PIP or KEM tune for 2015?

[Morgan@Midwest Diesel & Auto]

I'll share my experience with KEM. It wasn't good.
First card he sent bricked the minimax. H&S sent another, KEM hemmed and hawed, blamed H&S, but finally under pressure they sent another card.
They promised that they had made 500RWHP w/ a DPF on. I dyno'd it and the box stock H&S tunes were more powerful. No where even close to 500RWHP.
The tranny shifting was horrible. I thought it was going to break the truck. At one point it didn't engage and I hit the throttle, then BAM. Thought sure it hurt the truck. I babied it home and got the tunes off.
They promised they made 22mpg. What they don't say is that they hide the fact that this was on a 2wd, on dead flat road @50mph.
It freaked out the lie-o-meter. Thing would read 22mpg, but a hand calc showed more like 13mpg. Yes, that's worse than the box H&S tunes.
Terrible turbo oscillation under light throttle use / cruise control. Did the wastegate adjustment KEM said it needed, made no difference.
Guy was rude as hell to me when I wanted help and he refused to fix the software.
NO RETURNS! Even when it's clearly defective.

Your experience may be different, but I won't touch KEM again. To be honest, these tuners that get every last grunt of HP out of a truck is IMHO a mistake. Running everything on the ragged edge is bound to have longevity issues. Truck has a ton of power now, between that and my right foot it's very hard on tires as is. I've got 35,000 miles on a delete/tune without a single hiccup. I'll stick to my box H&S tunes for now.

What does this have to do with pre-loaded x4's and 2015 tuning?

I understand you may have had a bad experience. But this has absolutely nothing to do with the original post. I could tell about running the PIP tunes in my 15 and tell about the things I didn't like and throw all kinds if mud. But that doesn't mean they're bad. There are updates coming for PIP tunes and I will try them again.

I do work with KEM personally on the 2015 tunes and they DO work very good. They will not hurt your truck and they have 100% all functions working. I put my name on it and sell it to my customers. So I don't take it lightly. So please leave this about the actual product not the company writing the tunes. Because until you've ran both back to back in a 2015 your just stating a one sided opinion.

 

[Morgan@Midwest Diesel & Auto]

To be honest, these tuners that get every last grunt of HP out of a truck is IMHO a mistake. Running everything on the ragged edge is bound to have longevity issues. Truck has a ton of power now, between that and my right foot it's very hard on tires as is. I've got 35,000 miles on a delete/tune without a single hiccup. I'll stick to my box H&S tunes for now.

The 2015 pre-loaded tunes are a far cry from pushing it to the "ragged edge". And this is a far cry from 11-14 box tunes or custom h&s tunes. These are a mass produced general delete tunes for the sct platform. Very safe power levels.

And I know for a fact that there is more fuel and timing left than what's on the race tune. Going further is not for guys with stock turbos or who are worried about the safety factor.

 

[lildevil02]

I'll share my experience with KEM. It wasn't good.
First card he sent bricked the minimax. H&S sent another, KEM hemmed and hawed, blamed H&S, but finally under pressure they sent another card.
They promised that they had made 500RWHP w/ a DPF on. I dyno'd it and the box stock H&S tunes were more powerful. No where even close to 500RWHP.
The tranny shifting was horrible. I thought it was going to break the truck. At one point it didn't engage and I hit the throttle, then BAM. Thought sure it hurt the truck. I babied it home and got the tunes off.
They promised they made 22mpg. What they don't say is that they hide the fact that this was on a 2wd, on dead flat road @50mph.
It freaked out the lie-o-meter. Thing would read 22mpg, but a hand calc showed more like 13mpg. Yes, that's worse than the box H&S tunes.
Terrible turbo oscillation under light throttle use / cruise control. Did the wastegate adjustment KEM said it needed, made no difference.
Guy was rude as hell to me when I wanted help and he refused to fix the software.
NO RETURNS! Even when it's clearly defective.

Your experience may be different, but I won't touch KEM again. To be honest, these tuners that get every last grunt of HP out of a truck is IMHO a mistake. Running everything on the ragged edge is bound to have longevity issues. Truck has a ton of power now, between that and my right foot it's very hard on tires as is. I've got 35,000 miles on a delete/tune without a single hiccup. I'll stick to my box H&S tunes for now.

I'm not in for the ban wagon wars..... You may have had a bad experience with KEM, but please don't blast off at the keyboard just to look cool. I can assure you without any doubt you were never promised a certain "MPG" or "HP" & definitely not 22 MPG.... although I have plenty of customers whom exceed that with KEM ****ty tuning...LOL

 

[Breaking Habits]

I'm not in for the ban wagon wars..... You may have had a bad experience with KEM, but please don't blast off at the keyboard just to look cool. I can assure you without any doubt you were never promised a certain "MPG" or "HP" & definitely not 22 MPG.... although I have plenty of customers whom exceed that with KEM ****ty tuning...LOL

There were two salesmen who were making those claims. We know both of them both were set in line

 

[TrickTruck]

I'm not 'blasting off at the keyboard to look cool'. Pretty arrogant of you to say something like that.
I'm not some uneducated redneck yahoo, I'm a professional engineer and am trained to do problem solving.
My post was factual. It happened and if necessary I can bring up the dyno runs to prove it. Kept my mpg on fuelly too.
I'm also a customer who got lied to in pre-sales, paid good money for a product that didn't perform and had many issues, paid to have the pre-sales claims debunked (dyno and hand calculated mileage runs), got all kinds of excuses, got virtually no support, and then the icing on the cake was told 'no returns' & 'no refunds'.

