As some know i have a 1988 F350 4x4 with a 7.3/ZF. Great truck, runs really well and is in decent shape.

so i been reading bout this deisel fuel additive. how critical is this? i dont drive this truck to often right now and i dont plan to besides to and from work (30 miles round trip) so keeping it well maintained it key. if i need to use it i want it to fire up and be able to drive to california and back if need by. it is my secondary and winter vehicle. the injection pump is new (within the last 10,000 miles) and has been timed by Ford. i figured id run some fuel cleaner/additive just to clean the injectors. it doesnt smoke except on start up and hard accel but its a very very light hazy smoke...almost unnotiable. i dont have baseline mpg numbers so im going to wait until i do before i start to tweak the pump a little.

next is the exhaust. currently is has true 2 1/4" duals with small glasspacks. im am going to keep this current system due to little extra cash but i was thinking bout adding a crossover of some sort...either an H or X. leaning towards the H because i heard they are better for lower end power. im gunna hold off on upgrading to a larger exhaust until i turbo it.

next, intake system. i know a lot of done a ram air style intake. is there an advantage or dis-advantage to the different styles? like a ram air style verus the 5.2/5.9 ram air tubes?

i think that is it for now.

 

People run additives because this new USLD doesnt have the luberication the old diesel used to have (usld=next to no sulfer).
I dont believe you'd hurt your engine by not running it, but it will keep your truck running smoothly, It also cleans injectors and raise cetain #'s and other stuff I cant recall right now. I use diesel kleen from power service at Autozone/Wal*mart.


As for the intake, dont use a hood scoops as induction. Water will flow down the scoops into the intake. It doesn't take mush water to hydrolock an engine.
Some peolpe just have a huge filter in the engine bay, others drill holes along the sige if the intake hat, and cheaper jeaper(?) built a dual set-up by drawing the air through the turn signals and used small LEDs for the turn signals.
I was kicking around the idea of using the 2 oval holes under the grill for mine (but it wouldn't work for your year).

 

If for no other reason I'd run it just for the anti-fungal properties. You're still storing fuel for an extended period of time.

 

So what is the general consession on the best bang for the buck additive? i seen a lot of diff. kinds mentioned.

what i plan to do is build off off the factory idea but make it better. i dont think id go for the dodge ram style intake, mainly because i dont like having a honkin filter hanging out in the elements.

anyone have some opinions on the exhaust?

 

I run two stroke oil for fuel additive, its cheap and gives good lubrication to your pump but lubes the upper cylinder walls in the engine, they say its supposed to give you better fuel mileage but everything these days is supposed to, i didn't notice much so thats my two abes.

 

I second that.. I figure if you use diesel kleen once in a while and 2 stroke as your dedicated fuel additive, you are good because lets face it, they have to do a lot of filtering on that ULSD and I really don't think it is as dirty as diesel used to be, so use the diesel kleen once in a while to clean anything that may have built up.. I add 2 stroke oil because these things need all the lube they can get... I know on a 24V cummins there injection pump is lubed by the fuel, and they add the 2 stroke and notice an immediate noise reduction because the IP is now properly lubed, same way with the IDI IP's, cept I never can tell a diff in noise, oh well..

 

My older truck still has the original plastic pipe that runs to the grill. Is yours gone?

 

Mine has that as well, it looks like it would flow worth crap lol. i removed the soup bowl from the air cleaner lid already but i left the baffle.

 

Built the custom intake, should work nicely. i used 4" dryer ducting, hehe. also added some diesel kleen to the fuel.

 

i'll throw in with the others about adding 2-stroke oil and dieselKleen mixture. use about 4 oz dieselKleen and 16 oz oil per 18-19 gallon tank fill. even in my '90, it does seem to run smoother at startup when cold and continue when engine warmed up. at one time when i bothered to do the calculations, i was getting about 1 to 1.2 mpg better with the mix. at the price of diesel here, it's a little better than break even on the benefit/cost, but the lube for the IP and it running better make it work for me.

speedrdr

 

Ill try that combination, thanx!

well my intake idea didnt work. i drove it two blocks and when i got to work i opened the hood to check on things...what i found was the ducting was sucked up inside itself...back to the drawing board.