the tuner is like a little hand held computer. you just plug it into the OBD port under the steering wheel, let it boot up, and follow the instructions to "install" or "uninstall".

once you "install", the device is disabled from working on any other VIN, so its referred to as Vin Locked. So you just put it back in the box and set it on the shelf out of the way.

If you ever have to take your truck to the dealer, or sell it, or sell the programmer, then you need to "uninstall" the program. A dealer reflash would overwrite the pcm program, and then you've lot your tuner program until you send it back to the mfg'er and grovel for mercy.

 

Ahhhh...well that make sense then.

 

good question, and i can't come up with the exact answer, but here's what i do know.

lets say a mild plenum leak is 5-10-15% lean. with maximum timing advance for best performance, that'll ping like crazy. it has to do with the leanness, the increased heat in the cylinder, and the increased volatility of the fuel.

with retarded timing (no pun intended) the ping is eliminated or reduced. i can't explain why. somebody help me. dodge took advantage of this to hide the problem from most owners, and bought several years of decreased complaints of ping noise, which was an undeniable problem. they covered it up with decreased performance which was a deniable problem. a clever engineer saved dodge a billion dollars by avoiding (covering up) a ton a warranty work.

now the idea was only good for so far. when the leak deteriorates from minor to major, and the mix goes to 20-25% lean (and i'm just making up these numbers as a reference, hank would give us exact numbers) then the heat in the cylinders goes up and you need high octane gas and/or more timing retard than even the death flash setting in order to eliminate the ping.

 

Thanks for the explanation, I guess it makes sense. I'm just curious as to how much power is being lost.

I think I just bought myself a Superchips 3815 Flashpaq for $250. I may pick it up tomorrow so I guess I'll find out for sure whether it's worth it or not.

Now would be the time for my tranny to go out, I'm about to buy a tuner, lift, and new shocks so my truck fund is pretty much empty right now.

 

I found a sticker when I first open the hood, on the right hand side of the radiator support. It is hand written, and says "Flash Controller" with some numbers written underneath that. The sticker has a date of what appears to be 3/11/01, says it was authorized by Chrysler. The truck was made in 3/01 according to the sticker on the door. Would this be justification to have the "Death Flash"? If so, and I decide to go with tha Superchips, how does this affect the transmission? The tranny was rebuilt last year. The truck did ping slightly using 87 octane, not any more since switching to 89 octane. I don't know if the ping was caused by a leaky plenum or not. If it has a leaky plenum and I do the Superchips, I heard it would ping like mad. If I run 89 or 91 would this quiet the pinging after the Superchips upgade until I can get it fixed???

 

mine dont ping at all , you should be fine

 

By using the higher octane you are just covering up the prob, (like Chrysler did) And you are damaging other things like the cat and valves for instance. Once the cat starts getting clogged up, the extra heat will start slowly damaging things, like the #6 and #8 cylinders first, (valves mainly) . But I strongly believe it contributes to the crack head syndrome. Bottom line, check and fix the plenum as fast as you can, http://dodgeram.info/tsb/2000/09-05-00.htm

 

Curious what your results are with the tuner. Mine won't be in until Friday, and not sure how much I'll play with it since i have a few hours of road trip on Saturday morning.

Regarding the comment on high octane gas, I was under the impression that once you started using the tuner, that's what you had to use?

 

hypertech and superchips have 2 program settings - 87 and 89/91. each is designed to run with that octane level of gas. the 87 has a medium timing advance. the 89/91 has more timing advance, which the increased octane can handle w/o pinging.

i think pinging slowly tears the motor apart. not to mention that the fuel is exploding before the optimum time, which reduces the power output.

 

Ok...spent some time on the Superchips site tonight, so have a better understanding of it now. Might try the lower octane program for my roadtrip just to see what the difference is. Also looking forward to getting my speedo reset, know the bump in tires to the offroad rims has my speedo off a bit.

See you have the hyper, how much difference do you see between the settings?