If you want to bury your head in the sand or up someone's butt, that's your choice and your money, waste it where you want, makes no difference to me.

 

[Morgan@Midwest Diesel & Auto]

I'm not 'blasting off at the keyboard to look cool'. Pretty arrogant of you to say something like that.
I'm not some uneducated redneck yahoo, I'm a professional engineer and am trained to do problem solving.
My post was factual. It happened and if necessary I can bring up the dyno runs to prove it. Kept my mpg on fuelly too.
I'm also a customer who got lied to in pre-sales, paid good money for a product that didn't perform and had many issues, paid to have the pre-sales claims debunked (dyno and hand calculated mileage runs), got all kinds of excuses, got virtually no support, and then the icing on the cake was told 'no returns' & 'no refunds'.

If you want to bury your head in the sand or up someone's butt, that's your choice and your money, waste it where you want, makes no difference to me.

No one is saying your not disappointed with your situation. But to say this has ANYTHING to do with this thread is pure BS. Do you have a 2015 with the x4 pre-loaded tuning? Do you have mileage and numbers from them? I do. And that is what the thread is about. Not your one experience. We've put a lot of time in to make sure these tunes are good and perform very well.

 

[roadkingfl]

TrickTruck great post very informative...Nice to get a users perspective, not some sales pitch.

 

[Morgan@Midwest Diesel & Auto]

TrickTruck great post very informative...Nice to get a users perspective, not some sales pitch.

You do realize that the thread is titled "pip or KEM tuning for 2015"? The 2015 X4's are not even sold through KEM. They are sold through distributors. And no one has made any false claims about the 2015 tuning.

Trucktruck is talking about minimax tunes for a 11-14 truck.... Nothing to do with a 2015. He's talking about KEM salesman.... Nothing to do with a 2015. Because niether of these issues come into play with 2015 pre-loaded x4's.

So in reality he gave ZERO useful info to the thread. Please don't confuse yourself with one guy talking about tuning that is not even on topic with this thread.

So please let's keep this on topic with info from people who have ACTUALLY ran ether of these tunes.

If this becomes anymore of a sh*t throwing contest from anyone who has nothing to do with the actual 2015 X4 tuning this thread may as well get deleted.

 

[lildevil02]

There were two salesmen who were making those claims. We know both of them both were set in line

Gotcha, he made it sound like he was dealing directly with KEM. I know those kind of claims would never be made from Mike.

I'm not 'blasting off at the keyboard to look cool'. Pretty arrogant of you to say something like that.
I'm not some uneducated redneck yahoo, I'm a professional engineer and am trained to do problem solving.
My post was factual. It happened and if necessary I can bring up the dyno runs to prove it. Kept my mpg on fuelly too.
I'm also a customer who got lied to in pre-sales, paid good money for a product that didn't perform and had many issues, paid to have the pre-sales claims debunked (dyno and hand calculated mileage runs), got all kinds of excuses, got virtually no support, and then the icing on the cake was told 'no returns' & 'no refunds'.

If you want to bury your head in the sand or up someone's butt, that's your choice and your money, waste it where you want, makes no difference to me.

I'm not doubting you had a bad experience, but it's pretty arrogant of you to make a post & bash a vendor when it has nothing to do with the topic. Just lame in my book.

Back to topic:

 

[Noah_]

KEM is the way to go caint beat there trans tunes

 

[RedRice589]

Man I guess nobody reads the thread titles..... Morgan is it my turn???

 

[truckmaniac]

KEM is the way to go caint beat there trans tunes

I noticed in your signature that your truck is a 2014. As others have noted: We're talking about tuning for the 2015 Powerstroke only.

I have a 2015 and am running the PIP tunes. Compared to the Spartan, KEM and H&S tuning that I've run on numerous 6.4's and a 2013 6.7, the PIP transmission tuning is the best that I've ever experienced. That's not to say that the KEM tunes for the 2015 doesn't perform equally well. I can't say because I don't have any experience with them.

Even during the re-learn process, I haven't experienced any harsh shifts or had the transmission search for a gear.

I drive a lot in City, stop & go traffic, making short trips. My mileage on both my 2013 model and 2015 model (with DPF- On) was consistently 11.0 with both trucks, since I was almost in constant regeneration. When I deleted the 2013 with a Mini-Maxx & their canned tunes, I saw an increase of less than 1/2 mpg, which was a disappointment. So far my 2015, deleted with the X4 & running PIP, I've seen a 1.5 to 1.8 mpg increase. I can't wait to go on a road trip and see the results.

I know that folks selling KEM tuning are saying that there aren't any glitches. It's hard to believe that KEM (or any custom tuner) got it 100% perfect from the beginning, but if they did: Cudos to Them!

