Everyone probably saw this coming so I'll start my thread. I bought this truck to tow my 2016 Vengeance 320A SS. I need pulling power and power to maintain speed on the highway. As far as I can tell the truck is bone stock with 195k miles. 4x4, 7.3, crew cab, short bed, automatic.
I have a 6.0 cooler coming soon thanks to a forum member so that will be my first major upgrade. I welcome all suggestion. I do have shallow pockets so I might have to spread these upgrades out over the course of the year. My next big trip is Tail of The Dragon, Deals Gap, NC in August 2016.

 

I will probably be the only guy on here that suggests not to go all too crazy with it, but these trucks are more than capable to tow that weight reliably at highway speeds, sometimes puling grades you will wish you had more but that’s not a cheap alternative. I am not trying to sway you away from big power.

The cheapest and best things to do first are to let it breath, open the exhaust and intake up with a cheap 6637 intake or more expensive AIS intake. Exhaust is second and “what you can get away with” regarding your counties emission requirements. Towing heavy the 6.0 cooler or comparative unit would be my next suggestion.

If the truck has a stock turbo with the older style wheel, a stock wheel replacement for an older tp-38 unit found in the OBS 7.3 (65$ RRD)can be installed to reduce surge under heavy load, or a billet wheel to give it a bit more midrange (200$ RRD). More times than not after replacing stock injectors on worn out trucks, they usually come back asking about turbo surge. The new injectors are atomizing properly and in turn build a bit more power, in turn surging the turbo that has the stock gtp-38 wheel in it. The older tp38 wheel is the easy and cheap fix if you have not experienced it already, its also known as the wicked wheel 1, but there is nothing special about it besides it will reduce surge due to fin length on the wheel. For 100 dollars more and an afternoon of your time you can rebuild the turbo yourself to be assured its ready to rock an roll for another 150k. Otherwise a lot of guys go with a 38r, but that’s not really a cheap alternative.

Insuring you are not leaking on the exhaust side, and more importantly the charge side of your turbo is also very important. Boost leak check the system and address any leaks. Having leaks can reduce the charge pressure by quite a bit, therefore having a turd of a truck, and running very hot.

Before of even thinking of bigger power I’d suggest getting a set of gauges, typical are manifold pressure(boost), EGT, and trans temp. If you do get a set of gauges go with a reputable manufacturer and put the EGT probe in the driver side manifold for an accurate reading, not post turbo.

Depending on your pocket book, you can always move on to a chip, bigger injectors, turbo and so on. It gets really expensive on these trucks very quick to do it right. A mild tow tune may be a nice chip adder if you want to go that route, it usually results on needing more air on the heavy climbs when you will be driving by EGT gauge not so much speedo.

I do not want to leave out the tranny, if an auto it’s the weakest link IMO in the entire system. If you want the truck to tow reliably with power past the basic mods, you will absolutely need to upgrade the converter and valve body at a minimum, and will likely be spending a big wad down the road on a built tranny.

This is all my opinion and experience. There are a ton of threads on this site for those who went mild to wild with their setups. Search around and you will find a lot of your answers.

Have a good trip to the dragon, really enjoyed that place, I take it you will be enjoying it on two wheels too?

 

Side-stepping the Buck$Zooka, nossliw has some fantastic input. A good tow tune won't really give you much more than about 40 more horses - but that's not nothing. Getting the truck to where you absolutely know it's 100% is first and foremost, then you can start hanging ornaments on it. Sometimes the ornament thing is part of the 100% thing - like a turbo rebuild with a better wheel.

Is the rear 3.73? Stock tire size (31"-32")? Good load range on the tires? When a 250 has good rear tires and rims, they should balance at close to 3500-pound capacity each. That gives you 7K in the rear max. Given an empty bed weighs about 3,500 pound plus or minus, that takes the wheel concern out of a 5er in the bed.

That 10.5 Sterling rear end? Just make sure it's inspected and serviced - it'll take more than we would sanely throw at it.

Air bag suspension. You don't want the "happy truck dance" like you see in the cartoons - you want that bass turd to plant its feet and show the 5er who the leader is.

 

Great advice so far I can add a few things from a mildly modded Excursion.

I have the WW-1 and it makes boost faster (lower RPM), which is fantastic with a better intake (I believe I am actually out-drawing the AIS, working on a mod for it now ) and a bigger exhaust.

We went with the 4" turbo back from MBRP. It isn't annoyingly noisy like some I've used on gassers. As a matter of fact, unless you are outside to hear the noise and turbo whistle out the pipe, we don't even notice it from the interior. That was our desire- quiet, but performs.

Even with these things, and doing the injector o-rings, Hutch Mod, UVCH and a few other things, the Hydra tuner with Gearhead tunes made a very significant difference!

Of course, it needed these other things to support it, but the tuner was well worth it, as were the custom tunes so far

I also have the John Woods Valve Body. For about $250, plus a transmission filter and a bunch of Mercon V, you can DIY it in an afternoon. Very simple and shifts much tighter now. You don't lose all that power during shifting while accelerating.

 

Below is a list of things I plan to/hope to get done to my F-250 this winter. Some of these may be of value to you, others may not. I built this on an excel spreadsheet, so the formatting did not translate well. Although, the first column is the item description, second is the price and third is the link for the item.

I have already done a lot of work to the truck, but this is the list of things left to do that are to help it run more efficiently and perform better when it is on the job.

