Seneca M2 power uprate

[MD3]

Finally got my Uprate done.... I’m right at 2 yrs from “in service” so I was able to do it without paying the warranty fees and the data tag fee.

I have a few local Cummins places I could have taken mine. Price ranged from $400 - $2000 for the exact same uprate. I finally got prices narrowed down between two local places for $1200 or $450. I opted for the $450 that turned into $560. Even with invoices printed as examples on pricing from Ohio and Florida the prices were not negotiable....

Recalibration was done while I waited and took about 2 hours total, from driving in to driving back out.

I’m hoping this will help towing the hills but I am still planning on talking to my local Allison dealer about the overdrive lockout switch.


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[Mark S]

I am having some difficulty in locating a shop in the Miami-Ft.Laudrdale area able and willing to do an uprate on my Seneca. Either they don’t know about it or don’t want to do it. I spoke to two shops today and they both need to check with Cummins. I have spoken to both Freightliner and Cummins shops.

I’m wondering if it’s not meant to be
But not giving up yet.

[Robbbyr]

Originally Posted by Mark S

I am having some difficulty in locating a shop in the Miami-Ft.Laudrdale area able and willing to do an uprate on my Seneca. Either they don’t know about it or don’t want to do it. I spoke to two shops today and they both need to check with Cummins. I have spoken to both Freightliner and Cummins shops.

I’m wondering if it’s not meant to be
But not giving up yet.

Hey Mark, are you dealing with a Cummins Distributor location?
I see one online here, this is the kind of facility I went to:

Cummins Sales and Service
6350 N.W. 167th Street
Miami Lakes, Florida 33014

Is that a place you tried?

[Mark S]

Yup Rob, spoke with them this morning. I even sent them a photo of your invoice. Hopefully they will get back to me tomorrow. I’ll keep you posted. And thanks for trying to find me a solution.

[RVermont]

I am surprised by the resistance. I had the exact opposite reaction from my cummins dealer. The only questions she had was how much it was going to cost. She typed it in and gave me the price and away we went. Said they do it all the time. Good luck.

[RoWest]

I was quoted $285 at TransWest in Fontana, CA. Will wait until February 2020 to be past the 5 year in-service date to not complicate the warranty.

[Sam]

Mark, had my 360/800 up grade done last August at Lonestar Truck Group in Farmington, NM. They have many locations, however, don't know if they are in the East. They are a certified Freightliner and Cummings service center. When I initially contacted the service manager he said he was aware of the upgrade and had done some already. He said he he would contact Cummins and provide them my VIN and engine number and they would send him the codes to do the upgrade. He called back in the next day and said lets make an appointment. The charge was $275.

A few weeks ago we returned from a trip to Arlington National Cemetery, completing over 5,000 miles. I am very satisfied with the increased performance. My mileage ranged from 8.5 to 10.5. Overall was 9.5 plus. On freeways and good roads I run about 65 MPH, while towing a Chey Colorado ZR2. I weighed The Colorado on a cert. scale and it was approx. 5,000 LBS.

I am sure you won't regret the upgrade, it is the best thing I have done to my Seneca. I might add we have owned the Seneca about four and a half years and just turned 46,000 miles.

Hope this helps, Sam

[Mark S]

Originally Posted by Sam

Mark, had my 360/800 up grade done last August at Lonestar Truck Group in Farmington, NM. They have many locations, however, don't know if they are in the East. They are a certified Freightliner and Cummings service center. When I initially contacted the service manager he said he was aware of the upgrade and had done some already. He said he he would contact Cummins and provide them my VIN and engine number and they would send him the codes to do the upgrade. He called back in the next day and said lets make an appointment. The charge was $275.

A few weeks ago we returned from a trip to Arlington National Cemetery, completing over 5,000 miles. I am very satisfied with the increased performance. My mileage ranged from 8.5 to 10.5. Overall was 9.5 plus. On freeways and good roads I run about 65 MPH, while towing a Chey Colorado ZR2. I weighed The Colorado on a cert. scale and it was approx. 5,000 LBS.

I am sure you won't regret the upgrade, it is the best thing I have done to my Seneca. I might add we have owned the Seneca about four and a half years and just turned 46,000 miles.

Hope this helps, Sam

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I am still trying to find a south Florida shop willing and able to do this uprate. Last week I left 4 shops my info was told they would need to contact Cummins to find out if they could do the uprate and call me back. I received no call backs and I followed up this morning and 3 told me they haven't heard back from Cummins yet. One is going to let me know today.

I don't know if it's because they are so busy here with bigger jobs or what. I may just have to wait until next summer's trip and get it done along the way.

[MD3]

After some testing on the Uprate tuning I had done in Sept I thought I would post an update....

The transmission tune and Uprate engine tuning made a significant difference, for the only 20hp/100ftlbs is changed, towing in the hills.

The buddy, who I camp with, used to gap me on the hills and left me struggling to catch up to him. It now has completely flipped to where I am the one pulling ahead on the hills. NOT that it is a race up the hills but the rolling roadblock of an RV (in stock form) on the hills was not fun.

I was very surprised at the difference these changes made. It would still be nice to be able to lock out the overdrive but I am hesitant with the cost involved. I need to dig further into this mod.


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[jcs1880]

Okay you guys have me convinced and once again are costing me money. I checked into this last year and our freightliner dealer in Albuquerque talked me out of it using the added heat argument, and said that most motorhomes already included the performance tune. I will get them my vin and see what they say. My DW gets nervous when I spend too much time on this forum as it usually ends up costing something. But I really enjoy the projects.

