2021 Cummins Delete: Which Truck You Have, and What Federal Law Says

# 2021 Cummins Delete: Which Truck You Have, and What Federal Law Says Before the legal question there is a factual one, and a surprising number of owners get it wrong about this particular model year. A 2021 Ram Heavy Duty did not come one way. Two different factory calibrations were published for the same engine, they went into different trucks, and which one is under your hood changes what a modification could actually gain you. This article covers that first, then the law. What follows is a technical and legal reference rather than advice on your own circumstances. ## The short answer The Environmental Protection Agency names the prohibitions on tampering as Clean Air Act section 203(a)(3) and 40 C.F.R. §§ 1068.101(b). The Clean Air Act prohibits anyone from tampering with an emission control device on a motor vehicle by removing it or making it inoperable,oem-23 whether before or after the sale to the buyer. Neither of the two things owners expect to change that does. The prohibitions apply for the entire life of the vehicle, and they apply regardless of whether the regulatory useful life oroem-18 the warranty period has ended. ## Which 2021 truck do you have Cummins describes the 2021 engine as bringing more horsepower and torque than its predecessor. What is easy to miss is that the increase was not applied uniformly across the range. Cummins publishes the 2021 power rating as a range of 370 - 420 hp. It publishes the torque rating for the same model year as a range of 850 - 1075 lb-ft. A range is not a spec. It is two ratings printed in one place, and the gap between the ends of it is wider than most aftermarket claims. Every engine output figure below is from that same Cummins engine page; the towing and payload figures further down are from Ram's press material for the model year. **Standard output, in the 2500 and the 3500.** For the Ram 2500 and 3500 fitted with the 68RFE automatic, Cummins records that horsepower and torque increased to 370 hp and 850 lb-ft. **High output, in the 3500 only.** Cummins records the high-output engine at 420 hp and 1,075 lb-ft of torque. That high-output rating is offered exclusively in the Ram 3500 equipped with the Aisin transmission option.oem-07 That restriction is the part worth checking before anything else, and it gives you a test you can run in your own driveway. The high-output calibration was tied to a particular automatic transmission, and the standard-output calibration to a different one. If your truck is a 2500 it has the standard-output calibration whatever a general summary of the engine says. If it is a 3500, the transmission it was built with is what separates the two. The reason that test works is that these are not trim levels. They are two published ratings on one engine, certified as they left the factory, and the difference between them is not a part you can see by opening the hood. The torque history is worth knowing too, because it is frequently misdated. The 2019 model year introduced HD pickup buyers to 1000 lb-ft of torque for the first time ever.oem-12 The partnership behind it runs a long way further back than that. Cummins engines have been an option in Ram pickups since 1989.oem-06 The first Cummins-powered Ram arrived with 400 pounds-feet of torque, which Cummins describes as having roared past the competition of the day. Cummins reports that nearly 70% of Ram 2500 and 3500 Heavy Duty pickup owners choose the Cummins Turbo Diesel as their powertrain.oem-12 That is context for how ordinary this engine is in the segment rather than an argument about any particular truck. ## What that means for the power argument Most delete conversations are really power conversations, so it is worth putting the factory capability figures where they can be seen. These come from Ram's own press material for the model year rather than from the engine page, because towing and payload are properties of the truck rather than of the engine. Ram's press material for the model year publishes a towing capacity of 35,100 pounds and a payload capacity of 7,680 poundsoem-27, oem-28, oem-30 for the 2021 Ram Heavy Duty. The practical consequence is that the headroom people imagine is being measured against a factory calibration that was already near the top of what the segment offered. Where a truck is already on the high-output rating, the gap between what it makes now and what any modification could deliver is narrower than the reputation suggests. Where it is on the standard-output rating, the more useful question is what the factory's own high-output calibration involved, because that is a difference the manufacturer engineered and certified rather than one somebody added afterwards. It also helps to know where the difference between two ratings on one engine actually lives. In a common rail fuel system, diesel is stored in a high-pressure rail that suppliesoem-09 each injector independently. That arrangement holds a constant and consistent high pressure, which allows precise control over injection timing and quantity. So the distance between the two published ratings on this engine is mostly a matter of what the controller commands and when, not of different metal. That