Diesel Truck owners. need info/opinions on Deletes and Tuners
I have a 2013 Ram Cummins 6.7 and unbeknownst to me, there is a required service to be performed every 67,500 miles that involves removing and cleaning the soot out of the EGR cooler, EGR valve, crossover tube and replacing the CCV filter (which is inside the valve cover I understand). It cost me $1,100 for the dealer to perform this service and would have been more but I had just recently replaced the fuel filters (2 of them that cost about $100 each at the parts counter). It's obvious why they don't really highlight this in their cool "look how much pipe you can haul" commercials. lol.
In a nutshell, the EGR system pumps exhaust gas with all the soot in it, back into your intake contaminating your valve train, combustion chamber, turbo, etc. some of it gets into your oil diluting it (and potentially causing catastrophic bearing failure), it clogs up the EGR itself (hence the required cleaning) causing the engine to be less efficient over time... therefore causing you to burn MORE fuel...creating more soot/emissions etc. The DPF system has to "regen" periodically when it collects enough of the soot that's not being "burned off" in the EGR system and when it "regens" it's sending additional unburned diesel thru the combustion chamber (on a non combustion stroke) and super heats the DPF which significantly reduces your power and efficiency during a cycle, creates more NOx gas. NOx is just as bad for the environment as the particulate matter. potentially worse since the DPM is heavy and falls to earth and gets washed away and is essentially just carbon. Not to mention these components wear out over time. In the end, just because you don't see the black smoke anymore, doesn't mean the engine is any more "clean".
So, the argument is that by removing these EPA mandated systems, and programming the truck to be more efficient will A.) allow the engine to last a LOT longer B.) cost you less in the long run on having these systems maintained and/or replaced. A new DPF system can cost up to $8000! and guess what, at least for Ram's the emissions system warranty is only 50k miles. and C.) Deleting is at a minimum no more harmful to the environment than WITH the emissions systems and potentially less harmful over time due to less fuel being consumed in the 1st place.
Here's where it gets tricky. It's illegal to tamper with or remove factory installed emissions equipment and recommended for off-road use only. Disclaimer: I'm just educating myself on this topic.
I'm just learning about deleting systems and tuners. Anyone here have experience w/EGR deletes, DPF deletes, and the myriad of available tuners out there that they can recommend me to look into? I've paid this truck off already and plan to have it for a LONG time. Regardless, I still like the truck and the power it has.
