That right there is a very good reason why not to go with Banks, Edge, or Bullydog as all of those exponentially raise the risk of having to do "in-depth kind of work".

You don't have to go out of the way to get the tuner and the custom tunes that would provide better tuning(and in the case of those mentioned above, tuning period). Don't fall for the ads off the bigger companies. I don't know your driving style, but that will definitely play an important role in how your truck takes to any kind of tuner. You have to remember you can screw up a 6.0 with stock tuning, so the chances are even higher when you start messing with even more power.


Custom tunes is going to be your best bet then, 4" exhaust and gauges and you'll be good to go. No intake. You won't need it at this stage. Every intake that I've seen doesn't flow more then the 6.0 stock intake until you hit 3700 rpms. Peak TQ and HP for the 6.0 is 2000 and 3300 respectively. Well outside the usable range of the truck. Don't go higher then 4" with just a tuner because you'll actually loose low end power.

It all depends on what vehicles they modded. You can't transfer what works on one engine to what will work on another engine. A lot of people coming from the 7.3 over to the 6.0 learned a hard lesson that way.

I would not advise that setup for a 6.0. You'll do more harm then good with that engine. It may take time before it takes a dump on you, but chances are higher then normal that it will.

 

Thanks, thats the kind of info I need. I have the only 6.0 in my town, and the aforementioned "biggest and baddest" is a Cummins. Just mentioned that to show the lack of knowledge about diesel performance where I live.

My driving style is.. I guess you could call it normal. I tow a trailer with my 78 Ford on it every now and then, and an 18' boat. Otherwise its just back and forth to work and such. I wanted to make my truck be able to accelerate alot quicker to highway speeds, and maybe squeeze a little more torque to ease the up-and-down towing on hills. Thats pretty much it... What kind of performance mods would you suggest to accomplish that?

 

Depending a what you mean by a little more TQ, a good set of custom tunes can do wonders for you. Couple tunes with a 4" exhaust and a set of gauges and you should be good to go. It might take a few tries to get the tuning exactly right, but it's worth it in the end. I started out with a Bullydog Triple Dog tuner when I started doing all this, so I have quite a few experience with this.

I keep on harping on custom tunes for a couple of reasons. 1. It allows for more mods in the future if you want to do that(don't say no right now, I once did and look at my siggy now). 2. Custom tunes are just that custom. Banks and the others are one size fits all, custom are tailored to you and your truck. So there is a greater possibility of eeking out more efficiency with custom over the one size fits all. 3. Custom tuning actually tunes the vehicle, the other companies specifically mentioned by me do not actually tune the vehicle. If you notice shift on the fly capabilities, then it isn't truly tuning the vehicle. I have yet to hear of an instance where shift on the fly wasn't mutually exclusive from actually tuning the vehicle.

Driving style: Do you idle quite a bit? Do you allow it to get to operating temp(using the stock gauge is iffy at best in determining this, it can be done, but iffy) before you rag on it etc? Stuff like this you have to be aware of otherwise there could be issues down the line.

 

Driving style: I idle at stop lights, and maybe 10 minutes every now and then to run into a convience store. I do let the truck get to operating temperatures by the stock guage, iffy I know, before I drive at all. By operating temperature I mean my oil and water gauges are at the very least a bit into the "normal" bar range. I usually don't rag on the truck too hard anyway (I have a modified street bike for speed), but any time I do its usually after I've been driving a while.

And by custom tunes, do you mean a shop doing it? I have no idea what I would be doing anyway, which is why the plug-and-play appealed to me. The most "tuning" I have ever done is on an eletric choke on my Holley carb lol, see the problem?

Also, what guages would I need, and how does this help?

 

Oil pressure gauge really won't help you at all due to the fact that it registers normal if it reads atleast 7 psi. Not really much at all. ECT what I have found is that after the needle stops moving it's another 10 min in the summer weather before the truck is truly at operating temp and about 20 min. after the needle stops moving in the winter for it to be at operating temp..

Ragging on the truck is actually a good thing every now and then for our trucks. Due to the combination of the EGR system and the VGT turbo design there is a carbon buildup that needs to be taking care of and "driving it like you stole it" every now and again helps with that.

All the tune programs are sent via email. All you would need if you were to go the SCT route is the truck's strategy. If you go the Spartan route you would need the strategy and the VIN for the truck as well. Doing it this way means that there is some trial and error compared to if you had a shop dyno tune your truck right then and there, but after a few tries most of the tuners(the people) get the programming right for you. Basically I'm trying to say is that you don't have to have the truck physically at a shop to do it.



This is a sticky question here, because there is variation in the answers to what people thing are necessary gauges to have. I have 7 analog gauges and 3 that are on the DashDAQ and I can make arguments for all of them, some flimsier then others, but I could come up with(what I would think of anyway) as legitimate reasons for having them.

I would say that a 4 gauge pod. EGTs, Boost, Tran Temp, and ECT.

