Hi Folks!

I own a bone stock 03 2500 SO (auto trans) with 82k miles and am interested in getting a little more performance and economy. This site is overwhelming and I'm not sure what the best approach is. I use this vehicle for daily driving and to tow a 2 place horse trailer (possible a larger goose neck in near future). I will never drag race or pull this truck so I am looking for "entry level" mods if you will. I have a limited budget and have no plans to upgrade tranny so I want to limit mods as to not jeopardize "stock" reliability.

Having a motorcycle background, intake and exhaust were always a "given" necessary mod, and this only makes sense to me for my truck as well. I've looked at Banks Ram-Air intake system as well as their Monster exhaust and am impressed with what appears to be quality products. I've noticed many on this site are not fans of Banks, but for my needs I think they may be perfect. I also would like to add a tuner and monitor as well. Obviously Banks suggests using "compatible products" designed to "work together" and I don't know if this is a legit concern or not. Seeing what others from this site use, there is a wide variety of combinations of intakes, exhausts, tuners, and monitors/ gauges. I see many favorably using the Smarty and Quadzilla products and am not against using these if intake and exhaust is irrelevant. I also notice many using MBRP exhaust. Is compatibility an important factor or do these products work well (and safely) with any combination?

I also notice many guys state "silencer ring MIA", what exactly is this and how does this impact or change performance? Pros / cons?

I appreciate any suggestions you guys might have for me to best utilize my truck and get the best "bang" for my buck, keeping in mind I want a reliable and SAFE set-up I can install and then just drive with no future issues. Thanks!

__________________________________________________ _______________
03 2500 CTD SO, SLT, SILVER, DEBADGED, 4 SPEED AUTO, 410 REAR, QCSB, 4X4, WESTIN PLATINUM SERIES CHROME W TO W NERF BARS, CHROME FUEL DOOR, TONNEAUMASTERS COVER, 8' BOSS RT3 POLY PLOW

 

on my limited experience i would go with a set of guages to monitor your trans, boost and EGT. then either a smarty or smarty jr.
i know others will be along shortly that have a whole lot more advice than i do.
my understanding is the stock exhaust and intake are actually pretty decent at flowing air.

 

Smarty Jr and gauges.

 

Like 2006MEGA said first do gauges to monitor your truck then I would do the air improvements and last the electronics power-adders.
You could go with Banks everything to made "safe" HP since it has the builtin safe guards to keep you from shreding your trany.

 

Fill in your signiture, it helps everyone answer questions
Guages are a must, either stand alone or part of a monitoring system....standalone (isspro, diprocol, quad commander)
Exhaust - the main restriction is the muffler (for budget reasons, get a replacement muffler)...donaldson, mbrp,...(you have an 03, and if i recall correctly, they may have more restrictions than the 04.5+...so i'll defer to someone else to be exact on this one
Intake - get a quality drop in replacement (improvement and budget wise)...tru flow, afe,...
Power adder: I'm a biased Smarty Fan (but so are 10000 other people)...so i say Smarty Jr....or Edge Juice Attitude (for all in one soln)

WOuldnt get concerned about "Matching Parts"....the principals of each part are the same no matter who makes it....a full banks kit will kill the budget...compare that vs:

Option 1:
Drop In Intake $80
Replacement Muffler: $150
Smarty Jr.: $495
Quad Commander or Guages: $400
Total: $1200 approx
Pro's: Smarty is awesome, better throttle response, smooth power...this would be exactly what you're looking for per your post....

Option 2:
Drop In Intake $80
Replacement Muffler: $150
Edge J/A (Power + Guages): $800
Total: $1100 approx
Pro's: Don't like the edge power curve as well as smarty jr, but it gives great safety features and is a great soln as well

FYI, you dont need a huge improvement in intake and exhaust for a mild power addition...so don't spend all your $'s on a that stuff...i run the smarty TnT tune (and previously beta 4.4) on a drop in filter w/o issue...and they make a whole lot more beans than the smarty jr.

