I just recently bought a 03 ho with auto tranny its bone stock right now and would like some input on what i should do to it. I got it on the cheap cause it had some battle scars and the frontend was wore out. it had the common hvac issues and all that stuff is up to par now. i just bought a edge ez, sb intake, and banks high ram with 3 1/2 inlet all for 350 dollars and plan to install that stuff for now. I've read about the 2 micron filters and want to do one of those on the cheap if possible. I'm also planning on putting stacks on it but should i stay with factory exaust or buy the mbrp kit ? I was all for the mbrp kit untill i noticed its 4in exuast just like whats on the truck already. any advice would be appreciated thank you

 

Hi gilbertsdodge!

How many miles do you have on your truck? Have you changed any of the fluids such as the differentials, transfer case, transmission etc? Does it have gauges?

 

it has 246,000 on the clock just did all the oil filters fuel filters etc.truck is a 2wd. The transmission was serviced by the original owner 5k ago( have paperwork) seems he was religious about the trans. canged the filter at 20k and did a flush on 20k intervals so fluid is nice and red. diff is in the same shape fluild is nice and clean although i will probably service it in the recent future. I've been looking for guages for it just kinda shocked at the prices. I've been looking at the quadzilla scout also i might just leave the chip off for now untill i can afford a good set of guages or something

 

if its an autoits not ho believe only 6spd where ho and the 03 also was 3.5 exhaust if i remember right. you need to change the fuel filter every 10 to 12k to keep the injectors healthy

 

My 2003 listed below is an automatic 48RE -5.9 HO. This truck was ordered in April 03.

 

305 hp is the ho should have only come with the 6spd. any other hp is not an ho. there where 3 hp models 235 250 and 305

 

late 03 and early 04s could also have the auto and 305hp HO motor. That auto would be the 48re.

 

I personally would sell the EZ because injector with that many miles are just on borrowed time, and get just a timing and duration module. TST is what I have and love it. I hear good things about the EDGE juice. Both come with at least Boost and EGT. You can grow into both or just keep them turned down since an slush box. I just attached my stacks to my factor 3.5 exhaust with a reducer. I went with grand rocks as their kit and stacks where cheaper. As for the 2 micron you have couple of choices. You could get a FASS or AirDog with a 2 micron and better water separator as you will need a lift pump if it doesn't already. Fuel pressure guage is highly recommended or you can just have it checked periodicly. If you want to go a little cheaper than the FASS or AirDog you can contact glacier diesel performance and they have big line kit with a 2 micron adapater that goes after the factory fuel filter. Also find a good fuel aditive. Stanedyne or Shaffers are what i would recomment at ever fill up. if the injector go your looking at 2k-3k for rebuilds or replaced if not rebuildable.

 

yeah i did research before i bought because originally i thought the same thing with the h.o. it was only offered with the introduction of the 48 r.e. which was a mid year thing. howevever mid year an a production is typically started on july of the pevious year. i.e. 2003 models would have been built 7/02 till 7/03. as far as the injectors i have heard that they are a weak point on the common rails. from what i've read injector symptoms usually start off with a delayed crank time. when i bought the truck it had about a 3 second crank time. I talked to cummins in which they told me to buy a big bottle of additive and pour it into the tank with a fuel up. all i could find was power service gray so i bought it and put it in there after 300 miles of driving it seems to be doing the trick. crank time has lower to only about a second. I had already installed the edge box and ive been driving it in the three settings between cranks ups. I'll probably be pulling it back off though just because of you mentioning the injectors and me already having a few thats possibly weak. I'm really wanting either the juice or a banks six gun. I know banks isn't as popular on here as the edge and quadzilla but i had a big hoss on the sig truck i just sold and really liked its features. my truck just had the fueltank lift pump installed three months before i got it. are these pumps as likely to fail as the famous block mounted pump? if so i think i'd like to delete that out of the picture. if not i'd like to get some time out of it so i can concentrate on other areas for the time being

 

the reason that it takes longer to crank is that the injector is not lettting the pressure build up enough to open the nozzle. running a cleaner in theory should only clean the nozzles making fuel get out faster. All three sets of injectors onmy 03 had the nozzles go out and the bodies went bad which caused little or no fuel rail pressure. the best way to check each injector is to do a flow test, if they are allowing more then 250ml each ( i think thats the right amount) to return then they are within spec. Could be just one or two are going out byt your symptons, if they are fine then it could be fca