Help with Pentastar tune, please

[disappointed]

I have a 2016 Chrysler Town and Country with a 3.6 Pentastar engine, decrypted ECM, ported throttle body, ported lower intake manifold and high flow intake/air filter (all installed myself). I live at 7,000 feet in the Colorado Rockies and often load the car and pull a trailer over mountain passes. In an effort to not hold back traffic I am turning 4,500 rpm for 15 minutes at a time up 6 to 8 percent grades. It seems like a lot of stress, wear and tear on the engine. I would like to add lower end power/torque and run fewer rpms in these situations. Car does great on the flat, 75 mph at about 2,500 RPM with ease. I am not a hot rod driver, not looking for acceleration gains or high top end.

I have watched hours of how to tune videos and spent time exploring the software. I understand the air/fuel maps and the spark maps which seem to apply to most engines. Pentastar tuning seems much different and I have not found any good information on it. So, I am having trouble figuring out how to adjust my tune.

The only street Pentastar tune I have found is from Bill@HPTuners (see link below paragraph). I have figured out the ?compare? feature in the software and can see all the differences between this Jeep tune and my stock tune. I am having trouble figuring out if this tune would be safe for my engine and/or which parameters I should change in my tune to achieve my goals. Any and all help, suggestions or advice will be greatly appreciated.

https://www.hptuners.com/forum/showt...ight=pentastar

I will be glad to share what I learn, post the resulting tune to the repository and help figure out what other vehicles it would apply to, so others may benefit. Many thanks to all!

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[Mr.T]

Hello disappointed -- I'm new too software tuning as well, not familiar with Pentastar tuning, but here's a thought that came to mind. I don't think 4500 rpm is hard on it, and it probably will take around that much rpm to make enough power in the situation described regardless of tuning. I read an article from an oil analysis company where the writer compared oil analyses samples of his high speed towing in the mountains vacation with regular driving and couldn't say there was any difference in wear metals.

Another way to look at it is that the only way to make that power at a lower rpm (in a higher gear) is with proportionally more torque, and that could be harder on the transmission or engine than the rpm -- And would probably take forced induction, especially at your altitude. Consider how much bigger the drivetrain is for a much slower speed diesel engine (like my old Ford pickup with a 7.3L rated at only 185HP and a redline of 3300 rpm) with even less power but much more torque.

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Due to the complexity in tuning these stout engines I don't think you are going to get a simple answer to your question. I can tell you that there are gains to be had in the low end torque areas on these engines with movement of the cams. We have gained 30+ whp in the 2-4000rpm range just with cam mods and tuning changes. You can also experiment with unlocking the converter in the lower gears and slowly bring it closer to lock in higher gears. This seems to help with Jeep's pulling trailers.

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At an assumed speed to the rpm for keeping up with the flow of traffic, your best to increase the HP, but torque will increase as well. If it was me, I'd either try camming it out giving up the lower-end powerband yet benefiting from up top or incorporate boost & have best of both.

[Hemituna]

This.

Due to the complexity in tuning these stout engines I don't think you are going to get a simple answer to your question. I can tell you that there are gains to be had in the low end torque areas on these engines with movement of the cams. We have gained 30+ whp in the 2-4000rpm range just with cam mods and tuning changes. You can also experiment with unlocking the converter in the lower gears and slowly bring it closer to lock in higher gears. This seems to help with Jeep's pulling trailers.

[brr]

This may be helpful with tuning my wife's AWD Journey that can't get out of its own way with more than four passengers....