Tuner like “5 Star Tune “

I have a 2017 6.0 3500HD, so basically your truck. I tried Diablew, he deals with the Diablo tuner. He can do a custom tune for you. You do some data logging and he adjust the truck based off it's specific parameters. It really woke my truck up, firmed up the shifts, removed some torque management and yes a tune like this or a dyno tune will add HP and torque. I am a fan of the Dyno tune 11 sec WS6 and a 12 second 14 Caprice they are dyno tuned, but the Diablew tune worked similar to a dyno tune and I am really happy with it.

The 6.0/6L90E tune from the factory is poo, it is really mild. I tend to believe his claims of 20 to 40 RWHP depending on the tune you get. It certainly holds the gears differently and makes use of all the power.

DiabLew

My 6.0 only has the 4 spd trans, but I've found it will hold speed better at 68-70, than in the low 60s. It seems those few extra rpms bump it up where it is not as likely to downshift on those little rises.
Also if the terrain is kinda rolling and it is downshifting, I drop it to 3rd gear and it spins about 3000rpm, and does well. Actually I don't notice a difference in MPGs towing in 3rd vs 4th, it sucks it all down either way :)

mkirsch wrote:
Tuners won't do anything for engine output on a normally aspirated gas engine. That's already been maximized by the manufacturer.

All tuners do is give your subconscious a lead foot so you stomp on the pedal harder, say, "YEAH! I HAAAAAAVE THE POWERRRRRR!" to yourself, then find out three days later that nothing really changed and there's a hole in your wallet where several hundred dollars used to be.

Partly true. Yes, mfgs have optimized stock emissions complaint performance pretty much and I personally wouldn't spend $5 on tuning a NA gasser. All the recent trans offerings have more than adequate programming as well.
Yes you can pull another claimed 30-40hp out of a NA gasser. But that will just become your new "normal" pretty quick and to get the "big power", lol, you're running premium gas against a little more timing from the programmer.
Keep the 6.0 stock, IMO. Not much low hanging fruit, just like any NA gasser unless you want to spend alot more money.

Trans tuning "used" to be a bigger deal. Not any more. (Save for Ram 68rfe and the old 66rfe behind the hemi a couple years ago.)

I bought a tuner for a 01 Ram 1500 that we had back in the day. Typical "30-40hp" gain. Notice how they're all the same for pretty much all applications?...
I attempted a few empirical tests and I saw a little quicker acceleration. It did help the trans and throttle response a bit. But it was basically imperceptible after driving it for a while. Actually sold it and didn't notice the difference.

mkirsch wrote:
Tuners won't do anything for engine output on a normally aspirated gas engine. That's already been maximized by the manufacturer.

All tuners do is give your subconscious a lead foot so you stomp on the pedal harder, say, "YEAH! I HAAAAAAVE THE POWERRRRRR!" to yourself, then find out three days later that nothing really changed and there's a hole in your wallet where several hundred dollars used to be.

Ive tuned 3 different gas vehicles now. Every one of them had a noticeable improvement. The manuf tunes them for a variety of people and driving styles.
The first was my Excursion. I did it for the improved shift strategy, and it helped. It also gave a bit more performance. And I did notice a .5mpg improvement when towing.
I just tuned my MH.and let me tell you this made the biggest improvement! The factory tune is lethargic at best. No throttle response, trans not knowing which gear it wanted to be in. Computer pulling throttle when I need it the most. After the tune, the Mh feels 5k lbs lighter. The trans knows what it wants when it’s needed. No more hunting for gears and losing 10mph on the slightest of grades (coming up out of river valleys). And best of all I gained .6 mpg.
So unless you have done a tune you really cannot comment on them one way or another.

BTW, we’re talking custom tuning here, not a canned tune that only changes ignition timing.

mkirsch wrote:
Tuners won't do anything for engine output on a normally aspirated gas engine. That's already been maximized by the manufacturer.

All tuners do is give your subconscious a lead foot so you stomp on the pedal harder, say, "YEAH! I HAAAAAAVE THE POWERRRRRR!" to yourself, then find out three days later that nothing really changed and there's a hole in your wallet where several hundred dollars used to be.

Not true for regular vehicles.

Performance can be measured and the tunes increase HP and torque.

Tuners won't do anything for engine output on a normally aspirated gas engine. That's already been maximized by the manufacturer.

All tuners do is give your subconscious a lead foot so you stomp on the pedal harder, say, "YEAH! I HAAAAAAVE THE POWERRRRRR!" to yourself, then find out three days later that nothing really changed and there's a hole in your wallet where several hundred dollars used to be.

OEM's calibrate for variety of conditions. Tuners take out the "safety" tolerance. Some do a good job, others, not so much. I knew of a guy who did mobile tuning. People LOVED his results, but just about every engine he tuned, eventually grenaded.

I've have and had tuners, but won't put one on the truck I use for towing.

WRT shifting, transmission is looking to put the transmission in the correct gear for the conditions.

Maybe you could manually downshift and just run one gear lower all the time to avoid downshifting? Sometimes running at a slightly higher or lower speed may help as well.

Rwake901 wrote:

nickthehunter wrote:
What is it you want the tuner to do for you?

Hopefully more torque and HP. When towing at 65 mph I don’t want it shifting down on every little rise in the road. It actually does a pretty good job but it would be a lot better and less shifting with a little more HP. Thanks

You won’t get a significant increase in HP and TQ but a good tuner will allow you to use the power you have much more efficiently. The factory tuning with the drive by wire is so intrusive it’s ridiculous! My 2012 class A V-10 has drive by wire and it was crazy how underpowered it felt when driving! The tuner made a huge difference in both the trans tuning and performance.

nickthehunter wrote:
What is it you want the tuner to do for you?

Hopefully more torque and HP. When towing at 65 mph I don’t want it shifting down on every little rise in the road. It actually does a pretty good job but it would be a lot better and less shifting with a little more HP. Thanks