I have the Early 99 so mine only came with the little 11 row cooler and no OTW cooler in the radiator. I would run 200 to 210 pulling my trailer on the high side. Once when idling down a really sandy road, I looked down and was around 230. Per Mark up to 230 is nothing to worry about.

I replaced my radiator with a 2004 that had the OTW and added the 6.0 26 row cooler. My temps are now really too cool and I live in So Cal. I wish I ran about 20 degrees higher than I do.

For me, I would never go higher than the 26 row as in the 31 row model and like you are saying, unless you are seeing your temps running up around 230, I don't think it is really needed. In my case I needed to do something with the early 99 stock setup but this was overkill at the same time.

 

I have the 31 row and a deep pan and I have never got over 200 most of the time it hangs around 100-120 in the winter time non towing summer it will hit 150 non towing.
Most I tow is about 5k lbs

 

I should add the most I've seen mine with a stock is around 190 towing my gooseneck horse trailer. Maybe I've got good flow?

 

No need for you to add it for sure then. I don't want to speak for Mark but if I remember correctly you want to run around 170 just running down the highway. It needs to get warm enough to work efficiently and keep moisture out of it. Anything below 230 or so was normal and nothing to worry about.

I run around 150 empty most of the time and even pulling my 15K trailer, I don't think I have seen it get above 180.

 

Guys I don't mind an off-topic post or two but I don't want to get completely derailed on transmission coolers.

My temps tend to stick around 120-130 in town. In Vegas in the summer, I saw it get up to 140 or 150 sitting in traffic. I also had the high idle going pretty much all the time there to get a little more out of the AC, so I'm sure it helped control the trans temps as well.

When I'm towing, add a good 20 to 30 degrees to everything. It doesn't seem to get that warm climbing hills, as long as it stays in overdrive with the converter locked. If that converter stays unlocked for more than 30 seconds under load it can get real hot real fast.

This is all post-6.0 cooler install. I probably should have gone with that Dorman unit, now that I know how disposable the industry considers them.

 

Ya sorry, I was thinking it was one of the items in your original list but now see it wasn't. Here are a few more comments on some of your other items.

- Compressor wheel and turbo rebuild kit: Powerstroke 7.3L Turbo SPX 5+5 Billet Compressor Wheel & Full Severe D ? SP Turboost Company, LLC

I had a turbo go out so I bought a rebuilt from one of the well known guys. At the same time I put on the original RiffRaff billet wheel. The turbo only lasted between 2 and 3 thousand miles and eat the bearings up. Each turbo re-builder I have asked said to always balance the wheel and shaft together. I know A LOT of people say you don't need to but I bought another turbo from a different supplier and left the billet wheel off. It has been doing great and I didn't see any real improvement with the billet wheel to justify running it and even more so running it without getting the assemble balanced. Both turbos came balanced to start with.

- All intercooler boots and clamps (RR)

I have the full set and while I don't see any actual improvement from them directly, the are for sure much better quality and tougher than the original ones.

- EBPV delete pedestal (RR)

As mentioned before, I have it and it is a great way to either just get ride of the EBPV because you want to or if you have a leaking unit.

- High-flow exhaust outlet (RR)

I have this as well combined with a 4" exhaust so the exhaust has no restrictions.

- Dorman up-pipes

I have heard a lot of good reports on these but I went with the RiffRaff bellowed up-pipes myself. If your are not currently leaking, you won't see any benefit but once done, you won't have to worry about them again.

I have done everything in my sig plus more and the truck runs great! I just hit 121K on it too so I have done a lot to it just to make it as close to new as I can and hopefully better than new in some areas.

 

This is only page one, and I know there are 3 pages now, but I am going to take a shot at answering these and then reading up.

The HPx and the two fittings (without the check valve/discs) apparently equalize the pressure or oil flow from the HPOP between the heads. I am sure there is a much better way to describe this, but that is about all I can muster up right now.

