programmer
#1
05-26-2012, 07:23 PM
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programmer
i got an 04.5 lly that is bone stock. i have an egr delete that is not installed yet and an s&b intake with their mouth piece and im looking to get a set of stacks but im wondering what kind of programmer i should get for it. i know everyone is gonna say efi live but im new to the diesel world and dont want to mess any thing up so what is a good programmer to start out with without hurting the truck. im looking for more mpg and more power for towing and a little black smoke for when i wanna have some fun. thanks for all the help
#2
05-26-2012, 07:39 PM
canned tuners have more potential of messing things up then a tune from a reputable EFI Live dealer
if you do it yourself then McRat's 20-20 Tow Tune is a good place to start and it is quite safe. Thanks for the info McRat
The 20-20 Tow Tune, a tutorial:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just got your EFILive? Perhaps a little intimidated by it?
Here's how you can build a 50rwhp Tow Tune in less than 20 minutes that's safe and sane:
First, download the latest version of the EFILive software and USB driver from the www.efilive.com site. You will use the V3 USB driver. The distribution disk often does not have the latest release, which is true for all software.
Next, make sure your battery on both your laptop and truck is in good shape.
If you have a handheld tuner loaded in your truck RETURN TO STOCK.
Plug the cable into your USB of your laptop, and the other end into the data port of the truck. Turn your ignition to the RUN position (BUT DO NOT START THE TRUCK). Launch EFILive tuning tool. If it says DEMO MODE, make sure you loaded the USB driver from EFILive.
Download your stock tune: FLASH->READ PCM CALIBRATION
This will take about 3 minutes. Turn off ignition for 15 seconds. SAVE the calibration "MyTruckStockECM". Copy it to at least 2 computers. You need to make sure you always have a copy of your stock tune. Now SAVE AS "TowTune" or some other working name, just to be safe.
Now click the EDIT pull down on the top left, and click Configure Display Units.
Click the ALL button, then the IMPERIAL button, then OK. Now we will be in American units. This way we are talking about the same numbers.
Now to tune!
Fake Injector Mod
First we are going to do the "Fake Injector Mod". This will make the engine think you put 50HP injectors in the truck by increasing how much fuel it shoots in everywhere. In the upper left corner of your screen is a box that says NAVIGATOR. This allows you to go straight to an area you want to. You can also click on ENGINE OPERATION->FUEL QUANTITY, etc and find it using the navigator "tree" off on the left side.
Type B0721 (0=zero, not "O"regano) in the Navigator box. Up will pop the Main Injection Pulse (No Pilot). This table tells the engine how long to leave the injector open to get a desired amount of fuel. So if the engine wants 100mm3 of fuel at 160MPa fuel pressure, it will leave the injector open 1526 microseconds to get it on a LLY. The No Pilot means this table is used when the pilot injection is off (high engine output).
Click on the upper left grey square in this table (between 0 and 0) and it will select the whole table. CNTL-A will do the same. In the top middle of your screen is a box that says ADJUST. Type 20 in this box. Now click the % button just to the right of the ADJUST box. Congrats! You have just installed 20% over injectors!
Repeat this with B0720 Main Injection Pulse. This is the table used when the pilot injection is on.
Fake Resistor Timing Mod
Adding some timing can make more power, get better mileage, and reduce EGT's. But making a timing table can be quite a chore. So we will steal one from General Motors! We know this is fairly safe timing because GM uses it.
Navigator - B0908 Injection Timing (A). This is a table used for setting the timing at very high altitude. It has more advance than the low altitude table. Select the whole table (ctrl A) and copy (right click mouse, COPY or hit ctrl C). Now, NAVIGATOR - B0909 Injection Timing (B), click the upper right corner, and hit ctrl V which is paste. Navigator - B0910 Injection Timing (C), paste again. Now all three tables should look exactly the same.
This has the same effect as putting a resistor in the Barometric Sensor to get more timing, but it is well within safe limits.
Fake Boost Stick
This applies to only LLY's. If you have an LB7, you will have to get a crack pipe or Big Head waste gate mod.
