[Carl n Susan]

I had the re-flash done to my 2008 F250 6.4L in November when it first came out and before it was halted due to TCM destruction (my TCM was fine afterward).

There has been no significant effect on mileage or performance that I can tell. I have driven about 1500 miles since. About half was commute to work (stop and go type traffic) and half pulling the Montana to Quartzsite. The around town mileage sucks just as it did before. It may be slightly worse, but it is hard to tell since the commute has been really ugly for the last month (one night it took 1.5 hours to go two miles - lots of idling). My towing mileage is very close to what I recorded last year over the same route. So it appears the re-flash didn't adversely affect me.

The most noticeable change is the new display message when ever the truck cleans the exhaust filter. The message is clearly displayed (and remains displayed unless "cleared") the entire time an active re-generation is occurring. It is obvious the concept of "passive re-generation" where the "drive it like you stole it" hard towing mode of operation keeps the exhaust gas temperatures high enough to burn off the particulates is bogus.

The harder the engine works, the more dirty exhaust (i.e black smoke and particulates) it produces. All of which is trapped in the Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF). An Active Re-generation is where diesel fuel is introduced into the the exhaust system in order to raise the temperature enough to "burn off" the accumulated junk.

Driving around town, where the engine is basically loafing, results in an active re-generation every 200-300 miles. However while towing the Montana I found it was doing an active re-generation as often as 90 miles. In fact one occurred shortly after I crested the Tehachapi Mountains (for those that know Southern CA and Hwy-58) where we had pulled a fairly long and significant grade (6%). If high exhaust temps would clean the DPF, then this was the route that would have done it.

I suspect most folks were previously unable to detect how often a re-generation actually occurred. In most cases, there wasn't any obvious signs. Now, you will know and it may surprise you.