FRx $200.00 7.3L Diesel Fuel Rail Crossover? (FRx) 99-03 Powerstroke
Turbo Wheel $200.00 Riffraff Diesel Billet Compressor Wheel 94-03 - Riffraff Diesel Performance
Compressor housing O-ring $7.00 GTP38 Compressor Housing O-ring for Ford 7.3L Powerstroke (99.5-03)
Compressor housing Outlet O-ring $5.00 Garrett Compressor Housing Outlet O-ring for Ford 7.3L Powerstroke (99.5-03)
Pedestal O-rings $6.00 Turbo / Pedestal O-rings for Ford 7.3L (94-03) - GZ-9-003
High Flow Outlet $85.00 Garrett GTP38 High Flow Outlet - Riffraff Diesel Performance
EBP Pigtail $40.00 EBP Pedestal Actuator Isolator Pigtail for Ford 7.3L 99-03
Blank Pedestal $115.00 Garrett Non-EBPV/ Blank Pedestal 99.5-03 7.3L Ford
Pedestal bolt kit $10.00 Turbo Pedestal Bolt Kit for Ford 7.3L Powerstroke (99.5-03)
Journal Bearing Rebuild Kit $75.00 7.3L TP38 / GTP38 Rebuild Kit with 360 Thrust Upgrade | BARDER TURBO SERVICE
Turbo Housing Bolts $10.00 Garrett 12pt Replacement Turbo Housing Bolts - Riffraff Diesel Performance
Wastegate Controller $180.00 http://www.dieselsite.com/19995-2003...ontroller.aspx
Bellowed Up-Pipes $170.00
Protection Pass Fuel Line $0.00
HPX $55.00 Stainless Steel HPX for Ford 7.3L 99-03
Gauges $540.00 ISSPRO EV2 Gauge Kits for Ford Powerstroke from DieselManor
Air Suspension $550.00 https://www.airliftcompany.com/shop/88154/
Shocks (logo right side up) $270.00 Bilstein - KYB - Rancho - Monroe - Edelbrock Automotive Truck Shocks and Struts - Shockwarehouse.com
Programmer gearhead or Total diesel performance
Steering Stabilizer $130.00
Rear rotors/pads $110.00 REAR PERFORMANCE DRILLED & SLOTTED BRAKE ROTORS AND CERAMIC PADS FORD
foam sleeve $25.00 Ford 7.3L Powerstroke AIS Intake Foam Fender Sleeve

 

That is a good list, but I would substitute the Diesel Manor gauge kit with the one from Riffraff Diesel. Better price and includes paint, wiring harness, as well as the drill and tap.

Riffraff Diesel Triple Gauge Pillar Kit for Ford 7.3L 99-03

 

Thanks for the advice. I changed the kit to the manual transmission one because I need boost, fuel and egt's because I have a ZF6. Although, the OP should go with the kit you posted.

In addition to the RiffRaff kit being a better price and coming with the paint, you get AIH delete and also the drill bit and tap for the pyro sensor.

Man I love FTE...

Riffraff Diesel Triple Gauge Pillar Kit - Manual Trans for Ford 7.3L 99-03

 

The truck is automatic.
Tires are Bridgestone Dueller LT245/75/16 Load Range E
Turbo says Garrett on it so stock?
Gears I assume 3.73 I looked on the rear axle and all I really found was a barcode sticker that has 406E stamped on it. The door sticker is gone so I don't have the codes.
Truck has a custom 48 gallon tank. Not sure if anything was done to fuel line when it was installed.
Truck has Firestone airbags on it.
I just put that new stock air filter in as well. SMH
When I put my camper on it, basically unloaded, and the air bags were at 5 PSI the truck bed did not even rest on the leaf springs. My friend was very impressed with that.

 

6637 intake
4" exhaust
Wicked wheel
BTS or JW valve body
6.0 trans cooler

And by far the best towing mod I've done: single shot 160cc (AC) injectors with proper tuning.

 

Here's a link for myself on the 6637 mod. Looks easy enough so I'll do that one this week hopefully.

Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums - View Single Post - 6637 Installed
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/7...installed.html
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/724040-6637-mod.html

 

OP, I responded to your PM, but I'll chime in here so others can also provide input. Everything these guys have told you is pretty spot on. This trucks are pretty doggy stock, without tunes. I just relearned that after driving my truck for a number of years and recently buying a stock Excursion. It feels like it can hardly get out of its own way. That being said, your truck still has enough power to get you where you want to go, you're just not going to blow anyone's doors off accelerating to cruising speed.

Now, if you want us to help you spend money, we can definitely do that. But based on what I've read here, your truck is acting as it should.

 

I went to m local NAPA and bought the 6637. It was $78 there. I wanted one quick to test this weekend when I go camping. Before I open that box of gold though I might look and see if I can get it cheaper online. I thought I saw people saying like $45 for that air filter?

Yup I'll be taking the local back. I can buy the whole set up needed for like $55 and free shipping on Amazon. I should of just ordered it from there in the first place. What I get for being in a rush.

 

Amazon is where i got all the components i used for my 6637 setup, i had no issues at all and installation was a breeze! Here is what I used:

 

Check Fleetpride if you have one close for 6637

 

You probably want to take a look at your exhaust manifolds as well. If they are original they are probably warped and you are loseing turbo drive pressure.

In my opinion the best solution is having the originals machined to make them flat again, about $60 in my area.