Navigator - B0202 Boost Sensor Scaling. Click on the grey 1.09 volt box, hold down the mouse button, and drag all the way to 5.0 volts. You should have just 1.09 to 5.0 (and inbetween) selected. In the ADJUST box, type in -20 (negative) and hit the % button. At 5.0v it should read about 42. What we did was to fake the engine into seeing less boost than there is by 20%. The reason we start at 1.09v, is because 1v is atmospheric pressure, and if we did the whole thing, it would try to make more boost at idle, which is not necessary.
You will notice that there is a dip in the graph up top at 1.09v, and when you look at the numbers, it goes 12.4, 13.9, 12.3, 13.5, 14.7. We want to smooth this out. So at 12.3, type 14.5. At 13.5, type 14.9. And at 14.7 type 15.4. Now it's smooth!
Now save this program.
Go back to the truck and hook up with the key in the RUN position. Launch EFILive Tuning Tool.
Select FLASH->Program PCM Calibrations. You will hit start, and it will say the cable is not "married" to the truck. Close the FLASH window and try again, and there will be a new button on the window to allow you to marry it.
Now do it again, and in less than 2 minutes, you will have a pretty good tow tune that is essentially just a the GM data that has been moved around a bit.
if you do it yourself then McRat's 20-20 Tow Tune is a good place to start and it is quite safe. Thanks for the info McRat
The 20-20 Tow Tune, a tutorial:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just got your EFILive? Perhaps a little intimidated by it?
Here's how you can build a 50rwhp Tow Tune in less than 20 minutes that's safe and sane:
First, download the latest version of the EFILive software and USB driver from the www.efilive.com site. You will use the V3 USB driver. The distribution disk often does not have the latest release, which is true for all software.
Next, make sure your battery on both your laptop and truck is in good shape.
If you have a handheld tuner loaded in your truck RETURN TO STOCK.
Plug the cable into your USB of your laptop, and the other end into the data port of the truck. Turn your ignition to the RUN position (BUT DO NOT START THE TRUCK). Launch EFILive tuning tool. If it says DEMO MODE, make sure you loaded the USB driver from EFILive.
Download your stock tune: FLASH->READ PCM CALIBRATION
This will take about 3 minutes. Turn off ignition for 15 seconds. SAVE the calibration "MyTruckStockECM". Copy it to at least 2 computers. You need to make sure you always have a copy of your stock tune. Now SAVE AS "TowTune" or some other working name, just to be safe.
Now click the EDIT pull down on the top left, and click Configure Display Units.
Click the ALL button, then the IMPERIAL button, then OK. Now we will be in American units. This way we are talking about the same numbers.
Now to tune!
Fake Injector Mod
First we are going to do the "Fake Injector Mod". This will make the engine think you put 50HP injectors in the truck by increasing how much fuel it shoots in everywhere. In the upper left corner of your screen is a box that says NAVIGATOR. This allows you to go straight to an area you want to. You can also click on ENGINE OPERATION->FUEL QUANTITY, etc and find it using the navigator "tree" off on the left side.
Type B0721 (0=zero, not "O"regano) in the Navigator box. Up will pop the Main Injection Pulse (No Pilot). This table tells the engine how long to leave the injector open to get a desired amount of fuel. So if the engine wants 100mm3 of fuel at 160MPa fuel pressure, it will leave the injector open 1526 microseconds to get it on a LLY. The No Pilot means this table is used when the pilot injection is off (high engine output).
Click on the upper left grey square in this table (between 0 and 0) and it will select the whole table. CNTL-A will do the same. In the top middle of your screen is a box that says ADJUST. Type 20 in this box. Now click the % button just to the right of the ADJUST box. Congrats! You have just installed 20% over injectors!
Repeat this with B0720 Main Injection Pulse. This is the table used when the pilot injection is on.
Fake Resistor Timing Mod
Adding some timing can make more power, get better mileage, and reduce EGT's. But making a timing table can be quite a chore. So we will steal one from General Motors! We know this is fairly safe timing because GM uses it.
