The Diesel Owner’s Guide to Performance Programmers

When it comes to making your diesel truck into the perfect machine you always wanted it to be, you have a lot of options at your disposal. You want to get the most out of your truck, which can be a tall task for someone who doesn’t know where to start. To save you time researching and trying to find what might work best for your specific vehicle, we here at Norcal Diesel Performance wanted to talk about what we think of as one of the most efficient and useful upgrades you can make to your truck.

Performance programmers, sometimes also called tuners, are remarkably simple to install and set up, and they can improve so many different aspects of the way your truck operates. If you’ve always wanted more control over your truck’s performance, a performance programmer can give you just that. To give you a more thorough introduction to these devices, we’ve come up with the diesel owner’s guide to performance programmers, a primer on programmers and tuners that will help you understand the benefits they can grant to your truck with very little effort on your part.

Installation Made Simple

Every programmer you can get requires almost the exact same installation, and luckily, it’s not very difficult. The only thing you’ll need to do is find your truck’s OBDII port and plug the programmer into it. In many different vehicles, you can find the OBDII port underneath the steering wheel, but if you can’t find it, you can always check your owner’s manual for its location. We’ll talk a little bit about the different types of programmers you can plug into this port, but you should know that many of them won’t require much more effort than simply plugging them into your OBDII port and letting them do their thing.

Different Types of Modules

Performance programmers come in various levels of complexity. If you want a “set it and forget it” programmer, you have plenty of options available to you. On the other hand, if you want much finer control over every aspect of your truck’s performance, there are also more sophisticated models that can offer a lot more customization and options. The three kinds of modules we’ll go into here cover almost everything you’ll find.

Gauge Monitors

For very fine control of your truck’s performance, you’ll want to choose a programmer with a gauge monitor. These types of programmers usually have a mounted display that you keep right on your dashboard. As you drive, the display will show you, in real-time, a variety of information about various engine functions. Some will even slightly adjust certain settings automatically as you drive that can give you more power or improve your fuel efficiency.

Handheld Tuners

Handheld programmers or tuners don’t give you quite as much real-time information, but they still offer you a high modicum of control. These devices usually plug into the OBDII port through a cord that delivers the program you want it to run. You can then store the handheld tuner away. If you don’t want a large display monitor cluttering up your vision while you drive, these devices might be the way to go. Just like gauge monitors, they let you choose from preprogrammed settings or make your own custom settings if you have more specific needs.

Plug-and-Play Modules

If you don’t feel like bothering with creating your own settings or choosing which program to run, there are also plug-and-play modules that do their job with no extra input from you. Just like the name says, you find a module that does what you want it to do and plug it in, and it goes to work automatically. These are useful if you just want to adjust one specific area of your truck’s performance, such as maximizing fuel efficiency or disabling the active fuel management your truck came with. These also tend to be the cheapest options, as the technology isn’t as sophisticated as the more customizable modules.

The Major Benefits of Installing Performance Programmers

Performance programmers come with a few major benefits, which we’ll discuss in greater detail below.

Increased Horsepower and Torque

A diesel owner’s guide to performance programmers wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t mention the extra power that they can give your truck. Many programmers come with a preprogrammed mode that you can switch to for maximizing your towing power. More advanced models can even change your horsepower and torque on the fly for when you really need to get moving. Whether you need to haul your boat up a steep hill or you need the extra torque for going off-road, a performance programmer can ensure you get all the power you need.

Improved Fuel Economy

We’ve mentioned that these programmers can improve fuel economy a few times because it’s one of the highlights of installing a tuner into your truck. Even the simpler plug-and-play modules often have an economy mode that improves your miles per gallon. You can become even more efficient if you opt for a gauge monitor instead. The display on the monitor can track your fuel efficiency as you drive, showing you how you can adjust your driving habits to get the most out of your fuel. Following these small changes can give you a lot more miles per gallon, essentially helping the programmer pay for itself in the long run as you save on fuel costs.

Reduced Throttle Delay

There’s nothing quite as annoying as that moment after you press down your pedal, but you still haven’t started moving yet. If your truck experiences significant throttle delay, a good programmer can help mitigate the issue. By increasing the sensitivity of your throttle, programmers help reduce the amount of time it takes to get going once you hit the gas pedal. If you like to really feel that acceleration when you drive, this is the upgrade you need for your truck.

Clear Diagnostics

No matter how skilled you may be with fixing and tuning up your own vehicle, seeing that “check engine” light pop up is still annoying. Many performance tuners can also give you a better understanding of the underlying issue of warning lights showing up on your dashboard. You won’t need to check every part of your truck just to find out that the issue was hardly an issue to begin with.

If you can see how much benefit you could get out of a performance programmer for your diesel truck, check out Norcal Diesel Performance’s store and take a look at our 6.6 Duramax tuners. We’re sure to have a programmer that can match your needs, and we’ll be happy to assist you if you need help with the decision.

The Diesel Owner’s Guide to Performance Programmers

Comment Post Comment