunes? How would you describe the differences in operating characteristics between the two ECU+Trans tunes?

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Dennett

· #47 · 3 mo ago

John Jensen said:
My guess is SFT doesn't know how to do it, thus their excuses. I'm assuming SFT is saying the mod would overwrite the manual gear select display. Maybe Bounty can tell us. It would take a pretty dumb driver to know whether or not he/she was in manual gear select or not.

John, your reply to Go4Mac confused me, where you said “My guess is SFT doesn’t know how to do it…” in reference to gear display, and yet Go4Mac’s post only mentioned GDE, not SFT. How did SFT get in the conversation about gear display?

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Dennett

· #50 · 3 mo ago

John Jensen said:
Good eye and thank you. Glad you caught me.
An old age brain fart. I had just posted about SFT on another forum and must have been on my mind. Sorry about that as GDE certainly knows how to do it. I should delete the post but then your post wouldn't make sense.
Thanks again

So regarding the question of gear display while D is selected, is it true that SFT can't (or like GDE, won't) do it?

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Dennett

· #52 · 3 mo ago

John Jensen said:
Don't know if SFT has ever been asked to do it.

I haven't yet installed my SFT Stage 1/2+trans tune, so I will ask them for gear display when I send SFT the downloaded stock files from my 2014 JGC. Stay tuned...

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Dennett

· #53 · 3 mo ago

BigHorn Bender said:
Personally I have the SFT stage 2 Engine/Trans tune with EGR delete option & Rally Tune. I started off with just the stage 1 and really liked the performance and eventually went stage 2 and installed the free flow exhaust system. Was crazy the amount of harnesses I had to disconnect when removing the factory exhaust and felt that there was no way that factory exhaust wasn't restricting flow. Main reason I finally went stage 2 besides the performance advantages was I got tired of the instances when I would just be doing a short trip to the store and then all of a sudden I have a regen message and then I'm driving around for 45 minutes to allow the regen to be performed.

I have never had a single issue with SFT so I cant speak on their customer service other than the initial setup which I felt they were quite responsive. I installed the SFT tune (stage 1) back in 2020 around 24K miles and then installed the stage 2 about a year ago around 50k miles. My truck is a 2018 ram 1500 crew cab bighorn currently with 70k miles.

Thanks for the info, BigHorn. I will be installing my SFT Stage 1/2+trans tune in April and anything I can learn about the care and feeding of SFT tunes is much appreciated.

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Dennett

· #56 · 3 mo ago

Go4Mac said:
@John Jensen - ha, I was confused where soft came from too, lol. All good
@Dennett - that was my experience with GDE, they would not add the gear display to my tune, although I do know they used to as @Bounty Hunter’s post states. Maybe they had a change of heart or maybe the epa compliant tune changed what they can do. However I do remember them saying they would not keep the gear display on because of user’s not knowing when the gear select was on or not. I can look up the email…

I can see why GDE could be concerned about safety if the "automatic shifting" D symbol no longer appears on the dashboard and is replaced by numbers in the same spot they appear for manual shifting. If that was the case, is there any way for the driver to tell the difference between automatic and manual shifting just from the dashboard display? If the D still appears on the dashboard somewhere near the numbers, then I don't see a problem.

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