Good luck and enjoy

 

To be perfectly honest I spent a fair amount of money on a AFE system with the torque tube and really didnt notice much gain or drop in EGT (given Im not heavily modded). Sure the turbo whine is cool sound but there are way cheaper ways of obtaining that. Id say keep your stock intake and replace it with a higher flowing filter as well. As long as your staying mildly modded, stock intake system will do you fine.

 

I think the others have given you some good advice. Don't do like me and spend a ton of money making your truck your hobby.


You don't need a fancy air intake. Just put some holes in the bottom of your stock one and a freer flowing drop in air filter.

Exhaust is definately optional. You can purchase a 4'' straight thru style muffler anywhere....and just go to your local muffler shop and have them install it......or if you have a fab it up yourself.

Since you tow, I'd def invest in gauges.

Smarty jr. is definately a good option for extra power, but there are plenty of others too.

Banks, here on DTR, is considered to be kinda pricey for what you get and overhyped in the magazines where they have an insane marketing budget. More expensive is not always better.
..

 

Thanks much for the input guys......I appreciate it and will follow your advice. Looks like I can do this for under $1500 with good results for my needs. Again, hats off to all who replied. Keep your thoughts coming. I'll keep you posted and am sure I'll have more questions along the way. I'm excited about "tricking out" my truck (even modestly) and think I'm in for some fun!

__________________________________________________ _______________
03 2500 CTD SO, SLT, SILVER, DEBADGED, 4 SPEED AUTO, 410 REAR, QCSB, 4X4, WESTIN PLATINUM SERIES CHROME W TO W NERF BARS, CHROME FUEL DOOR, TONNEAUMASTERS COVER, 8' BOSS RT3 POLY PLOW

 

post your location in your sig. There are always friends that will help you work on that truck.

 

Yeah, there are some good words on here.
Guages are a must. EGT and FP are a must, then a boost, maybe a tranny temp guage.

I did a thread on how to do a version of a DIY cold air intake, it involved about 20 bucks total of lowes parts...

If you don't mind the truck being loud, you can get a muffler delete pipe, that's pretty cheap. There are some other ideas on there too... https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...old+air+intake

Make sure to check out the DTR store before you buy anything, Lary can usually get you a better deal than anywhere else.

Happy modding!

 

Like everyone says, gauges is the first thing you need to look at. Then maybe an upgraded lift pump(airdog, raptor, walbro). Looks like a SmartyJR would work in your budget over the Edge and Banks products.

From your sig and say above 82 thousand on a 4x4 tran, you may want to budget a tranny sometime. Don't want to jinx you may not take much to burn it up.

 

I continue to "upgrade" my '03 S.O. slowly in an attempt to get the most bang while trying to do it on a modest budget. After gauges, the intake was first (see link in sig). That seemed to add a little better response and helped to keep things cool. Then came Quadzilla fueling box. On the 65hp setting, it made towing much easier and EGTs remained manageable. If you use the stock filter, this puts you right at about the $800 mark including the full set of gauges, less if you find something in the classifieds.

I added the rest of the items in my sig bit by bit. The Smarty is a nice improvement and is a great stack with the Quad once the Quad is modified to pressure only. After close to 5 years, I just put on a straight through muffler (still have the CAT and the rest of the system is stock). Nice sound and EGTs dropped 100*+ towing heavy on a grade.

Have fun.

 

The AFE Stage II did make a big difference on my truck. I ran back-to-back max EGT tests on the same day comparing the stock filter to the AFE II. The AFE II dropped my max EGT's by 50-80*.

You might not notice a big difference in power with the AFE, but it does help the engine breathe better than the stock setup...which means it is increasing power to some degree.

 

With the stock box opened up, or completely stock?

 

It was completely stock.

Opening it up isn't going to make all that much of a difference though. The real limiting factor is the surface area of the stock filter element.