Introducing Edge Stage 1 Kits

You may be thinking to yourself, self, what the heck is a Stage 1 kit? Edge recently started bundling some of their great performance aftermarket parts into various kits. We’re here to tell you all about their Stage 1 Kits.

What comes in the Edge Stage 1 Kit?

So what all is in an Edge Stage 1 Kit?

An Edge Stage 1 Kit contains a Jammer Cold Air Intake and Evolution CTS2 performance programmer for you particular make and model of pickup truck. When bundled together you save over $100, plus you get a Cold Air Intake that is designed and optimized to work with the Evolution CTS2 tuner specifically.

So why did Edge start offering such a kit in the first place? And why did they decide to call this one the Stage 1 kit?

One of the first upgrades people often consider making to their pickup trucks is the air filter. A number of great companies product excellent quality aftermarket air filters that improve the air flow to your engine while prevent dust and dirt particles from getting in. Adding on an aftermarket air filter is a simple and easy process.

But savvy enthusiasts often do their research and realize that for a little bit more, you can upgrade your intake from stock to a Cold Air Intake with a high flow air filter included. In fact, most aftermarket oiled air filters are going to run you $80-100 or more in the first place. And just replacing the stock filter doesn’t maximize your potential air flow.

For that, you’ll need to upgrade both your filter and your air intake. And one of the best ways to do that is by picking up and installing a Cold Air Intake or CAI for short.

One of the second bigger items that customers often pickup to soup up their trucks is a tuner. Performance programmers give truck drivers the ability to load custom tunes and adjust all sorts of settings by tapping into your ECU via the OBDII port underneath your steering wheel / dashboard.

Performance tuners, like Edge’s Evolution CTS2, can do everything from increasing your fuel economy to improving your towing ability, and of course improve your performance by unlocking the full potential of your engine to see maximum horsepower and torque gains.

Combining these two often popular upgrades together now seems like a no brainer, right? If truck drivers often upgrade their intakes and pickup tuners in the first place, why not package them together? If you’re looking to get the most out of your truck, you’ll need both of these upgrades anyway. Why not pick them up together in a bundle and save yourself some cold hard cash? Makes sense.

Alright, but what about the individual products in the bundle? Let’s breakdown what comes in the Stage 1 Kit specifically.

To do so, we’ll have to review and understand both the Jammer Cold Air Intake and the Evolution CTS2 tuner, both made by Edge.

The Jammer Cold Air Intake

First let’s start more generally by discussing what exactly a cold air intake is supposed to do.

What is the purpose of installing a cold air intake?

What does a cold air intake do exactly?

A cold air intake is a combination of piping or tubing and an aftermarket air filter. The tubing is designed to funnel or pull colder air from outside the engine compartment directly into the filter and then into your engine. The air filter is typically higher efficiency, both trapping more dirt and dust particles and allowing more air to flow through quicker.

Why should I even consider upgrading to a cold air intake in the first place?

Why is air flow and temperature important for my vehicle?

A combustion engine runs on two elements mixed together: fuel and air, specially oxygen. Modern vehicles use advanced sensors coupled with your ECU (or Engine Computer Unit) to calculate the optimal amount of fuel to pump into each cylinder to reach the correct fuel to oxygen ratio.

Basically, it boils down to this simple aphorism:

More Oxygen + More Fuel = More Power

Now you’ve got plenty of fuel. So the limiting factor here is your oxygen or air flow.

There are a number of ways to increase the amount of air that gets into your engine cylinders. The easiest way (and most of the time the least expensive) is adding on a cold air intake.

Why is a cold air intake so much better than my stock air intake manifold system?

What makes aftermarket cold air intakes such great improvements over stock components?

A combination of factors make most cold air intakes solid upgrades over stock air intakes. First, cold air intakes pull colder air from outside of your engine compartment. Second, the stock air intake tends to have tubing that is more restrictive (smaller) and has more hard curves and turns. This also slows down the air flow. Finally, aftermarket cold air intakes have high performance air filters which are better at filtering the air and at increasing air flow.

All of these aspects put together make cold air intakes superior.

What’s the point of trying to get cold air into your engine over hot air?

Why is cold air so much better for my engine than hot?

