The customer tows heavy and was looking for better mileage. He already replaced the factory exhaust eliminating the catalytic conveter and replacing everything with a complete Magnaflow exhaust. He liked the gains from the exhaust but was looking for a little better mileage and some more horsepower never hurts either.
We advised him that the best improvement we can offer for the Duramax engine is custom tuning of the ECM with EFIlive. We've seen better fuel mileage gains than any of the currently available programmers and piggyback boxes. But with custom tuning we highly advise adding a boost and exhaust gas temperature gauge. That combo was a few more pesos than the customer wanted to spend so the next option was the Edge Evolution programmer.
The Evolution for the LLY/LBZ Duramax has several nice features. It offers 4 levels of tuning for the Duramax from 30HP mileage tunes to 100HP race tunes. Although it isn't capable of being adjusted while driving it only takes about 15 seconds with the engine off to switch levels. Another huge advantage is it is not only a built in digital gauge package allowing the customer to view over 15 parameters on the fly it also offers automatic defueling if the exhaust gas temperatures start to get too hot pulling a load.
The Evolution offers increased fuel mileage, more horsepower and built in digital gauges all for under $480. It's a spectacular bang for your buck.
We'll go over the installation in case some of you are considering installing one of these yourself.
Here are the package contents. Notice it also comes with a custom mounting pod. You definately get your money's worth with this kit.
This particular truck was bone stock except for the magnaflow exhaust system from the downpipe back.
The first step of the installation requires you to drill and tap the passenger side exhaust manifold for the thermocouple. You access that through the fender liner shown below.
Here's what you'll see once you pry up the fender liner. Make sure you drill in the rusty cast iron manifold. I've seen a few installs where the thin walled uppipe was actually drilled. There isn't enough wall thickness to get a good tap job done and it usually results in an annoying exhaust leak.
If you think it's hard to hold the fender liner up with one hand while drilling and tapping the hole trying doing all of that and taking pictures at the same time.
Once you put the camera down and get back to work you will end up with a tapped hole like this one. The instructions say to drill and tap the hole and then start the engine to blow any metal shavings out before installing the thermocouple. I personally leave the engine idling while I am drilling and tapping the hole. This way shavings are blown out immediately as they are being made and they never even get a chance to enter your exhaust or turbo. You have to work quickly using my method because the exhaust gases are quite hot blowing on your hands, but the extra level of insurance that no damaging shavings are getting into your turbo is worth the pain.
Once the fitting and thermocouple are installed this is all you'll see.
Now we have to deal with running the wires. One of the best locations under the GM hood is to remove the cowl clips and run the stainless braided thermocouple line through them. It makes for a clean install and keeps the braided line from rubbing against any other electrical wire or engine parts.
I'd rather the line be completely hidden from view, but at least it's up out of the way and won't rub through anything from all the engine vibrations.
Edge engineers really had their thinking caps on when designing this one. The thermocouple wire plugs into the OBDII plug at the bottom of the dash. This means only 1 wire has to run up through the dash into the evolution monitor. It really simplifies the wiring.
The OBDII connector plugs in easily.
Next you run the wire up through the dash and out at the bottom of the pillar. Then the plastic mounting pod simply pops in behind the gauge bezel. No tools are need to mount the plastic pod.
Two aluminum brackets are provided to help secure the plastic pod. Double sided tap is used to secure the bracket to the plastic pod and velcro is used to secure the bracket to the dash. That way if you ever need to take the pod off you simply pull it off the velcro. It is important to use some rubbing alcohol or a touch of brake cleaner on a rag to clean the armorall off the dash so the velcro will stick properly.
You attach the 1 wire to the evolution monitor, insert the rubber bushing into the plastic pod and then press the monitor right into the bushing. It couldn't be easier.
Turn the key on and walla. It boots up like magic.
The gauges will work at this stage, but no power is added until you go into the menu setting and select "power programming." The initial programming sequence takes about 7-8 minutes. Each change to the program after that takes a mere 15 seconds. We ran into a few hurdles during this section. Apparently some evolutions need updating before installation. Once we found a computer with high speed internet and downloaded the "fusion" program from edge, we were able to update the unit and get it installed correctly.
The final step of all installations is to dyno test the vehicle to verify horsepower gains. One of the nice things about Edge products is they rarely exaggerate their horsepower claims.
Edge claims a 30 HP increase on the mileage tune on an otherwise stock truck. Remember this truck has a complete downpipe back exhaust system from Magnaflow so there is better breathing than stock. Our dynojet showed a 46HP gain if you're only talking peak numbers. But if you look at the graph you can see that from about 62mph to 72mph there is an increase of almost 80HP through the midrange . You've got to love getting more than you bargained for.
You might be disappointed that we didn't crank the box up to level 4 to get maximum dyno numbers. This customer wanted fuel mileage and if a little power came with it that's fine to. This truck is going to be driven and worked with the mileage tune so that's what we tested.
So to wrap it up the customer received a peak HP gain of 46, a midrange gain of up to 80HP, increased fuel mileage, built-in gauges, automatic defueling, speed limiter removal and speedometer correction for oversized tires all for under $600 including parts and labor. Not a bad investment in anyone's eyes.