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I haven't seen many reviews for this on the 2011's yet, and the most helpful reviews were on trucks with numerous bolt-ons, so I thought I would share my experience since for all intents and purposes, mine is stock.
BTW, I purchased this from Sean at Hemifever Tuning, Inc on Sunday, and received it on Tuesday! Talk about quick turnaround, and with his Christmas special, got it to my door for $540 including the option of a custom tune!!
From reading other posts, I wasn't expecting much out of a tuner, but I thought it was worth a try, and I figured I could sell it if I didn't think it was worth the $$. My main goal was to take the torque management training wheels off, and to get some modest gains in power and maybe a few % more MPG's. So anyway, to the review!
Just for your reference, my truck is a 5.7 4x4 Crew Cab with 3.55's with about 23k on the clock
Also, I've only had this tune loaded up since lunch today, and I've only put on 30 miles since then.
Installation:
It took a bit of work to find the right drivers, as the ones on the included CD don't work on win7 x64. After I got it hooked up, and updated, installation was a breeze. I loaded up the 91 octane tune and I was off to the races (so to speak). I simply loaded the canned tune so far, and have not played with any other functionality.
Initial Impressions:
My first benchmark was to see how it did from a dead stop. Stock, my truck would only turn the tires over about half a revolution before hooking up and going. Now, just mashing the gas, it'll put down about 10-15' of rubber before hooking and going (both with traction control off, of course)
Then I headed for interstate to do a full pull to 100 MPH, there isn't really anything scientific to report here, but I can definitely tell first gear pulls considerably harder than stock, from there on out, the butt dyno seems to register some gains, and it sure feels like I got up to 100 quicker than I could stock.
After rodding around for a bit, there are definitely noticeable gains. I was prepared to be disappointed, but it wasn't a letdown at all, it was about what I had hoped it would be.
Now for the best part!
I noticed on my way home tonight that it seemed like my instant MPG on the evic was trending considerably higher with the cruise on at the same speed I normally drive. So I decided, i'd do a short test just to see.
In anticipation of getting the DS, my last fill up I actually found some ethanol free 91 octane fuel, and I wanted to get somewhat of a benchmark on any fuel mileage increase with no ethanol (before the tune). I drive the same route every day to work, and the weather wind and temp have all been pretty consistent lately. With the winter blend fuel with 10% ethanol, my average has been about 16-16.5 (on evic). With the ethanol free, its jumped back up to a little over 17. The other night, I wanted to see what it would make on the evic pure highway (still no tune). So with the cruise set @ 75, I reset my evic at my exit, but stayed on the highway. I drove 4 miles to the next exit, got off, turned around and got back on interstate, resumed to 75, and drove 4 miles back taking note of the evic at the exit (before kicking off the cruise). That test yielded 17.1 MPG on the evic. I figured doing round trip would cancel out any wind effect and hills.
I know that this is very pre-mature, and in no way scientific. But after loading up the tune, on the way home today, almost identical conditions, I did the same test and yielded 21 MPG on the evic. I'm a natural born pessimist, and I have a hard time believing that a canned tune would help that much, but, i'm hoping that time will show some significant MPG increases too! (after the new wears off of the new found power of course!!)
Other Observations:
From dyno results i've seen posted before, it seemed like it showed really strong gains on the low end, and I would say that you really feel that! I was able to accelerate in overdrive quite a bit harder than stock without causing the torque converter to unlock. This should make simple driveability better.
There is also a marked improvement in the firmness of the shifts at WOT while casual driving is unaffected. (from what I can tell)
I will post a followup after my 700 mile holiday travels and let you know what I find!
I do have a couple questions. Does anyone know if the canned tunes change throttle sensitivity at all? I don't really understand why anyone would want that. If I want to accelerate faster, I'll push the go-pedal harder :smileup:
Also, does anyone know if it is safe to tow with tunes? or should you revert to stock?
In KC where I live, we have 87, 89, and 91 available at the pump. I know in higher altitudes like colorado, they sell lower octane fuels normally 85,87 and 89. How do you choose a tune with that in mind? I guess you should take into account the elevation where the tune was designed and tested?
Last question.. I have seen conflicting info on warranty coverage, and I know it's too late now! :thk: But, is there any scenarios where chrysler haven't warranted motor problems when it was brought in with the stock tune re-loaded? I've seen lots of posts where people say that the can see the flash count, and if it doesn't match up with how many times they flashed it, they can void it? I've also seen people say they disconnect their battery after loading the factory tune and it resets the flash count? I've even seen reports that it resets the hour meter, and the start count to 0. My hours still read the same, so someone is right and someone is wrong! I just wish I could find concrete answers on this stuff and I don't have any idea who to believe.