First, cold air is denser. Denser air is more compressed, meaning you can get more of it into your engine’s cylinders. More air means more oxygen. High oxygen content means you can add more fuel per cylinder. You onboard ECU and sensors are already prepared to deal with some of this added oxygen, but a tuner will be the next step to tweak that oxygen to fuel ratio just right so that you are getting maximum performance gains.

And typically that’s what all the aftermarket folks want to know. How much horsepower or torque is this particular part going to add to my rig? And I get that. Certainly a cold air intake will add some power, but that is not the only reason to purchase one. But before we jump into the other reasons you should install a cold air intake, like the Jammer, let’s take care of this horsepower thing once and for all concerning cold air intakes.

The Truth about Cold Air Intakes and Horsepower Gains

I know. This is one for the Interwebs to battle over. It might even be one of the quintessential showdowns of the aftermarket community. How much horsepower am I gonna add by installing a cold air intake?

Look, the only honest answer is this: it depends.

And it depends on a number of factors, not just the cold air intake itself or the air filter or the size of your engine. All of those are important factors, but there’s even more than that.

I know what you’re probably thinking. Those all sound like excuses. And I get it. So before I really explain, let’s give you the quick version.

How much horsepower can I really expect to gain by installing a cold air intake?

How much HP will I add by installing a CAI?

Maximum horsepower gains from just installing a cold air intake alone fall somewhere in the range of 1-5%. I know we don’t think in percentages, but I can’t really say this number of horsepower because the bigger the engine, the bigger the potential gain will be.

So let’s try an example. Let’s say you’re playing around with a stock vehicle that has roughly 350 HP, like a 2011 Dodge Ram 3500 with a 6.7L Cummins. I picked this vehicle deliberately, so go ahead and tell me I’m cheating already, why don’t cha? Why? Cause this is the vehicle Edge used to do their dyno test run they posted on YouTube with the Jammer Cold Air Intake installed.

So let’s say you install a cold air intake, like the Jammer, on that 2011 Dodge Ram Turbo Diesel. You’re minimum gain is going to be 1%, so we can figure that out just by dividing by 100 or just moving the decimal point to spots to the right. In other words, on the low end, you’re looking at roughly 3.5 HP added to that particular vehicle.

Now on the dyno test, you might be wondering where I would place that gain. Here’s the thing about dyno tests: a lot of the time when we are looking at horsepower and /or torque gains, we are looking at Peak to Peak.

What do you mean by Peak to Peak when reading a dyno test?

What does Peak to Peak mean on a dyno test?

Peak to Peak is when you take the Max horsepower or torque from one dyno test and compare it to the Max on another test. While is is a very commonly used tool for bragging about and comparing how much horsepower or torque your particular build has over another one, it isn’t necessarily all that accurate or important.

Measuring Peak to Peak will tell me how much my Max HP has gone up, for instance. But it doesn’t necessarily tell me how fast that particular build is. In order to figure out true performance gains in relation to speed, you should really be looking at the area under the curve. In other words, instead of measuring the difference between one point on the dyno test curve to another point, you should look at the difference between the two curves along the entire curve length. An illustration will probably help:

This isn’t to say that Peak to Peak numbers are fun or useful at all. But don’t think that just have a few Horsepower more than your buddy at peak automatically means your truck is faster (or better) than his. Your truck might accelerate slower or just not look as cool as your buddy’s, after all. And Horsepower gain at Peak isn’t the only way to measure an engine’s performance.

Nevertheless, I don’t think you came to this article to hear me lecture you about how Max Horsepower isn’t as big of a deal as you think it is. Of course this is a useful thing to know and a reason to upgrade your air intake. Just don’t think that an air intake alone is going to give you major horsepower or torque gains.

Now back to my example:

So we’re using that Cummins 6.7L and I predicted the lower end Horsepower gain would be around 3.5 HP. If that’s 1% gain, multiply that by 5 to get your 5% gain Max of 17.5 HP, which admittedly sounds much better, right?

Here’s the thing though, and I want you to really hear me here, so get a bit closer to the screen for this one:

You ain’t gonna be able to feel that. No way. No how.

