Does a tuner provide note worthy gains??

Before you guys try to string me up (like Internet badasses), I'm well aware that this topic is beat to death as much as the catch can, which oil to use, and which gas to use threads are......BUT, I want to hear honest answers from the guys who actually put tuners on their Rams. I've been stalking the tuner threads for a long time. I even bothered Matt (@ Moes) and Sean (hemifever) and Jay (Jay Greene Racing) to the point that I annoyed myself. I actually think Matt just stopped answering my questions....lol. Jay Greene was super nice with my questions. Money isn't the issue and techical competence isn't the issue either. I only have 28,000 miles on my 2014 Sport so my biggest, and only issue, is damaging my motor/trans/drive train and Chrysler finding out and voiding my warranty....my wife would be wicked pissed and I need to be able to live with her.

So, for the guys who tuned their Rams, is there really a big gain to be felt to risk it? I think that what most feel in the torque management reduction.

Also, how safe do you guys think the tuners (with a custom tune from Hemifever or Jay Greene) are?

Obviously I understand these are all just opinions, but I appreciate them nonetheless.

Thanks
Chade

I had most of the basic mods done before getting a tune and like you said the torque management reduction feels like the most. I also had zero gain in mpg's and that's going from 87 octane to the tuner and 91 octane

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the tuner by itself with the canned tunes won't seem like much of a difference (it didn't to me). the custom tune from whichever one you choose will make it feel like a whole different truck.

Mine had the hemifever custom tune that we went back and forth for weeks finding the best fuel in town and getting the tune where he wanted

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I start with a bully dog but recently switched to a Diablo intune and it was a big difference in my 2500 hemi I used the 91 octane tune and it gave me about 4 more miles to the gallon then stock and it picks up speed a lot faster

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I've had both on a different truck (2014) and now have driven two identical trucks with same mods one with Hemifever and mine with jay green both 2015 and I'm staying with jay. I have 8 speed 3.92 QC and get 17 in the city and almost 24 on the highway

Let me divide your question into a couple of parts. First, I had a tuner with the hemifever custom tune on my 2013 Ram 1500. I did notice quite a difference in the performance over stock. I did not race my truck and used it only as a semi daily driver. In hindsight I'm happy I got the tuner and would do it again. The difference in the performance is of course, a personal opinion as to whether it is worth the cost.
The second part of your question regarding the warranty can have a lot of variables. I have a different attitude than most regarding the warranty issue, and below is what I wrote on a different thread about tuners and warranty.

I know that this is a minority opinion but this is my take----If you can afford to buy a tuner for your truck, you should also have enough in savings to pay for any damage you do to your truck as a direct result of the tuner. If for some reason, the dealership fixes your truck and does not question your tuner, consider yourself reallllly lucky. When the dealer asks if you have a tuner, I guess that is where personal integrity comes in, you can lie or you can tell the truth and take your chances.

Major dollar warranty claims(such as blown motors or blown transmission) usually require pre approval from the factory which can include parts being sent to the factory for analysis before being replaced and in some cases the PCM will be forensically analysed. If a dealer approves repairs before getting pre approval, and for some reason the factory rejects the claim, then the cost is paid for by the dealership. If the damage is done and it has nothing to do with the tuner ie; windows quit working, then the dealer should have no problem fixing that problem under warranty. In the end, it's really a crap shoot-----many times it depends on YOUR relationship with the dealer.
Jay

I get about 15 in town and 20 on the highway but I'm running a 34in tire

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The short answer is yes. There is a big gain to be felt. Custom tune, whoever you choose to go through, will make your truck feel different.

Night and day on my 2013 using jay greene over a stock truck. Mileage suffers but I didn't buy a guy sipping truck either.
Just made a 1400 mile round trip, 1300 being highways through mountains and speeds up to 85 on cruise control. Loaded down with the family and a bed of luggage, gear, coolers etc average was 18 mpg on an 89 Eco tune. Calculated some tanks about 20 at best.

