• Watch Out for Scammers!

    We've now added a color code for all accounts. Orange accounts are new members, Blue are full members, and Green are Supporters. If you get a message about a sale from an orange account, make sure you pay attention before sending any money!

EcoTune

tomcatmv

Private
Full Member
Minuteman
Apr 13, 2017
2,476
3,889
Central Texas
Anybody tried one of these plug in modules in your rig? Supposed to increase gas mileage. Do they work or are they a scam?
 
scam...

OBD ports cant change tuning parameters in real time...although some will argue there is the "theoretical" ability to do it with what data is present in the lines.
 
Do a legitimate dyno tune! Absolutely worth it. Even with entirely stock components it's a noticeable difference.
How much does that cost? My rig is a 2013 Silverado 5.4 liter, 2 wheel drive club cab. Have about 69,000 miles. I live in Belton, central TX.
 
How much does that cost? My rig is a 2013 Silverado 5.4 liter, 2 wheel drive club cab. Have about 69,000 miles. I live in Belton, central TX.
You're not too far from Pro Modular Performance in Austin. Very good shop. A good dyno should run you about 250-300ish, takes a couple of hours plus a test drive. PM me if you want some more details
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bender
I was told by my mechanic that the good ones can make a difference. The problem is that they will often cause the idiot lights to come on because theyve change the parameters the computers are set up to recognize. Then if something goes wrong that the idiot light would have warned you about you miss it because its always been on.
 
You're not too far from Pro Modular Performance in Austin. Very good shop. A good dyno should run you about 250-300ish, takes a couple of hours plus a test drive. PM me if you want some more details

Hell, it wouldnt be worth if if you had to go to Austin, Used to be a great fun city, now nothing but a cluster fuck of snarled traffic and squealing liberals.
 
How much does that cost? My rig is a 2013 Silverado 5.4 liter, 2 wheel drive club cab. Have about 69,000 miles. I live in Belton, central TX.
5.3 but long tube headers, cai, and a good tune would make you say what the fuck. But a supercharger is the real trick
 
you cant buy a "tune" for your car for $40.

the last "flash tune" i bought was for my WRX, i think between the tuning module and the cost of the tune its self....it was around $800.

regarding "plug in chip tunes".....99% are scams......especially if you are paying <$100 for it.

Tunes are vehicle specific....so anything promising to be plug and play on any vehicle is guaranteed to be 100% bullshit.

if you want to increase efficiency....change your driving habits....make sure your car is properly maintained.....and avoid anything you see in an Ad promising to increase fuel efficiency.
 
  • Like
Reactions: camocorvette
How much does that cost? My rig is a 2013 Silverado 5.4 liter, 2 wheel drive club cab. Have about 69,000 miles. I live in Belton, central TX.

You would make about 8 extra HP... totally not worth the 600-800 bucks a tuner would charge you.

I just got my 2021 Explorer ST tuned and it add's about 75whp and 75wtq... the car is a BEAST. It will spin all 4 on a hard launch and chirp the 1-2 shift.
 
It depends on which one, specifically, you’re interested in. Some of them are legit, some are a scam. To get more mpg out of a n/a V8 you definitely need to do some homework. Don’t just look at some claimed dyno runs, you need to find some real world reviews that are similar to how you would be using it. You don’t necessarily need a ton of supporting mods, but some good exhaust work and maybe an intake system will help. You also need to make sure you’re driving like a grandma too, that’s the most important thing

If you’re looking for more power, it is actually a little easier but will get much more expensive pretty quickly. The easiest way is with a supercharger. Even a basic-bitch whipple setup will give you more power than all the n/a mods

Just an aside about the diesel tune boxes. They work a little better than the gas tuners. There’s less going on and the majority of power is made with more fuel & more boost, that’s about it. And they only interfere in the upper load ranges so part throttle and cruising is not, or minimally, affected
 
Thanks gents for the info. I don't care about more power as I rarely tow and then it's just our 16" pontoon boat. Was mainly just looking to get better mileage. My last truck was an 03 Ram with the 4.7 V8 and I put an intake kit and a cat back exhaust system on it but it didn't seem to do much for gas mileage.
 
Catback systems don’t really do anything to reduce back pressure. The most restrictive areas of most exhaust systems is the manifold and catalytic converters. Unfortunately those are the most expensive to replace to get any appreciable mpg increases.

And intake systems today are pretty efficient from the factory. You’ll have to do some pretty substantial upgrades to a n/a engine before you’ll need an intake upgrade