I recently bought an 06 6.0l with a banks exhaust, six-gun tuner and airaid cold air kit already on it. It has the docking station still in it for the power pda, but no pda unit. Does anyone know if I need a real banks "power pda" palm tungsten e2, or can I just buy a used one off ebay and plug and play. My speedo is off and want it corrected. I think it's only pushing a stock-ish tune right now, around 20-22psi max. I have no real plans to turn up the boost, unless somehow I find out I have arp headbolts. I'm most concerned about mpg's. Thanks.

 

You would need the banks PDA and then you can go to their website to make sure you have the latest firmware.

BAnks now has replaced the PDA with the IQ. It is much more comprehensive..so you may be able to speak with Banks and get a used PDA from them quite cheap.

Bankspower.com

 

None of that stuff is actually going to be good for your truck in the long run.

The 6.0 needs to be tuned and you can't do that with shift on the fly tuners as that is mutually exclusive with properly tuning the vehicle. Banks, Edge, BullyDog all have a laundry list of problems that they have caused on the 6.0 with not properly tuning the vehicle and how the owners handled the new found power of those modules. Think of it this way, for the truck's computer to be properly tuned it needs to be "re-booted" like after installing a program on a computer and the computer needs to be rebooted for all the changes to take effect. Shift on the fly tuners don't allow for re-boot so therefore, they aren't properly tuning the truck. In this case though, you are talking about an in-line fuel module which isn't even a tuner, but a device that intercepts, modifies, and then sends out those modified signals throughout the truck to achieve the desired response, not a very good way to make HP in a truck that already has design flaws. Talk about the right hand not knowing what the left is doing.

As to the intake, that's a big waste. Peak HP and TQ on a stock or just tuned 6.0 is at 3300 and 2000 respectively. A/M intakes don't flow more then stock until you hit 3700 on the tach, well outside the range of a 6.0 and your 6.0 in particular. Most people just stop at the fact that it flows more then stock, not when does it flow more then stock. This also isn't getting into filtration and all that which is also in favor of the stock intake. The stock intake was done right this time.

I wouldn't exactly go by boost numbers. Environmental factors can also limit how much PSI your turbo can produce, also if there are issues on the truck, that can limit boost as well.

This always amazes me. These are performance enhancers first and foremost, mpg claims shouldn't be expected. You also have to know where they are getting those mpg claims from, the truck or handcalculated, was something else done around the time that helped with efficiency(oil change, air filter change or cleaning) etc. If you get better mileage...great, if not.... it is what it is. Not to mention the inefficiencies of one size fits all tuning which applies to all tuners except for the ones that due custom tuning. That's actually your best chance at being able to eeck more mpg out of then the off the shelf tuners.

 

Tex, thanks for the rant on how *****ty the banks' products are. If you reread my post, I didn't actually ask anything about the performance of the product itself. All I wanted is know is if I can use a palm pilot to change my tire size. I know banks/airaid aren't the most desired products on the market but I'm not going to dump money into a stock exhaust and intake. I didn't buy this truck for the performance improvements, I bought it because it had every option I wanted.

So can anyone actually answer my question? thanks.

 

You didn't say that it was all you wanted to do. You said that it was something that you wanted to do, but you didn't say it was the only thing you wanted to do.

Most people also don't mention mpgs and modules in the same post unless they are trying to use one to accomplish the other. That may or may not have been you, but statistically it favors that scenerio.

I don't know what you do or don't know right up front. You didn't make it known up front what you did or didn't know about Banks etc.

If it had every option that you wanted, that would also technically mean that you wanted the performance options on it as well, because if you didn't want those in the first place, then you can't technically say that it had every option. Nitpicking I know, but there it is. Let's not forget the fact that it doesn't have the PDA that you are trying to find out if you need it or not.

Now you also said that you weren't willing to take off the intake(I forgot you mentioned the exhaust as well, I didn't mean to include the exhaust, just intake and module), then you actually run a pretty damn good risk of causing damage to your truck, none of the a/m intakes have good track records of filtering as well as the stock one, but hey, if you want to run that risk and have a pretty hefty repair bill instead of spending a few extra dollars up front that's your business.

Also, I might add, technically speaking you don't know if you are running a banks tune or not at this junction. You are basing that off of boost levels, not the most accurate way of doing so, due to outside factors that could limit boost despite overfueling. When I had BullyDog on mine, it never went above 23 psi, now I might have something going on before I swapped turbos, but I don't know. You might actually be enjoying the performance attributes of the truck that you aren't interested in rather you know it or not. I'm sure the person took the PDA, because they could always use it for something else(if it's still working of course, Banks did have some issues with that).

Well you really didn't say why the speedo is off. Is it off because the speedo itself isn't working right or is it off because you have bigger tires? If bigger tires, how big?

If it's the first question, then I doubt Banks could help out all. I doubt it's this one, but all you said was that the speedo was off, and you never mentioned bigger tire size, so both scenerios are fair game. If it's the second, then it would depend on how big they are. Most tuners that can adjust speedo for bigger tires are limited, Ford can actually program up to 37", if you go with the AutoEnginuity software with a Ford License you can actually go up to 40" with that software.

Or it could be the VSS as well going out on you.

Unless it's really bigger tires(which like I said, you didn't mention that you have), there isn't going to be a way that Banks can help you out and then if they are too big, it still won't help you out. Then if you are recalibrating for non-stock tires you are going to have to go about it one of two ways. First way is you have someone(with a good speedo) drive a set speed(say 55) and then you follow then trying to keep pace or the second way is that you get a GPS unit for it so you can get the speedo changed that way. However, like I've mentioned quite a few times this depends on A. if it's due to larger tires and B. the actual size of those larger tires as well.

 

tires are 33's...

 

It should work for that, or you could get something like TruSpeed and that should accomplish the same thing, it's cheaper then the PDA new, so I would imagine even shopping the deals it would be cheaper then the PDA unless you really get lucky. Also unless you need a PDA for something other then this at best occasional situation of re-calibrating the speedo no need to spend that kind of money, especially sense you were clear in your earlier reply to me you have no plans at this time to knowing use the tuner.

I would actually suggest AutoEnginuity as the options are going to be more, especially if you like to do your own work, but if there are budget constraints then just stick to either one of the aboved mentioned.

 

For anyone who wants to know, I bought a used palm pda off craigslist and it works just fine.

 

i had the pda system and i loved it when it worked but the wireless stuff kept going bad went through 3 pdas in a year before some ******* did me the favor of stealing it. the pda wont change your speedo for you. thats 1 things banks crap doesnt do. it has a speedo on the pda that you set by driving by another vehicle and screaming at each other but it still doesnt change the one on your dash. and tex is just an *** who cant answer your question without giving 14 pages of crap that dont relate to you.

 

Banks now has the IQ out. It will show real time speed and much more. It still cannot go in and set your speedometer but it can become your speedo. Very accurate and reliable. They took their time with this one.

 

The problem is, I'm coming from 5 yrs experience and a lot, I mean a lot, of trial and error with performance to find out what works with regard to the 6.0 specifically. He had said some things that contradict each other unless he was more specific. Without being more specific, I had to go through a lot to try to cover various scenerios until I knew which one that he was trying to do.

While he did say at one time he wasn't going to dial up the performance, I don't know of anybody that's been able to resist the temptation to use a performance product. He has a few things on there that are actually not good and/or useful for the 6.0 in the long run. Some people don't know that and bought into ad campaigns instead(or the previous owner did).