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Hey ppl , I'm new to this whole diesel world , had my truck now for a year 97 f250 HD 4x4 5spd 7.3L with 360,000kms & is in great shape & runs well . We bought a holiday trailer last summer & would like to give the truck some extra jam while pulling the trailer up hills . What would you guys suggest for adding some extra power ??? Keeping in mind , I want this truck to last as long as possible & I don't want to dump a bunch of money into .
Thanx to every one , & appriciate the help & knowledge
Step 1. Build or buy an intake. I built my own replica of a Tymar (do a search for my thread- DIY OBS Intake)
Step 2. Exhaust- 3" down pipe to 4" single is a good start. No cat, muffler or not is your choice.
Step 3. Gauges- boost, EGT, and if you have an auto trans temp
Step 4. Tuner- DP Tuner, Total Diesel Performance (TW), Beans, Swamps, BTS, or one of the few others out there.
That will get a small gain in HP and fun factor. To go much farther it starts getting expensive in a hurry. A few things that are a good idea but not completely necessary- modded 17° HPOP and electric fuel system.
Ok , thanx alot for the info , I also read you DIY thread , good info for us newbies . I am however totaly lost when it comes to the tuner part . I googles a few & there's chips & programers ???? I'm not too sure how all this works ? I need a chip & a programer ? I have to program the chip via Internet ? & tune the chip with the programer ? Is there a link of how all this works or some where I can read up on this stuff so I can better understand how all this works befor attemting all this ? The intake , no prob , I got that & the pipe from the turbo covered , it's just the tuner part .
Thanx again , cheers !
The best safest way to go is to stay away from "Tuners" and get a good chip.
Power Hungry Performance (PHP) has a great 6 position chip for a good price, and others to look at are Tony Wildman (TW) and DP Tuner.
They do custom tunes for our trucks and they won't overfuel or hurt your truck as long as you keep EGT's in check and keep an eye on your trans. Just stay away from Tuners and the mainstream products like Edge, Bullydog, and Banks
I have a cover for my filter, just haven't put it on yet
Stay away from programmers or "off the shelf" units like Superchips, Edge, that kind of stuff. Get yourself a custom burned chip from any of the tuners mentioned already. They are plug and play, and adjustable on the fly. The only thing you'll need a laptop or internet connection for is if you go with something like the DP F6 or F8 and want to change or update your tunes.
Ok , thanx guys , I don't need/want to screw around with computors or programers or anything like that , i just want to have the extra power under my foot for when I need it . The pulg & go is right up my ally , exactly ! So what do I do , just head down to a local shop , tell them what I'm lookin for & they'll set me up & progam the thing for me so I just plug it in & drive away ? Thanx again guys & great photos too by the way !
You can choose which tunes you want and they'll burn the chip for you, comes with the selector ****. You take out your PCM, clean the contacts up, plug it in and go. Instructions come with it with pictures.
Don't forget to explore your options for tuners too- Tony Wildman (Total Diesel Performance), Bean's, Swamp's, BTS, Gearhead Automotive all use the TS style chip. DP Tuner is another great option and with the exception of their F8, a much different setup for the switcher than the other options out there.