Diesel Tuner's Blog

Custom MM3 Tuning on a 2003 Cummins:

For many years truck owners with the 2003 - 2005 Cummins motor have craved quality custom tuning.  Sure there have been attempts in this field, and some were even decent, but never before has there been a software capable of fully custom tuning for these trucks.  

Darrell has had his 2003 Cummins for a few years.  He invested in a built transmission (a few times), 50hp injectors, 2nd Gen exhaust manifold, 188/220 Hamilton cam, Wilson thasher intake, 62/74/14 turbo, ati balancer and a Smarty with TNT-R tunes. 

The truck came in with plenty of power.  It also came in with plenty of smoke, plenty of room to improve shift quality and throttle response and plenty of character.  Darrell uses the truck to pull equipment, daily drive, and all around just to have fun.  Although he does not drag race or sled pull in a highly competitive atmosphere, he wants the most he can get out of the truck.  

• 62/74/14 Turbo
• 50hp Injectors
• Smarty So6 with TNT-R Tunes
• Dyno'd 540 RWHP 

Custom Tuning for 1998.5 - 2002 Cummins VP Trucks! 

We have been tuning 06 and newer Cummins along with 2001 and newer Duramax motors for over a decade.  It's been no secret in the industry that truly custom tuning on the 1998.5 - 2002 Cummins was sadly missing.  However in the past there has never been a decent hardware option for us to get our files onto those trucks.  Box programmers offered mild adjustments, but certainly nothing at the caliber of tuning we are accustomed to. 

Now with Smarty MM3 we have the long missing hardware access to deliver tunes that are up to our standards.  Creating clean, powerful tunes that drive smooth and offer the windshield experience our customers expect. 

With our new test truck arriving this past weekend, our office is buzzing with excitement.  Testing kicks off in the next few days and we will be bringing you the results and hopefully answering your questions though out the process.  Below you will find the most common questions asked about VP tuning so far.

• Does MM3 Tuning require you to tap the pump? - Testing in process
• Will the RPM limit be raised? - Yes,  but to which final level remains to be seen
• Can the Smarty Touch be updated to use MM3 software? - Yes

Smarty MM3 Tuning Update! 

We have been testing the new Smarty MM3 Tuning for the 1998.5 - 2016 Cummins. The software/hardware is the newest solution for custom tuning.  Until now, the  limited amount of accessible tables in the 1998.5-2002 tuning platforms made fine tuning challenging for highly modified Cummins trucks leaving them smokey, noisey,  and generally not as smooth as other similarly modified trucks tuned with more advanced software.  Now that we have access to said tables, we will be able to create clean, efficient power with these trucks.

One of the most exciting features to the new Smarty MM3 is Live Tuning.  The live tuning ability allows our tuners to make real-time changes to the calibration on the dyno or during a road test where in the past we had to wait 7-12 minutes to implement one change.  As you might imagine, live tuning will significantly shorten the developement cycle and allow us to quickly  fine-tune a wide variety of modifications on-site at CPS.   The second advantage to the live tuning software is the ability of the customer to change tunes (power levels etc.) on the fly on any of the supported platforms.  These power levels will be supplied along with the base tune to customer at the time of sale (idealy).  

Our discussion with the developers of this software/hardware package lead us to believe that improved scan tool functionality is next on the priority list.  We would expect to see a very high sample rate scan tool along with several dozen of the most important PIDs in the near future for beta testing.   This tool is critical to the development process.  Without a strong scan tool we cannot validate our work, the better the tool - the better the final product and the better we can help our customers troubleshoot accurately if they need to.

• Learn More about the Smarty MM3
• Read our first article about the Smarty MM3
• 500 RWHP, Emissions Intact Performance

Calibrated Power is excited to beta test a new tuning product for the 1998.5 - 2016 Cummins.