Bully Dog Power Pup

I do.

Truck: 2006 T600 mid roof with 435hp C15 Acert, 545k miles. 13sp, 3.36:1 axle and low-pro 22.5s.

Trailer: 2006 Fontaine Renegade 48' flat.

Freight: Typical flatbed freight. Most of the time, the net weight is in between 35k to 46k lbs. My empty weight is 32,500 lbs with full tanks of fuel.

My driving style: Light-footed in low range, but I floor it in high range when I'm heavy. 68-ish in 70/75 zones, unless I'm in a hurry. Swifties pass me in 55/60 zones. Usually downshift at 1300 rpm going uphill, and spin it up to 1700rpm if necessary. I let the truck idle if ambient temp is above 85*F (or lower if I'm in an area with high humidity), or below 40*F.

Been driving this truck since Feb 2010. Installed BD in Nov 2010. Last year's overall average mileage (including the last 2 months with BD installed) is 5.62mpg. This year, it is up to 6.63mpg thus far. Numbers calculated from odometer reading divided by gallons of fuel used.

As far as power is concerned, it certainly isn't 700+hp tune offered by PDI, but the improvement is solid nonetheless. I could almost keep up with a slightly heavier truck (W9) with a factory 550hp Acert pulling identical freight on the steep hill on I-15 north of LA.

One minor complaint is the truck starts bucking at around 1200rpm with the right foot barely pushing the pedal - such as in when I'm coasting coming towards soon-to-change red light. It goes away as soon as I either back off or step on the fuel pedal.

A little more torque below 1300rpm would be nice, but it probably is due to my factory tune (435 hp/1650 lb-ft). I think I'd be satisfied if the base tune was 475/1850 or something.

I also had a slight cooling problem with the stock radiator this past summer, driving through the desert in AZ/CA (118*F indicated on the dash). I'm attributing this to reduced air flow through the small grill opening on T600s, as turning the fan on kept the temperature in normal range. I installed a staggered 5-row core from Detroit radiator a couple of month ago, and haven't had a problem since.

 

I bought one for my Detroit, mileage up .75 to 1.0.
Katz, they will provide you with a custom tune to get the horsepower and torque where you want it, some are already in your tuner, talk to customer service.

it is nice to be able to make adjustments without going to a shop.

 

I'm like Mr.Haney, I'm curious how BD mods the crappy MBN stock programming.

 

Didn't know that. Thank you.

 

Hope it works out for you. I bet a 12yr old and a laptop could write a better program than the MBN comes with, thanks again EPA!

 

I'm going to post the content of a mail note I sent my wrench and my boss following an install of the power pup, using the max power program for my ISX475 come-apart. The programming apparently comes in two stages for this model... the power, then the economy. This note was written after the power program was installed.

-=-=-=-=
At this writing I've driven 255 with the new program.... As installed... I know you said it's not all in yet..... for a bit over 1500 miles. But here's some first impressions:

I don't know if it has more power, strictly speaking, (it's always been a good puller ) but it does seem lots more eager to give me what power it has. Whereas I've always had to pay fairly close attention to the RPM in terms of getting peak HP out of it, now, not so much. It has a much smoother and more forgiving curve. I'll bet the curves are nearly dead flat, in fact, from 1000 to 1650. I can get full power at any point in that range, without complaint. With the old program, there were three power peaks... at around 1200, 1400, and 1650, with 1650 being the biggest, and 1200 being next to useless for all the breathing issues it was showing there. Those are much less pronounced now. It pulls down low now, without any effort or complaint... that's always been the hole in this engine, far as I was concerned.

It still pulls at 1650 or so, but since the thing has no really pronounced power peaks anymore and gives me full power at midrange, hitting that higher RPM isn't really required for good hill climbing. Amazing, given it wouldn't allow me to pull below 1300 at all, just a short time ago, without coughing spitting and generally being a problem. . I'm still playing with this aspect and learning it, but I'm very pleased with the change.

It spools up boost far easier than it ever has. I'm seeing boost rates of 35lbs under full load situations, across the RPM range. I saw that only rarely before, and then only at very specific RPM's.. Far more aggressive.

At the same time, I notice a far faster fall off in fuel consumption...(by way of the MPG readout) when I get off the throttle. These are short term peaks, but I was curious, so I decided to try an experiment; There's an hour long stretch of road (11&15 along the river getting into Harrisburg) that I run rather a lot. I usually run this at 55 or so in top gear, trying for mpg. It's a very flat stretch, so it doesn't strain the engine, even with the old program. It just kinda loafs along. Engine is at around 1225, and usually gives me an MPG readout of around 7-9 at peak. Last night, it seemed to stay between 10 and 12 for that stretch. Unusually high. And it never seemed to want a lower gear.

Another example:I had an empty trailer tonight, on I-90 at Indian Castle. For the first time ever, I marched over the thing in top gear, overdrive, on the cruise control. Simply amazing.

Exhaust gas temps are lower on average, regardless what you're doing.. Normal operating temps seem to be holding around 400, and are not nearly as sensitive as they used to be. Highest I noted was going up the big hills on 15, where it got to around 850. I note it did cool off faster after a hard tug. I can only assume it's the added air being pushed through the engine. I'm interested to note that Exhaust temps never hit 900, which they often did with the old program when I was pushing the engine hard.

Head temps too, are lower. Hard slogs long at 13-1400 would get the fan going every time.It seems quite happy to pull at midrange, now, and doesn't work up a sweat doing it. I'm not sure how much of this is the cooler weather, but I'm quite sure that not all of it is the weather, particularly given the Exhaust temps seem to agree with the head temps.

No smoke at all was observed out the stacks. After my experience with the intercooler you can imagine I watched for signs of over-richness. I saw none, regardless of what I had the engine doing.

I just finished my first trip last night, and with the fill, after 1100 or so miles, I find I'm getting 6.377 to the gallon. before it was usually high 5's to very low 6's if I recall right... but at the very least the new package isn't killing the MPG, while adding whole bunches of drivability.

I feel I'm driving a new truck; the personality of the engine has totally changed for the better. I can't imagine that won't get better as I learn to drive this thing (As opposed to just operating it... we go through that learning process with every new vehicle)... and I wonder about the parts of the program you say aren't in there yet.... Does this really get better?
[FONT=&quot]Yes, you could say I'm impressed. [/FONT]