Hi all,
Truck is a '99 4x4 with the 5.9. I was reading another post on the death flash and I finally went out and looked at the PCM on my truck and I found 2 stickers. The top one said "authorized factory update". Does this mean I have the death flash? If so what can I do about it? How much power does this "death flash" actually rob me of? Will I notice a difference if I get it fixed? Anything else I should know?

 

Guaranteed you have it. It retards the timing. You need to get a tuner like a superchips.

 

Or if you are really serious, and plan on major upgrades to your engine/truck, the SCT is another way to go. $200 or so more than the Superchips, but custom tunes.

 

if you want to spend a big fortune on your truck, plan a spending a semi-fortune on the sct. if you plan to keep it stock, just get a superchips or hypertech. if you are patient, you can find them used.

 

I got a Hypertech back in 06 for about $280 I believe. Took awhile to get the pinging down as it now needs higher octane gas and cooler plugs, plus a steady diet of seafoam. But it eliminated the deathflash and raised mpg by atleast 2.

 

I don't plan on any major mods. Right now I have 14x3 air cleaner, modded TB, FM exhaust, Magnaflow cat, and a 180* tstat. I plan on getting shorty headers and 4.10 gears some time in the future.

Will I actually be able to feel a difference if I get the "death flash" fixed? My truck isn't THAT sluggish, but the low end sucks. I can't break the tires loose on dry pavement, and it's an absolute dog when pulling even a small trailer. Will fixing the death flash help with low end?

I was thinking about getting a Superchips 3815, just because there's one for sale near me for cheap, but is it really worth it to fix a problem I didn't even notice?

 

its not a huge gain, but i think they're worth $150-250, if nothing else, just to fix the speedometer. it gives em just a little more pep. if you can find one used, at a reasonable price, i think you'll like it.

beware though, if you have a mildly leaking plenum, and you either don't know it, or are in denial over it, and its either not pinging, or ping very mildly, the timing advance from the superchips or hypertech will make it ping like mad, and shame you into fixing the plenum, which will further improve your trucks performance.

 

There is no plenum leak, I just replaced the pan and gasket with a hughes kit a month ago and I just checked for vacuum a few days ago. It all looks good. How can I be absolutely sure I have this "death flash"?

 

sticker on the pcm. "authorized software update" dated 00 or 01. could be handwritten or computer printed. there's series of tsb about it. i'll look.

http://dodgeram.info/tsb/2000/18-022-00.htm 2000
http://dodgeram.info/tsb/2001/18-006-01.htm 2001

 

i had the death flash, and wasnt able to burn ,when i hooked up the superchips it was a day and night diffrence in performance, it felt like a new truck, now im able to burn em.
next for me is shorty headers also