22 Cummins Tune Install

[Riddick]

Well, I wish I had some great news here but unfortunately I do not. I purchased a 22 tuning package from Calibrated Power back in June. Literally 3 days later I broke my collarbone so I have been patiently waiting to heal so I could install everything. The package from CP comes with everything you need including HP Tuners MPVI3, tuning credits, gateway module bypass cable, and a brand new unlocked Cummins ECU.

The first step of this process is to perform a read on your stock 22 ECU. Everything here went very smooth, CP has detailed instructions on what kind of logs they want. I sent off the logs and CP verified everything looked good and I was ready to swap in the new ECM. This was not very difficult but you do need to take your time when doing it. From start to finish I prolly spent 2 hours total and I went through the wheel well so I had to pull fender liner and wheel off for access. You can access from the top of engine bay but it provides less space but will be faster for sure. Once the OEM ECU is removed you have to remove your charge pipe off the power valve and snake it through the top.

Once the new ECM is installed you have to perform another set of reads and email them off. I sent them over the weekend and had my new files ready to go in today. They give you 2 files to load, the first one went in without a hitch and im thinking this is gonna be easy...... WRONG. The second file was in the process of loading and when it reaches 100% you have to turn the truck off for 10 seconds and then back to on. When I did this I received an invalid checksum error and a Failed message. I was pretty bummed at this point but made a few calls to CP and we tried loading the file a few more times with no luck, even tried loading the first file that loaded fine earlier and that failed too.

CP has been great to work with so far and I don't blame them for what's going on. I am confident its an HP Tuners issue and not related to CP. I noticed Kory Willis from PPEI recently made a facebook post stating HP Tuners was bricking ECMs and HP Tuners had him remove their products from his website until they sort it out. Pretty sure my ECM is toast and I will more than likely swap back in the original one this week so I can have my truck back up and running.

CP is submitting a trouble ticket tomorrow and we will see what happens. I am not giving up on tuning the truck and I will keep updating this thread as I receive new info. I know there are a few members on here wanting to tune their 22 and 23 and hopefully this thread will help them.

 

[joshuaeb09]

I sincerely hope we get to a better place with tuning sooner than later. My mechanic has also told me of some minor horror storries doing the PCM swap on '22s and basically said unless you want to be a bit of a gunniepig I'd wait on the process to get a bit smoother. Thanks for taking one for the team here, I'll be watching to see how it shakes out.

 

[Riddick]

CP has been great to work with, they just called with an update. HP Tuners is covering the cost of the ECM and the cost of tuning credits. They stated this one will be fully prepped so I am assuming it will come loaded and will not require me to flash it.

I have contacted other diesel shops to get their take on my situation and they have all experienced the same failure I did. I called PPEI and emailed Valley Center/Performance Calibration. They have all had several units fail recently and there is currently no fix that they know of at this time. Performance Calibration mentioned they see the most failures with used ECMs and generally have had good luck with new ECMs. Some trucks will take the load while some fail, seems to be hit or miss.

 

[gimmie11s]

WTF. Sorry to hear mang. Im sure youll get her up and running with a tune soon. CP is bad ass and who ill eventually use when I decide to tune my turd.

 

[flashman252]

@Riddick you are the man for just going for it. Will be watching this thread in how it shakes out.

 

[Riddick]

I spoke with CP yesterday and they confirmed they were shipping the ECM. I requested to overnight it and told them I would pay, I get anxious having the truck sit. CP ended up overnighting the ECM for free so huge thanks to them for this.

The new ECM came in this morning and I jumped on installing it. Install went great, took me half the time it did the first time. Went to start the truck and..................... IT STARTED........ then died after 3 seconds . Tried it a few more times and same thing happened. I am suspecting a VATS (Vehicle Anti-Theft System) issue but am far from a mechanic. Have seen this countless times when doing engine swaps in cars. I think it has to do with the key being married to the ECM or something along those lines.

Emailed CP and they also suspect a security issue and they are pretty sure it can be fixed with a flash. Now I'm super nervous because the last thing I want to do is try loading a file again. fingers crossed. I wont have the file until this afternoon but I have some family things to take care of as well. If I receive the file I will load it tonight, I don't care what time it is....... time to button this thing up!

