My friend just got a 2004 dodge with the cummins HO. he doesnt have time to get on the forums so i am for him. he wants to get a chip,exhuast,and intake. he doesnt want to hurt reliability too much, and he said a programmer tuned to make alot of power hurts it.so here are a couple questions
1.what is the best chip/programmer to get,without making it unreliable?
2.what are some good exhuast systems to look at?
-he prefers a loud, deep tone
3.what are some intakes to look at?
-filters,intercooler and piping,etc

Throwing out some companies would be a big help, becuase i am relatively new on diesel performance. he wants to buy the best thing the first time.

 

I personally have MBRP exhaust and love it. K&N intake-- lowered EGTs considerably and also made turbo sound quite a bit louder. Edge Juice w/ Attitude combo is one of the safest out there. It doesnt put down as much power as some of the others, but with a stock tranny, it will give you more than enough.

 

link to edgejuice ??

 

We have several different brands of products within the chips/programmers to select from, and all our customers have had great success with them all.

Air intake systems - AFE, Advanced Flow Engineering

Exhaust - MBRP, AFE, Diamond Eye

Chips/Programmers - Diablo Predator, TS Performance, Bully Dog, Edge, van Aaken, Superchips


As far as reliability goes, all the mentioned above would be fine. It will also depend on how he drives the truck. Reliability falls on how the operator operates the vehicle at whatever power level he is at.

 

I recommend Edge Juice w/Attitude or Bullydog Power Pup. I have used both with great results. For the intake, I reccommend AFE. You get lower egt's and really increase the turbo whistle. For the exhaust, I recommend MBRP. I have mine straight piped and love it, but if your friend drives alot on long trips,etc. I would stay the MBRP standard muffler. Hope this helps.

www.edgeproducts.com
www.bullydog.com
www.afefilters.com
www.mbrp.com

 

If he is budget conscious: try swiss cheese airbox(drill holes in bottom of his existing airbox;do a muffler delete pipe(cut out muff & install pieceof pipe where it was leaving catalytic converter) if he wants 4" exhaust go with jegs
they're cheaper than others. ON chips I recommend quadzilla xzt or a little more power the xzillaraider standard boxfor up to 100 hp. quadzilla also has a monitor coming out very soon which will monitor all gauge functions plus defuel at certain parameters that are set by customer. Gauges are a NECESSITY because you need to monitor things such as egt (exhaust gas temp) fuel press., boost press.,tranny temp.

Also on the air filter take out the stock drop-in & install an AFE ProGuard 7 filter. This flows much more air than most others.

These suggestions should give you an idea where to begin. The Quadzilla products are backed up by great customer support if he should have a problem. They do not let ANYONE who has a problem with thier stuff suffer
in anguish. They are very eager to get you rollin again.

 

I havn't posted/replied in many months however I logged on today to see what was new and was suprised to see nothing so far as I can tell. Forum is still great and has the best info but I would have thought something new from a performance standpoint would have been mentioned.
Anyway when my truck hit the driveway in Dec 03 I started messing with it. After about 4 mos. I was done-w-upgrades and ran a sub 15 1/4 mi. I have a 3500 2X4 Quad Automatic cab with the following:
Edge EZ/Van Acken stacked
Full 4" straight out and exiting in front of the rear passenger side tire-w-chrome tip.
BMFAF -w-hose & elbows from I forget where. Much lower EGT. I started-w-the AFE box and personally found it to be waste of $. I'd sell it but can't be bothered-w-emails/shipping etc. If someone lives near Wilmington, NC they can have it. The air filter I have is huge and there are many pics and links on this forum for the setup. I also modified the empty hole in the dash to hold 4 ISPRO guages (fuel guage started leaking so I shut it of-w-the needle valve I put in the line in the engine compartment.
I have a Holley Blue pusher pump which is req'd IMO if you are going to up the flow of the stock system, again many links on this. I never saw less than 10 PSI at WOT wheras b4 it I would have almost zero w/o the pusher-very dangerous!
Amsoil in everything
In short IMO best bang for the buck is the shorter/larger exhaust and the BMFAF set up and an EZ box (pusher pump a given) and Amzoil throughout (much lower EGT & much better throttle responce) (I don't sell it but I do get better mileage in all 7 vehicles I have it in-w-fewer changes.
I still want more but I'm not spending $4K for a trans and don't think the stock one would hold anything more and EGTs still get higher than I'd like.

 

I've got a K&N - and the turbo fins are dirty when i take off the tube to check it out.

i'd do an AFE intake with the proguard.

I've got a BullyDog - allows you to check & clear codes.

and a strait pipe, with a tip to get it out past the bed.
www.JEGS.com has 4 foot of 4 inch for like $20, with band clamps (will have to weld it probably)

the K&N, strait pipe, homemade cranksensor, and BD set on Performance - it's IMPRESSIVE

how to fix the Infinity speakers, and do the sensor:
http://photobucket.com/albums/c154/cranksensor/