You're thinking about the fuel trims. It'll show positive fuel being added and some people take fuel out in order to get the trim to 0...but what you really want to do is add fuel so you can get the trim as close to 0 as possible.

But yea I agree, any major adjustments should be done with at least a wideband and if possible on a dyno. Tweaking the canned tunes to better adjust for bolt-ons just takes a little research to be done safely.

 

i just started throwing around the idea of getting a tuner seeing that I wasnt planning on doing anymore performance mods, but after reading all this i dont think i want to. im guessing that to use one of these safely/effectively you need to have a good handle on how an engine turly works...am i right or is there a cute little instruction book to tell you hahah?

 

No...if you just stick with the tunes that come with the handhelds and don't modify them you'll be fine. Everything else is straight forward...like changing tire size or turning MDS off.

 

i see...

now if i got one, id want it first of all to have the truck shift better or firmer like everyone is saying, so is there an actual setting for that or does it come with dialing in other octane setting?

 

There's no shift firmness user adjustability yet on either tuner...my GM predator had it though. The guys on here say the superchips 3815 has better shifts so you might wanna go that route.

 

so just by plugging it in and downloading it to your truck it imporves the trans performance...sorry im new to these tuners.

 

Thanks guys for making me feel better about running the predator on my truck. I was reading the thread about the SC and I was ready to put the DS on Ebay and get rid of it. I think i'll keep it for awhile. V Scapes... if your looking for a little extra power and perforamce the DS is real easy to use. I'm not to smart when it comes to these types of things but it is real simple. If you stick to the loaded tunes and don't go outside the settings it easy to make your way around the unit. It does come with a little instruction book but the unit will walk you threw it. Also if you get one make sure you buy the USB cable cause I didn't and when I took it out of the box it required an update before I could load any new tunes. I had to wait an extra 8 days for them to ship me one. Anyway GOOD LUCK.

 

Since you have an 04 and are looking for more shift firmness you will want to look at a SC. The DSP doesn't have trans control for our trucks, yet.

 

i bought the DIABLO couple weeks ago and took of the MDS and put the 91setting and notice a good improvement and like the way my truck ran then i tried the 93 setting so far smoke a mustang i had the SC but i feel like the DIABLO makes my truck run better and actually got me better gas milage then the SC. Thats what i notice i would never go back with SC now that is what i experience.

 

People get the updates confused a lot. You can load the tunes right out of the box if you have the most recent calibration released from dodge in your truck already....that is the DCX calibration update. The dealer can alos install this update buy they'll charge ya. The update that actually updates the predator tool to the most recent version is the Crom update...the most recent version is 9r02.