Originally Posted by Ramman18

I'd love to but there's never enough funds for that. Plus then I'd have to upgrade the trans, the axles, etc.

But you misunderstand me. The OP is complaining about the tuner's effect on the engine, not extensive mechanical modifications. Any engine can be built way up but If you want to mod an engine with a tuner, get a diesel. None of these tuners can really ever do what they claim, and never could. Superchips and Hypertech and Jet were around in the 90s and there just isn't much to do to these stock engines and computers. Yes, there's tons of things one could change mechanically on the engine to make more power but that's not the point I was making. Tuners claim to simply plug it in and instantly get more power and torque but their claims are obviously unfounded and that's what the OP and I were complaining about from experience.

Originally Posted by HeyYou

Tuners actually do make a difference on stock engines, especially on the 98 and up trucks. (torque management) One member got 10hp, but, single digit torque gains with JUST the tuner. As with most mods, it isn't any one single mod that makes the day, its the cumulative affect of ALL of them. The numbers add up.

Originally Posted by MoparFanatic21

I understand that and that is impressive. But for the money spent on a tuner the gains aren't worth it in my opinion. Also the reason why they show more gains on 98 and up is the death flash.

Originally Posted by HeyYou

Older trucks got their version of that as well. Keep in mind, those numbers were on a STOCK motor. Improvements elsewhere will also take advantage of the tune too. 10 hp for around 400 bucks really isn't that bad though either. Folks spend more than that and get less..... (headers, for instance. You can spend 600 bucks on headers, and get maybe 1 or 2 hp....... of course, everything else you do works that much better......)

Originally Posted by MoparFanatic21

I understand that and that is impressive. But for the money spent on a tuner the gains aren't worth it in my opinion. Also the reason why they show more gains on 98 and up is the death flash.

Originally Posted by Ramman18

This ^^^^^^

Even back in 2005 the tuners were $400 and did nothing but add tons of ping. For those of us (I'm probably the last one) who got really bad pinging engines (some were worse than others) but were obviously stuck with their purchases, any and all options for solving ping were explored and exhausted. I don't have torque management so all I needed was to get rid of deathflash but not at the expense of more ping. Once I got the deathflash (under warranty from dealer who didn't tell me), I went into mod mode to get rid of ping and get some actually power. Nothing worked. All the "fixes" were worthless and the tuner just added twice as much ping. What actually helped my engine was getting 33" tires. I'm guessing the pcm altered the mixture to move the tires and solved its ping. No one I've mentioned this to knows why. I still get it if I lug but most of the time it's gone. The tuner was such a pain because it pinged just cruising down the hwy and I had to use 89 or higher. Hypertech support didn't help any and not long ago I asked hemifever if his tune would ping. He said if I got ping with his tuner it was my problem.

So I've given up. Sure, someday a built 318 or 360 would be great that never pinged but I won't be able to afford that. For the normal people like me, a tuner was supposed to work on a stock engine (claimed advertisement). But they don't. Worst part is, my tuner was stolen so I'm stuck with it and can never change it now.

Originally Posted by Skeptic68W

So I've been fighting with a Superchips tuner for quite a while now. I purchased a Flashpaq 3842 in the hopes of picking up a little power, eliminating torque management and "death flash" from my 01. Pretty much, the answer is no dice.

At first tuning, the truck would ping like crazy on any and every tune. I attributed this to the plenum or a worn out timing chain. Replaced both while doing another project and the pinging reduced but was still present. Even did the aluminum plate, shorter bolts, and loctite for the plenum.

I should mention here that my truck has 2 modifications. First, a Spectre CAI, and 2nd, a Transgo TFOD JR shift kit in the reman trans that's under 1 year old. I should also mention that I've stripped the motor down to the shortblock in the last 12 months, the heads got a valve job, the combustion chambers were cleaned of any deposits, and the injectors were cleaned.

While tuned with any tune on the device (which is up to date fyi) the truck has an incorrect shifting pattern, and still pings at WOT in higher RPM ranges.

The truck shifts fine and doesn't ping at all on stock tuning.

I have been emailing back and forth with Superchips tech support and here are a summary of their "master tech's" answers(excuses) relayed to me by a customer service person who plays middleman.

1. Blamed the pinging on the CAI. (Doesn't ping with the CAI on stock tune)
2. Blamed the shifting issue on the shift kit. (Shifts fine with the shift kit on stock tune)
3, The tuner doesn't work with CAI's and Shift Kits
4. The truck will require custom tuning to have those mods, which you can obtain by buying one of the much much more expensive tuners we sell and paying a tuning shop hundreds more dollars for a custom tune.

What an asinine bunch of nonsense. They sell these tuners marketing 50+ horsepower and 60+ lb-ft gains on the 5.9 magnum engines (not that we believe that) and my butt dyno says even giving them credit for 10 would be generous. On top of that, they sell a performance product that "doesn't work" with even the most basic of aftermarket parts. We aren't talking about nitrous or forced induction here, or a big lopey cam...we are talking about a damned intake and the mildest shift kit on the market for crying out loud. No-where have I ever read from them that their tuners cannot be used with other performance modifications. That should be EXPLICITLY stated. Or they should just build a better product.

All in all, this has been a huge waste of time/money/effort/brainpower. It took forever to get a response from their service team and their answers are cop out answers at best, and up-selling at worst. I couldn't be less satisfied with Superchips. Avoid at all costs.

Originally Posted by SeanAB

Bud you have a fairly decent amount of customizations and you went with a tuner that was designed for a basically stock truck. Der ta ****ing der. That tuner was made for people that just want to plug in and have a little extra pep and a little extra MPG. If you're trying to get more than 20 extra horsepower out of it. And from the sounds of all the things you've done that is definitely what you're trying to do. Then no **** you need to have it custom tuned, I mean why can't you understand you put in something that changes the shifting but the tuner literally is not built for that this is just a case of you're a dumbass. Especially when we're talking about a tuner that's made for stock components on your truck this isn't the tuners fault this is yours for being lazy. If you did any research you would have known but you didn't and now you want to blame them. If i was them id make u eat it, no refund

Originally Posted by Ugly1

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