Not Joshing ya, here. Numerous studies and tests have been conducted, and it turns out any horsepower gain say under 10% is incredibly hard for a human being to detect without say a dynamometer--hence why we invented the damn dynos in the first place--haha!

That doesn’t mean this horsepower gain is negligible. Just don’t install a cold air intake and then be all shocked when you can’t feel the difference by the way your truck is suddenly blasting off the line from a stand still. Cause you probably can’t, or worse yet--if you think you can tell the difference, most of that’s probably in your head.

Sigh. So what’s the point of a cold air intake, again?

Don’t worry. We’re getting there. The point right now is to emphasize to you that if what you want is more horsepower, you’re gonna need a tuner too, and guess what? The Stage 1 Kit from Edge has that nice Jammer Cold Air Intake and an Evolution CTS2 performance tuner. There’s where your horses are gonna come from. So don’t panic just yet.

But I’m not quite done with my cold air intake discussion just yet, because these aftermarket parts are useful and almost always an improvement over stock components. The problem is, you’re looking at the wrong part of the dyno, guys.

Take these two Australian bros: Marty and Moog, founders and stars of Mighty Car Mods, a youtube channel that is heavily focused on souped up cars. First, mad props. I like their style, their humor, and their scientific approach.

They did a couple of videos a few years back trying to figure out if cold air intakes were really as cracked up as manufacturers and aftermarket enthusiasts always make them out to be. They took a few different automobiles (all cars, no trucks or Jeeps here) and ran them on a local dyno with a stock air intake installed and then an aftermarket cold air intake. There findings are pretty interesting and fairly scientific, granted they are most useful for the particular makes and models of the vehicles they actually tested and those specific aftermarket cold air intakes.

If you go check out their videos, watch out, cause they are using KW’s instead of HP most of the time… because they’re from Australia, duh! You can do a quick Google search though to find a conversion or pay attention when they have their dyno charts up on the screen.

I’ll summarize their findings:

With a turbocharger already installed, they found little to no gain in HP with an aftermarket Cold Air Intake installed.

Without a turbo, they got a 3-4% HP gain by installing the Cold Air Intake.

Now all they measured was Peak to Peak. And I’ve already debunked some of that, so I know, even 3-4% at peak might not be that big of a deal.

The point is, you will see some small Horsepower gains on a non-turbocharged vehicle. But they aren’t going to blow you out of the water.

And that’s because adding Horsepower isn’t the only thing (or the main thing for that matter) that cold air intakes do for your engine.

The biggest thing a cold air intake will do for your engine is lower the temperature.

In other words, those two blokes--and just about every single one of us--have been looking at the wrong part of the dyno chart.

Horsepower gains are great to talk about, and they are easy to quote and compare. But the actual functions of that cold air intake are right there in its name: “cold” and “air intake.”

It takes in air, and that air will be substantially cooler than it was before.

If you watch their video example closely, you’ll notice this too, but I’d like to call your attention now to another video, this one from our friends (and product creators) over at Edge:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6sVwVP3s8U&feature=youtu.be

Before or after you check out this short video, please take a look at the number one comment (but be careful of the rest of ‘em because they aren’t all safe for work if you catch my drift).

“Horsepower gains?”

After watching Jared install the Jammer and run the dyno but not show us the complete results, I had the exact same question: Horsepower gains please?

But I hope this explanation has started to show how those gains might not be nearly as important. But first, cause you know you want them still anyway, here’s the horsepower and torque gains from the video from Peak to Peak:

5.9 foot pounds & 4.6 horsepower

Your welcome, DodgeRam Guy!

Now you likely just had the same reaction as me. That feels a bit lackluster. A smidge mediocre. Sure, I suppose so, if all you think you are getting out of a new cold air intake is horsepower gain. But let’s put that into a percentage for you first.

That 4.6 HP is a 1.45% gain. So it’s on the lower end. You might be able to find cold air intakes out there that claim they can give you more like 15 horsepower for instance. But there’s one more really important factor here that we shouldn’t miss.

That 2011 Dodge Ram from the video is a TurboDiesel

Yup. She’s already got a turbo installed. And that, my friends, is the reason for the minimal gains from the cold air intake. In fact, if you adjust for what the engine’s horsepower would likely be without that turbo installed, you’re really looking at around a 2.5% HP gain from that Jammer Cold Air Intake. Now we’re talking!

