Disable Active Fuel Management with this Plug-and-Play Device

If you’re interested in disabling Active Fuel Management on your GM truck or Multi-Displacement System on your Dodge / Chrysler / Jeep vehicle but don’t want to play around with a tuner or programmer, the Spring Module from DiabloSport makes it super easy. In fact, all you have to do is just plug it into your OBDII port, and all eight of your cylinders will remain engaged at all times.

No time to read this whole article? Just want the quick and dirty dets? “Too long; didn’t read” your fav acronym? Don’t worry. We hear ya. Here’s our Midwest Aftermarket Bullet Point Breakdown of the DiabloSport Sprint Module:

• Plug and play device
• Super easy install
• Disables AFM (Active Fuel Management) on GM vehicles from 2005+
• Disables MDS (Multi-Displacement System) on Dodge / Ram / Jeep vehicles from 2005 - 2011
• Prevents hesitation or studder associated with AFM activation
• Eliminates exhaust buzz associated with AFM vehicles
• Keeps your engine in V8 mode at all times
• Stores stock factory settings
• Easy to return back to stock for emissions testing and any other reason
• Prevents abnormal and disproportionate wear and tear on your engine
• Re-flashes vehicle’s onboard computer or ECU
• 50 State Emissions Testing is pending
• Not legal for sale or use in the state of California at this time (NOT CARB Certified)
• The easiest way to disable AFM on GM / Chevy trucks

Click Here: Aftermarket Truck Parts.

Sprint by DiabloSport

Eliminate AFM or MDS just by Plugging Her In

If you are familiar with tuning and modifying your engine’s computer or ECU / ECM, then this will all be old hat to you. But if you’re not, you might check out our Auto-Tuning for Beginners article on the previous page. If tuning or programming sounds too complicated or intimidating or if you just want to accomplish one thing--disabling your AFM or MDS, then the Spring module is exactly what you are looking for.

What is AFM or MDS?

What is Active Fuel Management or Multi-Displacement System?

AFM and MDS are make specific methods of disabling 4 of your V8’s cylinders on your vehicle in order to attempt to improve fuel economy. While these methods are very technical and ambitious, they have also been found to be quite flawed. Many truck and Jeep owners find that these systems restrict power when they really need it and actual damage their vehicle’s engines over time by increasing wear and tear to specific cylinders over others.
Read more: Truck Accessories.

Why would anyone want to disable AFM or MDS?

Why might someone want to disable Active Fuel Management or Multi-Displacement System?

Many truck and Jeep owners want to disable their AFM / MDS in order to improve performance. Others turn off this function so that they can protect their engine over time and make sure that each cylinder is used in a similar way, and hence worn out at the same rate. Others have found that under certain circumstances, including installing additional aftermarket parts, disabling AFM / MDS actually can improve fuel economy as well.

The Truth about AFM / MDS

That last part might seem shocking or even contradictory. Wasn’t Active Fuel Management created to improve fuel economy? Isn’t the point of Multi-Displacement Systems to increase your Miles per Gallon? Well, just as with many new age technological advances, the goal of a new fangled device doesn’t always play out when it is put into practice.

Consider cell phones. These amazing devices were created to keep us in touch over long distances, to allow us to make calls from the middle of nowhere, and to even have a conversation while we are cruising down the highway. These were some of the original purposes of the cellular devices when they first hit the market.

Today, however, smart phones allow users to listen to music on the go, browse websites, make purchases online, play video games, and even record 4k video on the fly. While one of the initial pitch bullet points behind these mobile phones was safety--being able to call someone to help you if your car broke down on the side of the road, for instance--no one seemed to be able to predict that smartphones would eventually become one of the major reasons for distracted driving accidents.

My point is simple. Just because we design something to do a particular thing doesn’t mean it is always going to work out.

The Race for Higher MPG’s

So what was the real initial goal of implementing these two systems, AFM and MDS?

The idea was actually pretty simple. Obama and the EPA raised MPG standards across the board for pretty much every single automobile on the market, and set up a road map to continue to raise this benchmark over the years. This created quite the conundrum for automobile makers, truck and Jeep makers in particular.

After all, no one buys a pickup truck or Jeep with the idea that it is going to get better gas mileage than an economy car. In fact, many drivers who use their truck or Jeep to commute to and from work are contractors and off road workers who actually need their vehicle to perform the works and services of their daily lives and jobs.

Point is few auto makers at least here in the United States had considered fuel economy to be a major concern for their truck or Jeep lines, until the Obama / EPA fuel economy bill was signed into law.

Suddenly, truck manufacturers are met with a particular crisis, if you will. On the one hand, their consumers--truck owners and potential truck buyers--want a vehicle that can haul heavy loads, tow big boats and toys behind it, and have the horsepower and torque to get up to speed and even go off road at times. On the other hand, the Federal government says these vehicles have to have better gas mileage, not just today, but every few years for the next few years up to 2025. 

In other words, truck makers are left with a real paradox: how do we improve fuel economy without making a truck into a glorified car with a truck bed--a.k.a. an El Camino.
See: MidwestAftermarket.

Improving Fuel Economy without Losing Horsepower

So that’s the name of the game. Trucks need to meet higher MPG standards without losing all their horsepower and torque and hauling and towing capabilities. And there are a few ways to do this, some of them harder, more complicated, and hence more expensive than others.

How to Make a More Fuel Efficient Vehicle

There are many nuanced and complex methods of improving fuel economy for a vehicle. But for simplicity's sake, let’s start very broad and simple. There are roughly two broad options:

1. Make the current engine more efficient.
2. Develop a new, smaller, more efficient engine.

Ford went with the latter option. The new F-150 Eco-boost engines are smaller and more efficient than their older brothers. How did they do it? They reduced vehicle weight, made some electronic implementations to eliminate small percentages of inefficiency, and--here’s the big one--they added a turbocharger.

