Here's the deal. Going to try to keep this short, but i know that won't happen.

1997 F250 7.3. Automatic with 4.10 rear end gears.

Going to be pulling a camper from Connecticut to Colorodo. 2300 miles one way. Camper probably weighs between 6-7k pounds. (I'll post pictures of it later.) It's a bumper pull.

I know this truck is rated from the factory to pull 12k, but i figure a round of upgrades won't hurt as the truck is totally stock. 160k on the motor.

Here are my plans. Tell me if i'm overkilling this or if this sounds like a solid plan.

1. 5" Diamond Eye Turboback exhaust. 3" Downpipe. (Diamond Eye 5" Turbo Back "Offroad" Exhaust - Riffraff Diesel Performance)
2. A-pillar gauges. Pyro, Trans temp, and boost. (Auto Meter - Triple A-Pillar Gauge Kit | 4WheelParts.com)
3. 6637 Air intake mod.
4. Plugging the wastegate. (Read this adds about 5 PSI of boost?)
5. Big Transmission Cooler.

That's it. I don't want to tune it. I want stock power. I feel like i'm less likely to break things that way.

I've read mixed reviews about the 6637 mod. Anyone want to chime in on this? I've read since it pulls hot air from under the hood the factory intake is better because it pulls cool air from through the hood and blah blah blah.

Also would love feedback overall. Maybe there's a few other simple mods i don't know about that would help me out?

Thanks!

 

There is not a waste gate on these trucks.

There is an exhaust back pressure valve. Yes remove the butterfly and plug the holes.


Check the up pipes for soot at the collectors.


6637 is great. I have the afe reusable equivalent.


No tuning?!?! Ugg that's gonna be a long trip!

 

I hate all of you with a passion.

Ok fine. I'll give you a few sentences to sell me on a tuner.

But seriously, my belief, and it's probably totally wrong is that without tuning it's a lot harder to hurt the truck. I feel like the extra power would put more stress on things, thus wearing things out and breaking things quicker.

But the more i read about it, it seems tunes un-dumb the engine that ford tamped down to avoid idiots from hurting it assuming it had the power it was meant to have (that i would gain from tuning.)

 

Just look at my SIG. Yea self restraint is not my strong suit lol

 

Ouch Ive made it from the bottom of louisiana to utah about 50 times pulling a trailer. I know your pain. The 6637 is a great upgrade, I love mine. make sure u buy a 45 degree 4" piece of exhaust pipe for it. Its so much easier then trying to make the abs poop pipe work. Also wait off on doing the exhaust back pressure valve delete just yet. Im in colorado, I drive these mountains all the time. If your going through any of the passes your GOING to want that Exhaust valve as an exhaust brake. Your also gonna wanna do the torque converter lock up switch. (They work even better together)Or your gonna have to rev the crap out of your engine, and ride your brakes going down these stupidly long hills. What part of colorado are u going to? If your going to the eastern slope/denver area then ur fine, and u wont need the ebpv. If your going to the western slope, your in for a treat.

 

Mancos. Somewhere near the southwest border.

So pretty much manually override the exhaust valve to use it as a engine brake?

Looking up the TC lockup now.

This is going to turn into a long process of getting this thing ready. Haha.

 

Both of these things are very easy, straight forward, and inexpensive. All u need is two, 2 post switch. So one post of each side.

For the torque converter lock up just tap into the PURPLE with a yellow stripe wire. (bring a towel and some water to clean the wires and make sure u get the right one) If you go under your truck u can take the wire out of the wire loom tucked on the driver side frame under the drivers seat. Thats where I did it. Then I went from there to the switch, then back under the hood to the ground on the driver side of the engine compartment.
Do not forget to unlock it before u come to a stop,you will stall the engine. I have this because when I would be going down super steep hills my tranny would just decide to go into neutral and I would start flying down the hill even with the ebpv brake. The 1 2 manual shifter on the column doesnt keep it in gear. Itll still go into neutral if u take your foot off the throttle. You can test the switch by running the engine in park and flipping the switch. If the truck stalls, it works, unflip the switch and crank it up.

Then the ebpv brake, just run a wire from your batteries positive side, to your switch then find the hot wire in your wiring loom for the ebpv. If you look at your turbo youll see on the outlet side of it theres a wire loom that goes in between the two down pipes going into the motor's air intake plenums. Youll need to find the hot wire of those two and tap your switch into there. It takes a second to kick in after u flip the switch. You can test it by running the truck in park and flipping the switch, youll hear this horrible scratchy whistle noise. It wont sound anything like a jake u hear on semis.

What I do is right before I start going down hill I flip my torque converter lock up switch on first and let it kick in, then flip my ebpv brake on. That way they are both engaged right when u start going down the hill, but u still had enough momentum to make it to the descent.

