What's up my 7.3 family.

Long time no post. Anyways. Wanted to get your input on something.

I'm running a turbonetics ball buster ball bearing turbo. I do like it and it's my understanding that it specs out about the same as a 38r.

Take a look at my other mods in my signature. Running a solid setup but I definitely feel limited by my turbo. These stage II 100% note injectors can pump some serious fuel which I love but I just don't have enough enough air, or its not being compressed enough . The top end is fun and pulls hard but with the thick warm air here in hawaii especially I'm pretty dang smokey on the low end. Fun to roll coal but I'd like to put more of that fuel to use and get a turbo that can handle my injectors better. I'm running rich. Putting more power down is obviously a desire too ha.

I guess my questions are. Is a 38r much of an upgrade from my turbo? Would you suggest a 38r for my setup?

I'd like an upgrade but a t4 setup would be a pretty spendy ordeal. Any bolt on turbo that would get me where I need/want to be?

Im only getting about 13 mpg right now : / Granted I live on a hill, I am driving on an island where the freeway rarely gets above 55 on the freeway, and the rest is town driving and stop and go.

Thanks

 

Your signature is not showing, you may have to go to your user CP and turn it on. I am not familiar with your specific turbo, but if you are smokey it can certainly be a tuning issue and could be cleaned up a bunch just by getting with the correct person to tune your truck.

 

Looks like when you post from a cell phone it doesn't show your signature.

Check out my sig now please.

I have Cales tunes from Tyrant diesel so I dont think it would be the tunes.

 

That TN Ball Buster is a laggy turbo. Takes forever to spool. I've driven several trucks with that and it's variations. Personally I would never run those. There's a reason why you never see posts about these anymore.

 

You have really good HP and TQ numbers, so I guess the 38R would be the cheapest. If that don't work I'd get extra tunes for daily driving that don't smoke. Like Jason said it helps a lot. I'm not sure I would get rid of those tunes with those numbers. I guess you got the numbers off the dyno right? More then 2 to 1 on TQ is great.

 

Not exactly.

A really high torque ratio is also an indicator of much more fuel on the bottom end. Overfueling at the lower end of the RPM band also adds far more stress to the motor as cylinder pressures rise quite a bit.

Dyno pull aside, I'm under the assumption this smoke issue is in other tunes, correct?

Tuning could have a contributing factor here along with the turbo. I'm reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelly not a fan of that TN if you can't tell.

 

Haha ya I can tell you aren't a fan. Ya my numbers are good and I like the tunes. I think I'd get a turbo and see how it works with the tunes. In theory it should work well. I've never driven a 7.3 with a 38r or ridden in one either. So the 38r spools up a lot nicer? Flows a bit more air too I assume. I'm a fit it if that's an option that will deliver a noticeable improvement. But if it wont then I'll just wait until I can do a t4 setup. That wouldn't be for quite a while though : /

 

Bump.........

 

The 38R spools every bit as fast as the stocker but flows more air. For a drop in turbo, it's a very efficient setup.

But if you are planning a t4 setup in the future, even if it's a ways off, I don't think it's really that economical to drop coin on an expensive turbo that you aren't planning on keeping.

For giggles.... do you have a scan tool? If you can monitor pulse width when you are throwing out too much smoke, that can tell us if you are over fueling.

 

Good to know. If the 38r spools up as fast as a stocker and can keep these injectors happy I won't even consider a t4 setup. For what I am looking for and what I am hearing , the 38r seems like the best decision.

No I don't have a scan tool but I bet you the maintenance department at work does. Our entire fleet is ford's. I'll try to get my hands on one. Anything particular test I need to run when I get a hold of it?

 

Yeah see what kind of injection pulse width you are running. You can also monitor other PID's such as ICP and DC, RPM's, manifold gauge pressure, mass fuel desired, and whatever else you feel like looking at.

160/100's are empty in less than 3ms of pulse width. If you see high PW, you are over fueling.

Watch the PID's from different scenarios, such as accelerating from a stop, WOT runs, etc. When you take off from a stop and it's blowing a ton of smoke, record and check to see what kind of PW you are running and what the boost is reading. Large amounts of fuel combined with low boost is going to give you a lot of black smoke, and my money is that's what you'll end up seeing.

 

471 horsepower with 160/100 injectors?? Where did you get those numbers? Is that possable?? I thought 160/100 injectors were only good for aprox 400 horsepower? Am I missing something?

 

My last 7.3 I had the 38r with a banks intercooler and still the stock injectors. I will be buying another one by the end of the summer that turbo makes a huge improvment even though I had the stock sticks in it.

 

Nothing beats the power of a demonstration. 38R on 160/100s (rolling into it):

 

I'll do what I can to get done readings. And that looks like a solid pull!