13-16 Spartan tuning

drservo · Dec 3, 2015

Well with that long of a release date I couldn't wait. Ngauge should be here today. If Matt gets me the tunes this afternoon I'll let ya know how Spar compares to Ghead tonight!

drservo · Dec 3, 2015

They said the Ngauge will not read EGTs yet but there will be an update later so it will.

Clean-15 · Dec 3, 2015

Dumb question. When tuned with either the dash or the guage, does tow haul still do anything?

drservo · Dec 3, 2015

Yes tow haul performs like factory but the exhaust brake does not.

higherlife · Dec 3, 2015

i rushed home today and got the ngauge from ups today. sent an email to ******* and the waiver. hopefully i will have everything up and running by tomorrow night. I will definitely post some videos of the truck towing the malibu.

jbair14 · Dec 3, 2015

Well I was trying to sell my tuner but had no luck so it's going on the truck. Sent my waiver in tonight and hopefully I'm tuned by the weekend!!

oscard0215 · Dec 3, 2015

what waiver do you have to send in?

jcain · Dec 3, 2015

Matt geouge, you never replied to my Pm.

drservo · Dec 4, 2015

Bit of a delay, received a bad Ndash yesterday but great customer service from Spar, they shipped me out another one yesterday before they even received the defective one back. Had my tunes today within minutes of updating my info. Loading tunes in the truck now, will compare them shortly.

TexAg56 · Dec 4, 2015

Drservo let me know how you like it compared to Ghead!

Jeff@Spartan · Dec 4, 2015

oscard0215 said:
what waiver do you have to send in?

Off-road tuning disclaimer.

higherlife · Dec 4, 2015

well finally got the tunes loaded today. I will give a you my whole days events with the truck.

This morning, running KEM tunes, I went into work cruising around 85mph until stop and go traffic. Nothing out of the ordinary with the truck, temps took longer than normal to warm up due to the cool weather and the ungodly 2nd-3rd hard shifts i get every morning when i finally hit stop and go traffic. My trip is roughly 40 miles.
Sent Spartn my info at work, and was promptly sent the tunes. They definitly are spot on with their customer service. I was nervous about the whole process but it couldn't have gone any smoother. Great job Spartn!!
Drive home, still running KEM, thisitime traffic was cruising around 90ish and i couldn't help but keep up. Got my daily "mass air volume" cel as well that i had to clear.
Got home, quickly loaded the tunes onto the sd card, returned my truck back to stock with the SCT before loading the Spartn tunes.
So after three hours of messing with the tunes, i am writing this.
The 600 enhanced. Well I'm not sure if its my truck but i literally thought the transmission unattached itself from the truck a few times. This was not at WOT either, this happened as i turned out of my neighborhood before i could even make it to the road i wanted to do the testing on. it felt as if the truck tuning and the transmission tuning was out of sync. I would get a rolling start in 1st and by 20mph it was locked up in 4th. The whole truck shook so hard i thought it was time to start figuring out how to get all the dp.f delet.e stuff bolted back on to take it in for warranty work (kidding). But it seriously had me so concerned i pulled over and reloaded the tune. As I'm pulling back on the road, i am now noticing a loud clunk (could hear it with windows up) from 2nd to locked 3rd. I kept the speed down and let it shift 1,2,3 several times and every time it did it.

So, not wanting to be calling a tow truck in the middle of nowhere, i pulled over again and loaded the 600 regular tune. Here is where the there is some good in this whole review. After doing several passes up and down the road, gradually increasing the throttle through all the gears each time, the truck ran great. I agree with the rest, the transmission tuning is very good on this setting. You can definite feel the power and the more passes I did, the smoother the shifts got.

I will post more about the lesser hp tunes because i spent 3 hours fooling around with just 2 of them.

Keep in mind i did not do a WOT pass on wither the 600 enhanced or 600 regular tune. I did not feel comfortable at all with the 600 enhanced to do a WOT and the 600 regular was just nice to feel the smooth up and down shifts.

I am also not writing this tune as a negative review. I can see a major improvement over the the SCT tunes. No trouble codes whatsoever. I am wanting to see if some are experiencing similar results or maybe i didn't do something right. I understand the the enhanced tunes are more for "racing" but the truck shaking, loud injector rattle and low boost, high rail pressure and locked in 4th at a low speed can't be good.

Jacob @ No Limit · Dec 4, 2015

I have ladder/traction bars, I would definitely recommend them. These axles wrap bad, especially on the higher tunes. I never had any weird shifts, I went straight to the big tunes and let her eat. No issues to this day. Love it. Also explain your low boost, I hit 39-40 on the 600 enhanced tune. I personally love the early lockup. Maybe I wouldn't if I didn't have my ladder bars.

higherlife · Dec 4, 2015

White15 said:
I have ladder/traction bars, I would definitely recommend them. These axles wrap bad, especially on the higher tunes. I never had any weird shifts, I went straight to the big tunes and let her eat. No issues to this day. Love it. Also explain your low boost, I hit 39-40 on the 600 enhanced tune. I personally love the early lockup. Maybe I wouldn't if I didn't have my ladder bars.

i have stage 3 pmf traction bars. boost didn't exceed 20psi on the 600 enhanced but it was locked in 4th holding 30k rail pressure at 20mphish. couldn't get it to get up and go.

Jacob @ No Limit · Dec 4, 2015

That sounds like a messed up file or something.

Ipkyss · Dec 4, 2015

Surely there is something wrong between your truck and the 600 tune. I would not run it again without at least taking a data log so you can see whats going on and send it into tech to look at.

Ipkyss · Dec 5, 2015

And an update for myself. So far running the 450 race (towing), 500 enhanced, and 550 enhanced for about 1,300 miles everything has been great. Not a single issue. No mis shifts, slips, flares, banging, or anything of the sort. Truck makes good power. Everything is really smooth, I don't feel like the truck is being abused. Power comes on smooth, throttle is smooth. Everything is so smooth I almost feel like it hides how much power it really has.

higherlife · Dec 5, 2015

when i go to load a tune, it has duplicates of each file. one works and the duplicate says invalid file. is anyone else experiencing this? i only copied the files once onto the sd card but for some reason there is a copy of each file.

higherlife · Dec 5, 2015

ran through the tunes again today, truck ran worse than yesterday so i figured it was time to pop the hood.
I was running an h&s duel fueler so i decided to take it off because i did not get a definitive answer if they would work with the tunes.

Wouldn't you know after taking the duel fueler off the truck ran like a charm after reloading the stock file and then the tunes again. even the enhanced tunes were running great. the 600 enhanced runs like a bat out of hell.
I can believe the fueler was causing such a headache.

Oh and i have an h&s duel fueler for sale if anyone is interested...