Hey guys. Was just randomly thinking today. So I always see a lot of companies or people who do tunes on combines tractors ect. And they claim they get better fuel consumption and maybe gain 30 horse or something like that. Has anybody done this to any construction equipment or looked into it?
valve adjustment is routine maintenance. It should not be neglected. 30 hp? Never! A little less smoke. A touch more economy, maybe. Plus you have the opportunity to see whats going on in the valve cover. Is there soot build up, are the valves getting beaten to death, is the cam ok. Stuff you wouldn't normally see in a service of say 250 or 500 hrs.
The only thing really tunable is the hydraulic system and since it's only the blade and maybe the steering system it would only account for comfort. Even that now days is electronically controlled and the only thing adjustable there is the gain on the control handles.
I do believe he means tune as in tuner , mnmillenium farmer on you tube just purchased a tuner for his equipment and is ramping everything he has 100hp.
Shows how out of touch I am. I think tune up, as running overhead. Thanks for clarifying.
It depends on what kind of engine you have. What they're usually "tuning" is removing the emmisions so it doesn't break down at the worst time. Tractors or dozers usually have engines that are also used in other industrial applications, in other applications they might have a horsepower rating double that of the tractor/dozer rating. So, yes there are engines that can get an extra 100HP and better fuel economy. The tradeoff is obvious, an engine in an excavator at 100HP will have a good reputation, and the same engine in a fire truck or pleasure boat with 300 HP will be called the worst engine the company ever made. That tuning could be a software/chip type of thing, or on older stuff it's "turning up the screw" in a lot of cases (turning up the screw won't get you all the way there...)
I have ran a few dozers that seem pretty 'sluggish' at times compared to others of the same make, model and series. So, like Delmer said, a "turning of the screw" on a sluggish machine would likely give you a few more ponies and make the machine a little more responsive. But, too much power and you seem to be constantly fighting spinning your tracks all the time. I have 2 Komatsu D65's. One seems to run just as it should and the other will spin the tracks in a heartbeat if run at full RPM's and it burns significantly more fuel than the other one. I'm guessing the one dozer was 'turned up' by the previous owner. A little too much. Just my $.02
I saw that video with the farmer and the combines and there are some things that weren't made real clear. First of all they were working on an engine that had many applications which had more horsepower than that used in the combine. What I understand that they did was an aftermarket company put out software that apparently changed the engine settings to one of higher horsepower use. They dance around warranties and don't mention the legalities of the changes at all. The didn't change anything with the emissions on camera. Software was down loaded directly from the supplier's server after the necessary hardware was installed in the machine. Dozers and wheel loaders for the most part are engineered pretty well so just getting more horsepower in most cases does a lot of early wear and premature component failures. I can say for sure that any changes made on construction machinery of that type would definitely make obtaining warranty coverage very difficult is not impossible.
I can adjust certain parameters in ET but messing with anything engine performance related requires a factory password. Sometimes doing a flash file update for the engine ECM will change these parameters and you have to get a factory password too. Unofficially I don’t know what software could be used. I don’t see a lot of deletes and tuning with cat equipment I see more advertised for JD ag stuff
Have to tune on the dozer once in awhile on job sites . Enter the correct password and give the secret hand shake before making any changes or adjustments . HeavyEquipmentForums
Sounds like you need a turboencabulator to me ........ it would probably be as effective if not more than any tuning.
Bootleg factory pass code generator. Not really a need for construction equipment. On-road truckers with Cats tweak everything. They're very knowledgeable using different flash codes, cams, turbo configurations, ECMs etc. Typical trucker; 'I've got 1,450,000 miles, can I add 150hp by using 800hp cam'? Crazy
And here I thought it had to do with the vertical alignment of the front idler to the plane of the rollers on the track to reduce the 'rocking'....