Ok my take on the differance so far.
1. The 85mm Throttle body from Moe's.
What an easy mod that was. It took all of 10 minutes to do after the plastic was removed. I was surprised how little torque was on the studs to take it apart.
The part it's self is very well made. I did notice a bit of oil residue on the back of the butterfly on the stock 80mm TB. My truck only has 75,000 km's on it. Still it's there. A light coating of oil. A catch can is on the way. I can definitely see why.
2. Vararam Intake
Very nice piece. The Hemi Orange cover goes nicely with the Mango Tango paint of the engine bay and body color.
It came very well packaged from Moe's. Lots of packing peanuts as has been noted from others. No cracks in the base and the filter was installed just like the Vararam video shows.
The instructions came with it. I'm not sure if Matt put them in, but they were taken directly from the Vararam Install sticky here on the forum. Pictures and all.
The instructions, as noted, were a little vague on some parts of it.
- Read up on the IAT removal before you start. No matter what I did, it wouldn't release. Tried prying it up with the trim removal tool. basically broke the sides of the IAT flange doing it. I ended up using a exacto-knife to trim some of the rubber around it to get it out.
- The picture supplied are a little different of the lower deflector (wing) attachment. It's a little hard to make out. The pictures show the longer part of the threaded connection going through the base plate. Mine came with the longer part facing towards the front rad support. Where the head of the screw goes. It came with 3 screws and 6 washers. I doubled up the washers (2 on each) to make sure that the head of the screw sat flush. If you only use one, you won't get it as tight.
- 2 of the 3 holes for the deflector were good. 1 was off, but not by much. I didn't have to make any drastic modifications. Just finessed it a bit.
- The lower deflector was fun trying to figure out. I did have to move the harness. The bend towards the front. The gap in the deflector allows it to fit around the horn bracket. I'm not sure if it really deflects more air from the grill towards the filter? Thinking about it, it might also act as a heat shield as well?
- I did trim the beauty cover the same as AS54ME did in his pictures. It wasn't as easy as I thought. I used a sawzall blade by hand down the sides, then scored the cut line. Once it was scored, I was able to bend it back and forth for a clean cut. Pretty much the same as cutting drywall. Score, bend, and snap.
- I did get a P0113 code with the check engine light. (glad the tuner came with it). I don't think I had the connection right. With the larger base of the Vararam, it's a lot harder to see under there. I did disconnect the battery for 1/2 hour. This was at the end of my install. It could be as Matt has mentioned in an earlier thread that if it's disconnected while powered... it's going to throw a code.
- After re-connecting the IAT sensor. I cleared the code with the Trinity. Here's a huge tip that worked for me.
From Hemifever (Sean)... When using the tuner.....leave the drivers door open. That way when you go to off... it's all off.
I thought I had shut it all down in the EVIC... but the code would say clear, then it was right back. Once I did it with the door open... it cleared and did not come back.
3. The Diablosport trinity T-1000 Tuner
Very straight forward. Easy to use. It took a while to save the Stock Tune. 10 to 15 minutes?
I loaded the 87 octane tune in it since I had 89 fuel in it. Basically the stock save and tune write was about 1/2 hour. I didn't dive into it at all.
The Fun Part.
At first I wasn't sure if it was much different. After going for a 30 km trip, some city, some highway... it was very apparent! This is with the DS canned 87 tune.
It's louder when you get into it. Even the exhaust tone has changed. The engine noise in the cab has increased..in a good way. It's not overly loud, but you can tell it's not stock anymore.
The truck flat out moves now. On the highway I punched it. I thought I was breaking loose and I was in 4 Wheel Auto. In the city I did it again from a 20 mph roll. Sure the roads a little cold (-3C) but I did spin all 4 tires. The tq management has been greatly reduced. Tried it at a set of lights in 2wd. Almost spun across the intersection. I didn't even turn the ESP off or touch the button.
I did find with the Canned 87 tune that the MDS is still active. I'm not sure that I would run a higher tune in the winter here with this set-up I have now. It's a lot of fun mind you. I'll have to get use to it and play some more.
I think I'm going to wait on hemifever doing the custom tune till after I get the Cat back on. Next week.
Sorry for the long post. Just thought I'd share some of the short comings and pitfalls that I encountered for anyone else going this way. I hope it helps.
I'll try and get some pictures tomorrow. Daylight is limited this far north to get some decent picture this time of year.
Heywood
