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GDE to AEM and back again - My steps and thoughts.

4K views 4 replies 5 participants last post by  JeepJeep 
#1 ·
I finally completed all the paperwork for the AEM update and settlement. And I thought I would share my steps and thoughts.

1. I didn't want to lose my GDE tune (installed very early on) so I bought a salvage ECU on ebay (about $250.00). When it arrived I was concerned as the condition of the ECU was a little rough. I then studied up on the steps needed to use AlphaOBD to be able to program the salvage ECU to my truck. As I struggled with this task I became aware of forum member gtsav2006 and his ability to clone ECUs.

2. Took the truck down for a couple of days and send both ECUs to Gtsav2006 and with expedited shipping and his services I spend about $150.00 and ended up with two identical ECUs. I highly recommend his services and you should PM him if interested.

3. Installed the GDE/salvage ECU, took it to the dealer, and they completed the AEM update. After a couple of days with the AEM tuned ECU I reinstalled my original GDE tuned ECU. Two days with the AEM update was enough. More below.

POST AEM Update experience
I initially thought this isn't so bad. It was certainly quieter at idle.

Mileage: Pretty quickly I noticed a precipitous drop in mileage. I track my mileage consistently with Fuely - signature below - and the average mileage readout is usually pretty close to accurate. After the AEM update I it very quickly went from about 20 to the low 17s.

Acceleration: I picked up the truck on a pretty warm morning, and they had let the truck warm up while they cleared the snow of it. So driving home from the dealer was OK. However, the next morning I started the truck and let it warm for a couple of minutes and started driving slowly. Got to a corner and hill and tried to turn right and merge with traffic and wow, what a failure! It was like there was nothing under the hood. I thought I was going to get rear ended. This prompted me to change out ECUs later that afternoon.

Soot in Oil: I had the oil changed at the dealer at the same time as the update. I drove the AEM updated ECU for ~100 miles and two days before putting the GDE ecu back in. In those two days my oil now looks dirtier than 10K with the GDE tune.

So that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
 
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#3 ·
Boulder Mark good write up above, I’m in the process of having my salvage yard ECU cloned, just got it shipped to gtsav2006 today. He has really been helpful and hopefully I’ll have them back by the end of the week so I can get my paperwork filed to get some money back, original owner , and put my tuned ecm back in. While my ecm is out I went ahead today and pulled my MAP senso. Was curious what it was looking like since I last cleaned it about 50k miles ago when I installed my tuned ecm. I’ve attached pics to show the before and after cleaning today.
 

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