[Robbbyr]

Originally Posted by jcs1880

Okay you guys have me convinced and once again are costing me money. I checked into this last year and our freightliner dealer in Albuquerque talked me out of it using the added heat argument, and said that most motorhomes already included the performance tune. I will get them my vin and see what they say. My DW gets nervous when I spend too much time on this forum as it usually ends up costing something. But I really enjoy the projects.

I've had mine out in 95°+ temps since my upgrade without issue. The fan might kick on a bit sooner and run a bit longer but the coolant temp always stays within a few degrees of where it always ran. And unless you have a newer unit on the S2RV chassis you do not have 360 hp/800 lb/ft torque. Originally all M2 units have 340/700 stock.

[Mark S]

Happy new year to all.

I just today found a Cummins Service center in Fort Meyers, about 2.5 hours from me, that actually returned my call, contacted Cummins and called me back saying they can do the uprate for about $400. I will call in the morning to set up a time and get more details.

All of you that have had the uprate done are still happy, right?

I cannot believe how difficult it was to find a shop to do this.

[RVermont]

Happy new year. Yes worth every penny. Much more responsive. Congrats on finding a place. I cant believe the hard time you have had. It is a cummins corporate program so I don't see why a shop would have a problem with plugging in to your rig and upgrading the program.

[Robbbyr]

Originally Posted by Mark S

Happy new year to all.

I just today found a Cummins Service center in Fort Meyers, about 2.5 hours from me, that actually returned my call, contacted Cummins and called me back saying they can do the uprate for about $400. I will call in the morning to set up a time and get more details.

All of you that have had the uprate done are still happy, right?

I cannot believe how difficult it was to find a shop to do this.

Glad they finally are catching up with the rest of the country! I absolutely would do it again. I was also happy I had them enable the exhaust brake when using cruise control and also turned on "fan braking" which increases the braking horsepower or force. They did not charge me anything more since they were merely "check boxes" in the programming list.

[Bruceter]

Originally Posted by Robbbyr

Glad they finally are catching up with the rest of the country! I absolutely would do it again. I was also happy I had them enable the exhaust brake when using cruise control and also turned on "fan braking" which increases the braking horsepower or force. They did not charge me anything more since they were merely "check boxes" in the programming list.

Robby, can you enlighten me on exactly what this “fan braking” program is? I’m assuming it some kind of program for the engine brake.

Thanks
Bruce

[Robbbyr]

Originally Posted by Bruceter

Robby, can you enlighten me on exactly what this “fan braking” program is? I’m assuming it some kind of program for the engine brake.

Thanks
Bruce

It is a setting in the Cummins parameters that causes the engine cooling fan's air-actuated clutch to engage the fan when decelerating, in conjunction with the exhaust brake. It adds extra drag and provides (I think) about 20 more "braking horsepower". I can definately feel more deceleration when the fan kicks in. It has a (programmed) delay before it engages the fan when decelerating to prevent it from coming on too quickly when you just momentarily come off the accelerator, it waits just a bit to ensure you really intend to slow down. Pretty intuitive so far!

[Mark S]

Originally Posted by Robbbyr

It is a setting in the Cummins parameters that causes the engine cooling fan's air-actuated clutch to engage the fan when decelerating, in conjunction with the exhaust brake. It adds extra drag and provides (I think) about 20 more "braking horsepower". I can definately feel more deceleration when the fan kicks in. It has a (programmed) delay before it engages the fan when decelerating to prevent it from coming on too quickly when you just momentarily come off the accelerator, it waits just a bit to ensure you really intend to slow down. Pretty intuitive so far!

Rob. I’m hoping to get the exhaust brake to work with cruise control.

Doesn’t it get very loud with the fan coming on each time you decelerate? Seems like it would be nice if it was a user selectable option, like when descending mountain passes.

And are there any other cool options that can be checked while programming?

[Bruceter]

Originally Posted by Robbbyr

It is a setting in the Cummins parameters that causes the engine cooling fan's air-actuated clutch to engage the fan when decelerating, in conjunction with the exhaust brake. It adds extra drag and provides (I think) about 20 more "braking horsepower". I can definately feel more deceleration when the fan kicks in. It has a (programmed) delay before it engages the fan when decelerating to prevent it from coming on too quickly when you just momentarily come off the accelerator, it waits just a bit to ensure you really intend to slow down. Pretty intuitive so far!

Thanks for that info Robby. I’m always thinking the engine brake in the Seneca was a bit lacking compared to my Ram 3500 pulling a loaded toyhauler. I know what your probably thinking that the Ram and toyhauler were considerably lighter but only by 2k-3k lbs
Anyways this might be something I should be looking into.
As Mark S. mentioned wondering whether there are any other things to be checked off when having the reprogramming done.

Thanks again
Bruce

[Robbbyr]

At one time I found a list of all the ISB parameters online but I can't find it again for the life of me! And I apparently did not save it to my PC either. It was buried in the Cummins website, but now all I can find directs you to the PowerSpec page where you can download the access program but you need an expensive vehicle interface to connect to the diagnostic port of the vehicle to access the system and make changes.

As far as noise, it definitely does increase the frequency of the fan kicking on but it doesn't really "bother" me. However it very well might be quite intrusive to someone else. To have an easy way to be able to turn that function on or off would be ideal I suppose.

Mark S and I drove fire apparatus with all their inherent noise (including sirens and air horns blaring), so an occasional fan noise to me is minor and doesn't detract from my love of driving my Seneca. But to the uninitiated it might be enough to make their driving experience less enjoyable and more like driving a "truck". But that's what I like!

[Mark S]

What’s that Rob? I can’t hear you

I’m not sure my “CNO” (Chief Navigational Officer) would approve of more noise.