Let’s quickly explain what both I and the guys from MCM apparently didn’t think about when they started doing dyno tests to gauge cold air intake horsepower gains on a turbocharged vehicle.

Turbos & Cold Air Intakes

First, don’t think just cause of what I said above that Turbos and Cold Air Intakes don’t pair well. That’s not what I’m saying at all. In fact, they pair just great together. That’s not what I’m saying at all.

What I’m trying to point out is that the often quite massive (that’s what she said) horsepower gains afforded by installing a turbocharger will overshadow any potential gains you might see, or feel (please don’t say it again!), from installing a cold air intake too.

The reason, once you know how both turbos and CAI’s work, is pretty obvious. Both of these parts are designed into increase the air flow and density inside your cylinders so that you can increase the amount of fuel that goes in which then increases your horsepower and torque. Duh, right?

Turbos do it more manually and physically (phrasing? Are we still doing phrasing?) than cold air intakes because they use the exhaust gases to spin a turbine that create a vacuum-like sucking force (now you’re just making it too easy) that propels more air, and hence more oxygen, into each cylinder.

Cold air intakes do it the old fashioned way (that’s it. I quit!). Instead of using turbines to push and pull the air in, cold air intakes just make it as easy as possible for the cooler air rushing by your vehicle outside to get through your air filter and into your engine’s cylinders.

So why do you still see some performance gains when adding a cold air intake to an engine that’s already turbo charged?

One issue with a turbocharger is how easy it is to heat up the intake air when you add in the really hot exhaust and the spinning turbine. Hence the importance of products like intercoolers. It is for these reasons though that the cold air intake often does still offer minor performance gains on top of what you get from your turbo. The cold air is what does it. Colder air is denser, hence more oxygen in a particular small space, like say your engine’s cylinders.

In other words, a turbocharger and cold air intake pair just great together because they both help each other do their respected jobs better, in general. The reason why MCM and others, including that Edge video, don’t see big HP gains one turbo vehicles is because the amount of horsepower gain from a turbo, which is often upwards of 50% gain, just outshines the amount from the cold air intake.

Issue solved. Both add horsepower. Turbos just add more. So it is hard to see the smaller amount that is added from the cold air intake because the turbo is already doing a good job of maximizing the amount of oxygen you can cramp into each cylinder.

So why do I need both? Why do I need a cold air intake then?

The cold part, remember? Bringing in colder air will only improve the amount of oxygen you can cram in. And secondly--and here’s where you need to pay attention to that Edge video again--take a look at what Edge did decide to focus on from that dyno test: not the Horsepower and torque gains from Peak to Peak, but the temperature changes!

Jammer Cold Air Intake Dyno Results from Edge’s YouTube Video:

Exhaust Gas Temperature: Dropped 74.5 degrees

Engine Coolant Temperature: Dropped 15 degrees

Manifold Intake Air Temperature: Dropped 5 degrees

BAM!

Now I know that isn’t nearly as sexy as saying I gained 5 horsepower, which that Cummins did gain roughly 5 horsepower too, didn’t it? But those numbers are pretty tremendous. You just might not realize it because how often do we sit around trading temperature values?

So let me break down for you why each of those temperature drops is so substantial.

Temperature: the Really Big Deal about Cold Air Intakes

We’ll actually work our way up backwards through those results, starting with what most of us likely think is the most important number: the Manifold Intake Air Temperature.

This one is a gimme, really, and is related to everything we’ve been pointing at. Here’s where your horsepower gains come into play. A 5 degree drop in temperature going into your manifold intake translates directly into the amount of air that you can get into each cylinder. Remember that more air plus more fuel equals more power, and you’ll know exactly why this number is so important.

Now you might be thinking that 5 degrees isn’t all that much, but take note of where your manifold air intake is. That’s right. It’s after your turbo. That turbo, no matter how hard you try, is going to heat up the air some. So coming out with even what you might think is a small drop, is still pretty substantial. To see just how huge that 5 degrees is, seeing as it is at the beginning of the intake and exhaust systems journey that all the air will be going through, just have a look at those other two numbers.