Sorry for the lengthy post!!
BTW, I purchased this from Sean at Hemifever Tuning, Inc on Sunday, and received it on Tuesday! Talk about quick turnaround, and with his Christmas special, got it to my door for $540 including the option of a custom tune!!
From reading other posts, I wasn't expecting much out of a tuner, but I thought it was worth a try, and I figured I could sell it if I didn't think it was worth the $$. My main goal was to take the torque management training wheels off, and to get some modest gains in power and maybe a few % more MPG's. So anyway, to the review!
Just for your reference, my truck is a 5.7 4x4 Crew Cab with 3.55's with about 23k on the clock
Also, I've only had this tune loaded up since lunch today, and I've only put on 30 miles since then.
Installation:
It took a bit of work to find the right drivers, as the ones on the included CD don't work on win7 x64. After I got it hooked up, and updated, installation was a breeze. I loaded up the 91 octane tune and I was off to the races (so to speak). I simply loaded the canned tune so far, and have not played with any other functionality.
Initial Impressions:
My first benchmark was to see how it did from a dead stop. Stock, my truck would only turn the tires over about half a revolution before hooking up and going. Now, just mashing the gas, it'll put down about 10-15' of rubber before hooking and going (both with traction control off, of course)
Then I headed for interstate to do a full pull to 100 MPH, there isn't really anything scientific to report here, but I can definitely tell first gear pulls considerably harder than stock, from there on out, the butt dyno seems to register some gains, and it sure feels like I got up to 100 quicker than I could stock.
After rodding around for a bit, there are definitely noticeable gains. I was prepared to be disappointed, but it wasn't a letdown at all, it was about what I had hoped it would be.
Now for the best part!
I noticed on my way home tonight that it seemed like my instant MPG on the evic was trending considerably higher with the cruise on at the same speed I normally drive. So I decided, i'd do a short test just to see.
In anticipation of getting the DS, my last fill up I actually found some ethanol free 91 octane fuel, and I wanted to get somewhat of a benchmark on any fuel mileage increase with no ethanol (before the tune). I drive the same route every day to work, and the weather wind and temp have all been pretty consistent lately. With the winter blend fuel with 10% ethanol, my average has been about 16-16.5 (on evic). With the ethanol free, its jumped back up to a little over 17. The other night, I wanted to see what it would make on the evic pure highway (still no tune). So with the cruise set @ 75, I reset my evic at my exit, but stayed on the highway. I drove 4 miles to the next exit, got off, turned around and got back on interstate, resumed to 75, and drove 4 miles back taking note of the evic at the exit (before kicking off the cruise). That test yielded 17.1 MPG on the evic. I figured doing round trip would cancel out any wind effect and hills.
I know that this is very pre-mature, and in no way scientific. But after loading up the tune, on the way home today, almost identical conditions, I did the same test and yielded 21 MPG on the evic. I'm a natural born pessimist, and I have a hard time believing that a canned tune would help that much, but, i'm hoping that time will show some significant MPG increases too! (after the new wears off of the new found power of course!!)
Other Observations:
From dyno results i've seen posted before, it seemed like it showed really strong gains on the low end, and I would say that you really feel that! I was able to accelerate in overdrive quite a bit harder than stock without causing the torque converter to unlock. This should make simple driveability better.
There is also a marked improvement in the firmness of the shifts at WOT while casual driving is unaffected. (from what I can tell)
I will post a followup after my 700 mile holiday travels and let you know what I find!
I do have a couple questions. Does anyone know if the canned tunes change throttle sensitivity at all? I don't really understand why anyone would want that. If I want to accelerate faster, I'll push the go-pedal harder :smileup:
Also, does anyone know if it is safe to tow with tunes? or should you revert to stock?
In KC where I live, we have 87, 89, and 91 available at the pump. I know in higher altitudes like colorado, they sell lower octane fuels normally 85,87 and 89. How do you choose a tune with that in mind? I guess you should take into account the elevation where the tune was designed and tested?
Last question.. I have seen conflicting info on warranty coverage, and I know it's too late now! :thk: But, is there any scenarios where chrysler haven't warranted motor problems when it was brought in with the stock tune re-loaded? I've seen lots of posts where people say that the can see the flash count, and if it doesn't match up with how many times they flashed it, they can void it? I've also seen people say they disconnect their battery after loading the factory tune and it resets the flash count? I've even seen reports that it resets the hour meter, and the start count to 0. My hours still read the same, so someone is right and someone is wrong! I just wish I could find concrete answers on this stuff and I don't have any idea who to believe.
Sorry for the lengthy post!!
Again thanks for the review.
