The programmer won't break anything. But you can, stock or programmed. There are 2 options as far as programming go. You can get a hand held custom tuner or piggyback tuner and get good results.
The other option is a custom tune. In this case they will mail you a whole new chip that has been specifically tuned to meet your needs and wants.
Nelson and a few others do this for a living and they are very good at it. if you want to bomb your truck they will bomb it, if you want to improve mileage they can help there as well. Look up custom tuners for duramax and call them up. They will tell you everything you need to know.
Being a pre-DPF diesel you will have more options then I do. I would suggest you open up the exhaust some and get a custom tune. Don't waste money on CAI, your truck already gets plenty of air unless you want to race.
Next option would be the full synthetic oil in your truck. I'm not a big fan of fancy oil but it does make some difference.
And yes finally find out where your truck runs at it's best efficiency. Most likely if you check your torque curve ( you can get them on line ) the truck will run best where the torque curve levels out. Try to stay close to that RPM and you may get better mileage, but you will need to do your own research there. Also remember where it runs best may be different with a trailer on then what it is empty.
Lighten your load, if you have the bed full of junk get rid of it. And get a cover for the bed.
Thats the list that I can think of for now. Little warning on the chip and exhaust. While they can give better mileage that can be wiped out by the fun factor of goosing it. When I did all that to my 6.0 2500HD it did improve mileage by 5-10% at first but I really got into giving it gas just to beat-up the souped up Japanese cars. Really is fun when the find out that you can keep up, and no they can't have your lane.....
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Rick, I read your question, then went on to read the replies, many of which were the expected "slow down" answers. I went back and reread your original question again and noticed the emphasis of your last statement, "I need a good return on investment".
I have driven my 05 Dodge/Cummins about 55,000 miles since new and from that time my average mileage is around 20. It gets about 21 on a highway trip at 70 mph, probably as much as 25 if I could keep it at 55. I don't so it don't. It gets around 12 to 13 pulling my 5th wheel that is a little smaller and lighter than yours. I listed my own numbers as a means to suggest that your friends earlier version Cummins numbers seem a bit exaggerated. I've thought about using synthetic oil, adding some additional programming devices, gages, and perhaps other slight mods to make it perform better. I've thought about it but I probably won't do it for the same reason you specified. Return on investment. I can't find anything I can do to improve power, longevity or fuel consumption that will pay for itself. Even at today's fuel prices the yearly savings to gain 1 or 2 honest miles per gallon is still a few dollars at best. I'll continue to do like you and pursue information for something which will make the truck more efficient and yet pay for itself, but in the meantime I accept the fact that it doesn't yet exist.
Despite all doom and gloom about breaking something the second you install a programmer,if you drive like an adult they're pretty safe.
If you want to to run 4wd boosted launches at the dragstrip,then yes you'll break something.
My '07 makes almost 100hp more than the 2nd generation Rams. Torque is 150lb ft more. How do you think Cummins came up with that extra power? Alot of it came from tweaking the programming.
The Duramax is the same way. How many times has GM upped the power from '01,when the Dmax was introduced? Do you think they re-designed the engine every time they made more power? A little tinkering with the programming and voila! more power.
Thats not to say that the boost in power was ALL programming.
Don't expect any miracles though. You have to take some of these mileage figures with a grain of salt. Thinking that you'll go from 17 to 24mpg just isn't going to happen.
camping man wrote: This is what is coming too!
Takes me 18minutes to get to the shopping center, were my truck only takes 15, but hey , I'm saving fuel, and it's much more fun!
You can probably park up on the curb once there too: so the total time is shorter.
Here are a couple of things (not in any order) you can do to increase MPG on your Duramax:
1) Make sure tires are inflated properly (towing puts more weight on the rear tires ... I put 70 in the rear and 60 in the front tires when towing.) Also make sure your campers have proper tire inflation (my camper requires 65 psi).
2) Speed towing (60 mph I get 13.1 mpg, 65 I get about 12-12.5 mpg, 70 I get 11 mpg max ....)
3) I used EFILive with a tow tune I wrote. It increases power a little (maybe 40 HP and 90 ft-lbs torque) to keep the tranny from downshifting as much, and increases boost when accelerating but decreases boost a little over stock at highway speeds.
4) Use a diesel additive to keep injectors lubricated.
5) Probably the best thing I did was add a Cold Air Intake. It is actually a modified 6.0L Chevy gas engine CAI (that uses the same filter as the Duramax) where the fender inlets are uncovered (you will see the metal plate with sticky stuff on the back covering the passenger side of the fender inside the engine compartment. If you remove this there are 2 air inlets. The 6.0L gas engine Cold Air Intake has two inlet areas with foam to seal to this area so it draws air from the outside versus inside the engine compartment.) This should be good for at least 1mpg towing plus a cooler-running Duramax.
Good Luck OP!
Mark
'05 Chevy Silverado 3500 D/A CC LB TD-EOC Tuned with EFILive
'05 Wildcat 29BHBP
Reese 18K Signature
Prodigy brake controller
Thx loveshack1, I had a Dodge and traded it off for the GMC. Best move I ever made. But thanks for the wonderful tip.
Mark, I think someone in an earlier reply (kghenson) mentioned that the Duramax gets plenty of air and unless I want to race it, it was a waste of $$.
An air box was one of the things I thought of first that would not cost too much and maybe see an improvement, but then I read that reply about no noticeable improvement and am thinking twice about that.
Rick & Joan
Rogers, Arkansas
2005 32ft Jayco Eagle TT
2005 GMC Sierra 2500HD
JaycoRickJoan wrote: Thx loveshack1, I had a Dodge and traded it off for the GMC. Best move I ever made. But thanks for the wonderful tip.
Well, I did the opposite. Traded in a 2003 Dmax/Allison 2500hd with 80,000 miles. I tried both a Superchips programmer (5k-10k miles) and an Edge Juice Attitude (10k-80k miles). Neither one increased fuel mileage when "hand" calculated. The mileage computer would read 4-8 mpg higher than the "real" mileage. At 80k miles I began to have the infamous injector issues and was denied warranty coverage because they found remanents or ghosts of the chip in the computer. BTW, the chip was removed before the truck was taken in for service.
So far the new dodge with the 5.9L Cummins gets about 1-1.5 mpg better driving my same commute (80 miles per day). With 22k on the dodge I get 17-18 mpg driving 60% highway and 40% city.
But, to each his own...
2008 Dodge 1500 QC SB 4x4 Hemi Auto 3.92
2006 Chevy 1500 EC SB 4.8L auto 3.23
1994 Chevy 350 auto
Looking for a small TT to continue RV'ing
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