quickman65

currently have 02 2500 cummins ho 6 spd preety much stock. have egt fuel press and boost gauges, intake, and a 5 in exhaust in the back of my truck ,getting banged around, waiting for install. well anyways im preety new at the diesel world but very eager to learn. already learned alot in the past 5 months since i had the truck. well the max boost im getting right now is 20 and i understand thats from the wastegate regulating that. well im hearing things like boost elbow and boost fooler and really dont know what they all do. what i understand so far is that the boost elbow allows higher boost then 20 and the boost fooler allows higher 20 psi in boost w/o throwing codes. i love working on this truck everyday. next purchase is type of programmer but clueless on what to get. very nervous getting one and tapping into injection pump but i want to hear what everyone else is doing on the 24 valve. thanks for all the help so far with this site.

Midnite

Your understanding of boost foolers vs. boost elbows is correct. On my 2000 I simply disabled the wastegate, and given my setup it works fine. With more fuel (larger injectors) it wouldn't work as well.

For programmers, the old school way is an Edge Comp tapping the pump wire which is what I have. That would be a pretty economical way to go if you can pick up a used one. These days people either seem to be using a Smarty (which doesn't tap the pump wire--it's just a programmer to reflash your computer) along with big injectors, or an updated box that taps the pump wire similar to the old Edge Comp. The Smarty route appeals to me because it places less stress on the injection pump.

It's worth pointing out that on the HO trucks you get more bang from bigger injectors than you do with a programmer or box, so you might keep that in mind when planning to buy stuff. So if it were me I'd look at a Smarty and injectors first, since you already have appropriate gauges.

Also, pretty much any discussion like this is highly dependent on what you're doing with the truck. For example, if you tow a 15,000 lb. 5th wheel regularly you're going to want to buy completely different stuff than if you wanted to drag race or do sled pulls.

Beyond that, your stock clutch won't last long with any significant performance mods, so plan on upgrading that too. I'd suggest either a South Bend Con OFE, or a Con FE (holds more power than the OFE, but slightly more grabby), or if you can afford it, a double disk clutch.

Good luck with the upgrades,
Mike

quickman65

thanks for the info very excited to start buiding truck. i was looking at the edge comp for a programmer and also get the vp 44 stealth cover. r u familiar with this if so what do u think