hee-hee...yeah, YOU didn't see that coming!

 

I appreciate your advice Ronin you have been helpful to my cause. For some reason talking about guns and trucks people get very righteous on forums. I may have went into this on the defensive but nobody likes being talked down to. (not saying you do)
Thanks for your help.

 

You got it!

Now, as far as 1911s go, I'm partial to Colt but...

Just kidding!

 

Oh yeah, I saw it comming and was trying to soften it for the OP. But, the friggin computer keyboard froze up.

 

What is a zing?

 

Im a new diesel owner and was looking do a dpf/cat delete, Intake, Tuner and possibly an EGR delete. I have kind of narrowed it down to either the Spartan or the Mini Max could you guys steer me in the right direction of the pros and cons of both im not looking for extreme power gains and do i need to worry about my stock tranny? How much power and torque can the stock tranny handle? Also the EGR delete sounds like a good idea but from reading through the forum it sounds like there is at least a few ways of doing it like a full delete or just blocking it if someone could help me understand the differences that would be awsome. Thanks for the help

 

That's just StanleyZ's way of saying he knew I was getting my panties in a twist. He keeps me in line of these tuner threads!

 

Whew. OK. My personal tuning experience is with Spartan (which uses the DashDaq which is a GREAT gauge pack), IDP and Gearhead (which uses the SCT LiveWire, and other SCT devices). H&S (who makes the MiniMax, Black Max and XRT Pro) is widely used and a popular choice for tuning, but I can't give you any first hand knowledge, so I'll leave it to those that can...

As far as power goes, the Spartan (check them out HERE) comes with 25 tunes, including 4 DPF-on tunes ranging from 40 - 150 HP (over stock). The DPF-delete tunes range from stock with a delete only all the way up to 350 HP. So you get a lot of choices when it comes to choosing how extreme you want to get as far as additional power goes. When I initially tuned my friend's F350 with the 150 HP tune he was delirious with power increase. Now, he dials it down to the 275 HP tune when the roads/weather are bad and usually runs the 310 HP tune.

The 5R110 transmission in these trucks is quite stout, particularly compared to its counterparts in Dodge and Chevy/GMC diesels which are barely able to handle increased power levels of more than 100 HP over stock. But they're not indestructible either. Not sure how many miles are on your truck or how much towing your doing, but those are two factors that weigh heavily on the life of your tranny. Heat KILLS trannys, the same way EGTs kill your motor. If you are towing, dialing in your tuning accordingly is critical. This is here the shift-on-the-fly capability of the H&S products have a decided advantage over the Spartan. Regardless of the brevity of the tow trip, retune it, but if you're just pulling your buddy's boat across town to the dock, you might find the 10 or so minutes spent of switching tunes back and forth can be a little aggravating.

I know you said you're not looking for extreme power levels but with that being said you can be quite comfortable running Spartan's 275 HP as a DD without argument from your transmission. With power levels higher than that, your maintenance, driving style and towing usage is going to figure significantly into how long it will hold up, at which point you'll be considering a built transmission, which will run you up to $6K-ish installed. I'm not a fan of torque converter/valve body only transmission upgrades, buying a built transmission with the proper components is the only way to go (Suncoast, Elite, etc.).

I do NOT recommend EGR block off plates, leave the EGR valve function to the tuner. Without getting into a too complicated explanation, even when you block the EGR coolers with plates there's still coolant in there, and you don't want to run the risk of them cracking and spewing coolant everywhere because you've prevented the coolant from circulating (and in turn letting it cool off). I mention this 'cause it's happened, on more than one occasion. If you're handy enough, you can do a full EGR delete (which will require a new intake elbow) but your tuning needs to be set up accordingly to account for the EGR valve being removed (instead of just periodically cycling it as some tuners do). There's argument that the coolers function as a quasi-wastegate of sorts in an overboost situation (like when you suddenly lift of the go-fast pedal, and the 40+ PSI boost you built has no where to go), but most hardcore 6.4-types feel that deleting the coolers and studding the motor works fine with middle of the road builds (600-700+/- RWHP), and that a wastegate is only necessary when getting serious with turbos, injections, pump(s), nitrous, etc. Likewise I do understand why people do use block-off plates, I would just rather go all-in with a full delete, elbow and proper tuning...

Any other questions?

 

Thanks for all the helpful information. My 2008 F250 has 125,000 miles on it but it appears to have been taken care of it doesn't look like it has done any towing and it has all the service records of all scheduled maintanence done by the dealer so hopefully the tranny is still in good condition. I don't plan on driving like a maniac either so hopefully the higher spartan tunes are good to it.

When you say let the Tune take care of the EGR what exactly do u mean? The spartan regulates the EGR system? How is this different or better or worse than a blocking plate or a complete EGR delete? Thanks again, just trying to get as much info as I can. You guys are awesome.

 

The Spartan and H&S turn off the EGR function. They will cycle them to move coolant on occasion so its not just sitting there. Some people prefer to delete them altogether but realistically just disabling it does just as well from what I have read on here.

 

^^^ WHS...this...

Block-off plates just seem to be far more trouble than they're worth, and if you're going to delete the EGR, delete the WHOLE thing!

 

I agree with you that removing it is too much of a hassle. I think they were more of an issue on the 6.0 liters

 

The GearboxZ unit does exactly this. Disables the Regen feature for DPF removal and disables the EGR for blocking or removal. If that's all your looking to do, it's the lowest cost option out there. You could run the Six-Gun fine at that point with no more regens to deal with.

 

Ronin, your comment above makes it sound like the block off plates also block off the coolant ports and not just the exhaust ports, which isn't the case. If someone were to install block off plates, it would actually descrease the temp of the coolant circulating through the EGR's as they aren't being heated by the exhaust anymore. Am I reading it wrong?

However, I do agree that if you are able to remove the EGR's completely based on your geographical location, it's better then block plates. But block off plates are better then nothing when that's all you can do.

 

Correct, sorry if I confused the issue with the EGR valve cycling open and closed versus block-off plates...I'm on several (PS) diesel forums so I get a little confused sometimes with what I've said, where and when!

I think the block-off plates become an issue because those folks that have them installed seem to have the most issues with them cracking. Not sure if it's an (increased) pressure or heat cycling related issue but I think the tuning solution (of cycling the EGR valve) is a good alternative to doing a full delete (which is on my list of things to do, along with headstuds!).