Hi - so, I have the truck tuned with the SC Flashpaq and have a few questions which I couldn't find specific answers to...

I decided to leave the MDS on for now. After the tune, the engaging and disengaging of the MDS became more noticeable (kind of a jerk forward) – is that normal?

I’ve read that some people claim their mileage actually improved after they turned it off – did anyone else notice the fuel economy go up or down after turning the MDS off?

Should I continue to use 5w20 after I shut the MDS off? Do most of you stay with 5w20?

On a side note, the truck has 116k on it and I don’t know whether the previous owner used conventional or synthetic oil. Should I play it safe and stay with conventional or do a blend or just go to synthetic? I don’t want oil leaks or any other crazy side effects if I switch to synthetic since the truck has over 100k on it already.

Thanks

 

i turned my mds off with my SC cortex, milage was worse so i turned it back on, switching to synthetic wont hurt anything thats all i run and doubt the owner before me did, yea stick with 520

 

Stick with 5w20 for sure.

Change to Synthetic - you can leave the drain plug open and flush the pan with like 4 quarts of synthetic before you fill it up... that will help get most of the old stuff it out of there.

MDS going on/off will be more noticeable b/c you've changed the timing map... you can adjust the Transmission tuning to kinda make it less noticeable, but you're still going to notice it.

You'll also learn how to manage the accelerator pedal to compensate.

 

Turned mine off. Highway mileage dropped slightly but city improved ONLY BECAUSE I tailored the transmission package to suit my particular needs. If you don't have the trans package or know how to properly asdjust, then you will lose mpg's both city and highway.
I currently get 13/14 city and 16/17 highway. With MDS I 'could' get 18 highway. So, it was a very small drop.
I was more concerned with the annoyance of it kicking on/off and the lagging of it when I wanted to floor the gas. Plus mine was activating at 15mph which it's not suppose to until 30mph I think? I dont really care because I hate it either way..lol

I run 5w-30 with it deactivated. It's a more robust oil than the thinner 20weight which is merely for EPA mpg gains and is why the MDS is calibrated to that specific weight oil.

 

That's kind of what I'm thinking. It would be nice to have it off, but logic says that MPGs will drop and I do a lot of highway.

So is it normal for the MDS to kick in really noticeably? Like I mentioned, it kind of jerks the truck. Just want to make sure it won't damage the tranny etc.

When you say I can adjust the trans tuning to make it less noticeable, you mean the Torque Management, correct? Not the shift points since it has nothing to do with the MDS.

 

Did you tailor it yourself or did you use one of the schedules made by other members (Sil?) If what you say is true, that not only will the truck run better, but also be more economical, then I'll get the advanced tune option and just put in one of the already made up schedules. Just don't have the time to keep messing with it on my own.

I guess I'll just stick with 5w20. If it's recommended to run it with MDS, then I'm sure it's fine to run it with MDS turned off.

 

i notice my mds kick in more because i got the truck straight piped..but it certainly dosnt jerk or shake the truck, when im crusin thru town i just hit the tow/haul button

connor

 

Even if you upload another members schedule, you will need to make some adjustments.
Sils schedule is rather aggressive and I did not like it so I used that as a basis and scaled it way back.
mpg gains...not worth the hassle.
It's very time consuming and finicky so you will probably not like messing with it but the shifting difference alone is night and day and well worth it even if the mpg's didn't change. Actually, on a trade off, lower mpgs is still worth it. Shifting is so crisp now its ridiculous.
I took a co-worker for a short ride who has same truck. He was amazed on how different the truck felt and snappy it was. We got in his truck and it felt like a dog and delayed.

 

how do i get a "sil's" transmisson tune? i got the super chip cortex, 07 hemi ram-sorry to hyjack thred

 

I used a Diablo Predator, turned off MDS and put the 91 octane tune in. 18MPG highway and 13 city. Little better than before but the performance improvement and having the annoying MDS gone was worth it for me.