Recommended:

OEM air cleaner (Motorcraft)
OEM metal cold side intercooler pipe upgrade (Motorcraft)
Aftermarket intercooler pipe boots and clamps (BD, Mishimoto, MBRP, DieselSite, Riff-Raff)
CCV re-route (many different setups)
Billet wheel upgrade for factory turbo (Batmowheel, KC Turbo, XS Boost, Wicked Wheel)
Zoo-Dad mod

Optional:

Aftermarket air cleaner (AFE, S&B, Banks, H&S K&N, AEM, Airaid, Injen, Bully Dog, Volant)
Larger turbocharger (Garret, MTW, ATS, Industrial Injection, Turbonetics)
Larger intercooler pipes (BD, Banks, CFM+, MBRP, Mishimoto)
Upgraded intercooler (Mishimoto, Banks, AFE, BD, Spearco)
Aftermarket intake elbow (Banks, CFM+, AFE, IDP, S&B)
Ported intake manifold (Swamps, Diesel Doctor, GoGo)
6.4 intake manifold swap (Motorcraft)
Methanol injection system (many different companies)
Nitrous system (many different companies)

Now, I know the factory air cleaner is generally regarded as being good up to 500 HP and it filters better than the aftermarket setups. Some people want to change for appearance and sound with the S&B being the most popular. The factory intake has been shown to last many thousands of miles and be effective still even with a few upgrades. For those seeking to push past 500 HP though you may wish to look into something else.

From the reading I have done the factory intake elbow and intercooler pipes are not the restriction in the system and that the intake and heads are your first restrictions, so aftermarket units are not necessary unless those items are addressed first. It's been shown that there's no gain on replacing these items without intake manifold and head porting. The recommended upgrade is to go to the OEM metal hot side intercooler pipe to replace the plastic one that's been shown to crack. The aftermarket elbows are generally only good for offering ports for boost gauges, nitrous, methanol, etc. but the factory aluminum elbow can easily be tapped for these items as well.

I've also read the factory intercooler is generally good up to 45 PSI which is the point where the end tanks are compromised. The 6.0 intercooler is actually a huge upgrade for the 7.3 guys, so it's a well desgined setup. Going to an aftermarket intercooler generally results in a small amount of EGT drop, but it's an upgrade that really has only shown benefits when towing heavy loads plus the intercoolers are fairly pricey. It's definitely recommended to go to an aftermarket upgraded intercooler boot setup as the factory ones will tear and leak over time along with replacing the factory intercooler boot clamps with better T-bolt units. After extensive reading it seems the Riff-Raff boots have been shown to be the most popular.

I won't be doing a ported intake or the 6.4 intake manifold swap as I want to keep things simple and problem free.

As far as turbos go the popular aftermarket unit is the Powermax from Garret as it can be used with stock or upgraded injectors and is priced well. The option for those of us wanting to keep things cheaper would be to rebuild the factory turbo with a billet compressor wheel as they have been shown to build boost quicker and more effectively for a good price. I myself will probably go this route to keep things inexpensive. There's many other options as well for aftermarket setups including compounds, but for most of us a Powermax with a good tune is more than enough.

I've already done the CCV re-route and have it dumping above the front axle. The other popular setup is to use an exhaust scavenging setup. You can read about these setups in other threads. The idea is to keep the PCV vapors out of the intake manifold and turbo causing carbon and gunk buildup in the intake system.

Methanol injection and nitrous are very different items. Generally methanol injection is regarded as being useful for mostly EGT drop with adding a small amount of power. The downside to it is that these trucks will go through a few gallons in a couple hundred miles and even more if you're towing. This means needing to have a large tank to feed it and closely monitoring the fluid level otherwise the system does not work. The upside is that you can use winter washer fluid to feed the system which is readily available. It's been shown to drop EGT's by 200-300 degrees when towing which is huge. As far as nitrous is concerned it's only used for adding power. The downside is that it can get expensive to use and if not tuned and used correctly it will cost you an engine. Also, if you don't have proper bottle pressure the system will not function correctly and can cause nitrious backfires which are engine damaging. It's not a system to necessarily used on a "street driven" truck and is mostly reserved for those guys shooting for high HP goals.

Lastly the Zoo-Dad mod simply involves drilling a hole in the header panel to allow more airflow into the air cleaner. With this hole it allows a direct path for air to flow into the air cleaner as the inlet for the air cleaner only has a small area in front of it to allow air in.

 

Here's my list:


Zoodad modification
S&B cold air intake with replaceable filter
Motorcraft updated metal intercooler pipe
Riffraff Diesel Performance black intercooler boot kit
Riffraff Diesel Performance intercooler boot clamp kit
CCV re-route (road draft dump in front of oil pan)


As I stated in the above post I'll be passing on the aftermarket intake elbow and intercooler pipes since I'm sticking with a factory intake setup and not porting the heads. Also, I'll be sticking with the factory intercooler as I rarely tow heavy loads and I don't necessarily feel the aftermarket intercoolers are worth the 1000+ dollars they cost. I will also not be using methanol injection as I feel it just adds more complication to the truck that it doesn't need and is just another thing to have to monitor, not to mention I don't wish to mount a tank in the bed to house the fluid. I also will not be using nitrous either since I live in a cold climate and having to baby sit the tank with a bottle warmer to use it along with the complications of the system is not worth it. I have a 600 WHP Mustang to drive when I simply want to go fast.


The only other upgrade I'm considering at this point is the billet wheel for the factory turbo. My turbo is sticking at this point and needs disassembled and cleaned. Does anyone know if there's a seal kit or a rebuild kit for the factory turbo? IIRC there's also no benefit to going to the 03-04 turbo besides the sound which comes from the different compressor wheel. From what I've read many people say the single plane compressor wheel is the way to go. Thoughts?

 

There's a couple threads in the Tech folder on turbo. I like this one:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...0-vgturbo.html

 

Bumping this for viewing to see if there's any other opinions out there.

 

Bumping this up to see if there's anything I've missed.