Project MCLB Heavy Hauler: 500+ horsepower With EFI Live Tuning!

There are few things that have the kind of horsepower per dollar return as a tuner does when it comes to performance. Sure, water/methanol can be close, but everything else requires other components to make the big power. Injectors require lots of air or nitrous to really produce the power while, turbochargers can make use of extra fuel, but you have to have the fuel in order to produce the power. We have been witness to people making over 500 additional horsepower with just the addition of spray. That is a huge gain, but you had to be over fueled to get there.

For Project MCLB Heavy Hauler, we wanted to utilize some of the most powerful tuning out there for our 2006 Dodge. This project is going to be built over the course of many months, so there will be quite a few steps to get to our end goal. The tuning had to be flexible enough to work with each of our steps, since having the coin to take a truck from bone stock to fully built in one step isn't necessarily something most of us have.

The AutoCal comes with two cables. One, plugs into the trucks OBD II connector and the other into your computer.

EFILive, aren't they only for Duramax?

" We were being inundated by the Dodge community with requests for the same type of tuning ability as the Duramax community enjoys. To date we've released the '06- '07 5.9 L Dodge Cummins tuning software and '07- '09 6.7 L Dodge Cummins tuning software. Our developers continue to work on enhancements for those platforms and extending our Cummins year model support," explained Donna Blackmore, Business Manager for EFI Live.

What makes EFI Live so unique?

They have spent countless hours developing the software, reverse engineering and integrating their customer operating systems to allow tuners almost complete access to all engine parameters. This access, allows experienced tuners the ability to really go in and tune the engine as they want.

"Other companies produce handheld tuners with pre-loaded tunes. EFILive, Flash Scan, and Auto Cal are the tools that give customers the ability to create their own tunes to suit their conditions, hard parts, and requirements for their own trucks, rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach.

One of the other really unique aspects of EFILive is the ability to use a programmer, but change the power levels as you drive. Traditionally, if you use a programmer, you would have to pull over and re-tune the truck if you wanted a different power level. Since EFILive has pretty much full access to the ECM, they have come up with a way to deliver additional tunes to the ECM without reflating. By adding a CSP5 switch, owners have the ability to choose which tune the ECM is running simply by turning the knob to the appropriate setting.

All of this is done on the CAN bus and for the installer, it is very easy to install the switch (see below). There are some modules that can be programmed to change the tunes as well. EFILive Auto Cal has the ability to switch the tunes without reflating the truck (but, we recommend your passenger switches tunes via Auto Cal or you pull over so you keep your eyes on the road).

The Blank Stare

The Auto Cal programs the truck like a standard programmer does. With the key on, engine off, plug in the Auto CalSince EFILive isn't a tuning company, when enthusiasts buy one of their products, it actually comes blank. Option one, is to purchase the Flash Scan programmer that allows you (the tuner) to tune your own truck with complete access.

Option two, purchase their Auto Cal and have one of the best tuners in the country tune your truck. Let's see, we can try and tune the truck ourselves and risk breaking something or we can have an expert tune the truck for us ... Yeah, we opted for Auto Cal!

AutoCal.

"AutoCal is a unique product, we realized early on that our customers required another piece of hardware that complemented FlashScan and took the tunes created by the tuner to their customer base," said Blackmore. Effectively, the tuner creates custom tunes for a truck that can be emailed and installed onto AutoCal remotely, but what makes it so unique is that you can also data log how the vehicle performs and send that feedback back to the tuner for review.

EFILive, FlashScan, and AutoCal are the tools that give customers the ability to create their own tunes to suit their conditions, hard parts, and requirements for their own trucks, rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach. EFILiveAutoCal has the ability to switch the tunes without reflashing the truck (but, we recommend your passenger switches tunes via AutoCal or you pull over so you keep your eyes on the road).

Option one, is to purchase the FlashScanprogrammer that allows you (the tuner) to tune your own truck with complete access."AutoCal is a unique product, we realized early on that our customers required another piece of hardware that complemented FlashScan and took the tunes created by the tuner to their customer base," said Blackmore. Effectively, the tuner creates custom tunes for a truck that can be emailed and installed onto AutoCal remotely, but what makes it so unique is that you can also data log how the vehicle performs and send that feedback back to the tuner for review.