Originally Posted by
Minion2012
Okay, so, comparing the two as Ratlin' says isn't apples to apples. That's for sure. And the explanation from Ray was way more than enough, in simple enough terms to help anyone get educated of the two. That being said I'll go another route. What do you actually want to do with your truck? And what are you willing and/or capable of doing?
I went with the Ultra because I want a reliable DD that's Easy to maintain, but still fun to drive. No strings attached. I'm willing to do quite a bit of my own work. I have a family. I NEED my truck on a daily basis. I did my deletes, installed the Ultra, and am playing with settings as we speak. It took me a weekend to get everything done with the help of my old man who is in retiree mode (so he pretty much watched and drank some beers). It can be done quicker, but with day to day interruptions sometimes it's tough to finish a project start to end. MOST anyone can put on the exhaust, delete the EGR, and install the Ultra. It's very user friendly and once its in, it's basically done. The only thing we have to do is update occasionally, and that is as easy as most of the other regular upkeep (oil changes, fuel filter, tire rotation, etc.) we already should be doing. Also, if that's all your going to do, that's all your going to do. Get in and go daily. Unless you have a major problem you can just leave it alone, update on your own and keep to yourself. And even if you want to start adding on, you won't have any problem supporting the basic bolt ons most of us want like a lift pump, maybe a CP3 upgrade, injectors, just to name a few. Again, more weekend projects (some more intense than others) that you can do at your leisure, adjust your Ultra and go to work on Monday and more than likely if you did your homework and got the right parts, the truck will run just fine. The bottom line is basically there are no strings attached. The normal person doesn't have access to tuners, or a truck shop, or anything like that. They need something that is a one and done. The Ultra gives you that capability. That is why I went that route.
Now, all that said, I don't want you to think EFI can't be used in a daily driver, or isn't easy to maintain or anything like that. Because for some it is. Some people have their tuner right down the street. Some may get great service from one of the reputable tuners. Some may NOT HAVE to daily drive their rig, so sitting for a week waiting for tunes isn't a big deal. For anyone that has access and the capabilities, EFI is a great option. I have heard of too many people being dead in the water when they do something to their truck and are "waiting on tunes," "my tuner won't email me back," "it's pulling season and the shop doesn't have time for me," "they don't remember me," and so on and so forth. NOT ALL SHOPS ARE LIKE THIS!!!! But a lot are. So when people are doing their initial research and they hear about a "deal" or a "special" they jump on it. And then when they add that lift pump, or injectors, or even CHANGE TIRE SIZE, they are at the mercy of a fly by night shop or tuner that doesn't give a crap about them. AGAIN, NOT ALL SHOPS ARE LIKE THIS!!!! So, the advice there is if you go with EFI, develop some type of relationship with whoever you decide you are getting it from. Don't just order it online and hope for the best. I did it, and basically got burned. I wanted to do some more things to my Duramax and emailed my tuner MONTHS in advance and one of them included bigger tires. Never got a response so I had to drive around with my cell phone running a speedo app until I knew what the difference was. And I never got to install some of my other parts. That was my fault 100%. But live and learn.
I'd also like to say, if you are planning on building something that you are going to drag race and win, or pull 400 feet with, or just try to KILL a dyno with HP, EFI Live is for sure a great route. Do you think you can tune your own truck? Do you have the time to go through all the data logs and adjust accordingly? Is there a dyno nearby you can try you tweaks on? Do you have a few buddies that can help give you advice and ideas? If some of these resources are close to you, then EFI is for sure a great choice. It give you so many detailed options to tweak just about ANYTHING. And like we all know, every truck is different. No matter what anyone says, every truck has it's own issues and with EFI Live, you can take those sort of things into account. You can build upon everything you do. If I was going to dive into any of those hobbies, I would probably switch to EFI in a heartbeat. But I would learn how to use it on my own, and that's also only if RaceMe wouldn't come out with custom tuning by then (just the thought that would come, even for extra cost would be awesome!)
More of a every day consumer explanation than technical, but thought some of these points have never really been hit before. There is always more to add, but that's enough for now.
Bookmarks