I'm looking into doing a complete overhaul on my truck over the next few years. I'm a sophmore in college so I figure I can just play around with this truck and upgrade everything and do it all myself over a period of time, that way I can just drive this truck until I have myself a good career and can afford a brand new 6.7 King Ranch .

My question is this...I've been looking over ATS's site (not necessarily gonna use them for everything, I just like how they list most all major mods on their site to give me an idea of what all I can do), and I noticed some mods that I don't really think would be totally necessary. For example, if I'm wanting to do all this, would the brand new heads with the head studs be necessary, or should I stick to studs only? Is the fuel system stuff necessary? If you can see anything on there that would not help performance AT ALL then let me know because I really have no idea.

Also, for the mods that you would recommend doing, what brands would you recommend over ATS (if any). For example, if I were to do a complete tranny replacement, which would be better: ATS or Suncoast? What about turbos and CAIs? My rebuild is not to make this truck a racer or a puller, it's simply to keep the truck running as long as possible, and just having a little fun in the process by turning it into "the beast". So whatever mods you recommend, make sure they will perform equally well for race, street, and towing. Thanks for any and all input guys.

 

Save your money on sending in the heads to ATS for fire rings, hands down Sun Coast for the tranny.

 

Ok, so the fire rings are a waste of time and money? And I had heard the Suncoast trannies were pretty hard to beat.

 

How much weight are we talking about towing? To the full capabilities of a stock truck?

Since that is the lowest common demoninator of the whole thing, that'll will determine just how high you can go with everything.

Once you start messing with injectors and turbos that's when a whole lotta other mods come into play. That's going to mean that you won't really just be able to drop it off at the dealership for them to fix it. Some will be able to, some just won't, but you'll have to supply all the needed parts from then on out.

Just think very carefully about that before you make that leap. If you are able to make that sacrifice then go for it, if not, just stick with tuning.

 

See I didn't know all that, I just figured all the aftermarket stuff was the same as OEM, just built for more extreme tolerances and all of the glitches compensated for. But I think my new big job mechanic is going to be Powerstroke Specialty, and I'm almost positive they work on powerstrokes no matter what. But I'll have to chech though.

 

That's the kicker. Don't let "bolt-on" get you. All my stuff is bolt on, and I do have a very good dealership with a very good service department and they'll fix it if I can't(for whatever reason), but they have to wait until I get the parts.

Now some places won't mess with the truck at all if it's not factory equipment. Which I can understand, it would be frustrating to have one of those places, but I can understand it.

You also have to figure if you got stuck somewhere while on vacation. They may not be able to help you there either. Just something to think about before you make that leap.

I would do this in a heartbeat again(on a 6.0 or earlier truck, not a later one), but just make sure you do it with eyes wide open, otherwise it can be a shocker when it happens.

 

Thanks for the info Tex, what injectors do you recommend? And as far as the towing you mentioned earlier, Im not planning on towing any weight in particular, I just want it to have the capability of towing as much as possible. But since it's mostly going to be a daily driver, I also want it to perform most superior on the street with no weight at all.

 

...and I looked at Suncost's website and not only are they superior quality to ATS ( from what everyone says anyway) but their prices are way more resonable. But their PTO transmission is the same price as their regular transmission, so is there any reason not to get a PTO tranny in case I might use something for PTO in the future? Because according to the guy at Suncoast that I talked to, they don't perform any different.

 

Well with stage Is, you'll still be able to tow a lot with the truck. I wouldn't go higher then Stage IIs if you want to be able to tow anything at all. You can up to Stage IIIs and still have street manners, but unless you do a dual turbo setup, I wouldn't recommend towing with these injectors.


I think with Stage Is, you'll get a nice bump up in power and still not have to worry about what you are towing as long as you have a very well written tow tune. I would be leary about going with Stage IIs as that might push your peak HP/TQ to high up the rpm band to make it as useful as a towing vehicle.

Well, better to have it and not need it then to need it and not have it. However, make sure you get the Billet Input Shaft as well. You'll need to upgrade that piece and that isn't in any of the kits that I've seen that they sell.

Also bare in mind that TC is going to run hotter then stock even if you have one rebuilt more to stock specs. It'll run maybe 10 degrees hotter then stock and it'll warm up faster as well.

 

Ok sounds good. So warming up faster would actually be a good thing right? Seems like it would run better after it's sat a long time. And also, the extra 10 degrees isn't going to hurt anything is it? Where does the extra temp come from?

 

On it's face 10 degrees isn't a big deal. It's just where that extra ten degrees is seen at. I haven't had an overheating issue with my truck, so I wouldn't be too worried about it, but at a point 10 degrees can be a big deal.

As to where it comes from, that I can't answer specifically. Suncoast was a little vague in their discussion with me about that.

One thing I have noticed about Suncoast is they really don't like to deal with the end customer. You have to go through a middle man when you buy from them. It was to one point, they were actually rude to me(or what I thought was rude) about not being able to send an Input Shaft to me. I had to go through a dealer to get it done. That wasted time and effort having to call Matt up and he ordered it the next day. That was a day later that didn't need to happen. I wasn't to thrilled about their lack of end customer help. I understand it to a degree for all parties, but they were just a little too rude with how they handled that.

That really is my only complaint about them. I like their kit, it seems to be top notch so far.

 

I completely understand that. The guy I talked to when I called earlier today sounded almost pissed that I even called them. Almost like I was a complete waist of his time (which I may have been I don't know). Very short answers to the questions I had, and very blunt when he answered. But hey, if they have a great product, their people skills can be easily gotten over.