BAM!

That’s the big one. The turbocharger increases efficiency by upwards of 8%, and it adds horsepower by the bucket loads too--on that end, according to my personal calculations, which are optimized and hence likely just a tad high, by upwards of 50%!

This means that by making these improvements, Ford was able to decrease engine size, improve fuel economy, and not lose out on horsepower and torque, without implementing any AFM or MDS style system.

Now those of you who know me well know that I’m a Chevy guy at heart. I come from a Chevy family. I own a Chevy Silverado. My first truck was a 1984 Chevy C/K. It is rare that I’ll talk smack about my beloved Chevy trucks. And that’s not what I’m trying to do here either. What I’m trying to express is that there were two options. Ford went the turbocharger with smaller engine route, or option 2. And their smaller engines tend to put out just as much if not more horsepower than their V8 versions do, by the way.

Chevy and Dodge / Chrysler went the other way and opted to try to make their current engines more efficient. There are some great advantages to this as well. While Ford had to go back to the drawing board and do some research and development to create a new engine, the Ecoboost, to meet the new fuel economy standards, Chevy and Dodge / Chrysler could stick with their tried and true engines and use electronic components to meet the standards.

Now with both options, all of these truck manufacturers will eventually have to go back to the design studio again and up their game once more. Fuel economy standards are not likely to go anywhere but up, after all. Which company will have to do so sooner is anyone’s call and will likely determine who made the better call at the time.

For me, let me lay it out before we return to the whole AFM / MDS debate. While Ford made a great move developing the Ecoboost, and it’s a hell of an engine that you can squeeze extra horsepower out of via tuning and adding on cold air intakes and all sorts of great other aftermarket parts, Chevy and Dodge / Chrysler still have the bigger engine options as standard. So for the vast majority of truck owners, Chevy / Dodge provide more potential power. And here’s the biggest reason why. Ford’s Ecoboost already has a turbocharger on it. And adding a turbocharger can increase your overall horsepower by up to 1.5 times the amount it had before you added on the turbo. Not knocking Ford. That Ecoboost is one hell of an engine. But if you’re looking for power, well, I’ve said too much…

Enough ramble. Let’s talk about the negative here already.

So the issue then with Dodge and Chevrolet is basically that they took a little “shortcut” if you will. And that shortcut (AFM / MDS) means that while those trucks still have the horsepower and torque you want out of a truck, at certain times when you’re going over 30-35 MPH, your truck sort of down shifts, if you will, to only using 4 of your 8 cylinders for your V8 engine. And nobody ever bought a truck with a V8 hoping that they were actually getting the power and performance of a 4 banger. Alright, maybe there’s somebody out there, but you get my point.

And we’ve encountered all sorts of issues and heard the horror stories about MDS and AFM. Whether it’s increased wear and tear on some cylinders, or loss of power at inopportune times like when towing or going up a hill, one thing is very clear--a large number of Chevy and Ram truck owners out there today on the road right now want a way to disable AFM and MDS respectively.

And the DiabloSport Sprint module does it easily and at an affordable price. And you don’t even have to mess with any tuning or programming at all. This module is so easy that all you have to do is plug it into your OBDII port underneath your dash, and you’ve done it.

Your AFM or MDS will be disabled from now on until you remove the Sprint module. So if you ever need to turn those fuel economy modes back on, you just unplug the module. It’s that simple. Want the full power of your engine again? Plug it back in. Worried that AFM or MDS might damage your engine? Plug in the Spring module and let your worries disappear. Concerned about voiding your warranty, emissions testing, or trading in / selling your vehicle? Unplug it.

We really can not think of a better device, that is more affordable and easier to use, when it comes to disabling MDS or AFM. So what are you waiting for? Unleash the full power of your V8 today with DiabloSport’s Sprint module.

Our Promise of Exceptional Service and the Lowest Prices on the Interwebs

When you’re ready to order your new DiabloSport Sprint Module, we hope you’ll get yours from us here at Midwest Aftermarket. We only promote products we believe in and sell them at the lowest prices, shipping quickly to you for free if you’re in the lower 48 states. We have an excellent return policy and strive to get you the right product in perfect condition the first time.

What are you waiting for? Give us a call or place an order directly through our website. We’ll get your product out to you ASAP so you can enjoy your vehicle and make it your own. If you have a vision of what your truck or Jeep could be, let us help you achieve that image, that goal. We put aftermarket right at the tip of your fingers on your smartphone, web browser, and even via various apps, making ordering the parts you need super easy. Let us help make your aftermarket dream possible. Let us help you build your dream machine. We want you to drive the truck or Jeep of your dreams right now. So when you get it installed and love it, make sure you share us some pics on social media so we can live vicariously through you. Because we too are aftermarket enthusiasts, truck and Jeep owners, who love and own many of the products we sell. In other words, we don’t just work aftermarket--we are aftermarket.

Midwest Aftermarket's collection of air intakes, pickup bed covers, truck running boards, and much more includes all the leading styles and brands. Midwest Aftermarket is the #1 online retailer for aftermarket truck and Jeep accessories, selling products at the lowest prices and providing the best customer service in the industry. With the goal to provide the highest quality product with the fastest shipping at affordable prices, look no further for your vehicle’s aftermarket accessories. From UTV’s to Jeep-fanatics to F150’s or Chevy Silverado’s, Midwest Aftermarket will give you the customer support you deserve. Ask us about our new 2 day shipping options available on many of our fine aftermarket accessories.