To Delete or Not (Diesel)

[Riddick]

I have a 22 Ram 2500 on order with the 6.7 diesel. If you mention the term delete on anything diesel related they lock it instantly and threaten to ban you for eternity. I am not asking anyone to sell me illegal parts or where to purchase tunes for diesel trucks...... simply looking for opinions on deletes in general. Hopefully the SVT community will keep this open and we can discuss the pros and cons.

I am not out to make tons of more power but would like to make the truck more reliable. The general consensus is that deletes are a thing of the past and emissions equipment has come along way. I'm just not buying it, the crap the EGR lets back into the intake track cannot be good for longevity. The restrictive DPFs and SCRs not only rob performance but also decrease MPG. Then the fact you have to purchase DEF or your truck will go into limp mode....... what the hell is going on. What's everyone's thought on this? Does a properly tuned diesel really put out that an insane amount of emissions? To me it seems like the government has put the fear of god into the diesel community and everyone has changed and is now stating emissions on is the way to go.

 

[SolarYellow]

1.)What happens when it is inspection time?
2.) How long does DEF last from full?

 

[BlckBox04]

1.)What happens when it is inspection time?
2.) How long does DEF last from full?

Idk about Ohio or Pennsylvania but nj by some grace of god doesn’t require inspection on diesel trucks under 18,000 pounds

But yes the government absolutely just wants to instill the fear in every living soul. I don’t buy any of the emissions bullshit for a second.

 

[ford fanatic]

You can thank the flat billed mall crawling coal rollers for this mess.

I've had a few deleted diesels in the past, if it were me and was brand new, i'd leave it alone.

 

[DSG2003Mach1]

Personally I’d leave it alone until the end of the warranty

Def goes a long way, not like you have to fill it every tank

 

[Riddick]

1.)What happens when it is inspection time?
2.) How long does DEF last from full?

I have not had to deal with inspections for 21 years since I joined the military. I kept all vehicles and trailers registered in my home state and had no issues. My wife still has a few years left serving so I guess ill deal with emissions then but not a concern in the immediate future.

DEF usage varies based on driving habits and if your towing or not. I am by no means an expert, this will be my first diesel. All I know is the gov mandated this crap which is basically urea. I have been reading about a lot of emissions sensor failures and this is what's driving my questions. We are going to purchase a toy hauler and the last thing I want is to be 3 states from home and a sensor goes bad forcing the truck in limp mode. Yes, there is a chance any electrical sensor can fail any given moment but I'm not sure how reliable these are...... and then theres the supply issues with getting replacements.

 

[DSG2003Mach1]

I have not had to deal with inspections for 21 years since I joined the military. I kept all vehicles and trailers registered in my home state and had no issues. My wife still has a few years left serving so I guess ill deal with emissions then but not a concern in the immediate future.

DEF usage varies based on driving habits and if your towing or not. I am by no means an expert, this will be my first diesel. All I know is the gov mandated this crap which is basically urea. I have been reading about a lot of emissions sensor failures and this is what's driving my questions. We are going to purchase a toy hauler and the last thing I want is to be 3 states from home and a sensor goes bad forcing the truck in limp mode. Yes, there is a chance any electrical sensor can fail any given moment but I'm not sure how reliable these are...... and then theres the supply issues with getting replacements.

Valid concerns but if anything I’d look into keeping say a spare DEF level sensor.

You delete it and anything else goes wrong dealer probably won’t even talk to you anymore

On our class 8 trucks the ones that see some highway miles do well, they regen pretty easy. The heavy stop and go city trucks have more issues

 

[Riddick]

Valid concerns but if anything I’d look into keeping say a spare DEF level sensor.

You delete it and anything else goes wrong dealer probably won’t even talk to you anymore

On our class 8 trucks the ones that see some highway miles do well, they regen pretty easy. The heavy stop and go city trucks have more issues

Those are great points and I agree completely about the trucks driven more are less prone to problems. That's another area I have concern with, this will be my daily driver. During the week while I'm teleworking I rarely drive and when I do it's only short local trips. On the weekends we normally do interstate driving so it's kind of a mix of both.

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

 

[DSG2003Mach1]

Those are great points and I agree completely about the trucks driven more are less prone to problems. That's another area I have concern with, this will be my daily driver. During the week while I'm teleworking I rarely drive and when I do it's only short local trips. On the weekends we normally do interstate driving so it's kind of a mix of both.