PIP did have a few minor hiccups when they released their tuning but nothing that kept me from deleting & tuning my truck. I've talked to them a few times (Great Customer Service!) and they are going to release an update to solve those, possibly later this week.

So far, my experience with PIP has met or exceeded my expectations.

 

[Breaking Habits]

I noticed in your signature that your truck is a 2014. As others have noted: We're talking about tuning for the 2015 Powerstroke only.



I have a 2015 and am running the PIP tunes. Compared to the Spartan, KEM and H&S tuning that I've run on numerous 6.4's and a 2013 6.7, the PIP transmission tuning is the best that I've ever experienced. That's not to say that the KEM tunes for the 2015 doesn't perform equally well. I can't say because I don't have any experience with them.



Even during the re-learn process, I haven't experienced any harsh shifts or had the transmission search for a gear.



I drive a lot in City, stop & go traffic, making short trips. My mileage on both my 2013 model and 2015 model (with DPF- On) was consistently 11.0 with both trucks, since I was almost in constant regeneration. When I deleted the 2013 with a Mini-Maxx & their canned tunes, I saw an increase of less than 1/2 mpg, which was a disappointment. So far my 2015, deleted with the X4 & running PIP, I've seen a 1.5 to 1.8 mpg increase. I can't wait to go on a road trip and see the results.



I know that folks selling KEM tuning are saying that there aren't any glitches. It's hard to believe that KEM (or any custom tuner) got it 100% perfect from the beginning, but if they did: Cudos to Them!



PIP did have a few minor hiccups when they released their tuning but nothing that kept me from deleting & tuning my truck. I've talked to them a few times (Great Customer Service!) and they are going to release an update to solve those, possibly later this week.



So far, my experience with PIP has met or exceeded my expectations.

If you read back. Most of us said that every platform had glitches.. Even when the exhaust brake didn't work on certain tunes. Everyone has work, SCT didn't do everything they needed to before advantage was updated. It's not Mike or Mike's fault.

 

[Morgan@Midwest Diesel & Auto]

I'm probably the only person who has directly back to back ran the KEM vs PIP tunes. I'll wait for an independents perspective. Until then, people please quit saying one or the other is superior based on your prior experiences with your older trucks and older tunes. I can say.... But it will not hold weight because someone will just label it as a "sales pitch".

Carry on.

 

[The Butcher]

So, back on topic a bit... Can someone give some numbers (HP/TQ) and any thing that may or may not work between these two different tunes (ie, exhaust brake)? In terms of shifting, are there any real differences between these two tunes? I'm trying to figure out if there are any real advantages to one over the other based on the factors above. I assume they both load on the SCT X4. When you get a tune from either company, do you get more than one tune (ie, Performance, Tow, Race)? Thanks.

 

[Morgan@Midwest Diesel & Auto]

So, back on topic a bit... Can someone give some numbers (HP/TQ) and any thing that may or may not work between these two different tunes (ie, exhaust brake)? In terms of shifting, are there any real differences between these two tunes? I'm trying to figure out if there are any real advantages to one over the other based on the factors above. I assume they both load on the SCT X4. When you get a tune from either company, do you get more than one tune (ie, Performance, Tow, Race)? Thanks.

Unobjectively, comparing PIP to KEM both on the hottest "race" vs "extreme" tune. They both made similar boost and seemed to have as close as I can tell similar power. The KEM locks the TC at wot and the PIP did not. And PIP did have the exhaust brake function turned off. I only compared the biggest hp files. They both seemed very smoke free in my truck. PIP had 4 tune levels and KEM had 3. The KEM does shift very firm at WOT in the race file. But at mid throttle it's smooth. Some people may complain a bout harsh WOT shifts. That's the way they keep the clutches from slipping during a full TC locked, no defuel, full power shift. The PIP was smoother at wot because of the unlocked TC shifts.

So, there is the best factual comparison I can do without bias. I'm not saying one is better or anything else. Just my experience. No bashing or trashing just what I noticed.

 

[roadkingfl]

Unobjectively, comparing PIP to KEM both on the hottest "race" vs "extreme" tune. They both made similar boost and seemed to have as close as I can tell similar power. The KEM locks the TC at wot and the PIP did not. And PIP did have the exhaust brake function turned off. I only compared the biggest hp files. They both seemed very smoke free in my truck. PIP had 4 tune levels and KEM had 3. The KEM does shift very firm at WOT in the race file. But at mid throttle it's smooth. Some people may complain a bout harsh WOT shifts. That's the way they keep the clutches from slipping during a full TC locked, no defuel, full power shift. The PIP was smoother at wot because of the unlocked TC shifts.

So, there is the best factual comparison I can do without bias. I'm not saying one is better or anything else. Just my experience. No bashing or trashing just what I noticed.

Is your truck a 2015?

 

[Breaking Habits]

Is your truck a 2015?

Yes, Morgans was the first deleted 15, ever.

 

[roadkingfl]

Oh I didn't see a 15' in HIS sig...:doh:

 

[Morgan@Midwest Diesel & Auto]

Yes, Morgans was the first deleted 15, ever.

Correct.