The exact same tuning methods/techniques are used in flash tuning as they are on a "chip".

 

I thank you PHPDiesel. I meant no disrespect by calling a chip old 80s technology. But after seeing and experiencing what EFI Live, Spartan, Sniper, and SCT does. Reaffirmed my opinions on flash tuning. So do Forgive me. I have been around diesel and Performance automotive for a long time. I am just now deciding to get into the field rather then treating it as a hobby, and paying somebody else to do it. Can't wait to learn more!

 

Piggyback-style chips ARE old technology but they work very well. Since we as 7.3L owners (and most anyone with EEC-IV and EEC-V computers) can actually use this old technology to our benefit, why not use it?

 

to toss in my 2 cents im about to buy a ts 6 position and an edge insight cs (or maybe a cts) for my gauges. everyone here is 100% on about the gauges. they are a must. in my case i prefer the monitors for gauges. yes there is some lag and they arent 100% accurate but imo when i can pay 400 bucks for 8 gauges on a monitor or 500 to 700 for the same analog gauges ill go with the monitor. plus on a monitor you can set up ur warning lights and all that. on my 6.0 i had every gauge set to where i felt comfortable (normally a little under where everyone else says get out of it)

 

Sure but we can clarify that a piggy back chip on an ECU doesn't just alter inputs to change tuning, right? Whether the chip resides on the back of the ECU or the ECU has been flash tuned should be no different as far as depth of tuning goes. I like a chip because I can remove it if I need severe service making me take the truck to a dealership. A flashed ECU may be lost if the dealer decides to "re-flash it because of a TSB." Then what do you do?

Plus, if I think there's an issue with the tune or engine performance I can simply remove the chip and troubleshoot from a totally stock scenario.

There, nothing un-nice there, right?

 

In order:

Correct. No false signals are being "fed" to the PCM in the way of inputs or outputs. Think of a "chip" as simply an external memory (because that's ALL it is).

If your PCM is reflashed at the dealer (and you own a 7.3L), a chip will still work after you reinstall it because all the chip really cares about is the physical PCM hardware. With a programmer (with custom tunes), your tunes would have to be re-written because the hex code in the binary (basically addressing offset) would be different. Programmers with canned tunes wouldn't care as long as the truck was returned to stock before taking it in....but if you happened to have left aftermarket programming on the PCM when it was reflashed, you get to pay for a programmer unlock.

 

I agree with all the above, except I was led to believe that my DP chip would be corrupted if left on the ECU and the dealer re flashed the ECU. Not true?

 

As I said,

If your PCM is reflashed at the dealer (and you own a 7.3L), a chip will still work after you reinstall it......

If you leave your chip in (regardless of who it came from) and the dealer tries to reflash your PCM, then you just bought a new PCM and chip.

 

I understand now. I thought "it" referred to a PCM w chip in it -- reflashed.

 

Yeah, not a good scenario.

Chip installed + reflash =