I just purchased a brand new CTD 06 Mega! immediately put on 33" Mud Grapplers, skyjacker leveling kit, and 20" JJ Lawless wheels. My MPG reads 11.5 mpg, prior to upgrades it read 19 mpg. Does that seem like to much of a difference? Im pretty shocked. Did I void any warranties? I would like to add a tuner but have no clue about anything. This is my first real truck and I know nothing when it comes to vehicles. Never even changed my oil before. Can anyone give me some pointers on upkeep of the CTD and possibly answer some of the questions that I have? Also, please tell me what tuner to get. My main concern is MPG!

 

Borrowed some tires and wheels from a buddy because of other threads I had read on the site about the tires affect on MPG, just simply moving to more aggresive tread with suspecting higher rolling resistance gave me a instant drop of 4-5 MPG which really shocked me that it was that huge.

 

yea. . .the warranty on the suspension is gone. but realy the upkeep on these trucks is rather simple. changeing the oil is easy, fuel filter is simple as well. the only hard part is this grease fitting for the front drive shaft.

if you havent done it yet, you need to get your speed-o re-calibrated. this is probabyl where your computer generated mileage increase is comeing from. I wouldnt be surprized if you mileage has actualy gone down due to the truck being up higher and the higher rolling resistance of the tires.

when it comes to boxed it is your own personal choice since there are so many out there. but the best and most popular seem to be Egde, Bully Dog, Quadzilla power, Van Aaken, and TST. there is a new one comeing out soon. . .I hope. the Smarty Catcher. right now I'm debateing wether to hold off a bit longer or get a Diablo Sport programmer. in terms of info on the Smarty, I cannot say, but from the noise I hear it should be pretty sweeet.

 

Drew, being that my suspension warranty is gone..........How often do people actually use their suspension warranty? Does putting in an autostart affect any warranties? You didnt really help me with the tuner question.........In your opinion which one is the best? Could you break down the pros and cons? The vendors here keep feeding me **** and I would really appreciate a third party opinion. I know I ask a lot....the help is greatly appreciated.

 

to be brutialy honest, the sealed ball joints, and u-joints, steering trac bars, and the sway bar end links suck. now it isnt the end of the world though. I have right at 32K on my truck and have taken it in once for warranty work for the door drip edge seal replacement. but I am going to replace the u-joints and ball joints myself. I have a press I can borrow but at 32K my u-joints are slinging grease and I can tell my ball joints are starting to wear, very slowly, but they are wearing. DC allows .090" tollerance with the ball joints, but in my own personal opinion. .01" is too much.

the auto start I wouldnt worry about. that wont do a thing in terms of warranty unless they can show that it did damage something, but I have never head an auto start damageing something.

with the tuners you have two different types, programmers and boxes.

programmers replace the factor programming in the ECM and are a good way to making good power, but you also run the risk of killing the ECM is the program is not loaded properly. the new bully dog programming that just came out seems to be pretty good and in general programmers will give you anywhere from 50-130 extra hp depending on level.

boxes on the other hand are a different breed alone. you use the factory programming, but use the box to fool the computer into holding the injectors open longer, opening them sooner, or building more pressure in the rail. Boxes are adjustable on the fly from 30-200hp depending. some towing boxes are locked in at 65hp just for those that need a little extra kick while towing.

as for boxes the ones I listed are the safest so you run less of a risk of blowing the engine, or the fuel rail.

Edge, BD x-power, Quadzilla, and Van Aaken all produce about the same power, but in different stages. TST is the king of all out power being adjustable to 200 extra hp. this is enough to literaly crack your 48RE in half if you realy get on it without any othermods, you will melt pistons and valves without an upgraded turbo and also melt the stock turbo. all of these boxes have the capability of monitoring EGT, boost pressure, and tranny slippage and will de-fuel when things get a bit hot.

in these HPCR ISB engines (03-present) the engine is completely computer controlled. in order to make power you need to fool the computer into either 1. opening the injector sooner (timeing), 2. holding the injector open longer(duration), 3. increaing fuel rail pressure (pressure)

the only boxes I would consider are those that use timeing and duration ONLY, or used those two factors with a little added pressure ONLY in the higher settings and RPM ranges. Increaseing rail pressure alone will give a good power increase, but you run the risk of cracking the injectors or popping the rail relief valve. the fuel rail operates anywhere from 3K to 26K PSI if you are wondering.

if you are looking at a box, for starters I would suggest either the edge, quad, van aaken, or x-power. if you plan on getting the TST you WILL need to upgrade the stock in-tank pusher pump, fuel filtration system, turbo, and tranny if you venture past 3/3 alot. ( the TST has nine different HP and nine torque settings)

as far as programmers, Ive only heard about bully dog and diablo sport. and both seem to do realy well.

but for the ultamate kick you can stack the boxes and programmers but thats for a later date[8D]

if you need anything else just ask.