You Engine Coolant temperature is directly related to how well your oil is going to be able to function and lubricate your engine. You want it in the sweet zone, or goldilocks zone, if you’d prefer that--not too hot, not too cold. Unless if it is Winter time and cold where you live, the too cold part is pretty hard to hit. But that too hot zone is easy. After all, your engine is constantly heating up. The hard part, once she’s warm, is keeping her from overheating.

Hence the coolant. You need engine coolant to keep your vehicle from overheating. It totally seems obvious, right? Now imagine that your coolant is suddenly able to function so much better that it has dropped 15 degrees. That means the coolant is suddenly not having to leach nearly as much heat energy out of your engine, and your engine is able to stay within that optimal zone so much easier.

Just to put this in writing and make sure it is clear, the number one cause of motor failure, especially for big diesels, is excessive heat, certainly within the engine itself but also at the exhaust.

Speaking of…

Ready for the biggest drop of the article? 74.5 degrees at your exhaust! This is an extremely hot area for exhaust fumes. The air coming into the intake is close to room temperature or whatever it is outside. But your exhaust fumes have gone through some of the hottest parts of your engine and come out blazin’ hot. But somehow that cold air intake with only a 5 degree drop on the front end is able to translate to a 74.5 degree drop at the back end.

Wait a minute. What gives? That can’t be right. Right?

This leads nicely into one of the last major functions of your intake system and your exhaust for that matter: efficiency and maximizing flow.

The reason why that air is coming out so much cooler from your tailpipe isn’t just that 5 degree drop up at the intake manifold. It is also do to the quicker flow that the aftermarket air filter and cold air intake provides.

By increasing the air flow up front, the backend or your exhaust system has to speed up too. It’s kinda like a vacuum. If we increase how much air is being sucked in at the front of your vehicle, you also have to increase how much is being spit out the back. This increases the speed of the air flow, and the faster its moving through all those hot elements inside your engine, the less amount of time it has to get heated up.

Now why is this such a big deal? See above, man.

The number one cause of motor failure: extreme heat, i.e. high exhaust temperature.

It can do anything from melting or damaging certain modern sensors to decreasing the efficiency of your engine--did you see that engine oil part above. Yup. That too.

So reducing the heat throughout the whole system is a huge plus. While those lower temperature numbers don’t translate to that much direct power gains, they do help add longevity to your engine and just make the whole system from start to finish function better and more efficiently.

I know it isn’t as sexy as the horsepower numbers, but the truth is the cold air intake is more about temperature control and air flow than pure horsepower gains.

Pro-Tip: Let’s say you go with the Stage 1 Kit. You’re gonna love the tuner. Getting into some mad dets about that next. But the next upgrade you should consider if you’re all about that horsepower and performance gain, beyond the programmer, is a serious exhaust upgrade. Your exhaust is the second half of that intake system, after all. And if you soup up the front end, the bottle neck, so to speak, is gonna become that back end--your exhaust. Check out some of our articles over in the Product Center all about that exhaust. We’ll explain all of this in extended detail, including a vivid talk about scavenging and backpressure. If you dug half the facts I just dumped all over you concerning air intakes, you’re gonna love the back 9--trust me!

Now, where were we? Oh, yeah: horsepower!

When you’re looking to show off about horsepower, you need to start tuning anyway. Which brings us nicely to the second half of Edge’s Stage 1 Kit: the Evolution CTS2 performance programmer.

Edge’s Evolution CTS2 Tuner

Performance Programming can be intimidating at first, but it is also the best option if you really want to unlock your truck’s full potential, especially when it comes to horsepower gains and torque.

The Evolution CTS2 programmer makes it all easy for you. If you’ve ever used a touchscreen phone or tablet before, then you’ll have no problem navigating through the menus of this performance tuner.

You can simply use the touchscreen to swipe from menu to menu and load up to four custom pre-programmed tunes specifically created for your vehicle.

Let’s start with the sick part.

How many Horsepower or torque could I gain my just installing an Edge Evolution CTS2 tuner?

What kind of HP or ft lb TQ should I expect to add with the Evolution CTS2?

Your diesel pickup could gain upwards of 180 horsepower and 440 ft lb of torque by simply installing the Evolution CTS2 and selecting the appropriate pre-loaded custom tunes. If you’re rocking a gas powered pickup truck, you can gain up to 50 horsepower and 50 ft lbs of torque.