 

[joshuaeb09]

I spoke with CP yesterday and they confirmed they were shipping the ECM. I requested to overnight it and told them I would pay, I get anxious having the truck sit. CP ended up overnighting the ECM for free so huge thanks to them for this.

The new ECM came in this morning and I jumped on installing it. Install went great, took me half the time it did the first time. Went to start the truck and..................... IT STARTED........ then died after 3 seconds . Tried it a few more times and same thing happened. I am suspecting a VATS (Vehicle Anti-Theft System) issue but am far from a mechanic. Have seen this countless times when doing engine swaps in cars. I think it has to do with the key being married to the ECM or something along those lines.

Emailed CP and they also suspect a security issue and they are pretty sure it can be fixed with a flash. Now I'm super nervous because the last thing I want to do is try loading a file again. fingers crossed. I wont have the file until this afternoon but I have some family things to take care of as well. If I receive the file I will load it tonight, I don't care what time it is....... time to button this thing up!

Hopefully they get you squared away soon!

 

[gimmie11s]

Damn... fingers crossed!

 

[Riddick]

I will start off the post like my others and say CP has been awesome to deal with, excellent customer service and very fast turn around time.

I received the revised file and it loaded without a hitch, went to start the truck and it died after 3 seconds again. Emailed CP immediately and they told me they would get with HP tech support and get everything sorted. I will admit the most stressful part was watching the tune load, this probably took 10 years off my life, surely the longest 7 minutes 30 seconds I have ever waited!

A few hours later I had another revision and the load went in perfectly fine but this time she stayed running when I cranked it. I made sure to let it idle a few minutes and everything sounded perfect. I have not driven the truck yet but I did get it all buttoned back up and its ready to go. The SOTF is pretty slick and is controlled with the cruise control buttons. When you select the cruise cancel button your EVIC will flash the throttle error message in red 1-4 times depending on what tune you are in and also give you an audible chimes. You then use the up and down arrows next to the cruise cancel button to toggle between tune files.

There appears to be 4 files loaded which I am assuming is 1. Heavy Tow, 2. Light Tow, 3. Street, 4. Max Performance. I will more than likely keep it in 3 most of the time and use 2 when I tow our dirt bike trailer around. I have no desire to put it on kill mode. I am really looking forward to seeing how the trans tuning is and throttle response. I should drive the truck before the weekend so I can post up my first drive impressions.

Hopefully CP has these fully dialed in now, they stated they have done a handful of these and mine was the first issue they have seen. I can't guarantee yours will load perfectly fine but I can promise CP will work with you in making it right.

 

[gimmie11s]

Exciting!! Any plans to dyno before and after?

 

[Riddick]

No plans to dyno, according the CPs site the file I am running is good for 80hp/144tq, that should be plenty. If and when I experience DEF or DPF issues I want the ability to delete if I decide to. Now that I have an unlocked ECU all I have to do is find a tuner and load up a new file (assuming it does not brick my ECU). If my emissions never fail that's awesome I will have some extra power on tap and enjoy the truck. Plan on hanging on to this truck for a bit and want to minimize future headaches even though I gave myself a few this week!

 

[flashman252]

No plans to dyno, according the CPs site the file I am running is good for 80hp/144tq, that should be plenty. If and when I experience DEF or DPF issues I want the ability to delete if I decide to. Now that I have an unlocked ECU all I have to do is find a tuner and load up a new file (assuming it does not brick my ECU). If my emissions never fail that's awesome I will have some extra power on tap and enjoy the truck. Plan on hanging on to this truck for a bit and want to minimize future headaches even though I gave myself a few this week!

So you still have your DPF stuff installed on the truck? Plans to just rid it soon? I need to explore this thought process, and forgive me if this is a stupid question, because every truck I am around, once deleted so is the DPF stuff. We dont require emissions in the rural county I live in. So why have all the "cancer" on the truck if you can get rid of it? With that said, I have heard of "emissions compliant" deletes but do not know the first thing about them.

 

[H3LZSN1P3R]

Well, I wish I had some great news here but unfortunately I do not. I purchased a 22 tuning package from Calibrated Power back in June. Literally 3 days later I broke my collarbone so I have been patiently waiting to heal so I could install everything. The package from CP comes with everything you need including HP Tuners MPVI3, tuning credits, gateway module bypass cable, and a brand new unlocked Cummins ECU.

