Upgrading turbo

Diesel625

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I currently run a Kc stage 1 10 blade on my 6.0. I’m wanting to upgrade, as I feel I’d benefit from extra airflow. Driving without towing is great, but towing is where I’d like an improvement. I was thinking of trying the diy kit with a 63.5mm blade. I have my oem turbo to put together. Would I benefit from it, or am I better off doing the complete stage 2 turbo?
 

Racer71

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Do the stage 2 from KC i had an ats then the Kc and was more than happy on old truck made 640’s at the tires on big tune but towed weekly on a tow safe tune and it was excellent all around, you won’t be disappointed.
 

6.0 Tech

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I currently run a Kc stage 1 10 blade on my 6.0. I’m wanting to upgrade, as I feel I’d benefit from extra airflow. Driving without towing is great, but towing is where I’d like an improvement. I was thinking of trying the diy kit with a 63.5mm blade. I have my oem turbo to put together. Would I benefit from it, or am I better off doing the complete stage 2 turbo?

It honestly all depends on what you’re doing with the truck, injector size, etc.

What is your trucks current setup? Is it mainly a tow rig? What issues are you having?


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Diesel625

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It’s my welding truck, and weighs 13k. Dually on 35s with 4.10s. It’s fine all around until I hit a decent hill. Most boost I see is 28-32, pushing it hard. No boost leaks either. That’s through my live wire, so not 100 percent accurate. Running 175/stock with wdi tunes. I have other tunes as well, but they tend to run hotter, and don’t shift like I prefer. It runs pulling 20-25k around 950-1000egts on level ground. It will pull it no problem. Where it gets a little warm is going up hills. I can hit 1300 easily, but never go that far. I usually downshift at 1250 or so, that way it doesn’t get warm. I was hoping I could add more air, and use a little throttle to use a little more power. I have the atlas 80 ficm tune, and the ecm tune is adjusted to it accordingly. I’m sure I really don’t need it, but I ordered a no limit intake to feed the turbo all the air possible. I’m also on the stock down pipe, and modified cat pipe, running through a 5” exhaust. I know I can run stock tires, or a little taller, or get rid of the ficm tune, and the temps will drop and I can use more power, but I don’t want to do either. Any input would be appreciated.
 

6.0 Tech

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It’s my welding truck, and weighs 13k. Dually on 35s with 4.10s. It’s fine all around until I hit a decent hill. Most boost I see is 28-32, pushing it hard. No boost leaks either. That’s through my live wire, so not 100 percent accurate. Running 175/stock with wdi tunes. I have other tunes as well, but they tend to run hotter, and don’t shift like I prefer. It runs pulling 20-25k around 950-1000egts on level ground. It will pull it no problem. Where it gets a little warm is going up hills. I can hit 1300 easily, but never go that far. I usually downshift at 1250 or so, that way it doesn’t get warm. I was hoping I could add more air, and use a little throttle to use a little more power. I have the atlas 80 ficm tune, and the ecm tune is adjusted to it accordingly. I’m sure I really don’t need it, but I ordered a no limit intake to feed the turbo all the air possible. I’m also on the stock down pipe, and modified cat pipe, running through a 5” exhaust. I know I can run stock tires, or a little taller, or get rid of the ficm tune, and the temps will drop and I can use more power, but I don’t want to do either. Any input would be appreciated.

Ok, so first off, the stock map sensor maxes out at 30ish psi of boost, so that is all you’ll see is typically 28-30.

Next, how did you check for boost and exhaust leaks? The phone guys spend all day on this. Actually just had one a lot worse than yours, he is lifted on 35s and would hit 1400 on rolling hills and was damn near unable to tow his 5k boat. Had allegedly been to multiple shops who “boost leak checked” it. It had a blown out intercooler, didn’t even need to hook up the boost leak detector, but we did anyway for shits and grins. Think you can find it on you tube, and probably faceyspace or some shit too. But after the intercooler replacement, when re checking I found he did have a couple of boots leaking slightly on the pipe side that could have caused an issue as well. So we recommend pressurizing the inlet of the turbo to 25-30psi and spraying with soapy water at all connections. We do sell this contraption so you can do it without having to source the stuff if you’d like.

Next, do your warren tunes lock out overdrive? Is it getting hot lugging in 6th with the converter locked? I.e. are you hanging out under 2k maybe 1800 rpm? Above those rpm’s are where these turbos shine, and if you get under them, especially with larger injectors, although even with stickers, or stock nozzles, it’ll get hot.

We deal with tsd for tuning, and all of his lock out o/d with tow/hail and also raise the shift points to help with city driving. It won’t shift into 6th until 53mph at light throttle to keep your rpm’s up while in the city to stay on top of the turbo.

Honestly don’t think you’ll notice anything with exhaust or the intake. You’re not at a hp level where it will honestly matter, but it definitely wouldn’t hurt.

Hopefully that helps some, don’t want to sell you a turbo that probably won’t help your issue. We’re not here to sell stuff just to sell it, we want to make sure we figure out the actual issue you’re having and get it resolved vs making a buck just to make a buck.


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Diesel625

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The tunes are set up the same way as tsd tunes. I sometimes run it 5th with the tow haul on until I want it to shift to sixth. I like the tsd tunes as well, they just seem to run hotter than the warren tunes. I checked it for boost leaks pretty much the same way. Plugged off turbo inlet, pressurized through a port on the intake elbow. Exhaust leaks I just checked everywhere it could leak while it was running, and looked for soot built up, or a light haze.
 

6.0 Tech

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The tunes are set up the same way as tsd tunes. I sometimes run it 5th with the tow haul on until I want it to shift to sixth. I like the tsd tunes as well, they just seem to run hotter than the warren tunes. I checked it for boost leaks pretty much the same way. Plugged off turbo inlet, pressurized through a port on the intake elbow. Exhaust leaks I just checked everywhere it could leak while it was running, and looked for soot built up, or a light haze.

Ok, did you have a gauge hooked up while doing the boost leak check? Ideally it should take about 45seconds or longer to drop from 30 psi to 0, there could be a leak you can’t see, such as intake gaskets or something like that. Is the egr system intact still?


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Diesel625

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It’s gone. No gauge. Just soap check on connections. I didn’t figure the intercooler was leaking on the core, but it’s possible. I should probably try again.
 

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