Government Crackdown On Illegal Diesel Mods Created Black Market For Sketchy Tunes

If you have something really heavy to tow, you would think a new heavy-duty pickup truck would be more than enough to handle it. The 2023 Ford Super Duty, for example, can be ordered with a 6.7-liter turbodiesel that makes 1,200 lb-ft of torque, and it can tow up to 40,000 pounds. For many diesel enthusiasts, though, that’s not enough to do any “real” work, and the only solution is to get rid of the emissions equipment, the planet and the law be damned. And with the Environmental Protection Agency finally cracking down on illegal diesel mods, a new black market has sprung up.

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The Drive recently took a dive into the world of illegally modifying diesel pickup trucks, and it’s a fascinating read. When it comes to getting rid of the exhaust gas recirculation system or diesel particulate filter, people have reportedly turned to ordering kits from other countries, with Canada playing a large part in shipping EGR block-off plates, straight pipes and other equipment into the U.S.

Getting engine tunes, on the other hand, is both more straightforward and way riskier. The Drive spoke to Kory Willis, the owner of tuning company PPEI, and from the sound of it, people are essentially just downloading random files and hoping for the best:

Huge tune file libraries are also sold online, some claiming to hold more than 10,000 tunes. The thing is, most of them aren’t unique and they simply wear a different label. Apparently, it’s not uncommon for shops to purchase those libraries for $5,000 and make their money back in a hurry by installing them on customers’ trucks for $1,000 a pop. Those are the ones that often make their way back to PPEI in need of repair, according to Willis.

The situation becomes even riskier as these files seep into the world where anyone can sell them as their own. Spend any time in diesel truck Facebook groups and you’ll see people using code words like “weight loss” or “diet plans” instead of explicitly talking about deletes—yes, really. The original poster is usually asking where they can get their truck deleted, and they’re met with comments that simply say “DM me.” And it isn’t unprecedented for these to be high schoolers who snagged a delete tune for cheap and they’re selling it for $150 because they spent no time developing it on their own.

Tuning your engine with some random code that you bought off a teenager and might make your truck run terribly seems like a pretty bad idea to us, but apparently, it’s worth the risk for a lot of people. After all, could you imagine being forced to drive a legal truck that can only tow 40,000 pounds and isn’t a gross, polluting mess? That would just be miserable.