Knotts89
Senior Member
Hey guys I have an 08 RAM QC with the 5.7. Only mode are cai and exhaust, and now I'm looking to get a tuner. I was considering the diablo sport intune. How do yall feel about that tuner? Thanks for any advice.
diablo intune
- Thread starter Knotts89
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Hollabakzach23
Senior Member
I feel like a lot of people around here run the diablo and enjoy it. I don't have any experience with it personally or much on the 5.7 either for that matter but someone with more info will chime in!
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Knotts89
Senior Member
Thanks, I would just like to get a little feedback on it before I spend any money. I have a feeling it would really bring the exhaust and cai together.
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Any tuner will help bring your mods together. What's nice about the InTune is that it works on so many different vehicles. If/when it comes time to sell your truck, chances are, the InTune is going to work on your next vehicle as well. The tuning aspect of the intune is the same as it was with the older Predators, so the performance is there to back it up with the option for custom tuning down the road as well. I say go for it.
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Knotts89
Senior Member
Thanks that helps out a lot. Is diablo pretty good on customer service, like if their was problem or if I just needed help are they pretty good at getting back with you?
- Joined
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They are quick to answer the phone, but sometimes warranty work takes a little time. They will walk you through any troubleshooting over the phone though which is nice.
Catchin Zs
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Sub'd. I'd love to hear a review of the intune before I upgrade from my SC
Adding a tuner will take full advantage of the increased airflow a CAI and freer flowing exhaust will provide. Look at it this way - More Air In + More Air Out =- More Power. The internal combustion engine is just a big air pump.
I don't have the InTune as I adopted the Predator (prior generation tuner) on my 2007 a couple of years ago. The tunes, except for the CROM file, are basically the same between the two tuners.
The tuning options are pretty versatile and it gives me pretty much everything I need. It would be nice for some transmission shift at WOT options. The tuner must add some line pressure as the shifts are crisp and positive, with no slippage, regardless of the throttle pressure. At WOT, it won't bang hard but it does hold gears up to just below the stock redline. Again, the shifts are firmer. I'd like to tune the shift points at WOT a bit. But, it does kick down sooner when I step on it while driving on the freeway or around town.
I run a 91 octane tune in my truck with an AFE cold air intake and Magnaflow single in/dual out muffler. With that combination in place, I did a baseline run on a dyno then added the tool and did another run. While on the face of it, the gains are not all that impressive until you start looking at the HP and torque numbers at the beginning of both runs.
The torque rating increases dramatically and comes on much lower in the RPM band. It also sustains a higher rating across the entire dyno run. Torque moves the truck so this really makes the truck feel responsive with no lag between the time you depress the pedal and the truck moving.
HP ratings also increase at a lower RPM and are sustained at a higher level out to the end of the run. It appears the tester backed out of the truck vs. taking it all the way to redline but that's OK. The chart does demonstrate an increase across the board all the way to the end of the run.
On the chart below, the blue dotted and solid lines are stock torque and HP, respectively, at the rear wheels. The green dotted and solid lines are torque and HP, respectively, at the rear wheels with the tuner installed. The gaps tell the story.
Now, I don't want to get too technical on ya but I gotta touch upon Air Fuel Ratio as it's an important component of engine performance.
The stock program on the HEMI engines runs a bit lean, around 14.1 static (idle) and it may drop to 13.8 or so under WOT. I say lean as I know that a richer mixture (below 13) makes more HP and reduces knock retard (which is a pretty aggressive setting in the HEMI) on these engines from previous tuner installs and testing.
There's a couple of reasons for the stock settings but the biggest reason is fuel economy. All manufacturers have a Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) rating they are held to by the government. Any model, like my SRT8, that falls below the CAFE gets hit with the "gas guzzler" tax, raising the cost of that model and making it less competitive in the market. The other theory is that a lean mix will burn better, leave less deposits and increase engine life. In reality it limits vehicle power as a lean condition can be a precursor to knock and we have a very aggressive knock retard setting in the PCM. I've gone as far as swapping out knock sensors on other small block engines just to get some more room to play with on fuel mixture but that's another story for the Bowtie boys to share.
Well, I don't buy that theory and I didn't buy the HEMI powered MegaCan to get great mileage. If I wanted mileage, I woulda bought a Prius. What I wanted, though, was a truck that eats Prius'.
Prior to the tuner install, we did a run on the dyno and measured the HP / Torque ^^^^ and also the A/F. The stock run saw no improvement in the A/F, with it sitting at 14.1 - 14.2 at WOT all the way out to around 4300 where it dropped off a cliff and got really rich. So, across 75% of the run it was lean. We didn't log knock retard but I suspect it was pretty close to the limit.
After the tuner install, the change was dramatic. A/F started dropping into the mid 13 A/F range at around 2700 RPM (note that the HP & torque curve improvement starting around then as well - direct correlation) and as the engine demanded more fuel, the tune delivered more fuel, with the A/F dropping to around 12.5 A/F. I've been involved in tuning other 5.7L HEMI engines on the dyno and most seem to perform at their best right in this area. Here's the chart. The blue line is the stock run, the green line is the run with the tuner installed:
The bottom line is that I have more HP, more torque, the truck is much more responsive to throttle inputs, it shifts better and I did see a mileage increase around town (just a bit under 2 MPG) and better highway mileage (almost a 4 MPG increase) with the installation of the tuner.
