If you already have a diesel truck, you’re well acquainted with all of the benefits that come along with it. Maybe you’ve even done a little fine-tuning yourself to get the most out of its performance. Diesel truck owners tend to be passionate about their vehicles and want to get as much out of them as they can. While there are many different parts to replace or upgrades to install to improve your truck, one such upgrade that can get overlooked is installing a higher-quality programmer.
In modern diesel trucks, engine programmers have a variety of tasks they assist your truck with. It’s almost like putting a little brain inside of your truck that can think for itself. To show you why we believe programmers can help you out a lot, we’ve come up with these reasons to install a programmer in your diesel truck. By the end, we’re confident that you’ll understand how much you can get out of this tiny upgrade.
Engine programmers go by a few different names, so you may have heard of them before in a different form. Some people call programmers performance tuners, performance chips, or gauge tuners. At their core, the job of the programmer is to optimize your diesel truck’s engine performance. We call them programmers because they have the ability to essentially reprogram the firmware inside of your truck. This reprogramming can help tune the engine’s performance to be more in line with the way you drive the truck.
Think of these programmers as a way to hack into your vehicle and change the way it works. Most aftermarket programmers come with a monitor or control panel so you can see what it does while installed in your truck. Once installed, the programmer closely monitors different systems inside of your truck, such as engine airflow, coolant temperature, and RPMs, and then makes adjustments that can improve performance.
Now that we have a better idea of what these things actually are, we can start to look more closely into the reasons you would want to install a programmer into your diesel truck. There are a lot of benefits to having an aftermarket programmer, which we’ll review here.
One of the biggest changes a new programmer can create is getting you better fuel efficiency. Programmers can actually get more miles per gallon in your truck than you would normally get. By regulating the amount of fuel and air that gets into your engine at one time, the programmer can make you use less fuel in the same amount of time. Given that even a small increase in fuel efficiency can save you a lot of money over your truck’s lifespan, it’s worth it to get a programmer to help your truck and pad your wallet. Modern tuners sometimes come with driving coaches built into their systems that can tell you how to change up your driving style to improve fuel efficiency even further.
Diesel engines are known for their performance—specifically their ability to accelerate and generate a lot of torque. Programmers can improve this performance by monitoring the engine’s condition and changing accordingly. If you need to pull more weight, the programmer can reduce the amount of valve life to give you more torque. It can also do the opposite by increasing valve lift to improve speed. If you want to get absolutely everything out of your engine that you can, a programmer can get you that final step towards perfection.
One of the reasons people buy diesel trucks in the first place is because they tend to last a long time and don’t need a ton of maintenance to continue running. If you’d like to keep your truck out of the garage as much as possible, installing a programmer into it could save you a lot of money on maintenance costs. Modern programmers are so in-tune with the inner workings of your vehicle that they can alert you when something is wrong. You can even use the programmer to diagnose and deal with issues that cause the check engine light to come on.
As we’ve mentioned, the programmer keeps a close eye on your engine and all of the systems that feed into it. A lot of problems in our engines that start off as very small issues can quickly grow to massive problems if they aren’t taken care of. Programmers can help catch problems that are imperceptible to us. For instance, if something is wrong with your oil or if the coolant begins to overheat, your programmer can give you alerts to these problems and allow you to deal with them sooner rather than later.
With all of the benefits a programmer provides, you may start to think they’re exorbitantly expensive. Programmers are an investment in the long-term health of your diesel truck, and you get what you pay for. More expensive units come with a wider array of features, but even the cheaper units can pay for themselves with time. One of the reasons you bought a diesel truck was because you know how long they last; these programmers help you save more money in the long run over that long lifespan.
Given how useful programmers are, why don’t more manufacturers put them into their trucks as a standard feature? All it really comes down to is the bang you’re getting for your buck. Manufacturers want to sell as many units as they can while also reducing production costs wherever possible. That means using performance chips that aren’t as high-quality. While this reduces the performance of the truck, it saves the manufacturer money in the short term.
Whatever is your reasoning for wanting a programmer in your own diesel truck, we here at Norcal Diesel Performance want to get you what you need. We have diesel programmers for Cummins engines in our store, ready for installation into your truck whenever you need them. Don’t be afraid to contact us with any questions you might have about our programmers.
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