That’s probably as good of a place to start as any.

Typically, truck owners are interested in performance programmers for one of two reasons: the custom tunes that maximize anything from fuel economy to towing to performance gains OR having a gauge monitor which can give you access to everything from all the data the various sensors already present within your vehicle has to troubleshooting diagnostic codes and clearing them yourself.

And Edge’s Evolution CTS2 can do it all.

What I like about the CTS2 is its customizability and ease of use. As I said before the touch screen makes it so simple and intuitive. You just swipe down to see the notifications, swipe up to get the menu. Swipe side to side to see your second set of gauge monitors. And your homescreen will have your main layout of monitors. This setup is nice for if you like to watch certain parameters like engine oil temperature when towing but just want to monitor fuel economy daily too.

Each screen is fully customizable to show upwards of 9 different parameters using both digital and more analogy displays. Just want the numbers? They’ve got a setting for that. Looking for old school style needle gauges? Yeah, they’ve got a setting for that too.

You can customize colors and backgrounds as well, including uploading a custom image from your home computer of your family and you last summer when you went camping down by the lake. Or you could upload an image of a super hot and sexy swimsuit model you found on the Internet. We won’t tell.

Personally, I love supporting my favorite football team, the Fins! So I’ve got a sick Dolphins background on my main screen. 

And my side screen is sporting the Fins’ cheerleading squad. Win-win, my friend!

It doesn’t really matter what I like. With Evolution CTS2, it’s all about you and what you want those gauges to look like.

Performance Tuning Made Easy

If you pull up the menu, one of the first places you’ll likely want to go is the Performance Tuning section. You’ll find 3-4 custom tunes preloaded on your CTS2 depending on whether you’re rocking gas or diesel and what year, make, and model truck you have.

The top most option will be your Stock setting. This is for if you ever need to flash back to Stock to take your truck into the dealership for work or for those pesky EPA Exhaust Tests. Fun times.

Next you’ll find the Economy setting. This tune is designed to help you maximize your fuel economy and is a great program to run when you’re making regular daily commutes.

The Level 2 tune is for Towing. This setting will maximize torque so you can more efficiently tow heavy trailers and such. If you’ve ever found yourself towing a large trailer, like say with a speed boat on it or worse yet a camper, up hill, through the Rockies… yeah… You need this tune!

Level 3 will be your Performance setting. This level is about maximizing your Horsepower to get all that and then some out of your engine.

And for some makes and models there’s even a Level 4 setting known as Extreme, but we aren’t allowed to even talk about that. It’s like Fight Club serious.

Just playing. Level 4 pushes your engine to the extreme limits, squeezing out every last inch of torque and all those horses. Not for that faint of heart, nor for anywhere but the race track… or maybe some back road, boonie cruisin’? Sure. Why not!

What’s nice about the Evolution is you don’t have to really know much about the tunes at all. Edge takes care of all the calculations. You don’t have to go find an expert to load tunes on your vehicle. The techs over at Edge already calculated how you to make sure you get the maximum performance out of your truck.

Furthermore, since the Evolution CTS2 is designed to work with the Jammer Cold Air Intake, the new for custom tunes becomes ever more limited. The CTS2 is already programmed for that particular aftermarket part. So you don’t have to worry about tweaking any values or seeking out a professional custom tune programmer.

You just hit Economy when you want to increase your MPGs and Towing when you want to tow, and probably stay in Performance ALL the rest of the time! Because it’s really fun, isn’t it?

Just to give you a general idea, since we gave you one about torque (Towing) and Horsepower (Performance), we have heard some customers have been able to increase their Miles per Gallon by upwards of 15 MPG by making their daily (mostly highway) commute in Economy mode, so don’t forget to try that one out. It could really help your pocket book, especially during those summer months when gas and diesel prices just happen to always skyrocket for some strange reason.

Beyond the Basics

So the tuning is simple to take care of. And the custom backgrounds and gauges are pretty cool too. But what else can you do with this tuner?

One of my favorite features, in case you didn’t notice just yet, has to do with the numbers and science behind all these sick tunes.

