The End of Mods???

[mcurtice1]

At least for me... ... ... .



I have been a big proponent of giving the 6. 7L a chance. Dodge is working through the issues and seems to be getting them figured out. These days, I am really hoping that is right.



I had the MIL come on 3 weeks ago. I figured no big deal. I will make an appointment to take the truck to the dealer and get the turbo cleaned and the latest flash installed, then I should be good to go. Before I could take the truck in for the appointment, I had complete lock up of the turbo. It would not spin at all! Got the truck towed to the dealer.



Now 2 weeks in the shop later, I am about to get the truck back. It was a total, catastrophic failure! The EGR valve has been replaced. The turbo has been replaced. The DPF has been replaced. Both Catalytic Converters have been replaced. The PCM has been replaced. (They gave me some story about improper flashes, but I have NEVER put a box/tuner/etc on this truck!) Just about the entire exhaust sytem has been replaced. This is over $10k in work!



Dodge/Cummins/the dealer stated that the cold air intake I had installed contributed to the failure. The tubo got clogged up with fine debris (as well as soot). Once the turbo ring stopped sliding, the exhaust system just caked itself up. The dealer is reinstalling the stock airbox after finishing the turbo replacement. Fortunately, everyone has been very helpful and is getting this fixed for me.



These modern trucks are so computer controlled and so very finicky with the exhaust system, that any mod seems like a big risk to me. I had thought about doing a few things after my warranty runs out, but now, NO WAY! It is just too much of a risk.



I am not trying to disuade anyone from modding their trucks, but just offering my experience. I only hope that my $50k truck holds stong from this point forward.

 

[RVTRKN]

Thats a good choice not to fool around with your engine anymore. The stock 6. 7 air cleaners are a lot better than the stock 5. 9 air cleaners. (at least my 04 is not as big as my 6. 7) My filter minder has hardly even moved in 25K with my 07 C&C where as my 04 filter has to be replaced every 10K it seems like. The 6. 7 filter is much larger and has more filtering surface which allows it to breath much better as well as save me money.



The programmers/chips will void warranty if found in most cases. But the one reason you should not delete or fool around with the emissions is, The Peoples Republic of the EPA will come down hard on you if found. They are now starting to do spot checks on the highways here in California and it will be coming to a highway near you in the future for the rest of the US, if not already in another State. Just think how easy it will be to spot you with your 07. 5 or newer diesel smoking while you climb a grade heavy.

 

[pwr2tow]

After owning a 1999, 2005, 2006 and now my 2009 there is no reason for me or any excuse for anyone to modify their trucks. The first three trucks were gutless wonders with great advertising and even adding performance products didn't clear up all the issues.

This 2009 6. 7 with the 68RFE will do anything and pull anything I ask of it without questions.

The only reason anyone should have for modifing these 6. 7 would be if they can not get the emission stuff straight, which seems like they finally have. The only other reason would be some one who strictly keeps it off the roads in performance shows.

Ask me again in a couple years if I still feel the same. :-laf

 

[HBarlow]

You didn't specifically say so but apparently your dealer and Dodge repaired your truck under warranty even though they determined that modifications installed by you caused or contributed to the expensive failure. You should consider yourself a very lucky man.

 

[EricBu12]

Boy after reading the first post, I wont be doing anything to my air intake. . I saw the replacement filter on Genos and it is Huge!! Like a BHAF. . lol . . Seems good to me. . even has the cold intake from the grille area.

What about the Smarty? Supossedly is not able to be detected by the dealer if you set it back to stock... I might get it anyway to adjust the tire size when I get my 19. 5" 's on next spring... 2" bigger... Will timing enhancements hurt much on these fine systems? will it add too much soot?

 

[Regcabguy]

Boy after reading the first post, I wont be doing anything to my air intake. . I saw the replacement filter on Genos and it is Huge!! Like a BHAF. . lol . . Seems good to me. . even has the cold intake from the grille area.



What about the Smarty? Supossedly is not able to be detected by the dealer if you set it back to stock... I might get it anyway to adjust the tire size when I get my 19. 5" 's on next spring... 2" bigger... Will timing enhancements hurt much on these fine systems? will it add too much soot?

The Smarty for the 6. 7's will leave a footprint.

 

[mcurtice1]

The dealer and Dodge were really helpful and, yes, they did all of the work under warranty. As for saying that the Cold Air Intake caused the problems, they had to admit that was not true. The Intake only exacerbated the underlying issue with the exhaust system.



I would not get too cocky about Smarty or any other tuner. The Dodge rep stated emphatically that your truck will go immediately on a DO NOT Repair list if they have ANY proof of a tuner. They tried that tact with me, but could not come up with any evidence that I had a tuner on my truck. They were just fishing to see if I would fess up. I told them there was nothing to fess up to.

 

[Crazy Horse]

The tubo got clogged up with fine debris (as well as soot). . . , the exhaust system just caked itself up.

This sounds like the problems Chev had with the crossovers on the 5. 7 diesel plugging up due to short trip driving.

 

[MAllen1]

Just another way the EPA, CARB, and the Peoples Republic of Chrysler are keep aftermarket parts on the shelf and off your truck. Wait until they find a way to MAKE the public trade up every two years due to emissions and "THE ENVIRONMENT".

 

[HBarlow]

Let's keep in mind . . . all of us can do any damned thing we want to with our trucks as long as we remember the old phrase . . . "I AM MY OWN WARRANTY STATION. "

I can remove all the federally mandated emission's crap if I choose to do so and am prepared to pay the price if caught by smog enforcement officers and don't expect Chrysler/Dodge to pay for the damage I may do.

