Installation Time
(approx) 1 Hour
Difficulty Level:
Simple installation for anyone.
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Hey, guys. Adam here with americantrucks.com, and today we're taking a closer look at and installing the DiabloSport Marathon active fuel management module, available for the '07 to '18 Silverado 1500. And I have this right here in my hand and all it is is a simple OBD2 module that you plug into the OBD2 port under the driver side dash. Now before I get into all the details about the product, if you're not familiar with active fuel management in the GM products like the Silverado and the Sierra, let me quickly explain that. So active fuel management is essentially in the ECU. It allows the vehicle to shut off half of its cylinders under light cruising speeds, especially on highway driving, to help save some gas mileage. Now it shuts off and goes from a V8 to a V4 under those light cruising speeds. So with that, it can be really effective in helping saving you some dollars at the pump, giving you a little bit longer lifespan with your gas tank. The Marathon module here plugs into the OBD2 to help keep that V4 active fuel management system on a little bit longer and engage sooner in order to help you save even more money.Now, from the factory, that active fuel management is set to be on about 35% of the time. Now, of course, that number can vary depending on how heavy of a foot you have. If you're matting it from light to light, of course, you may not get that as much. This device when plugged in can change that from 35% factory to 80% with this plugged into OBD2. That's a huge jump. We're more than doubling the amount of time that that active fuel management is on in your Silverado. So we actually put this to the test and hooked up a GoPro to focus on our center dash module screen and you can see in that bottom right-hand corner where that V8 logo is. We reset our trip timer and our mpg and made sure that it was set to zero, and we drove it for about three miles around the block near our headquarters here. We then, of course, plugged this guy in and wanted to track the after results. Now before, we saw in 3 miles 11.5 miles per gallon. That average is using 93 octane in our tank and we have big 33-inch all-terrain tires on our truck, which can definitely slug this thing down a lot. So that's something to keep in mind there. With this plugged in, doing the exact same three-mile route, we walked away with 13.5 or 13.6 miles per gallon average. That's about two miles per gallon difference in just a simple three miles. Now those three miles were not highway driving. That was regular city driving here in that PA area, and we saw a little bit of traffic with it, so it makes a huge difference daily driving to work on your commute.If you hook this thing up when you're hitting the highways, you can definitely expect bigger savings. This is something that makes a huge impact and has very, very little cons. I really have nothing bad to say about this, because it simply just plugs in and you kind of forget about it. One thing I noticed while testing this thing out, before plugging this in, just in our factory run here, I saw that when it did go into active fuel management mode, the second you even breathe on the throttle it disengaged and went back up to being a V8, all cylinders activated. With this plugged in, I noticed that even when getting on the throttle a little bit more, once it is activated, it stayed activated longer. I also noticed that pulling up to a red light or stop sign, it wouldn't switch back to V8 automatically. It actually stayed V4 all the way through my turns, which is very nice. Without this plugged in, that was not the case, and it would jump right back into all eight cylinders. I noticed this helps lock you in the active fuel management mode a little bit longer to save you money in the long run. Now this module comes in right around 250 bucks, which I know is a little bit steeper of a price to pay for something as simple as this. But with such a big impact on your daily driving, your miles per gallon, your money at the pump, in my opinion, this thing will pay for itself in a couple of months.Now installing it is so simple, it couldn't be any easier. It'll take you 20 seconds. Plugs right into the OBD2 module, and it's just like this. You'll notice that the LED light here is on the top. You want that facing down, and you're gonna plug it right into the OBD2 slot under your driver side dash. And when it's plugged in, it starts flashing green, and then steady green light will come on when it's activated. It's that simple, takes 20 seconds. Obviously I'm giving it one out of three wrenches on our difficulty meter. That takes care of that, guys, and that really wraps things up. So if you want to save money at the pump, and you want to make sure that your vehicle can stay in that active fuel management longer, you want to take advantage of that feature in your truck, this is gonna help you do so. Goes from 35% to 80% active. You can get yours right here at americantrucks.com.
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Installation Info
Installation Time
(approx) 1 Hour
Difficulty Level:
Simple installation for anyone.
What's in the Box
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