DURAMAXTUNER Duramaxtuner.com
HP TUNERS HPtuners.com
It wasn’t but two years ago that GM released the latest L5P Duramax platform for the 2017 model year. This engine wasn’t just getting the usual every-other-year updates with a little different EGR system and an ECM flash for more power/ torque from the factory. The L5P was basically all new from the crank up. GM switched over from the Boschbased injection systems they’d been running since the Duramax was introduced back in 2001 to a Denso fuel system capable of higher injection pressures for more power and cleaner emissions. The oil-controlled Garrett variable-geometry turbo is gone, an all-new electronically controlled BorgWarner VTG in its place. The complete emissions system has been reworked with larger coolers, improved flow, and even a large catalytic converter clamped directly to the turbo outlet. GM engineers meant business when it came time to redevelop the Duramax powerplant for 2017, and with better emissions control, improved fuel efficiency, and enough horsepower and torque to virtually move a house, they weren’t going to cut any corners.
This became especially true when it came to the Engine Control Module (ECM), which turns out to be one of the most advanced in any OEM diesel vehicle to date. GM went to great lengths to develop computer hardware that would be untouchable to an outsider. Without a direct GM connection, gaining access to the ECM to make flash updates or changes was basically impossible. We’ve been told this was for safety reasons, since self-driving cars are now a thing, and we suspect GM doesn’t want to be held responsible if some random computer hacker breaks into your vehicle’s ECM via cloud or Wi-fiand tells it to drive off a cliff. Up until just a few months ago we all thought that L5P computer was going to be uncrackable, that “performance tuning” or “chipping” your truck would soon be a thing of the past. That is, until we started hearing rumors this past August that a tuned L5P was soon to surface. The day came in mid-September, when HP Tuners released a little teaser video clip that quickly broke the diesel Internet for a day with more than 70,000 views in a matter of hours.