ECM -- Dodge or Cummins??

[JAK]

Before I got my Ram CTD I had driven several other Cummins powered trucks with exhaust brakes. (ISB and ISC) None of those exhaust brakes had a 2 second delay or stayed on while idling. So I went to my nearby cummins shop to have them make my Ram act just like the rest of them. The technician said the ISB ECM has fifty- something parameters that can be altered like PTO, E-brake cut off speed, idle speed, etc. In the Ram he found no settable parameters. Anybody know if these things can be changed in our ECM and the Cummins tech just didn't get into it properly? Or did DC give us a really watered down version of the real thing? I would hate to have to spend mega $$ on a genuine Cummins ECM just to make my CTD act like a CTD.

 

[Todd T]

he's right. the only thing they can do is look at:



1. Customer information



2. trip information



3. vehicle information



the "Chrysler" version of the cummins ISB ECM is junk, compared to the cummins ISB ECM.



there are four catagories of ECM's



signature/ISM (full blown)



ISC/ISB



ISB 97' (what we should have)



Chrysler (junk)

 

[JHerrlich]

Out of curiousity, I checked the price of an ECM from Cummins. It was around 700 dollars. I don't know if it would be worth it for the modifications, but time will tell.

 

[CUMINNTSTRKN]

if you by quick check from cummins and plug it into the cummins ecm the silver box on the side of the motor it will tell you all sorts of thing like total # of wot and total trq output and lots of other cool stuff. the chrysler ecm just talks to the cummins ecm. if dc. could see all the stuff that the cummins guys can alot of us would be in trouble with our warranty's.

i thought cummins had an exhaust brake that plugs into the connector on the cummins ecm. i beleive it's a pac-brake? and it goes into connector 20 or something like that.



jim

 

[Motorhead]

cummins ECM

Would the cummins module be able to interface with the 47re?

 

[JAK]

Motorhead



The ECM just interfaces with the PCM. The PCM interfaces with the 47RE.



CUMINNTSTRKN



The Jacobs brake plugs into the ECM. That's what I have and it's connected to the ECM. It works the way DC says it should but not the way Cummins runs the ebrakes on the rest of their applications. The ECM says Cummins on the side but it's not a full featured ECM that you would find in say a firetruck. And I doubt you would ever be able to find such a castrated ECM on a cummins engine outside of the Dodge Ram. Basically, we got ripped off. I asked the salesman what the difference was between this ISB and the ISB (and ISC) engines I knew and loved. The answer: nothing's different. The ECM used with our rams have no parameters that can be set by Cummins techicians. Quick check may get you a lot of useful information but it can't change anything either.

 

[TxDieselKid]

So then are they interchangable? Could I go and get one that is a REAL Cummins ECM and put it on my CTD and it work better?



Todd,

Why did you say we should have the '97 ECM?



AJB

 

[Marco]

Sorry to tell you that, they are NOT interchangeable.



The Cummins ECM that comes along with our trucks has the Chrysler "drivers" stored into it. In this way the Cummins and DC ECM's can talk with each other. The "real" Cummins ECM does not have those drivers.



The bus between the Cummins and DC ECM's is needed for the dash ( tach, oil pressure) and for downfuelling when the AT shifts the gears.



Marco.

 

[David_VT]

Marco could fix it but then we'd have to figure out how to import it back here... .