The first step of this process is to perform a read on your stock 22 ECU. Everything here went very smooth, CP has detailed instructions on what kind of logs they want. I sent off the logs and CP verified everything looked good and I was ready to swap in the new ECM. This was not very difficult but you do need to take your time when doing it. From start to finish I prolly spent 2 hours total and I went through the wheel well so I had to pull fender liner and wheel off for access. You can access from the top of engine bay but it provides less space but will be faster for sure. Once the OEM ECU is removed you have to remove your charge pipe off the power valve and snake it through the top.

Once the new ECM is installed you have to perform another set of reads and email them off. I sent them over the weekend and had my new files ready to go in today. They give you 2 files to load, the first one went in without a hitch and im thinking this is gonna be easy...... WRONG. The second file was in the process of loading and when it reaches 100% you have to turn the truck off for 10 seconds and then back to on. When I did this I received an invalid checksum error and a Failed message. I was pretty bummed at this point but made a few calls to CP and we tried loading the file a few more times with no luck, even tried loading the first file that loaded fine earlier and that failed too.

CP has been great to work with so far and I don't blame them for what's going on. I am confident its an HP Tuners issue and not related to CP. I noticed Kory Willis from PPEI recently made a facebook post stating HP Tuners was bricking ECMs and HP Tuners had him remove their products from his website until they sort it out. Pretty sure my ECM is toast and I will more than likely swap back in the original one this week so I can have my truck back up and running.

CP is submitting a trouble ticket tomorrow and we will see what happens. I am not giving up on tuning the truck and I will keep updating this thread as I receive new info. I know there are a few members on here wanting to tune their 22 and 23 and hopefully this thread will help them.

Likely can same the ECM with a bench flash i would send it out elsewhere and see if it can be saved it may cost 250$ but then you can sell it as a working ECM for someone who needs it

 

[Riddick]

My truck is 100% emissions compliant meaning everything is installed and functional. If everything is working as advertised I will leave it installed, I like having a factory warranty especially on a truck with a 68RFE. If I have any warranty issue in the future all I have to do is swap the OEM ECM in and I am good to go. Later down the road if my emissions act up I can remove them but I will have to retune the truck. CP only does emissions on tuning, they will not touch deleted vehicles.

While your county may not require emissions testing I can assure you its Federal law and these components are required. Whatever we choose to do with our trucks is our choice I just want to be sure you are aware of what's required.

 

[flashman252]

My truck is 100% emissions compliant meaning everything is installed and functional. If everything is working as advertised I will leave it installed, I like having a factory warranty especially on a truck with a 68RFE. If I have any warranty issue in the future all I have to do is swap the OEM ECM in and I am good to go. Later down the road if my emissions act up I can remove them but I will have to retune the truck. CP only does emissions on tuning, they will not touch deleted vehicles.

While your county may not require emissions testing I can assure you its Federal law and these components are required. Whatever we choose to do with our trucks is our choice I just want to be sure you are aware of what's required.

lol ok relax, my country is your country friend. I am not trying to get anyone in trouble here, and last I checked, its still a free country and whatever you decide to do with your property is your choice. I just have questions is all.

Like I stated, when people tune their trucks around here, they are deleting the exhaust as well. We are not required to get emissions tests to register or re-register our vehicles because its a rural county. I personally have never been around a truck that had a tune, and the DPF still installed. So now that I have my first diesel, I am starting to pay more attention because these 22's are not so easy due to these locked ECM's. I really do not intend to do anything with my ECM/truck until warranty is gone anyways. It was bad enough taking out the pedal monster last night for my servicing and recall work that is supposed to get done tomorrow, I couldnt imagine swapping ECM's every time I had to take it in. Hopefully by the time the truck has 100k mi, this will be a smoother process and I wont be swapping ECM's.... ever, or just one time and be done with it.