I'm glad I purchased the tuner and I'm very happy with how it moves that big MegaCan.
I don't have the InTune as I adopted the Predator (prior generation tuner) on my 2007 a couple of years ago. The tunes, except for the CROM file, are basically the same between the two tuners.
The tuning options are pretty versatile and it gives me pretty much everything I need. It would be nice for some transmission shift at WOT options. The tuner must add some line pressure as the shifts are crisp and positive, with no slippage, regardless of the throttle pressure. At WOT, it won't bang hard but it does hold gears up to just below the stock redline. Again, the shifts are firmer. I'd like to tune the shift points at WOT a bit. But, it does kick down sooner when I step on it while driving on the freeway or around town.
I run a 91 octane tune in my truck with an AFE cold air intake and Magnaflow single in/dual out muffler. With that combination in place, I did a baseline run on a dyno then added the tool and did another run. While on the face of it, the gains are not all that impressive until you start looking at the HP and torque numbers at the beginning of both runs.
The torque rating increases dramatically and comes on much lower in the RPM band. It also sustains a higher rating across the entire dyno run. Torque moves the truck so this really makes the truck feel responsive with no lag between the time you depress the pedal and the truck moving.
HP ratings also increase at a lower RPM and are sustained at a higher level out to the end of the run. It appears the tester backed out of the truck vs. taking it all the way to redline but that's OK. The chart does demonstrate an increase across the board all the way to the end of the run.
On the chart below, the blue dotted and solid lines are stock torque and HP, respectively, at the rear wheels. The green dotted and solid lines are torque and HP, respectively, at the rear wheels with the tuner installed. The gaps tell the story.
Now, I don't want to get too technical on ya but I gotta touch upon Air Fuel Ratio as it's an important component of engine performance.
The stock program on the HEMI engines runs a bit lean, around 14.1 static (idle) and it may drop to 13.8 or so under WOT. I say lean as I know that a richer mixture (below 13) makes more HP and reduces knock retard (which is a pretty aggressive setting in the HEMI) on these engines from previous tuner installs and testing.
There's a couple of reasons for the stock settings but the biggest reason is fuel economy. All manufacturers have a Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) rating they are held to by the government. Any model, like my SRT8, that falls below the CAFE gets hit with the "gas guzzler" tax, raising the cost of that model and making it less competitive in the market. The other theory is that a lean mix will burn better, leave less deposits and increase engine life. In reality it limits vehicle power as a lean condition can be a precursor to knock and we have a very aggressive knock retard setting in the PCM. I've gone as far as swapping out knock sensors on other small block engines just to get some more room to play with on fuel mixture but that's another story for the Bowtie boys to share.
Well, I don't buy that theory and I didn't buy the HEMI powered MegaCan to get great mileage. If I wanted mileage, I woulda bought a Prius. What I wanted, though, was a truck that eats Prius'.
Prior to the tuner install, we did a run on the dyno and measured the HP / Torque ^^^^ and also the A/F. The stock run saw no improvement in the A/F, with it sitting at 14.1 - 14.2 at WOT all the way out to around 4300 where it dropped off a cliff and got really rich. So, across 75% of the run it was lean. We didn't log knock retard but I suspect it was pretty close to the limit.
After the tuner install, the change was dramatic. A/F started dropping into the mid 13 A/F range at around 2700 RPM (note that the HP & torque curve improvement starting around then as well - direct correlation) and as the engine demanded more fuel, the tune delivered more fuel, with the A/F dropping to around 12.5 A/F. I've been involved in tuning other 5.7L HEMI engines on the dyno and most seem to perform at their best right in this area. Here's the chart. The blue line is the stock run, the green line is the run with the tuner installed:
The bottom line is that I have more HP, more torque, the truck is much more responsive to throttle inputs, it shifts better and I did see a mileage increase around town (just a bit under 2 MPG) and better highway mileage (almost a 4 MPG increase) with the installation of the tuner.
I'm glad I purchased the tuner and I'm very happy with how it moves that big MegaCan.
OP
OP
Knotts89
Senior Member
Thanks for all the info and for the time bud. Lot of good stuff to help my decision
I have an option with the Intunes I sell that includ "enhanced tuning". That's where I take whichever preloaded tune you load and tweak it to my specs. You load it and send me a datalog. Then I tweak it again if need be and do that till it's running the best it will on ur current config. That's $439 for that tuning plus the intune itself. On a 2009 and 2010 I've gotten 10 more hp than superchips and I've got a good trans tune to go along with it.
Lostnwalmart
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Are the gasser 06-10 guys using Efi live? It's very popular with the diesels With some amazing results
The Diablo's seem to work pretty well with most 04+ Rams, they just don't seem to like the 03's (at least 3 people that I know of off the top of my head who lost their ABS and needed a dealer PCM reflash after loading it). I have a DSP, but I won't even play with it until I convert to an 05 PCM. The ability to custom tune with it is handy.
