First off, hello to all.


I purchased a new to me '05 Ram QC Hemi 4x2. It has a Volant CAI, vortex exhaust, but I'm not sure if the previous owner hit it with a power programmer or not. I feel the truck is a good bit faster than it should be with just exhaust and a CAI. Did a couple of impromtu 0-60 runs on a cold road without heating the tires, still managed under 6 1/2 sec. Also my fuel economy,according to the lio-o-meter, is decent at about 17mpg when I'm easy on her.

Is there, perhaps, an easy way to tell if she' been tuned?

Thanx in advance guys.

 

I am not sure that there is, other than taking it to the dealer. Someone else should chime in soon. Welcome to the forum, and remember once a Marine, always a Marine. Semper Fi

 

Yea, I was thinking the same thing but was trying to avoid the hassle. Thought maybe the Autozone guys my be able to tell whatever scanners they happen to use, but that's really a last resort. Well actually, burying the needle on the speedo is a last resort

Always!

S/F

 

The Superchips programmer and tuner both need to remove the tune and replace it with stock before they can be resold. They lock in the VIN and PCM number.

Don't know about the other programmers/tuners other than the smt-6 biggyback.

 

Apparently not so much these days. It's now the "in" thing to sell your locked unit on ebay so somebody else can score it cheap and beg Superchips to unlock it. Then they get a fully functioning programmer for $150 and only us "nerds" pay full retail. I don't mean just when somebody on ebay claims it's not locked either; people look for the ads that say VIN LOCKED and buy it knowing Superchips will cave and fix it for them.

Anyway, shift firmness will usually tell whether it's stock or programmed. If it has soft upshifts, it's likely stock. If it's got firmer upshifts, it's probably got a program.

 

This is the main reason I finely brought this question to this forum. It doesn't have firm upshift, actually it has anoyingly lazy, soft upshifts. Everything else possibly would point to a programmer except this point. Although, I would have no way of knowing if a programmer was used that did not have that option, I've seen a few on the market that don't.

Shift firmness is one of my biggest peeves with my truck. If I knew whether or not it had been programmed, I could avoid buying a programmer and just buy a Transgo shift kit. If it has not been tuned, all the better... I would just order a programmer.

With the volant and exhaust combo, what should I resonably expect the 0-60 times to be? I managed a run of 6.43 sec, and here again this was on a very cold road with cold tires. And nevermind the fact that I couldn't peg the launch, it was usually one extreme (breaking loose badly) or the other (sluggish launch from holding too much back). I'm guessing that with practice and traction, it could run 6.00 sec without much of a problem. This just seems a bit too quick in my oppinion, from just a CAI and exhaust. Thoughts?

 

Intake and exhaust are a pretty good combination for the Hemi. There's a very good chance your PCM is stock. Since I don't have any exhaust mods I can't say how much it helps but I'd say it shoudl be every bit as much as the programmer itself would add. My truck weighs 6000lbs with me in it yet I've handled a couple of late 90s Maximas from 0-70. With 2wd your truck would be even faster.

 

Dang, I learn something everyday, thanks. Didn't know that sc would cave and unlock those units.

 

Thanks for the input guys. Looks like I'm even more impressed with the good ole Hemi at this point. Guess it's time to invest in a programmer.

 

If you are concerned about the truck being programed or not you could always take it down to the dealership and have a routine oil change or any other maintanace done to it and they will re-flash the computer to stock settings when they do the updates on it. The dealers programing will overide any other programing on that may or may not be on it which is why most programers require you to return the truck to stock settings before taking it in. If you forgetwith superchips and you take it in the dealer will override theprograming and will lock you out of the programer soyou have to pay an extra hundred dollars and mail the programer back to superchips so they can re-load it.

Not to mention I'm fairly positive that if the truck was programed the only way you could change the programing would be with the programer that was used to install it in the first place.