Next performance upgrade

Buellstunter · Jul 30, 2016

I'm looking to bump my trucks performance up a bit again and on a budget, but without sacrificing towability. I'm thinking regulated return or some type of fuel system upgrade should be the next step. Maybe even other tunes. but looking for advise from others that are more knowledgeable on the performance side than I am.. Ive had the truck for 4 years now. About a year ago had the motor redone top to bottom. Bored .30 over to clean up a bad cylinder. All new bearings etc in bottom end. Heads were checked, cleaned and resurfaced. Has ARP studs with oem gaskets egr ******d. While at the shop I had the cam upgraded to a colt cams stage 1 and had 30% nozzles put on the 190cc injectors. It has a machine ported and polished intake manifold I built for it as well. I put on a barder stage 2 turbo and an SCT X4 with custom tunes from gear head. (Tow, defueled, and full fuel. ) tunes were loaded in it when I picked it up from the shop. Any advise would be appreciated, thanks all!

6.0 Tech · Jul 30, 2016

I would recommend the regulated return for reliability. I most likely won't help you make any more power, but it will help the injectors live longer from a constant supply of fuel pressure. An aftermarket pump setup, such as a fuel lab or a1000 probably isn't a bad idea either. Strictly Diesel's return is a great kit, it fit a hell of a lot better than the sinister kit I put on a buddy's truck, and if you buy the fuel bowl derete kit, it cleans up the engine bay a bit too.

I run some water meth, that helps wit egts while towing when it is straight water. with washer fluid, it has no effect on egts, but does give it a decent bump in power. If you do a water meth setup, get a good kit like Snow's, as it has a good pump and gives you directions on how to keep it from gravity feeding water into the cylinders. It also comes with good nozzles to help with atomization. I have heard bad things when people build their own setups, aminly causing rusted out cylinders.

Changing tunes is always a good idea, just for changing stuff up. Charlie from KC has dynoed a ton of tunes, and says the idp tunes make more power than just about anyones.

Buellstunter · Jul 31, 2016

Thanks for the advise 6.0 tech. I believe I will look at the pump and poss some tunes. I'm unsure of what kind of numbers I'm making with this setup now, (never had it on a dyno), but feel like with this setup It has a little more I can get out of it. Maybe a tune would take care of that. I also don't really care for the way the trans shifts with the current street and performance tunes I have loaded in it. Truck has 6" lift with 37" tires and I liked the shifting points better with the canned tunes that were on the sctx4 Before all the work was done as far as the trans goes. I also have thought about getting the ficm tuned to see if that gives me more performance. Just not sure which direction to go.thanks again!

6.0 Tech · Jul 31, 2016

With custom tunes, it may take a couple revisions to get it spot on. I had 3 i think with idp due to smoke issues and some shifting issues, but the third revision is awesome for a dd, it smomes about as much as a stock tuned truck, and shifts awesome. Is there more power left in it? Yes, but that is what yhe race tunes are for. The race tunes were fine right off the bat. I wanted a pretty mich smoke free tune for dd.

Just remember that with more power, you tend to have more smoke, especially down low when you are under the turbo or taking off from a light.

Buellstunter · Jul 31, 2016

Could you possibly give me a little more information on the idp tunes, As well as some input on something I noticed this evening? I noticed tonight on the highway I had some open road so I got on it from a roll at say 50-55 mph in 5th with tc lockup at roughly 1800-1900 rpms. It kicked down and took off ok then at 3800 rpms it acted like it hit the Rev limiter and didn't want to go anymore. Left off pedal just slightly and then it seemed like I got tc lockup and it took off again. It used to shift gears faster from a stop and more solid and didn't seem to drop out of tc lockup as easily. Atleast from what I remeber with just canned tunes. Haven't run them for about a year now. I really don't run the truck hard like this often I'm not out trying to race everyone, but I want it to perform to its potential. Most of the time I drive the truck on my tow tune or the defueled tunes that was loaded in it from gear head when the truck motor was done at the shop I used. It's really starting to frustrate me now because I don't know how to correct the issue or even what the issue really is. I've only ever really delt with old gas motors and carburators. Pretty new to diesel world but have been trying to read up on it as much as possible to learn all I can. Any more info you or anyone can give me would be much appreciated.

6.0 Tech · Jul 31, 2016

My trans does that every once in a while as well, a lot on my tsd spd tune, mostly when i coast down and get back on it hard, like getting on the highway but gotta wait a second to turn cause a car is coming. I think its either a solenoid or clutch issue in the trans due to the power level of the truck. It does it a lot less on my idp tune, possibly cause of mush higher pressures, but does do ot every once in a while. It never does it on the race tune though.

What would you like to know about the idp tunes?

Buellstunter · Aug 1, 2016

I haven't heard of them yet. When I did some tuning research back a year ago. gear head and I believe it was inovative tunes seemed to have the best reveiws and the shop I had do the work used GH tunes so I didn't look any further. Wanted to know if they had a website or place to read reviews etc. Ill just try Google search for them.

Ok scratch that, I'm a moron. I see now idp is inovative.

6.0 Tech · Aug 2, 2016

Lol yeah, they star out everything here.

Buellstunter · Aug 4, 2016

Any of their tunes you recommend? Looking for a good street tune. With solid shift points and good performance. Also would like a tune that flat out makes the truck go!

6.0 Tech · Aug 4, 2016

Xtreme street s a good street tune, and their xtreme x is a flat out haul ass race tune. The x tune sucks for dailydriving, as it has a lght switch throttle, but other than that it moves...