Almost stock '97
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From: Battle Mountain
Almost stock '97
I've followed you posts for a while and decided to ask for some advise. I'm not into making my truck all that it can be, but I am interested in better performance. I have a 1997 F350 crew cab, Longbed, 4x4, 7.3 auto with 183,000. The truck is not a daily driver, my wife does not drive it to the store for bread. It works on a farm and pulls trailers. Usually upward of 10,000#. I replaced the tranny @ 173k with a BD. I also installed a 3" mandral bent downpipe at that time. Other than than she's stock. I am looking for advise on perfomance upgrades. I plan to open the exhaust from the downpipe, and install a bigger air intake, (maybe tymer). Do I pull the injectors and rebuild to stock or upgrade. Not a big fan of chips or tuners. This will be a slow project so bear with me. I just don't want to buy stuff I don't need. Thanks in advance.
Posting Guru
Joined: Dec 2008
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From: Maysville, Kentucky
Tymar intake, stage 1's , and as bad as I don't want to say it a custom burned 6pos chip. That is the only real way to get a good jump in power. The extra fuel will not get to the injectors without a tune for them.
But first and for most a set of gauges for atleast egt and trans temp.
But first and for most a set of gauges for atleast egt and trans temp.
Post Fiend
Joined: Dec 2010
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From: Orrville, Ohio
You forgot to add that you should really do an intercooler setup and a bigger transmission cooler. That in tandem with the mods already listed will give you a very nice working truck that is both reliable and effective.
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From: Battle Mountain
Thanks already. As far as the trans cooler, while I haven't upgraded the cooler itself, I did have some custom steel braided lines made that reduce the restriction of flow to the cooler and back. A bigger cooler is the next logical step. Ant recomendations? One question I had was since I went with a BD trany, should I keep the rest of my upgrades BD as well? Specifically, what gauges do I need? I'm guessing trans temp, boost, and ? As far as exhaust, I'm removing the cat, but what size do I run from the downpipe? Muffler or no?
Post Fiend
Joined: Dec 2010
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From: Orrville, Ohio
Trans temp, boost and EGT are the three most important gauges to have. You will end up driving by the EGT gauge with Stage 1 injectors and towing heavy.
As far as the transmission cooler goes, there are lots of options. TruCool makes some good ones, and there are a lot of guys that are using the tranny coolers out of Super Duty trucks too. The 6.0 transmission cooler is a good one.
I don't think there is any compelling reason to keep your add ons the same brand, but that's up to you.
As far as the transmission cooler goes, there are lots of options. TruCool makes some good ones, and there are a lot of guys that are using the tranny coolers out of Super Duty trucks too. The 6.0 transmission cooler is a good one.
I don't think there is any compelling reason to keep your add ons the same brand, but that's up to you.
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Joined: Sep 2010
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From: Florida
Sounds like I'm in a similar boat. I'm starting off slow as well. I only plan to upgrade the injectors up one step above stock when my current ones need replacing, open up the exhaust, and gauges. My truck is my daily driver. I don't want to mod it to the max, just let her breathe better.
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From: Battle Mountain
As far as gauges go, are the new LCD screened gauge/diagnostic/whiz-bang units the way to go or do you prefer A post style actual gauges? Cost wise, they appear to be similar. The all-in-units look like they do a lot of stuff and just plug in, but how accurate are they?
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Elder User
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From: Florida
As far as gauges go, are the new LCD screened gauge/diagnostic/whiz-bang units the way to go or do you prefer A post style actual gauges? Cost wise, they appear to be similar. The all-in-units look like they do a lot of stuff and just plug in, but how accurate are they?
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From: Livoina,La
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From: Battle Mountain
Copy that. Didn't think about the ne're do wells out there. Not much problem with theft in my area, but one shouldn't temp fate. Thanks for the link to the gauges, that seems to be my first logical improvement before anything else.
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