Increasing HorsePower -- What You Need To Know

[Rawze]

(04-06-2017 )Sledge Wrote:  Question about this:
Is turning the HP/TQ down to 400/1450 as problematic as turning settings up, or do most of the higher HP configurations have built in compatibility with lower HP settings to some degree?

HP settings aside, some calibrations just are not very compatible. It is mainly due to truck differences. Different brands of trucks have different intake and exhaust components. The length, size, flow differences, etc. heavily effects how the emissions systems, final crank angles, and a lot of other factors work. Some trucks have variable speed fan clutches, some trucks have Ambient sensors while others do not, some engines have an intake throttle body, some have different injectors, some have different turbochargers, some even have different static engine timing, and the list goes on and on.

When looking at the data and calibrations listed in Insite, several files will fall within the same CPL and other hardware ratings. this makes them appear as if they would be fully interchangeable, but the reality is that some of them are not, and there is no way to tell form this simplified view. It becomes a gamble that can cause some real problems for someone later on without knowing 100% for sure what is different between 2 programs. This fools a lot of shops and people who are quick to put in alternate calibrations into an engine. -- Don't be a fool. Find out for sure before you go cause someone a headache 3 months form now with a failing emissions system or some other engine problem that could have been avoided.

2 engines can have the same CPL but be in 2 very different styles of trucks with very different intake and/or exhausts. Sometimes 2 programs from within the same CPL have different types of fan clutches, or some other thing like an external switch to control an engine function that the other may not have.

Not only that, but quite often, some calibrations that may have a higher HP rating and exaxctly the same settings otherwise may in fact be LESS power in the majority of the working region (below 1800 rpm) of the engine. This is actually quite common and will fool you into thinking the truck will gain something with the higher HP calibration when in fact it did not.

You just can't tell program differences by simply looking at the data supplied by Incal. That is why I decided to make this thread so that truck owners (or shops) that are curious, can get a decent answer based on comparison data instead of what the Incal/Insite overview says.