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Performance Diesel Market water system to mist the intercooler core and also to cool the brakes. This water methanol controller can be used for brake cooling and the intercooler misting system injects straight into the intake.” Another benefit to water methanol injection, Snow says, is that it doesn’t leave a signature on the vehicle’s PCM (power control module) and works with most of the newer emissions equipment. “Water methanol injection actually reduces emissions so the incidence of regeneration is reduced, which saves a tremendous amount of fuel,” he says. As manufacturers are looking for new ways to tune or utilize other triedand-true electronic tuning aids, the main goal continues to be enhancing an engine that pushes performance to the maximum. “A hot tune will give the engine more fuel, which will create more power and increase EGTs,” Norris says. “Adding a bigger turbocharger and a better intercooler will help bring the EGTs down and maximize the
power potential of the tune.” Most manufacturers caution that bigger is not always better – and the best way to simply monitor any progress is through use of gauges. “Gauges are a must. If you buy a programmer that doesn’t have the built-in gauges to monitor everything, you should get them. You need to know that boost and exhaust gas temperature are tuned with different settings, so you can get the most bang for your buck,” Flanders says. “We build these huge injection pumps and some people figure that the bigger pumps mean they can turn up the fuel rail pressure above a normal setting. “The pumps we build fuel more than a stock pump,” says Flanders. “They are there to give you the fue you need, but if you turn them up too much, you are going to over-pressurize. Then, you are going to have failures. We have to inform people that it’s not about maximizing every setting and saying ‘let’s go.’” In the long run, it is best to have tuning aids that do not overwhelm, for
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example, the transmission or torque converter, but rather complement the engine or, as Banks describes, “honoring the host.” “It’s as if I go over to your house for dinner and when we’re done, I volunteer to help you wash the dishes and I end up breaking every one of them,” he says. “That’s not honoring the host. You put too much stuff on the vehicle, it ends up killing the engine.” Banks says that most diesel turbocharger manufacturers are steadily keeping a pulse on the industry and it’s coming back as the economy and turbo technology gets better. “The diesel industry peaked and then we had the recession. Now construction is coming back and guys are buying trucks,” he said. “Most of those trucks are out of warranty and we are going back and doing those trucks from scratch. When we apply today’s technology to a 12-valve Cummins or a 7.3L Ford, to me, it’s kind of exciting. These are affordable hot rods today for guys who are into trucks, and we are after them.” ■
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