Hey guys Im looking into possibly switching out my turbo for the Garrett GTP38R powermax from RR but not to sure if its worth while to do it. My current setup is Bulldog 6 position chip, HPx, stock injectors. I bearly use the chip on any setting just for the simple fact it slams into gear rough at lower rpm. Would the GTP38R benefit my truck or should I stick with stock until it decides to fail?

-AJ

 

If the guts of your stock turbo are ok... just throw a ww2 on it and save for sticks.
I honestly dont see much advantage over a 38 by replacing it with a 38r when everything else is stock. Ww2 will by my next performance upgrade. (After i take care of my little injector oil pressure hemorrhage)

 

Get rid of that bulldog and get a better programmer/ chip. If you don't use it what good is it? I have a hard time with the thought of adding a bunch of other things to make up for the fact that you have a deficit in programming. Believe me, if you go to a chip like a DP, you will see much better gains from that, then from trying to make up for bad tunes with better turbo, etc. the other thing is, it is a much cheaper route too.

 

If you are having trans shifting issues with your current tuning, I think you have even more of a reason to changes tuners before doing any other upgrades. Turbo upgrades will compliment the tuning, but you need good trans shift strategies to make efficient use of the additional power.

 

The 38R is a good upgrade, but you won't see much of a difference with it on stock tuning. Actually, the only differences you will see are less/no surge, and it will be louder.

 

Exactly...

Per the other guys, I'd lose the Bullydog Chip and look into something else and make sure you don't have any other issues before any other mods. This is especially a good time with the release of PHP's Hydra. You can try a whatever tunes from a the vendors that support it and decide which one you like best. I know Gearhead, obviously PHP, and a few others support it.

With Gearhead, Swamps, PHP, BTS, and a few others tuning, see how your your truck likes the tunes, then look into modding, or in this case, adding more air.

Just an Fyi, you'll more than likely need new boots with the 38R. Mine were soggy with oil and would have easily blown off with the boost the 38R produces.

 

Hey guys thanks for all the feed back. Now to answer a few questions you guys had asked.

The bullydog came with the truck from the PO and I never really saw a need to use it and like I said before the trans just shifted too hard. Now Christof13T said to get a WW2, and others said to go with a different chip. Is there any benefit to the WW2 vs stock and what tunes would you guys recommend? I don't drag or race the truck, its my daily driver and I tow once in a while but nothing too extreme.

And thank you for the FYI toreador but I had replaced the boots about a year ago with the ones from RR.

Now will the DP calm the trans down in its modes? I was thinking of doing
Position 0 NO START Position 1 STOCK Position 2 Valet 35 MPH Position 3 HI IDLE 1400 Position 4 80HP ECON Position 5 DECEL Position 6 DRIVE THRU.

Any thoughts or insight its greatly appreciated.

Thank you for all the help,
-AJ

 

On stock sticks, drive thru doesn't do a lot. Get a tow tune like 60T and Put decel between 80E and the tow tune and you have what you need tune wise.

 

Jody has put a lot of time into perfecting his transmission tuning. He can always adjust the firmness as well.

Feel free to contact me if you have anymore questions regarding our products. I would be happy to help you out

 

Quiet tunes can stink, smoke, and coke. I had some quiet idle tunes for an extended period of time and it caused issues with emissions any time I was stopped (like in traffic) and one of my injectors coked over... causing a rough idle. I was able to solve the rough idle problem at no cost, but I learned that the quiet idle is best used as a utility-only feature... like pulling into a campground late at night.

 

Well said!

 

I love my quiet tune for the drive thru but not fr anything ese. Without it I have to turn off my truck, but I have single shot injectors.
My tuning is from gearheadautomotiveperformance and my shifting is very nice. The truck has great power and Matt prides himself on very little smoke. I have heard complaints about how much excessive smoke others have with a different tuner. All that is is wasted fuel. Which means tuning is not up to par with the amount of air being pushed.

Jut food for thought.