Diesel Power

What you see to the left is the Wartsila-Sulzer RTA96-C turbocharged two-stroke diesel engine that's used in ocean-going container ships. That big bast@rd can put out over 108,000 hp at 100 RPM. Now your pick-up truck may not have this engine in it, but after a bit of tuning magic, you'll swear that's what you've got tucked under the hood of your rig, if nothing else at least after you've had a few... But all kidding aside, HP Tuners has just the ticket for you diesel drivers out there. Now before you go off about how this is all old news and that diesel tuners have been making big power for ages, WAIT. Because the difference here is that YOU can do this yourself, and you can do it however you like (within the law, of course). You can't say that about hand-held tuners, can you? With a hand-held tuner, you're stuck with the tune files in the equipment. And while you can read diagnostic codes with some of the hand-helds, can you understand them and perform proper, real-world diagnostics with these tools? The fact of the matter is that most hand-helds have limited diagnostic and data logging abilities. With the new diesel coverage from HP Tuners and their MPVI VCM Suite tuning and Scan tool, you've got the ability to create new calibrations/tunes yourself and you have a professional level diagnostic scan tool at your finger-tips (laptop not included, but if you haven't got a laptop, say hello to your neighbor Fred Flintstone for us!) If you already have an HP Tuners setup, just buy an extra credit or two to get your diesel running the way you want. Still have credits? Well, then you're good to go.

Now that's stout power! Over 480 hp at the wheels and just about 850 ft/lbs of torque. That's a far cry from what the original setup was good for. And remember, you can have your cake and eat it too! With the HP Tuners MPVI VCM Suite, you can create as many tunes as you wish and use it for diagnostic purposes as well. If you're worried about over-heating because you tow an extremely heavy trailer, you can create a tow-tune that offers more power over stock but doesn't overheat you're turbo, or you can run the max-power tune and hustle around when you need to. You can also create a calibration specifically for fuel economy when you're running light, or do the same for when you're towing heavy. Anything is possible. And if you'd rather have a Pro do it for you, call a tuner like the guys at Firepunk and they can email you a tune (for a fee of course!) or multiple tunes if you prefer. The great thing is that this product pays for itself. When you think about the extra power, that's great and all, but when you run a tune for economy, you'll burn less fuel and thus go easier on both your wallet and the environment. Within 1 or 2 years of driving, you'd have paid off your investment. If you use the diagnostic scanner to determine and repair a running problem yourself, how much does that add up to compared to paying a qualified mechanic? The benefits are plenty. As we always say here at Master Engine Tuner Magazine, once you've experienced the power of tuning your own vehicle, you'll wonder how you ever got by without it. More power to you! MET

Data-log - Stock Peak Horsepower

You can see above that the Firepunk calibration has increased the operating boost pressure to 47 psi and increased the Main Injector Timing as well. At peak torque, Injector Timing is now 11.2 degrees BTDC (compared to 3.8) and at peak horsepower it's 21.3 degrees BTDC (compared to the stock 9.9). You can also see that the Main Injector Pulse-width increased to 3,200 microseconds, up from between 1,727 to 2,022 at peak horsepower and torque respectively on the stock tune. Notice also that Fuel Rail Pressure has been commanded higher and is now at over 25,000 psi at wide-open throttle. This is what it takes to get the massive power increase that the guys at Firepunk have achieved here. Oh, and a transmission rebuild, too! Because with this kind of power at your disposal, you'll smoke through the stock transmission in no time if you're pulling a heavy trailer. And in case you're wondering, yes, the guys at Firepunk build high-performance transmissions like Ihop makes pancakes; all day long. The end result? Take a look at the dyno graph below:

big Diesel Power!

for GM, Ford & Dodge trucks

If you take a look at Boost Pressure, you'll see that the OE calibration has the engine peaking at between 35-37 psi of boost pressure. You can also see that Main Injector Timing is 3.8 degrees BTDC at peak torque and 9.9 degrees BTDC at peak horsepower. Notice the Main Injector Pulse-width and the Fuel Rail Pressure? Now take a look below to see what the guys at Firepunk Diesel did to get almost double the power out of this Ram...

Data-log - Stock Peak Torque

Data-log - Firepunk Peak Torque

What you're about to see now is how one tuner, Firepunk Diesel, gets a whole bunch of power out of a Dodge Ram truck with a Cummins diesel to throw down an extra 400 ft/lbs of torque over the factory calibration. That's just about double the original engine power output. According to Dodge, the stock early-2004 Cummins engine in the Ram 3500 was rated at 305 hp @ 2,900 rpm and 555 ft/lbs torque @ 1,400 rpm at the flywheel. Considering that Firepunk dyno-tested the truck in stock, OE configuration and came up with 259 hp at the wheels, this particular truck was running just fine. In the screen-shots below from the data-logging collected from the HP Tuners Scanner, you can see the conditions that the truck ran under as calibrated from the factory. On the left is a snap-shot of the data from the peak torque and on the right is a snap-shot of the peak horsepower in stock configuration:

Data-log - Firepunk Peak Horsepower