Worth the cost for the improvement of drive ability in town.

Truck won't spin a tire off the line either


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I've had two vehicles with tuners on them and I can say Yes, they make a difference.

HP, Torque and proper fuel mix are all improved with the tuners. However, I've also found that they work better as part of a system, which includes more air in and more air out (intake and exhaust).

I saw an improvement with my 2007 5.7L powered MegaCan specifically where the HP and Torque numbers improved at a lower RPM rate, making the truck MUCH more responsive to throttle inputs. It also improved moving away from a stop with a load, such as a trailer.

The MegaCan gained almost 2MPG for highway mileage. No real improvement was seen in city MPG but it was a big, heavy truck and I didn't expect much. Besides, the truck ran so well that my right foot got heavy.

Here's the dyno sheets with stock and after the tuner was installed. The blue line is the stock run, the green line is the canned tune.



Also, cars and trucks tend to run lean and the HEMI seems to like an air/fuel ratio around 12.5 at WOT. Here's the A/F readings before and after the tuner was installed. Again, the blue line is stock, the green line is with the canned tune. You can see here that with the stock tune the A/F hovered around 14 or so which is really lean, then around 4300 RPM it started dumping fuel and went way rich. With the tuner as more load was put on the engine the A/F dropped to the sweet spot and stayed there.



The other vehicle, a 300 SRT8 with the 6.1L saw a huge benefit from stock. I first did the intake, exhaust and canned 91 CAI tune, going from 353 RWHP to 378 RWHP. A custom tune on the dyno got me to 411 RWHP. I was very happy with that result.

So, yeah...tuners work but not in the way most folks think they do. They don't add massive HP or torque, but they do manage torque better and help with fuel management as well. The improvements are worth it.

One major benefit of tuning is the transmission tuning, which there is none available for the 8 speeds yet that I know of. My old Chevy 5.3 was custom efi live tuned and the biggest improvement was shift points and firmness.


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SorryOP , No tuner here yet ..... but all this talk has me even more ready to gab mine next week. Can not wait

Going with the Diablo Sport unit

My take on it is if it is a Ram problem i will litigate it to the end of time with all resources at my disposal, If I caused the problem with a modification they had no control over I will pay for the repair.

Right is right no matter who the responsibility falls upon. it is simply a matter of character IMO

Pull Ya said:

Let me divide your question into a couple of parts. First, I had a tuner with the hemifever custom tune on my 2013 Ram 1500. I did notice quite a difference in the performance over stock. I did not race my truck and used it only as a semi daily driver. In hindsight I'm happy I got the tuner and would do it again. The difference in the performance is of course, a personal opinion as to whether it is worth the cost.
The second part of your question regarding the warranty can have a lot of variables. I have a different attitude than most regarding the warranty issue, and below is what I wrote on a different thread about tuners and warranty.

I know that this is a minority opinion but this is my take----If you can afford to buy a tuner for your truck, you should also have enough in savings to pay for any damage you do to your truck as a direct result of the tuner. If for some reason, the dealership fixes your truck and does not question your tuner, consider yourself reallllly lucky. When the dealer asks if you have a tuner, I guess that is where personal integrity comes in, you can lie or you can tell the truth and take your chances.

Major dollar warranty claims(such as blown motors or blown transmission) usually require pre approval from the factory which can include parts being sent to the factory for analysis before being replaced and in some cases the PCM will be forensically analysed. If a dealer approves repairs before getting pre approval, and for some reason the factory rejects the claim, then the cost is paid for by the dealership. If the damage is done and it has nothing to do with the tuner ie; windows quit working, then the dealer should have no problem fixing that problem under warranty. In the end, it's really a crap shoot-----many times it depends on YOUR relationship with the dealer.
Jay

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I agree with all of this , you have to PAY to PLAY. I told my dealer I had of bunch of mods and if it will affect the warranty to not even touch the truck. They said no problem and replaced my transmission. So, it's all about how friendly your dealer is. If anyone is that worried , DON'T MODIFY YOUR TRUCK.
With all that , if you are planning on modifying, you NEED a tuner with custom tune.

