The computer needs time to get used to changes, usually a couple of tanks. So no, you don't have to wait, but you do need to run a couple of tanks before reporting results.

 

Yeah this tank is out the window, after a "normal" yesterday, this morning brought high winds and heavy rain. I will report the tank #'s anyways with the conditions observed. There is probably 500+ miles on it since the TB install, enough??? idk but I have to keep moving forward... right now waiting in line is the intake tube, 180* stat, fan delete and tuning.

Which brings up a question... when tuning, my expectation is effect will be immediate. Am I going to have to wait for a "relearn" on each final download before evaluating? I have until about the end of March to get this all done, then I wait until warmer & consistent weather for the aero mods... all that while working around the rain & winds we get in the winter months.

 

Unless your tune is absolutely perfect, (which isn't going to happen...) the PCM will always do some learning. It also learns your driving style.... So, generally, after a re-tune/reset/whatever, the pcm will take a bit of time to figure everything out again.

 

Yeah I tend to take baby steps in any change to the tune on the ram... it is too easy to get way out of wack otherwise. That first tune will be focused on the timing in the area's used the most on the hiway... 1400-2000 rpms. Once the timing at any given rpm has peaked, then will start dialing back the injector pulse & tweek timing accordingly. On the ram its dump in a tune and go, no relearn process.

I think what I need to figure out on the Dak is if I dump a tune in, run my hiway route to log it, make the next change and repeat hiway run am I going to be able to find differences in the logs. When I did this with the ram while working on the front air dam, I ran 3 back to back runs one with V2, V1 & then no air dam and it was clear looking at the calc load values the V1 shined. V2 absolutely sucked compared to no air dam.

 

17.867 mpg over 204.* miles, and that included that nasty weather i mentioned this morning.

intake tube install done, 10 min job as expected


key words Airaid MIT intake tube (for searching purposes...)

 

I'm thinkin' getting 18mpg out of that truck under ANY circumstances is doing rather well.

 

yeah I think it (mpg) might be the best I have done so far in all of the daks in the family (for sure with the V8s)... this is the 3rd I've owned and an Ex owned #4. Maybe the RC 2wd with the v6 might have done 19's but that was so far back idk for sure. It also had an MT so the best setup for mpg's.

I dont see the next tank being better... as others have commented on other posts & forums, bottom end loss and more top end performance. Others commented that the bottom end comes back after a few tanks so we will see. I will say this, it was worth the wait for the mid-upper rpm performance. It definitely shines up there. I will leave it as is for a few tanks and then measure mpg on the commute to work.

 

This is where the 4.7 shines to begin with. The 5.9s are known for low end torque but they lose steam fast at the upper rpms. The 4.7 is made to rev, so you get the opposite effect

 

Back when I had my 5.9 in the 2000 ram I did the kegger mod, cut the runners down and smoothed out the edges. Dont recall my experience with it though, too long ago. I might have documented it here back then. Thinking about the kegger design it makes sense that it had so much low end torque, long runners pulling from a large plenum. That is somewhat similar with the 1st gen 4.7 intakes up thru 2003 (?). Those should have the torque peak lower in the rpms than the later 1st gen intakes. Why would a TB have an impact on mpg's??? Throttle plate opening is only going to let a bit more airflow into the manifold, I dont recall seeing anything in the JTEC tunes that relate to throttle position vs injector pulse width (which would make sense IMO if that were the case).

One study I read on intake tube design in front of the TB indicated that a longer straight section in front of the throttle body the better the low end torque was (IIRC... reading this stuff in the middle of the night so I could be off on it). When I read that the first thing that came to mind was the flow inside the intake tube, any bend in it will result in detached airflow on the inside radius (low pressure) and high pressure turbulence on the outside radius of the bend. There has to be an amount of straight section of the intake tube that is long enough to get the flow laminar again inside the tube. That will do 2 things (from what I can see), remove excess turbulence in front of the throttle blade once it is cracked and keep the velocity up. (Someone please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong...) The coupler I picked up for the Airaid MIT connection to the TB, it has a smooth transition from the intake tube side to the throttle body side... it unfortunately has a sharper radius which will cause turbulence in front of the blade... (**** idea & experiment comes to mind here...).

Anyways, starting to ramble here...

Drive in this morning raised an eyebrow... the long climb up the hill (google measurement on maps says its almost 3 miles) past the port on I5... In warmer weather I was able to slightly accelerate up that hill with the old TB & air hat (in 5th gear). That went away when temps started dropping into the 40's on a regular basis (rear end gear lube drag - still not on the RP stuff, cold wheel bearings etc... it all adds up) This morning (temps around 35~38*f) I was able to hold 5th and accelerate slightly up that hill, (45 miles since MIT install, 5 mph gain) with the TB alone it would hold speed or loose it ever so slightly, 1~2 mph before a downshift into 3rd. I did not expect this after 40 miles with the MIT installed... the first 5 miles showed a clear drop in bottom end torque so mpg driving was out the window pretty quick. Seeing this, now I want to know how long before it stabilizes aka "relearns". So I will pay attention the next few days on that hill...

Also, going to have to put all the receipts into a spreadsheet to make it easier to digest and track progress.

edit: forgot to add one comment... I am wondering if the later Gen1 intakes provide more part throttle low end torque in the 1500~1800 rpm range vs the early Gen1 intake. One guy claimed he saw an MPG bump with the swap...

 

Late nite reading if you cant sleep


Reference...



The turbo on the Ram has a thing called a silencer ring... sits in front of the compressor wheel... back in the day everyone pulled that ring (including me) so they could hear the whistle that came after its removal. Everyone said that ring did nothing for performance...That whistle was actually turbulence in front of the compressor wheel on the turbo. I stumbled on this while in MN doing a contract job with nothing to do but race (rental karts), hike and figure out how to keep my then 20 mpg thru 0* temp days. Back then I came across a steal of a deal on a modified stock turbo, picked it up along with a stainless steel exhaust manifold. Had a shop do the install for me since I had no place to do the work. Not long after I decided to do a test run with the ring before (co-worker had one) & after to see if there was any change in mpg's. I'd been doing the out & back run on the interstate and racking up approx 120 miles & filling up to calculate the fuel usage. A co-worker at the time also had a Cummins truck and pulled his silencer ring and gave it to me. Not long after I did the install... the initial response was "oh Snap" (best 4 letter forum S word) there was a noticeable bump in bottom end torque. (truck weighs 7000#)

Decided to do a before & after with the ring and see performance on mpg's. Sure enough, there was a bump. I want to say it was 0.8 mpg on back to back runs that day (if motivated to read about it look up Cold Weather mpg thread Steve05ram360), temps were most likely between 10-20* as I remember having a hard time getting the ring out for the 2nd run... That SUCKED... Not long after that there was a vendor on the forums discussing their turbo line & dyno results (iirc)... I pm'd him to ask about what I saw on the silencer ring and he is the one who mentioned the compressor wheel turbulence being removed would create more airflow into the turbo which led to the bump in performance.

Anyways... background info on the previous post...