I don't think it is even possible to use any magic black box on a recent 2009, a 2010, or even an '08 like mine that has had a reflash done. The new software or software updates add a bootloader (correct name?) to the program that will put the truck in a no-start mode (and on a roll back wrecker) if the ECM detects an attempted software program change.

No mods for me. My truck runs great and does a fine job of towing my 14,000 lb. fifth wheel as is.

 

[JohnHaggerty]

Posts like this sure make it tough to make a decision. My only dislikes are the mileage while towing and that it's a computer on wheels (unlike my IDI). I'm on the fence about a cold air intake, exhaust gutting and Smarty.



However if I see that monster buck one more time from my porch, I'll skip the truck stuff and get that new Matthew's (and that buck)!:-laf

 

[Hoefler]

I just returned from a 3300 mile trip that took us to the Bad Lands, Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone, and Jackson Hole. Hand calculated, I averaged 9. 4 mpg. That included highway speeds from 60 mph to 77 mph. We climbed the Big Horn in 22 miles of gravel at 3-8 mph, the Teton Pass in 6 miles of gravel at a crawl as well. I can not complain about the loaded mileage at all. I am bone stock with all the latest flashes and did not have one hiccup! My 5th wheel was loaded for the 2 week trip and I carried water over the passes not knowing if I was going to wind up dry camping or not. All in all, this truck will do anything I want it to with out any hesitation!

 

[HBarlow]

Just another way the EPA, CARB, and the Peoples Republic of Chrysler are keep aftermarket parts on the shelf and off your truck. Wait until they find a way to MAKE the public trade up every two years due to emissions and "THE ENVIRONMENT".

Why do you blame Chrysler for the EPA regulations? You probably voted for the same people who love "environmental" regulation.

Do you really think Chrysler or Cummins wanted to spend millions of dollars on research, design, testing, and production to reduce performance, fuel economy, and reliability of their products to add federally mandated emissions crap to the trucks?

 

[FATCAT]

I'm suprised that no one hasn't just removed the entire ECM and hardware from a truck. Reverse enginered the code, then get their own ROM chips and code their own programs (minus all the EGR/Regin code) and bootloader code into them and reinstall in the truck.



Its not rocket science, just takes a lot of "dead president" to do the research and trial/error process.

 

[HBarlow]

No money could be made by "reverse engineering" the software then creating replacement modified software because doing so would be a major violation of federal and state laws in some states. Bootleg software couldn't be advertised and just internet forum chatter would quickly be brought to the attention of federal environmental wackos.

No serious company would risk huge legal penalties that would almost certainly result as soon as the word got out. If a company created bootleg software for the purpose of defeating federal emissions regulations prison sentences could probably be part of the penalty.

 

[pwr2tow]

No money could be made by "reverse engineering" the software then creating replacement modified software because doing so would be a major violation of federal and state laws in some states. Bootleg software couldn't be advertised and just internet forum chatter would quickly be brought to the attention of federal environmental wackos.

No serious company would risk huge legal penalties that would almost certainly result as soon as the word got out. If a company created bootleg software for the purpose of defeating federal emissions regulations prison sentences could probably be part of the penalty.

They could do the same as every company has done for the last 20 -30 years and just label it as "for off road use only".

 

[Cattletrkr]

I don't worry aobut it. The same thing was said a couple years ago when the 6. 7L came out. Now there's a huge aftermarket full of goodies. Nothing has changed as far as penalties for mods. Be it from Dodge or the EPA. Removing a cat used to be a huge no-no and still is. As far as I know the fine is the same for cat removal as it is for DPF deletes.

Possibly the enforcement has been stepped up, but even that's all anecdotal "evidence".

Too many truck owners are also gun owners. If they start getting overly aggressive on the trucks, they may have more to deal with.

 

[SmithMark]

[

No money could be made by "reverse engineering" the software then creating replacement modified software because doing so would be a major violation of federal and state laws in some states. Bootleg software couldn't be advertised and just internet forum chatter would quickly be brought to the attention of federal environmental wackos.



No serious company would risk huge legal penalties that would almost certainly result as soon as the word got out. If a company created bootleg software for the purpose of defeating federal emissions regulations prison sentences could probably be part of the penalty.

__________________

check out H&S Performance XRT with DPF delet kit for the 6. 7liter

 

[HBarlow]

They could do the same as every company has done for the last 20 -30 years and just label it as "for off road use only".

That's true but I don't think potential sales volume for the few that would actually be used for "off-road only" applications or the small number of outlaws who would buy and install it to drive on the streets and highways would be adequate to fund the serious research and programming effort required to completely reprogram a Cummins ECM/PCM to allow removal of the entire emissions control package and eliminate all the interface and alarms that would result so that the truck could be driven on the street and operate normally.

It would not be a simple task for engineers and computer programmers to understand every single detail of Cummins engine programming and then remove the emissions equipment details.

Even the slightest attempt to reprogram the Cummins ECM now causes a no-start condition.

To my knowledge one or two companies are currently selling kits to remove the hardware but nobody can permanently eliminate the alarms being set.

 

[RoyTom]

The EPA regulations are effective in 2010, so why did Chrysler introduce the 6. 7 in 2007 without working all the bugs. They are still making softfware changes in trying to make the truck work. The engine is a great horse, its the emissions system that is not compatible. All the problems lie with the turbo, particular filter and the egr. I heard they spent alot time testing this system before the intro. It doesn't appear the testing was through. They could have spent another year or so in R/D, but instead they wanted to show the country (Ford & GM) they developed an engine that met the 2010 requirements before anyone else did. Remember all the federal awards they receive for the clean burning engine.

Now, we pay the price