I did end up replacing the turbo to exhaust clamp with a new one, but that was only because I could not get the existing one off. The truck had over 225K miles on it by the time I took the clamp off and it was not budging. I ended up cutting it off and buying a new one from Clay.

No benefit at all on the CAC tubes other than looks. I did not really notice an increase in noise from the wheel due to removing the insulation, but it sure does look a lot cleaner under the hood.

You bend the wires a bit on each end to widen the contact points and then just insert them into the female/harness portion connector where the sensor would normally go. I believe it is the same thing that Clay sells, but just the raw component which I sealed up from water/weather just in case after inserting the resistor into the connector.

Really not sure why I put the hole saw kit on there. I thought maybe it was to due with installing the auxiliary tank, but that was another project. If it pops into my head, I will come back and edit this.

 

I would not describe this way at all really. Just trying to help the man out a bit with making wise decisions. I opted to get the blank pedestal because I did not see the benefit of modifying the existing OEM one for my needs. Also, the pedestal is not very much, even though it adds to the overall total I feel it was a good investment.

When I purchased the wastegate turbomaster I had 2 targets I was trying to get a bullseye on and I think I achieved that. The first was to get something that was not only functional, but easy to get to so that I could set a max boost that I felt comfortable with on my truck. The second was something to clean up the area and since I removed the red and green tubes anyway, no sense in keeping the stock actuator. As an added bonus, when I get the KC38R here in a bit, I plan to remove the actuator that comes on that with the turbomaster one because I think it looks better and I can dial it in within a few seconds of popping the hood.

Clay is a great man that provides a great service, but we as consumers should be smart with our purchases as well.

 

double post...

 

In response to the post by Chipworkz, I have a few things to add.

I did A LOT of research in regards to adding the billet wheel to the stock turbo shaft after bering rebuilt and through that research I discovered it could be beneficial, but only really for peace of mind. For the cost of having the assembly sent off to say Barder Turbo it was going to be much more than I wanted to pay, but not more than I was willing to pay. I needed the truck to perform as we use it to pull our camper around the country.

Do as you wish because it is your money and your time, but I found it was not worth it and have been happy with the results.

I did get the high flow outlet and pedestal delete for the same reasons that Chipworkz mentioned. I wanted the exhaust out of the system as soon as possible after going through the turbo. I was taking the time to remove the leaking EBPV, may as well take the time to remove the butterfly valve as well.

Boots all around from RR, well mine were 225K miles old and simply looked like hell and needed some serious help. The RR boots cleaned things up nicely and with the T-clamps I was ensured the seals between hard components was good.

 

I didn't notice if anybody mentioned Gauges.
Fuel pressure,egt,boost,whatever you want.
I have Isspro but I just can't wrap my head around the install process

 

As another option

I purchased my billet wheel and rebuild kit from SPX and was also concerned about balance. So, for the price of the turbine wheel/shaft they balanced and marked the rotating assembly before sending it out.
Was it necessary? maybe, maybe not, but the piece of mine was well worth the cost to me. (<$100.00) and I got a new exhaust side wheel as well.

 

Who are we kidding? All we're doing is changing which boxes Clay pulls off the shelf to ship.


Now you're talkin'.

I don't think anybody would disagree with me when I say I know how to burn out a Buck$Zooka barrel, but that doesn't mean I feel everybody should join me in my spiral to the bread line. Basic gauges (EGT and fuel pressure) and the OBDII adapter are all I would add to the pile to consider when a member is on a shopping spree for gauges.

There is only so much one can do without hurting the bank account on a project like this. I say get the truck to 100% as a first priority, then consider each upgrade in order of either importance or bang for buck. When the money runs out, you at least want a fully capable reliable truck, ready for the time when the Buck$Zooka ammo is restocked - or doesn't need anything else.

 

I have an EGT gauge, boost, and trans temp. I would like to add a fuel pressure gauge as I still have an empty pod. I also need to replace the boost gauge as it doesn't appear to be working (I checked the line thoroughly and didn't find any leaks).

 

That seems like it might be worth it doing.