EGT: beneficial in letting you know about the overall stress that is going on with the engine. The higher the numbers are, the less it's good for you and your truck. Most people, including myself, would say that you don't want to go above 1250 for any length of time. The engine can handle 1250 all day long, but don't stray above it for to long. This is also used to determine cool down temperatures before you shut the truck off to help protect the turbo. If you switch to synthetic oil this is not needed like if you used dino oil. You usually put the probe in the manifold pre-turbo. You can do post turbo, but I wouldn't suggest that. This is just an all around useful gauge to have.

Boost: this is debatable as the boost gauge isn't truly as bad as the other gauges. If you do this one, tap into the intake elbow to get the best reading. If you decide against this one do the fuel pressure gauge.

Tran Temp: I highly recommend this gauge if you have an auto(which odds are pretty high that you do). Heat is the enemy with an auto and the stock gauge is total crap. Tap into the test port to get the reading for this one.

ECT(and/or EOT): good to establish operating temp of the vehicle and to determine is something else is going wrong with either the coolant system or the oil system(depending on which one(s) you use). ECT has a place in the block for it, EOT I actually get from the computer port. If you have both there is an interesting correlation between the two. There is approximately 15 degrees difference between the two with EOT being hotter. If you see fluctuations of that, usually is a good indication of something being wrong with whatever system is fluctuating.

 

Holy way to shake my world up.. Okay, I know just enough about my truck so far to follow what you were saying, especially about the carbon build up. Learned that one on my own lol. So.. Based on the little I've said about my driving style and what I use the truck for, which tuner would you suggest? SCT or Spartan?

The new route I am thinking of taking now is this.. I would like to get MBRP's 4" turbo-back (no cat) single exhaust. Since I know next to nothing about this engine, I'd rather have a shop install my gauges, and while I'm there spending the money, a tuner as you suggested. I'm guessing if the shop did the tune on the dyno right then, there would be no 'trial period' correct?

Also, I already have a new Banks Torque Converter (yes, auto trans), would this be a beneficial install to lower trans temps?

 

Either one will actually work well for you. That's the beauty of custom tuning as they can fit things to your needs and as your needs change the tunes can change as well.

However, if you go the SCT route I would stick with the X3 unit. LiveWire has been a troublesome unit for them and the Xtreme Touch I is still to young to know how it is going to take.

Sounds like that's a good plan.


Yes and no. The trial and error period would be greatly reduced, but there will still be a need to figure out the most efficient way to program the truck for your needs. However, I would ask around if the shop that you are going to is good at writing tunes for trucks especially a 6.0. Even the custom tunes are by far the safest things for our trucks, if the person that you using isn't the best person to be writing tunes you could still have issues. It would also limit you to the SCT only(which is fine as it is a good product) as there is only one person that does tuning for the Spartan tuner at this time.

That would depend on how that TC is setup up(what application in other words). If it's just a beefed up stock converter then your temps might lower, but in all probability stay the same. If it's designed for extreme situations then more then likely your temps will raise. That doesn't mean that it isn't unsafe for that a/m TC it just will run hotter during normal operation.

I would actually suggest a deeper tranny pan to help cool things down. In all honesty, I tow often and heavy and if the tranny is in working order there really won't be a heat issue unless the programming isn't done right. The stock form of the Torqshift is a wonderful and stout tranny. Mine lasted a year(about 40k miles) before it crapped out having to deal with 508 hp.

 

Great posts Tex25025! Thanks for giving us your time on these threads!

I can not do it again yet, but hopefully folks will take time to give you some recognition with "reputation points".

To do so, click on the "heart" icon in the upper right corner of one of Tex's posts.

 

I do have to agree.. what tex has shared helped out alot. I think I'll try the SCT X3 tuner and MBRP 4" exhaust and go from there. I do have one last question though... Lets say I did the email route for the SCT tuner. Who would you suggest, and where can I buy from? Thanks again for all the help

 

Innovative Diesel. Talk to Eric.

 

Man I've read that name a lot today lol

 

He's good very friendly and doesn't give you the run around. You won't be disappointed.

 

Sounds like I know what I'm spending my overtime on... is it difficult to do yourself? Getting the trucks strategy first and tuning afterwards I mean.

 

Not at all. What will happen is that they(who ever you order your X3 from) will send you the tuner. Hook up the tuner to retrieve the trucks strategy. You just email that to Eric along with what tunes you are requesting and he will email the tunes back to you. Turnaround is fairly quick. As far as tuning, you just hook up the tuner, follow the onscreen prompts to upload the tunes. The X3 is a little slower then the xCal 2(previous SCT tuner, my favorite but hard to find nowadays) as far as uploading goes.

 

Ok not bad at all then. Thanks again for the help.. $944 for the X3 tuner and turbo-back exhaust is a much better price than $3600 for the Banks Power Pack.. sounds like I'll be getting more power out of the truck this way too. Just to double check, this tuner and exhaust.. I won't need an intake or intercooler upgrade?