Ok previous truck 08 tundra with big engine and trans. Mods where filter, tuner, exhaust. It was a nice truck but it was not a real truck. I drove the you know what out of it but it was just not the all around work truck i wanted. I now have now bought a 03 6.0 250 ext. cab. I use my truck for work. Sometimes i haul a big inclosed trailer sometimes im hualing tons of whatever on and open trailer. Sometimes just need to hualass accross town. I need to be able to idile my truck at times to. Should i leave my truck bone stock or what proven long term mods should i make?

 

Prolonged idling isn't good for these trucks. If that's something you need to be able to do, check out this link on how to perform the 'high idle mod' http://dan.prxy.org/Truck/Other/High..._idle_mod.html.

 

Intake is a big no-no here. It won't flow more then stock til you hit 3700 rpms which is well outside the trucks peak rpms for HP and TQ(3300 and 2000 respectively). It also won't filter as good as the stock one either. As far as performance goes, the a/m out there don't do diddly. I would instead spend my money on a good set of gauges, rather or not you decide in the end not to tune your vehicle, they would still be beneficial to you.

A good 4" exhaust would be sufficient for most people out there. Bigger isn't better with exhaust as you will lose low end grunt if you bump it up to a 5" without the support of more air and fuel from bigger injectors and turbo.

Tuner I would either get SCT's X3(do not get the LiveWire, 50/50 chance you'll get a bad one) or the Spartan Phalanx. The Spartan Phalanx has more features, but the price might get you down. Both are very good and both offer custom tunes which have been shown time and time again to be the best thing for the 6.0 if you are going to tune it for the longevity of a tuned engine.


I would definitely get some gauges, especially ECT and/or EOT if you like to haul *** across town as you can screw up these trucks with stock tuning or even towing with stock tuning. You can also have problems if you drive it like a grandpa as well. These are "high performance" engines and have to be maintained as such.

Idling with these trucks can be a bad thing as well unless you install a high idle circuit on there. If you have the upfitter switches then it should be easy enough to do, info I believe is still in the tech folder in this forum. If you idle it quite a bit without a high idle circuit your asking for EGR, turbo issues. Might take awhile, but it will happen.



I would say no to leaving it bone stock. I would add gauges if absolutely nothing else. You don't exactly have to have gauges, but it makes it a whole lot easier to stay away from problems that are caused due to the design flaws that are well known to these engines.

I would also use synthetic motor oil(I use Mobil 1) for your changes. That has been known to do good things for the injectors and turbo.

 

Tex thanks for info, Anyone know of a good shop or place in Al. area that knows what they are doing.

 

You might want to ask that question in the Alabama chapter forum.

Here's a link: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/forum145/

 

Where in AL are you and what do you want done?

 

Just what I was going to ask. I know some in Northern Alabama, but not much elsewhere.

 

Huntsville...

 

As Steve said, if you do idle your truck, definitely install the high idle mod. Also, use CJ4 (5W40 as already mentioned) oil. I would also install a ccv re-route as a preventative measure.

 

a ccv -re route.... I would like to do this is there a simple way of doing this. I just spent an hour and a half looking at all of the ideas of ways of doing it from this to that. Is there a kit you can by with simple instructions or what?

 

It IS simple. You spent longer reading about it than it would take to actually do the mod. You just need some 1" hose, I used some PVC glue, a plug for the intake tube, and some hose clamps. I forget what size plug I used but you can get everything you need to do it at a Lowes or Home Depot for less than $10, depending on how long the hose needs to be and that depends on where you would like it to exit. Mine vents to the atmosphere before the rear axle, @ 10 feet maybe? But I already had the PVC glue. Another "almost must-do" mod is the coolant filter, unless one has already been installed.