is why a power conversation about this truck is a software conversation almost immediately — and it is exactly why the legal boundary below is drawn around software as well as hardware. ## What federal law prohibits The prohibition reaches further than lifting a part off the truck, and the test the agency applies is a comparison rather than a judgement about why the work was done. When EPA decides whether service on an emissions element was tampering, it compares the element after the service against its fully functioning certified configuration. Software sits inside that same boundary, which is the part most often assumed otherwise. A part that alters how the computer controls fuel is a defeat device. A calibration written to suit absent aftertreatment is describing itself in those terms. The agency is explicit that the controls it means are not only the parts you can point at. EPA records that required emission controls often include filters and catalystsoem-16 in the exhaust system as well as calibrations that manage fueling strategy and other operations in the engine itself. Theoem-16 prohibition also runs in both directions of a transaction. The Clean Air Act prohibits tampering with emissions controls, as well as manufacturing, selling, and installing aftermarket devices intended to defeat those controls.oem-16 An owner and a seller are therefore looking at the same statute from two different positions. ## Off-road and competition labels An off-road or competition-only label on a part does not create a legal exemption, because there is no Clean Air Act exemption for a vehicle used only off-road or only for racing. What the label records is a seller's description of intended use. The agency has also tested that claim against what sellers can actually show. EPA has found that competition-only claims are unsupported by any showing of competition-only use. ## Warranty Tampering, including installing a defeat device, can void manufacturer warranties. On a truck of this age the powertrain coverage may well have run out already, but the emissions consequences are separate from the warranty question and outlast it. The qualifier is worth knowing too. Federal warranty law puts the burden on the warrantor to show that the aftermarket part caused the failure. So a denial still has to connect the modification to the specific failure being claimed. ## What the exposure is The governing statute is 42 U.S.C. § 7524, and the figures actually in force are the inflation-adjusted ones published at 40 C.F.R. § 19.4 today. Two amounts apply to two different classes of party, and they are frequently reported the wrong way round. For any person other than a manufacturer or dealer, the maximum is $5,911s-authorities, s-legal-gate per motor vehicle or engine. For a manufacturer or dealer,s-authorities, s-legal-gate the maximum is $59,114 per motor vehicle or engine. Those amounts are maxima rather than fixed amounts. The statute makes the assessor weigh gravity, economic benefit, business size and compliance historys-authorities before landing on a number. It is fair to ask whether any of this is enforced in practice, and the agency publishes its own answer. By making aftermarket defeat devices a National Enforcement and Compliance Initiative,oem-16 EPA addressed what it called a significant contributor to air pollution. EPA finalized 172 civil enforcement cases from FY 2020 through FY 2023,oem-16, s-authorities and those cases produced civil penalties totalling $55.5 million. During FY 2023, EPA resolved 38 civil enforcement cases.oem-16 The listed targets of that initiative are worth reading closely if you are having work done rather than doing it. From FY 2020 through FY 2023 that initiative focused on stopping the manufacture, sale and installation of defeat devices on vehicles and engines used on public roads as well as on nonroad vehicles and engines.oem-16 Installation is named alongside manufacture and sale, so the shop doing the work is inside the same sentence as the company that made the part. Where those cases landed is worth noting, because it is not where owners assume. EPA has found numerous companies and individuals thatoem-16 manufactured and sold both hardware and software specifically designed to defeat required emissions controls.oem-16 The two halves of that sentence are the point: the software was treated the same way as the hardware, and the sellers were the ones in front of the agency. The division of labour between federal and state enforcement follows from that. EPA also supported states performing inspections and taking enforcement actions for violations of state laws concerning tampering. States' efforts to curtailoem-16 demand for aftermarket defeat devices complement the agency's own, which are generally focused on the manufacturing and supply ofoem-16 those devices. So the seller-side focus does not mean an owner sits outside the system; it means the two levels of government are working different ends of the same market. Between them, the agency also invested in the inspection capability that finds modified trucks. From FY 2020 through FY 2023 the agency provided tampering and aftermarket defeat device inspector trainings attended by 26 states and the District of