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

But our trucks our city driving 10-12 hours a day

 

[01yellercobra]

Ford 6.7 here. Bought new in 2015 and closing on 93k. Aside.from the disaster kit its stock. I commute 50 miles a day, but half of that is in stop and go traffic trying to get off base and then trying to get off Coronado Island. Before the wife got her Audi it was also the main family vehicle. Which could be driving to AZ for the weekend or going 2 miles down the road to the grocery store.

For DEF I usually order a couple jugs from Amazon for when I think to check the level. I top off when it says under half full. I've never run it down to the 500 mile warning. But it's mostly an after thought for me. Regens don't seem to happen as often as most people claim. I have the big message center so I know when it regens. But shortest mileage between them has probably been 600-700. Longest was about 2000 when I was towing a box trailer to Washington state so the exhaust was plenty hot to burn things off. I also don't baby it like a lot of people seem to so. I drive it like I drive my Cobra. So lots of boost.

I'm good with the MPG. 14-15 in the above mentioned commute. With the addition to running around town. 18-20 on the highway with the cruise set at 75. Although I don't seem to get as much of a drop off at 80mph as I used to. Towing 5-6k it gets about 14ish. That's with going over a mountain that starts at sea level and tops out at 4200 feet. A buddy has a 20 F250 and pulls a 9k enclosed trailer. He said his MPG is about 11 or 12 I think with it. And I know he's not a slow driver.

 

[CompOrange04GT]

I go through a box of def a week

The biggest pain is finding it. Gas stations around here keep running out so i stocked up on 6 boxes at Walmart

 

[Weather Man]

Just remember when the EPA raids shops that delete, they are demanding customer lists. Leave it stock and be aggressive with oil changes.

 

[BlckBox04]

On our class 8 trucks the ones that see some highway miles do well, they regen pretty easy. The heavy stop and go city trucks have more issues

Our Mack’s absolutely suck. The new Peterbilts we bought with the Cummins isx motors seem to be leaps and bounds better

 

[svtfocus2cobra]

I can tell you where you might run into some pitfalls eventually. Just had a 2019 Duramax in for no start due to loss of communication on the CAN BUS. The customer had just done all the deletes and had a programmed TCM and PCM installed and it worked for him for a couple days before the truck started acting up and eventually stopped running.

Our tech was able to re-establish communication and figured out the issue was the glow-plug module or the harness that was bad, and when it would lose communication you can just wiggle it some and regain communication. For him to fix that we will have to replace the module and he will likely have to install all of the original modules to be programmed together because GM's new programming update supposedly programs the entire vehicle if you are trying to program one module. The customer ended up taking the truck to see how bad it was going to act up on him before he makes up his mind on how to proceed. The work we did on the truck cost him $1200 in testing and repairs and he will likely have to spend another $700 or so to fix the issue. It's just become a huge pain in the ass to work with the deletes because of what they are doing to, what I assume, make it harder to tune and do deletes on diesels. That's obviously GM but I wouldn't be surprised if Ram and Ford are going down the same path if they haven't already.

 

[DSG2003Mach1]

Our Mack’s absolutely suck. The new Peterbilts we bought with the Cummins isx motors seem to be leaps and bounds better

We don’t run any side loaders but our front load and Granite Rolloff’s have been pretty good overall. The extended warranties easily paid for themselves though

 

[BlckBox04]

We don’t run any side loaders but our front load and Granite Rolloff’s have been pretty good overall. The extended warranties easily paid for themselves though

Ironically we had more issues with Mack service department than anything else. We bought one of those diagnostics computers and just do everything in house. That’s already paid for itself.

 

[DSG2003Mach1]

Ironically we had more issues with Mack service department than anything else. We bought one of those diagnostics computers and just do everything in house. That’s already paid for itself.

Thankfully our local dealer is awesome. We have whatever the Mack diagnostics software that can force a regen and stuff and it’s worth every penny

 

[01yellercobra]

I go through a box of def a week

The biggest pain is finding it. Gas stations around here keep running out so i stocked up on 6 boxes at Walmart

How many mile do you drive and how much do you tow?

 

[CompOrange04GT]

How many mile do you drive and how much do you tow?

5k pounds roughly daily. Average 250 miles a day. 8ish hours of high idle time day

 

[bglf83]

I go through a box of def a week

The biggest pain is finding it. Gas stations around here keep running out so i stocked up on 6 boxes at Walmart

Truck stops here in Texas have it at the pump pretty often. I fill mine up at a Buc-es down the road.