Hello all....just as the title says I need more horsepower to pull big grades when im towing.
We just did our annual trip to the Oregon Dunes and drove from Sacramento Ca to Coos bay Oregon. I thot the mods in my sig would allow me to pull my 30FT. toyhauler with ease as it did earlier last summer to Sand Mountain NV through the northern sierras 6000ft elevation. But when we hit the grades in OR I had to shift into 2nd in order to keep the revs up to maintain a speed of 45mph. I weighed in at a total of 18k lbs.
I was considering taking out the bully dog program and replacing it with the smarty jr...your thots folks....and as always any help would be greatly appreciated...Thanks Alex

 

Some additional info...I was running 1250-1300 egt's with the pyro plumbed pre turbo in the exhaust manifold....the Ashland grade was where the truck struggled the most. Thx Alex

 

the smarty jr is way better for your truck than the bully dog also you need to get rid of the K&N get a complete takeoff from a 6.7

 

Studio... I'm familar with the grade you speak of as I go into Medford time and again from Sac.

You should have seen the look on this old guys face (old guy in a corvette driving like an old gal in a prius) When I passed him doing 70-75 while towing 10k. Good times.

So anyway, you have potential...

Now the bad news... the super B turbo is smaller than the stock turbo you replaced. They both put out similar total air on a little different map... the "B" being more efficient for its size. However, for the money you spent on it... the egts you describe however would suggest that the turbo and overall power level are well matched. So, an increase of power from the programmer could very well overwhelm the turbo. I don't want you melting anything!

So... just exactly which Bully Dog product are we talking about here? Need to know that before an informed opinion can be given.

Will have to agree on ridding yourself of the K&N... they filter very poorly.

 

Carl48 & soulezoo...thx for chiming in...agreed on the K&N replace...what i did was put the amsoil dry filter equivalent and running that now....was the whole system ineffective i.e. piping and connections??? As for the turbo ...it does run more efficiently as their has been an increase in power and throttle response while keeping egt's in check....prior to the upgrades i was always having to watch my egt's even on slight grades. The bully dog unit i have is the very first versionl i think ...it is not the triple dog ..it is set to tow mode now.....
Soulezoo how do you get twin past emissions in Ca???? I'm always worried around smog time about passing.....again thx for the help guys...Alex

 

It is just the K&N filter that's bad. The Amsoil is an ok replacement. There's not a lot of empirical evidence that suggests that CAI intakes are really much improvement over stock. So the rest of the setup is ok... you've already paid for it and put a better filter on.

On the turbo, yes the B is an upgrade and you see the difference for yourself. It's just for the $$$ you spent, it isn't all that much and provides no headroom for growth.

So a smarty jr is definitely an upgrade over what you have now. If you had a triple dog, I would have said what you have is better than smarty jr. The Jr. will provide a little more power and is likely to do so with the same temps you see now. What you may find is that once that additional power is found to get you over the passes at 55-60, the water temps will rise especially in warm weather.

I generally tow tuned to about 500 hp. Now of course I don't use all that hp all the time. In the instances I may, which is rare and only for very short periods, I may see 215-220*.

There is no getting around smog tests with twins in CA.

 

Never mind, I'm an idiot...

 

first and foremost what is your budget?
bullydog is pretty nice for performance but not made for towing. Bullydog will raise your egt's .

To bad EFI live didn't do 2003-2005 trucks or else that would be the winner. They have a great 50hp and 90 hp towing tune. We are using on our work trucks. makes smarty look like 6.0 powerstroke.....

But I would suggest beefing up the tranny
injectors
turbo
Im not suggesting a huge turbo or injectors but a small upgrade would help.

 

I think i'll try the smarty jr first then if its still not enough I'll get into bigger injectors and fuel pump...Thanks for all the replies...Alex

 

I didn't notice it in your sig, but I do assume you have some sort of exhaust done, but do not forget a good flowing exhaust.

 

I hear all you guys talk about the smarty / smarty Jr. But what do you guys think about the Edge Revolution CTS......... I am looking in getting a Tuner/programmer for my 2005 5.9 Cummins

 

Ramman64...

If you were looking to have some folks here to support your decision and pat you on the back for the CTS... it probably isn't going to happen.

First reason is there are not that many of them out there. Second, Edge is just another company that has always been just a little behind and not quite as good as smarty.

To say nothing about the potential to eat your ecm either.

If it is who runs the best ads wins, then you want Banks.

The CTS is a nice looking all in one product. If it works like their past offerings it is just ok.

Next, what do you really want to do with your truck? The edge may advertise up to 175 extra HP on hot... is that what got ya? You should know that it is common knowledge that anything over 100hp will require different upgrades or you will break something. And it won't be cheap.

SO start another thread with your question and lay out what truck you have, all the mods done so far, what you want to do and how much you are willing to spend...

Then you'll get an intelligent answer.

I'm not trying to bust your chops here... I am trying to keep you from regrets later.

 

You will loose some of the torc with the larger size tires, I stay at the 265 size now, and they work great. just my .2c worth.

 

An update to this thread as I have added a few mods in my sig....gutted the cat added Smarty Sr. running on SW-03 added a BD intake elbow, Fass 150 fuel pump as well. Headed to the Oregon dunes and hit all the grades with no problems....Toyhauler is new also and weighs in at just over 13k ...did have to shift into 2nd after following a big rig up the Ashland grade and couldn't pass because of traffic.

Now for my questions...anyone running close to this setup that can recommend any better settings from the smarty ???? Also what egt temps are everyone running to at max??? I try to keep egt's at 1250 and below but a guy in my group with an '03 says that 1300-1350 for pulling the grades is a safe level.... Your thots are greatly appreciated ....thanks Alex

 

I have the tnt-r loaded on mine, run on sw3, rail pressure stock, timing 3,torque 2, and gets me the best towing power and the best mileage.

But, what I just put on probably 2 months ago that I think you should really look into is a raised intake plenum from glacier diesel. called the air boss.

I had 10k behind me, smarty turned down to 80%, ran up the hills between Idaho and Utah, and the steepest hill I got by the top, truck spiked past 1400*, I backed out and babied it up the rest of the way. I put the Air Boss on, same load, same hill a few weeks later, had the smarty on 100%, air boss installed, cruise set at 75mph, it never got over 1250*. That speaks volumes to me on what a valuable product this is for cooling those hard to reach cylinders, as well as distributing the air better all together. I really haven't noticed any difference around town though.