Columbia.oem-16 The scale of what that enforcement was aimed at is published as well. Known sales of defeat devices for certain diesel trucks after 2009 and before 2020 resulted in more than 570,000 tons of excess nitrogen oxidesoem-16 over the lifetime of the trucks. The same sales produced 5,000 tons of excess particulate matter over the lifetime of those trucks. Illegally modified vehicles and engines contribute substantial excess pollution that harms public health and impedes efforts by the EPA, tribes, states and local agencies to plan for and attain air quality standards.oem-16 Those figures are the reason the agency treats this as an air quality problem rather than a paperwork one. ## The compliant path Where a truck has already been modified, there is a defined route back. EPA generally takes no enforcement action where a person restores the element to its certified configuration.oem-17, oem-18 For a road-registered truck the compliant categories are parts holding a California Air Resources Board Executive Order, emissions-intact tuning that does not alter an emissions control element, and restoration to factory configuration. Nothing sold as a delete belongs in that first category. CARB must deny an Executive Order exemption request if the device will reduce the effectiveness of the emissions control system.s-authorities A part whose function is to reduce emissions-control effectiveness can never receive ans-authorities Executive Order. So the category is closed by design rather than by a queue. In California, Vehicle Code section 27156 separately prohibits installing, selling, offering for sale or advertising such a device. --- ## Legal notice This article is educational and describes federal requirements as published by the EPA, the Code of Federal Regulations and the engine and vehicle manufacturers. It is not legal advice. Removing, disabling, bypassing or defeating an emissions control device on a vehicle certified for highway use is prohibited under the Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. § 7522(a)(3), and 40 C.F.R. § 1068.101(b). Civil penalties under 42 U.S.C. § 7524, as adjusted by 40 C.F.R. § 19.4 for violations assessed on or after 8 January 2025,s-legal-gate reach a **maximum of $5,911** per motor vehicle or engine for any person other than a manufacturer or dealer,s-authorities, s-legal-gate and a **maximum of $59,114** per motor vehicle or engine for a manufacturer or dealer.s-authorities, s-legal-gate These are maxima rather than fixed amounts: 42 U.S.C. § 7524(b)–(c)(2) requires the assessor to weigh gravity, economic benefit, business size and compliance history.s-authorities These prohibitions apply for the entire life of the vehicle and apply regardless of whether the warranty or regulatory useful-life period has ended. Tampering may void the vehicle warranty. A part labelled for off-road, competition or closed-course use does not create an exemption for a vehicle that is registered or operated on public roads. ## Sources 1. Cummins, 6.7L Turbo Diesel (2021) — https://www.cummins.com/engines/products/cummins-67l-turbo-diesel-2021 2. Cummins, Cummins-Ram history — https://www.cummins.com/engines/pickup-truck/cummins-ram-history 3. Cummins, Pickup Truck — https://www.cummins.com/engines/pickup-truck 4. Cummins, Fuel System Technologies — https://www.cummins.com/components/engine-components/fuel-systems 5. Stellantis media, Ram Heavy Duty press kit — https://media.stellantisnorthamerica.com/newsrelease.do?id=21972 6. EPA, National Enforcement and Compliance Initiative: Stopping Aftermarket Defeat Devicess-authorities, s-usa-regs — https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/national-enforcement-and-compliance-initiative-stopping-aftermarket-defeat-devices 7. EPA, Tampering and Defeat Devices enforcement alert — https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2020-12/documents/tamperinganddefeatdevices-enfalert.pdf 8. EPA, Enforcement Policy on Vehicle and Engine Tamperingoem-19, s-usa-regs — https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2020-12/documents/epatamperingpolicy-enforcementpolicyonvehicleandenginetampering.pdf 9. EPA, Tampering and Aftermarket Defeat Devices (2019 MCDI presentation) — https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2019-05/documents/tampering-aftermarket-defeat-devices-2019-mcdi-mtg-33pp.pdf 10. EPA, Air Enforcement — https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/air-enforcement 11. Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, 40 C.F.R. § 19.4 — https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-40/chapter-I/subchapter-A/part-19/section-19.4 12. 42 U.S.C. § 7522, United States Code via GovInfo — https://www.govinfo.gov/link/uscode/42/7522?link-type=html 13. 42 U.S.C. § 7524, United States Code via GovInfo — https://www.govinfo.gov/link/uscode/42/7524?link-type=html 14. 16 C.F.R. § 700.10, Code of Federal Regulations via GovInfo — https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2022-title16-vol1/pdf/CFR-2022-title16-vol1-sec700-10.pdf 15. California Air Resources Board, Procedures for Exemption of Add-On and Modified Partss-authorities — https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/barcu/board/15day/ampts/proceduresfinal.pdf