SO.... this leads me back to my original question. I understand you have all your emissions compliant stuff still on your truck, how does this all work? It's just a tuned up truck but still has all the DPF installed? I am assuming one of those tunes, you put in and then drive around and when you have to get an emissions check, it allows the truck to pass so you can re-register down the road? And so you're adding hp and torque and I am assuming it also tunes the transmission to play along with these SOTF tunes compared to a plug in tuner that does not have this ability? Is the only thing you're really looking to get out of the truck is more power and torque by accomplishing all of this? Personally, there is more than enough power in the truck stock, but I cannot stand the DPF and all the issues around it all. Only reason I am exploring going down this rabbit hole is to do an exhaust delete. Its been said many times before, these 68rfe transmissions are good UNTIL more power is put to them. So, what happens when you start adding more torque and hp and pop this transmission? Swap ECM's back to OEM, limp it into the dealership and pray you get a new one vs a refurbed one?

 

[Jimmy07]

I like having a factory warranty especially on a truck with a 68RFE. If I have any warranty issue in the future all I have to do is swap the OEM ECM in and I am good to go.

Well…except for the fact that they will immediately be able to see that the ECM mileage doesn’t match the mileage on the cluster.
Also, I’m not sure if this is the same with the Cummins ECM, but as soon as a Hemi ECM is unlocked and installed on the truck, the BCM automatically changes and stores the configuration to reflect that an aftermarket ECM is detected. This setting can not be changed back to “NO” (without spoofing it with a can shield), even when I swap a factory locked ECM back in. So, they’ll see that right away in the configuration report.
Curious if you have AlfaOBD, what the “Miscel. Params: Aftermarket ECM Detected” setting is set to on your truck now that an unlocked ECM is installed.

 

[Riddick]

My truck will pass emissions testing regardless what tune setting I am in. You can make plenty of power with emissions equipment still on the truck, if you build up your trans CP will give you a tune that adds 160hp over stock and still pass emissions. So, to answer your question its essentially a tuned up stock truck with more hp and better transmission tuning. However, in the future if I have emissions issues it will be way easier for me to delete the vehicle if I choose to. If my trans takes a crap yes I install the stock ECM and play dumb. If they look hard enough they can tell the truck has been tuned but why would they? They don't do deep dives on every truck that comes in for warranty work. IF you give them a reason to they will but if you bring them a 100% stock truck you should be fine.

We seem to keep saying the same thing over and over, if you want more details call or text me at Three18-Three93-Zero629.

 

[Riddick]

@Jimmy07 I do have Alpha OBD. If you want to send me a PM with detailed instructions I will go in and pull whatever data requested.

 

[flashman252]

My truck will pass emissions testing regardless what tune setting I am in. You can make plenty of power with emissions equipment still on the truck, if you build up your trans CP will give you a tune that adds 160hp over stock and still pass emissions. So, to answer your question its essentially a tuned up stock truck with more hp and better transmission tuning. However, in the future if I have emissions issues it will be way easier for me to delete the vehicle if I choose to. If my trans takes a crap yes I install the stock ECM and play dumb. If they look hard enough they can tell the truck has been tuned but why would they? They don't do deep dives on every truck that comes in for warranty work. IF you give them a reason to they will but if you bring them a 100% stock truck you should be fine.

We seem to keep saying the same thing over and over, if you want more details call or text me at Three18-Three93-Zero629.

I really appreciate the info, no need to text. I guess my reason for going through what you're going through is not the same reasons. When it comes time to do all the work you are doing, I am probably going with the full delete. There won't be anymore warranty left on my truck at that point. Plus, playing dumb doesnt always work, and I still have 2 active recalls that will never be fixed at this point. So, I am going to hang onto that warranty and not chance playing dumb, especially since both recalls involve the chance of the truck catching fire.... But thats for a different day. Ill gladly sit back and keep an eye on this thread.

Again, sir, I do appreciate you going through all of this on your truck though, since this isnt exactly an easy process yet. I can only imagine the stress.

 

[gimmie11s]

Well…except for the fact that they will immediately be able to see that the ECM mileage doesn’t match the mileage on the cluster.
Also, I’m not sure if this is the same with the Cummins ECM, but as soon as a Hemi ECM is unlocked and installed on the truck, the BCM automatically changes and stores the configuration to reflect that an aftermarket ECM is detected. This setting can not be changed back to “NO” (without spoofing it with a can shield), even when I swap a factory locked ECM back in. So, they’ll see that right away in the configuration report.
Curious if you have AlfaOBD, what the “Miscel. Params: Aftermarket ECM Detected” setting is set to on your truck now that an unlocked ECM is installed.
View attachment 61577

Well ****! lol