ive been hoovering arround here for awhile trying to get an idea how to best set up my truck for light to moderate wheeling, pretty much anything but bogging and rock crawling.

I havent found much of anything besides towing/ sled pulling. niether of which plan to do.

what is some good ways to set my truck up for this while getting best MPG?

after reading and searching on here i was thinkng i should do the 16mm or smaller turbo housing, gauges, taller tires AT/ MT,

i think ill be needing a tranny soon because at higher speeds 70's it acts like its gone into neutral untill it slows a bit.
so what would be good tranny upgrades for my off road/ MPG purposes?

this is my first cummins (obviously) heh and i can tell already i love this ole truck..

thanks allot for any help!!

 

Before you unnecessarly dump money into the trans, check your throttle movement. You may not be getting full throttle to the stop. Just fixed one last night for a friend of mine, 2500 rpms was all it would do. But a good torque converter and a shift kit wouldn't hurt it either, stock converters are junk at best and there is room for inprovement in the stock valve body setup.

A 3200 rpm governer spring will wake it up and with 4.10 it might not do over 75mph the way it is right now.

If you not looking to to make alot of power with big injectors, then the 12 wastegated housing is the way to go, gets that turbo spooled down low and quickly. Otherwise 16cm seems to be the cheap way out and a huge improvement to the 21cm housing, but not as noticable to the 18.5cm housing.

 

with the auto tranny you might want to consider an aux tranny cooler. when i take mine wheelin it gets pretty toasty and that is with an extra 5 quart ats tranny pan. still need to put mine on. there are some pics of my truck wheelin in my gallery if you want to check it out.

 

isnt getting a improved torq converter the same as rebuilding the AT? or almost as much $ and labor?

i checked, and do have full movement. took slack out of the cable and can still get about 80Mph. but its kind of like it lets go" when i floor it hard ,,?? (speed not goal) i want to maximize what i have for now. so no larger injectors (less milage) will do 12cm housing (exhaust side)? or shoul i get one from a gen 2 truck?

Did switching to larger 35" tires help or hurt or milage and off roading?
Like the pics!! nice lookin truck too!!

 

No, replacing the torq converter isn't the same as rebuilding, most coverter swaps can be done on the trans jack under the vehicle without taking the trans apart for an overhaul.

80mph is about all its going to do stock with 4.10s. I doubt that your trans is slipping, with a crappy torq converter you can't get enough torque through it to slip anything unless its really bad.

Score one off of a 2nd gen truck if you can, that would be the easiest thing to do.

Who's truck?
35" hurt the mileage on my 2000 with 3.54, but a tall skinny tire with 4.10's should help out. Don't do much off roading, so I can't comment on that.

 

Mileage stayed about the same compared to the 33"s that were on the truck. Havent had a chance yet to try the 35"s off road.

 

ok well i got the stock size tires and they look like shopping cart wheels!! heeh
so i got to get at LEAST 33's

as far as the tranny, i installed a variable switch that adjusts the overdrive engagement that works great and goes into 4th at 45 mph!!! i love it. no more super high reving and shifting at 55-60! thank to someone on this board for GREAT mod!

as for the turbo... will the 12cm housing fit mine? and if i get the whole thing from a 2gen truck, what other parts would i need other than the turbo itself??

thanks again for the help ill have this truck set up just way i like it with these boards hehe