Timothy Jewell

Im new to Dodge, so this might be a stupid question, but, why cant we just get a spare ecm and take out factory module and put in spare, do mods and if we need waranty work put it back to stock and put in original ecm. No way to tell if it has been tuned. Just thinking.

Timothy Jewell

No responses? Is this a big secret that we have been using already?

SOhappy

Not an expert but, I'm guessing the key counts on the new ECM wouldn't jive with the mileage on the odo. That's one way they know you have a programmer, it resets the key counts when you flash the ecm back to stock (or visa versa).

BTW- If you posted this question on the "high performance and accessory" sub-forum you might have got a quicker/better response :-)

Timothy Jewell

Thank you you are prob correct about wrong thread, I believe milage is stored in ECM as well so when you put back original if you have trbl, milage would revert back, I could be wrong about that, so key count would be unchanged and accurate.

Timothy Jewell

I posted this elsewhare, so I thoght I would move it here. Why cant you use a new, diff ECU when you do mods, keep original as backup if you need waranty work, smog whatever. Put back stock with original ecu. Just thinking. found used ECU for around a grand.

Timothy Jewell

I wonder if the VINs have to match.

RunningM

From what I have been told, this will work as long as you don't do any mods on your factory ECM. Sounds like the Chevy guys have been doing this for years; although, their ECM's are far less expensive.

bdewey

Swapping ECM's might sound great, but you still have to put all the hard parts on too such as the exhaust, DPF, EGR/EGR Cooler ect. to much work for warranty work. You play you pay bottom line. Most repairs are going to be less than what your going to spend on a ecu and the hours your going to waste putting stuff on and off then its worth anyway.
I am happy with my deleted truck and stand by Cummins realiability.

Timothy Jewell

The deal is I live in California, they hook up the smog machine to the diagonistics port every two years, I am looking for a way to beat that. I just want a def and egr delete.

SOhappy

If it's the smog machine you are worried about and not the warranty then a new ECM won't matter. I doubt they check it for stock programming, or? Just do the "CA style deletes" (see sticky) and reinstall the DPF every two years for the test.

Timothy Jewell

O yes they do check for ANY programing, And they report if they find anything! there is a hotline in california for reporting! no kidding.

Blake Clark

Good idea but it wont work

Unless you or your buddy has a StarScan

Timothy Jewell

What is a star scan?

Blake Clark

Its the tool used by Chrysler to program the vehicle. Such as when you need a new injector, TIPM, or im pretty sure, a new ECM. Im pretty certain it must be programmed to match the VIN of the truck.


http://www.dcctools.com/en/ss_info/index.html#q1


They can be purchased. If you happen to have say..... 4 to 6 grand lying around.

Beast2B

I know it's not apples to apples, but I was able to get through the CA smog with Smarty Sr on 1/2 power program in my 01. The smog machine plugs into the OBD, but it didn't care about specific software, just that there were no standing codes and all of the emissions registers had gone through their cycles and were operating properly. I may attempt this with my Smarty Jr in stock setting when my smog comes due in the fall. All hardware in place bone stock, so the only mod would be the Smarty disabling the EGR function.