Make sure u put your probe for the Pyrometer, exhaust temp gauge, or EGT gauge. Whatever u wanna call it, in the passenger side exhaust manifold. Before it starts going up. Its almost a 300 degree difference in the exhaust manifold then in the up pipes. Youll wanna know what temps are inside the engine so that u dont crack a piston or bend a rod. The mountains out here are high elevation and youll lose 1/4 of your power trying to pull up here because of the thinner air. As a result your truck will have to work harder, and your egts will rise faster. Dont let your egts get above 1220 degrees for longer the 30 seconds at a time. Youll be in stock fueling mode so hopefully u dont have my issues and u just go along smoothly.

I honestly would take I 25 to 160. If you go I70 Youll go through Eisenhower/vail pass its about 75 miles of incline/delcine at 65-75mph, then have to go through red mountain pass. Red mountains a mother, I would avoid it. If you go I 25 to 160 you should only have to go over smaller shorter passes. I 25 is slight 100ft hills and mostly flat land at 65-75mph.

 

A chip with stock injectors can only add about 60 hp. That extra little bit can't tear anything up, but in those higher elevations your EGTs will be really high.


The EBPV delete will not add 5 psi either, but it will add maybe 2-3 psi, help with EGTs some and help it spool a little faster.

 

Thanks a million Ezaly. I don't have a set timeline or anything along those lines. It's my friends camper, he moved to Colorado, Campers here, he wants me to drag it out to him. If that route really is that hilly i might cut down through Texas, into new Mexico and then enter Colorado through the southern border. I'd imagine that would cut out some of the hills.


What would be a good starter tuner for this truck? Nothing crazy, nothing crazy expensive, just something to get me started, a few foot pounds of torque etc. From my searching and reading it seems the way to go is getting a six position chip. Been looking at this from XDP.

Good?

http://www.xtremediesel.com/TS-Perfo...werstroke.aspx

 

Either that or a hydra . the hydra is much raiser to add tunes and you can multiple peoples tines on one chip.you never have to send it to be reburned if mods are added.

Its a little more but IMO the only way to go. The ts-6 is the next best option.

 

The 6637 intakes are fine. I do recommend that you get a filter that has the screen on the inside as well as the outside like the Baldwin filters that Clay sells. Riffraff Diesel 6637 Filter Kit - Riffraff Diesel Performance


As far as using the EBPV as an exhaust brake, a lot of guys do it and like it, but I never was crazy about doing it with the stock up pipes and donut gaskets. Those things leak bad enough the way it is, and using an exhaust brake just puts that much more pressure on them I think. Sounds like you have a good solid plan though!

 

Been shopping around for cheapest prices. Found the chip $100 cheaper on Amazon.

This is the same exact thing, i'm not crazy right?

 

Its the same physical chip but its generic tuned. You can run a generic tune, but it wont be as effective, and you may run hot egts. Youll have to send that chip off to a custom tuner shop/company to have it custom tuned to your vehicles specific upgrades/mods. Some people run beans, some run tony wildman, some run dp, theres others out there but thats all I can think of at the time. Tunning is in addition to the $194 on amazon, and is normally like $200-250 I think. My chip and tune was $405 shipped. I have the same chip and its tony wildman tuned. I have to send mine off in the mail for about a week round trip to get it retuned. Only cost $5 but its annoying. If I were to do it again id just get the hydra, they can just email it to you and u do it yourself. I honestly would like to try a different companies tunes like beans and see how they react. It would be super easy if I had the hydra because they could just email them to me. But because I have the TS chip id have to ship it to beans, wait for it to come back, and if they dont work as well Id have to reship it to the previous company, then wait for it to come back again. Its a pain. Like fordman67 said its worth the extra $200 for the hydra.

 

Haha Hills arent bad, Mountains are your worries. You could run down to new mexico and loop back around. Your gonna add 2-300 miles to your trip, but it may be worth it to not melt your engine or Bruce Jenner. All depends on your patients.

 

Ok. That actually just cleared a bunch up. I was under the assumption that the TS-6 position chip came with the stock tunes on it and that was it. I didn't realize those were generic tunes and then i could send out the chip and have custom tuners put their custom tunes on the chip.

I don't think i'm going to go that crazy yet. I think i'll just buy the six position chip and use the generic tunes on my way out to Colorodo (i'd imagine they have to be better than stock) and then when i get back read about all the different tuners out there, tunes, etc etc as i've been reading about it since you posted your response and it's all a huge debate.

Here's my current "To buy" list;

Chip - Amazon.com: Ford Powerstroke Diesel 7.3 1994-2003 TS Performance 6 Position Chip WITH **** 140+ HP: Automotive
Exhaust - Diamond Eye 5" Turbo Back "Offroad" Exhaust w/ Muffler Delete - Riffraff Diesel Performance
Intake - B085011 - 6637 - AIR FILTER, PRIMARY DURALITE DONALDSON REPLACEMENT FOR NAPA 6637 - Filter Products
Gauges - http://www.amazon.com/GlowShift-Powe...llar+gauge+pod

Total: $812.87

Should i buy band clamps for the exhaust?