Navigator - B0908 Injection Timing (A). This is a table used for setting the timing at very high altitude. It has more advance than the low altitude table. Select the whole table (ctrl A) and copy (right click mouse, COPY or hit ctrl C). Now, NAVIGATOR - B0909 Injection Timing (B), click the upper right corner, and hit ctrl V which is paste. Navigator - B0910 Injection Timing (C), paste again. Now all three tables should look exactly the same.
This has the same effect as putting a resistor in the Barometric Sensor to get more timing, but it is well within safe limits.
Fake Boost Stick
This applies to only LLY's. If you have an LB7, you will have to get a crack pipe or Big Head waste gate mod.
Navigator - B0202 Boost Sensor Scaling. Click on the grey 1.09 volt box, hold down the mouse button, and drag all the way to 5.0 volts. You should have just 1.09 to 5.0 (and inbetween) selected. In the ADJUST box, type in -20 (negative) and hit the % button. At 5.0v it should read about 42. What we did was to fake the engine into seeing less boost than there is by 20%. The reason we start at 1.09v, is because 1v is atmospheric pressure, and if we did the whole thing, it would try to make more boost at idle, which is not necessary.
You will notice that there is a dip in the graph up top at 1.09v, and when you look at the numbers, it goes 12.4, 13.9, 12.3, 13.5, 14.7. We want to smooth this out. So at 12.3, type 14.5. At 13.5, type 14.9. And at 14.7 type 15.4. Now it's smooth!
Now save this program.
Go back to the truck and hook up with the key in the RUN position. Launch EFILive Tuning Tool.
Select FLASH->Program PCM Calibrations. You will hit start, and it will say the cable is not "married" to the truck. Close the FLASH window and try again, and there will be a new button on the window to allow you to marry it.
Now do it again, and in less than 2 minutes, you will have a pretty good tow tune that is essentially just a the GM data that has been moved around a bit.
Last edited by Whit; 05-29-2012 at 09:28 PM.
#4
05-28-2012, 08:25 PM
#6
05-28-2012, 09:22 PM
Diesel Bomber
PPE is probably the BEST tuner out there for the Duramax, but if you want to go a little more on the thrifty side and still have that plug and play ability with more power and a little more smoke I would recommend the Diablosport Predator
From what It sounds like what you want you want a "tune on the fly" type setup, and for that I would say you would probably be happiest with a pre-tuned ECM with a DSP5 tune and switch, then you can have from stock power all the way to a 400rwhp tune to tow tunes with turbo braking, thats what I have and Its awesome!
From what It sounds like what you want you want a "tune on the fly" type setup, and for that I would say you would probably be happiest with a pre-tuned ECM with a DSP5 tune and switch, then you can have from stock power all the way to a 400rwhp tune to tow tunes with turbo braking, thats what I have and Its awesome!
Last edited by BriteWhiteRam; 05-28-2012 at 09:25 PM.
#7
05-28-2012, 09:31 PM
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#8
05-29-2012, 07:45 PM
Diesel Bomber
Duramaxtuner.com has transmission friendly pre-programmed ECM's that you just swap out with your stock ecm and wire up a simple 5 way **** into your cab, it would probably take you 2 hours if you have no clue what your doing, and about 45 mins if you were good
and when you upgrade your truck with a new turbo/injectors/transmission/fuel system/etc you can either get EFI live and do it yourself or just send it back to them and they will tune it for your setup
but a pre-tuned ECM is probably cheaper than a PPE, and you get those 5 tunes to choose from on the fly instead of waiting 5+ minutes to change from your hot tune to a tow tune when you want to hook up to a trailer
and when you upgrade your truck with a new turbo/injectors/transmission/fuel system/etc you can either get EFI live and do it yourself or just send it back to them and they will tune it for your setup
but a pre-tuned ECM is probably cheaper than a PPE, and you get those 5 tunes to choose from on the fly instead of waiting 5+ minutes to change from your hot tune to a tow tune when you want to hook up to a trailer