Here they come: the Records, Data Log, and Performance Testing options!

I list all three together although they are all separate options from the main menu because I feel they all speak to the inner gearhead in me.

Records allows you to record your Record peaks for any number of parameters including speed and RPM’s. This feature plus the Data log and Performance Testing are kinda like having a mini dyno right in the palm of your hand. While the tests are certainly not as accurate as a full dyno, its still pretty sweet.

The Data Log records all your engine parameters for up to 10 minutes straight. And the CTS2 can store up to 5 runs at a time. You can hook the device up to your PC and download the data to either Edge’s MyStyle software or an Excel spreadsheet. From MyStyle you can even graph out any possible parameter you want to see over time. But if you just want all the numbers, the Excel option is pretty sick.

Now if you like to go race or do truck pulls and such, you probably already have an idea what you might want to record records for and get data logs on. But if you don’t do any of that stuff--yet, that is--then you’re gonna love this last part:

The Performance Testing menu lets you hit the track (or empty, closed course back roads near my uncle’s farm) and do up to three separate tests, including: 0-60 MPH test, a Quarter Mile time trial, and if you can get your vehicle’s weight, a Horsepower test that again gets you about as close to accurate as you could possibly hope for without going and getting your own dyno.

What’s great about all this, is gearheads and tinkers like me love to try new tunes and make minor or sometimes major adjustments to our trucks. And the CTS2 allows us to check those adjustments while we are on the go! No need to go to the shop and schedule a dyno run. You can just hit the track (or those back roads) and get some rough measurements yourself.

Finally, there is a maintenance minder and a diagnostic tool option as well. Both are pretty simple and self explanatory, but that doesn’t mean being able to clear your DTC’s isn’t awesome. And also if you’ve ever had that Check Engine light pop on and panicked, now you can just check it yourself and know right away whether it is a major issue or just something minor, like you’re low on windshield wiper fluid.

If all that isn’t enough, Edge added on a sweet Accelerometer (yeah, kinda like the one in your phone)! This feature is great for towing, especially. If you want to know the incline of the hill your own and be able to gauge exactly how steep it is, then this feature is certainly going to be one you’ll want to check out.

The Evolution CS2

If you are eyeing one of the Stage 1 Kits with the CS2 instead of the CTS2 and note the price difference and such, the CS2 is definitely worth considering as well.

It has most of the main features of the CTS2, minus the touchscreen and with a smaller screen size. Honestly, if you can get past the lack of touchscreen, the CS2 is actually quite a bit more sleek looking and takes up less space.

However, if you need that large screen size, especially if you want to view a lot of digital gauges all at once, then you might want to stick with the CTS2. Where the CTS2 can fit up to 9 gauges on a single screen, the CS2 maxes out around 6.

The only other slightly modified aspect of the CS2 when compared to the CTS2 has to do with the background image size. So whereas on the CTS2 you could easily fit a larger custom picture, you might have to resize your custom image a bit to squeeze it onto the smaller screen.

Both the CS2 and CTS2 have exactly the same great tuning levels, and both products should be considered if you’re looking to get into tuning.

And again, the best part of it both these kits is that not only are these two products kitted together to save you money, but they are designed to work in tandem. If you want to maximize your performance gains or just improve your fuel economy, this Stage 1 Kit with the Jammer Cold Air Intake and the Evolution CTS2 tuner is perfect for you.

This would make a great gift even for a son or father who recently purchased a new truck and has been talking about getting into tuning and aftermarket accessories. The Jammer is easy to install, and these two products together are going to give your happy man immediate and noticeable gains, unlike simply installing a new aftermarket air filter.

I don’t know what you’re waiting for. You need to order up your very own Stage 1 Kit from Edge for your pickup truck now.

When you’re ready to order, we hope you’ll get your Edge Stage 1 Kit from us here at Midwest Aftermarket. Not only is our research pretty sick, but we’re also honest and transparent about the products we sell. If we don’t believe in a product, we’ll pull it off our site. We only sell the best and greatest products available, aftermarket parts we’d feel comfortable and do install on our own trucks and Jeeps.

Midwest Aftermarket's collection of cold air intakes and aftermarket air filters, pickup bed covers, tuners and performance programmers, 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.