Ronan said:

I agree with all of this , you have to PAY to PLAY. I told my dealer I had of bunch of mods and if it will affect the warranty to not even touch the truck. They said no problem and replaced my transmission. So, it's all about how friendly your dealer is. If anyone is that worried , DON'T MODIFY YOUR TRUCK.
With all that , if you are planning on modifying, you NEED a tuner with custom tune.

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This is commonsense, which thankfully I have, so i get it.

I, in a psycho way, have split personalities when it comes to this stuff. The risk adverse side of me says "leave the **** alone before you void warranties, **** off your wife (more), bankrupt yourself, disappoint baby Jesus, etc." and the other side just basically says "f#@k it, lets see what we can mod next!".

It sucks being me sometimes.

Canned tunes are not worth it unless you just want to adjust tire size or basic stuff like fan temps and rev limit. I have not experienced custom tunes but always heard great things.

smiley3303 said:

Canned tunes are not worth it unless you just want to adjust tire size or basic stuff like fan temps and rev limit. I have not experienced custom tunes but always heard great things.

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Yeah, I personally wouldn't waste $ and time on a canned tune. If I got a tuner, I would get a custom tune for sure.

Sir John said:

So, for the guys who tuned their Rams, is there really a big gain to be felt to risk it? I think that what most feel in the torque management reduction.

Also, how safe do you guys think the tuners (with a custom tune from Hemifever or Jay Greene) are?

Obviously I understand these are all just opinions, but I appreciate them nonetheless.

Thanks
Chade

Click to expand...

Does a bear **** in the woods? lol jk.

Ive ran both Jay and Shawn/Hemifever and personally prefer Jay's tuning. It has made a world of a difference in power and got better gas mileage which is nice. My truck also has been tuned for over 30k miles with not a single glitch or hiccup or repair needed because of the tuning so it's quite safe to me.

Sir John said:

Before you guys try to string me up (like Internet badasses), I'm well aware that this topic is beat to death as much as the catch can, which oil to use, and which gas to use threads are......BUT, I want to hear honest answers from the guys who actually put tuners on their Rams. I've been stalking the tuner threads for a long time. I even bothered Matt (@ Moes) and Sean (hemifever) and Jay (Jay Greene Racing) to the point that I annoyed myself. I actually think Matt just stopped answering my questions....lol. Jay Greene was super nice with my questions. Money isn't the issue and techical competence isn't the issue either. I only have 28,000 miles on my 2014 Sport so my biggest, and only issue, is damaging my motor/trans/drive train and Chrysler finding out and voiding my warranty....my wife would be wicked pissed and I need to be able to live with her.

So, for the guys who tuned their Rams, is there really a big gain to be felt to risk it? I think that what most feel in the torque management reduction.

Also, how safe do you guys think the tuners (with a custom tune from Hemifever or Jay Greene) are?

Obviously I understand these are all just opinions, but I appreciate them nonetheless.

Thanks
Chade

Click to expand...

You, like myself have a 2014. The I-1000-DCX is all you need and being they are discontinued they are well under $200.
I myself not concerned with MPG, just wanted to get the most out of my 4600 pound truck. Ran a canned tune for a little, but without question can feel a BIG difference in a custom tune.
Jay Greene works with you getting the most out of your truck.
As far as the warranty goes, I have sent him three different data logs which tells me he wouldn't do anything to intentionally do harm to your truck.
I play with an Eco-boost every morning on my way to work. Since the tune it's not even close anymore.
If you do decide to go with a tuner, work with someone that actually tunes YOUR truck, not just a one time tune and see ya. Jay is a smart guy and I'm sure he doesn't want a bad reputation. Best customer care you could ask for.