Parts are ordered. Went with a Spartan, delete pipe and dry drop in filter. From what I have read just unhook the sensors and leave them in the DPF. Correct? Remove the hangers rather than fight the rubber pieces. Seems like a 20 minute job in theory but I read comments that it took 3 hours so I feel like there is a piece to this puzzle that I am overlooking. 2 bolts on the down pipe, 1 bolt on the clamp in the rear, have a jack to support the weight and party on. What am I missing?

 

Don't forget to factor in a few beer breaks....Separating that slip joint after the DPF can be fun....I used a ratchet strap around front of stock resonator to the rear of the truck.....then a sledge with a 2X4 to hit stock resonator in order to seperate that joint, then reverse procedure to install the dpf delete pipe....Don't forget to wrap up and seal water tight the sensor harnesses.

 

With the spartan tuning the sensors have to be hooked up. Make sure you use a good quality line wrench to remove them as they will round easy. there is two EGT sensors and a pressure sensor. Your can zip tie them to a location on the frame but as i said they need to remain plugged in.

The dry filter will probably not support tunes over 150HP or you will suck the filter monitor minder in. If you plan to do 150 HP or less the stock filter is perfect. Over 150 you will be a more free flowing air filter. I would recommend the NO limit filter assembly, its the only one that will significantly improve stock air flow to the turbos stock or even heavily modified based on dyne testing i have done. There are other brands that will help but for what you get out of them vs the no limit theres no real comparison.

Make sure you have the time to tune it. The whole process will take about 45 mins to an hour the first time. The spartan tuning does a very good job of saving the stock file before it tunes to virtual eliminate footprint when you go back to stock later, but the process takes time the first install. Do not get impatient and stop the tuning process half way thru you WILL fry the TCM or PCM if you do. In addition i would hook up a battery charger to your battery while doing this. If voltage drops low the files can corrupt and cause your issues during the running process.

After the initial tuning it only takes about 20mins or less to change between tunes.

After you have the tunes installed its always good to do the transmission relearn.
I would need to the version you have have V2..V3 to help you with that.

 

thanks sanddemon08. I think I will hook up the battery charger (2 amp charge ok??), start the tuning process, and while its running its course I can work on getting the DPF removed. I know I cant start it until the DPF is officially gone but I figure no sense sitting in the truck for 45 minutes when I could be working on the DPF. Hopefully I can get it all done tonight.

 

2 amp should be fine, just make sure your not unplugging the sensors during the tuning process. If you don't have a helper try to keep the exhaust in the hangers, if it pops out it can be a bear to wrestle it back in without helper

 

Well I must humbly retract my previous comments about how the DPF removal didnt seem that hard in concept. I loaded the tune, only took about 20 minutes so that was awesome. Says I can start the truck in 10 seconds. Woo hoo. Oh wait, DPF needs removed. I got to all the bolts easily, removed all the hangers, only thing holding it in place is the connection at the back of the DPF. Its rusted solid. I sprayed it with PB for 3 days leading up to this. I tried heating it up, I hit it with a hammer, it hasnt budged at all yet. because the whole tailpipe/muffler isnt solid its hard to tug, twist, yank and actually do any good.
Do I bolt it all together again and try to get the muffler off (meaning start from back instead of trying to remove DPF first)? I read a trick that said heat it with a small torch and then splash cold water on it. Ever heard of that? Everything about this install has been easy until I got to that joint.

 

You should have bought the down pipe then you could have just cut it and kept on going. The benefit would be less time and lower egt's. Just remember to wrap the down pipe.

 

Bolt front of dpf /cat pipe back to down pipe.....then take a ratchet strap and wrap it around the front of the muffler and run it to the rear of the truck....tighten it down fairly good, then take a 2x4 or something and put it in front of muffler and hit it with a sledge hammer...then tighten up ratchet strap a few more clicks...hit with sledge hammer....etc You can also heat the joint a bit while doing this...oh yeah take another ratchet strap and attach it along the dpf somewhere and run it to the front of the truck and snug it down so you don't put to much stress on the downpipe. This is how i did mine.

I've used the heat / cold water trick a few times to free rusted bolts....the heat expands everything and the sudden shock from cold water quickly retracts things and breaks the rust seal.

 

SXRFUN, I did something similar and finally got it off. Used a ratchet strap to pull DPF forward, but I didnt use on on the muffler. All I can say is that muffler can sure take a beating because I hit with everything I had until it broke loose. DPF is out!!!! I dont have any metric line wrenches so I will be making a stop at the hardware store on the way home tonight. Next question - there are 4 sensors on the DPF/CAT. 3 of them are 13mm and the 4th one is larger. I thought I read that I needed all 3 sensors...but I have 4? Do I need all 4 hooked back up? Is the 4th one something different and not a needed sensor?

 

So I was researching the 4th sensor online last night and found several posts that said only V1 needed the sensors to remain hooked up with the Spartan. So I left all 4 off the truck and it started and ran fine. I loaded the 210 TP tune, it was raining out so I had trouble doing the trans relearn. Every time I tried to give it more than 50% throttle it would start spinning the tires. lol Transmission shifts are very hard, feels clunky, not sure if that is the rear end wrapping up or something else.

 

The 210 TP tune shifts aggressive similar in my opinion to the the 275 tune. With the 210p you will get axle wrap, if you notice the truck shimmy when you take off with a load or pulling a trailer its normal and can be fixed by adding ladder bar. If you experience a clunk when you take off from a start you should inspect the driveline and u-joint. If there all ok you will need to take the slip joint apart clean it and re-grease it. Ford has a special grease for the slip shaft, i usually just just a good moly grease, put it back together and the clunk should be gone. A lot of trucks have that issue and you don't relay notice it, but after the spartan tuning the throttle response is so aggressive to notice it.

 

So I noticed with the 210TP that I was getting enough axle wrap that the helper springs had touched the front perches. The shifting really didnt feel right to me, but maybe that was because of the axle wrap. So went to the regular 210 tune. It is definitely better behaved but I can also say that power is different. with both being a 210 tune I thought power would be the same. With the TP it wanted to break the tires loose, even at a 30 mph down shift. With the regular, you can barely get them to spin at the take off. This isnt how I plan to drive it, I just noticed a difference and was doing some comparisons. Since I tow 10k I would like to leave the 210TP on all the time but I think I am going to need traction bars to control the axle wrap.

 

I would strongly recommend the PFM precision metal fab track bars, iv had them 4 years or so and have been working them hard and they have held up great.

http://www.pmfsuspension.com/Fabrica...Block_p_9.html

The owners name is Trevor and he is absolutely awesome to work with.