cerich wrote:
geordi wrote:
I can say that I have been prodding the involved people to let this one out into the wild, as everyone will be VERY happy with the results. I'm not trying to dissuade anyone from working with Suncoast if they want to, just don't feel that Suncoast will be the only game.
it's just poor taste to have to thread crap like this.
Lately around here it has been the GDE fanboy club, which is a shame. While GDE seems to provide a great product and service it would also be fair to remember that Suncoast was the VERY first to step up and develop commercially available fixes to some of the CRD's issues.
When a Suncoast engine tune comes out that boosts power and mpg, let me know and I might consider switching to it. I don't recall any posts from them detailing specifications or fixes for the CRD that could be applied to something other than the transmission...does the upgraded TC circumvent EGR problems? I don't know how much work Suncoast put into it, but I think they basically "ported" their TC for the Hemi over to the KJ.
I suspect a good amount of the fandom is due to the fact that GDE is always willing to provide answers to pretty much any technical question we have. They have a bit of an advantage in that if they discover something on their own, they have less liability in sharing it than Danoid or MrMopar64 who are likely obligated by secrecy agreements as a condition for continued employment. Given that they were willing to enter the market and provide support for a vehicle that was abandoned, they probably deserve a "fanboy club." In honor of this thread and to exhibit poor taste in posting crap like this, I've created a GDE fanboy group on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/gro ... 4858042494 Geordi, I expect you to be the first member along with me....
I stopped in to get a no-limit Eco tune a few weeks ago. I also got to take a ride in their Stage II turbo ride. That vehicle is currently sporting a beta version of their tune. Because of time, I didn't really get to explore that much and I was too mesmerized by the whine that of gen 3 turbo and making sure I didn't run their KJ into anything (Keith invited me to drive).
What I can say is the tranny locks the TC in 3rd gear at 35 mph. I'm not sure where the 4th and 5th shifts are, but I recall being told that 4th shift/lock occurs between 45 and 50mph and then 5th shift/lock occurs at about 60 mph. If one is accelerating at a relatively gentle pace, the TC stays locked. Hammer it, and it comes unlocked during the mad acceleration in order to protect the TC. I don't know what else that particular version of the tune will due. I suspect (and I say "suspect" because I didn't explicitly ask) it the parameters for line pressure, shift points, and TC lock-up points will be optimized with fuel economy in mind, so I could imagine the city mileage getting a bump. I'm not sure of whether there are other provisions included that enhance the towing experience. I'm sure we'll learn all the details upon release. I did ask if it would be safe for the stock TC. The answer was, "We're not sure. We have the Euro TC in both KJs, and we can't really test it without swapping those out."
I asked Keith all kinds of questions while I was there. One was "have you broken even on the engine tunes yet?" The answer was "Nope." I don't know how many they've sold (potentially 34 from that group buy) but break-even is several hundred due to paying a flock of engineers to ride around in the vehicles collecting data for designed experiments (DoE) where they optimized the parameters for temperature, altitude, boost, fuel pressure, pilot injection, duration, and probably others. Those who haven't been involved with running a DoE don't appreciate how much work this is...if they they didn't utilize fractions, they probably had to do on the order of a 1000 runs due to the number of parameters, levels and replicates. They may have put more effort in developing the tune than Chrysler did originally. They removed the engine from their '06 KJ after 80,000 and tore it down to make sure there wasn't any abnormal wear. That's still sitting in the garage. They bought a crate engine to reinstall in their '06. They didn't release the engine tune for a while because they wanted to make sure it was reliable and wouldn't break anything.
I suspect the TCM tune is undergoing the same amount of testing and scrutiny. This in no way is implying that the other providers of a TCM tune didn't dot their i's and cross their t's. I didn't ask about cost. Someone on the forum suggested it would be on the order of the same cost as the Suncoast tune a couple of months ago. I guess we'll see when it's released.
So, yeah I'm fanboy too, and it's because the GDE outfit has been honest and goes to the effort to answer our questions about the vehicle that go beyond an engine tune. The only "buy our product" posts I see from them is when someone has an EGR valve crap out and they have a solution to keep it from happening again, albeit more expensive than the SEGR. It seems that most of their "advertising" is the result of members who have the tune or have gotten assistance from them, and not so much from GDE themselves.
So, if one wants to buy a GDE product, go ahead. If one wants to buy a Suncoast product, go ahead. If one wants both...up to "one" to figure that out, then go ahead. One should do whatever they feel is best. I haven't had any TC problems yet, perhaps to due having a May '06 build where hopefully all of the "improvements" that Chrysler implemented are there, but it will be nice to have a number of quality options from which to choose in the near future.
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