 

If I go with a programmer, is there any concern for ruining my engine? Also do any of these help with MPG, box or programmer? If I add anything else will it add additional mileage to what I would gain from the tuner? Whats the best mods you think for mpg and whats the total added miles I would gain? Again, I really appreciate all the info.

 

any programmer or performance box on the lowest setting that adds power will give you a proven 1-3mpg gain. generaly these settings are the 'towing' settings and only increase timeing.

will they ruin your engine. . .well, thats for you to find out. Example. . .one guy has good results with the edge box, and another guy has good results with the quad box. They trade boxes so now the edge guy has the quad box and equal for the other guy, but now the guy that was running the quad box is haveing problems with the edge box. it's not that the edge box is bad, or that he had the quad box on before, but sometimes one box that works on yours just doesnt work well on another truck. You will be putting more stress on the engine to produce more power. the 48re is being stressed more to handle the increased power output.

now, cranking things up is fun, and for short bursts wont hurt anything. but if you plan on keeping the power up long term, trans upgrades are a must, as well as turbo upgrades.

now, I do remember reading where a guy bought the TST box, ran it for a few thousand miles then decided to crank it up to max and blow a corvette off the road. . .to which he did, but he blew the turbo in doing so. DC voided his warranty since they found he had the box. so he bought a new turbo, put it on and come to find out no oil pressure. what happened was the oil pickup had fallen off due to a bolt not being torqued correctly. he could have had everything fixed under warranty since the engine was not built properly, but his warranty had been voided since he had the box.

that is just one side you have to look at. Some dealerships are actualy ok and turn the blind eye to these upgrades, you just have to get a feeling as to how your dealership will view these types of upgrades.

I dont have any boxes or programmers, I have been looking at them for a while. but every time I get ready to get one something more important comes up that needs my money more[:@] but the one thing that I have found that gives me a solid mileage increase is a fuel addative mix I have been useing since my truck was new. Power service Diesel Kleen and Marvels Mystery Oil. the Power service increases the cetane rateing of the fuel( just like octane boosters) and also has added lubrication. MMO is basicaly lubricant only. with the new ULSD fuel that is comeing out your fuel system needs all the lube it can get. now even though your engine is already certified to run ULSD, many others have found the engine runs smoother, idles better, and gets better mileage with this. 16oz power service, and 8oz MMO for every tank and you will notice a difference after just a mile of driveing I get nearly a solid 3mpg better mileage useing this than not.

 

just a heads up on the remote start system. Make sure you go with a good brand remote start system.

DO NOT go with a car and driver, bull dog or any other brand that you can buy from like pep boys, walmart or tv add's. I have been a professional installer for 7 years and have seen and heard some horror stories of those systems.

I would use a system by a good company like Viper or Clifford wich are both made by Direced Electronics Inc. Their are other systems out their that are nice but I have 7 years of experience with these and have never seen one of these systems damage a car unless it was installed improperly. Also unless you have experience with them and have done them befor have it done by a professional shop and do research on the shop. I have seen allot of jobs by small companies and large companies that I could not beleive even worked. A good clean install will also help ensure less problems.

If you have any questions just ask.

 

Im now regreting the things Ive done to my truck. front leveling kit, two new front shocks(all skyjackers), 33" mud grapplers, and the deepest 20" jesse james wheels. People are telling me about ruining my paint job due to the tires sticking so far out, my gas mileage is just horrible(10 mpg). Have I ruined my truck in any way? If I put my old stuff back on will it be the same as what it was before? My main concern is if I put my stock tires back on and take off the leveling kit will it be thev same,worse,better? Should I leave the shocks or the leveling kit on with the stock tires?