estesbubba

i posted the following in the general forum but they said i would get better responses here.

i just bough a 2006 2500 dodge ram with a cummins and automatic and just joined here. i know nothing about diesels and hope to learn a lot here. i previously owned a 2003 1500 dodge with a hemi. i really liked that truck but last summer we bought a travel trailer and the timing was right now to upgrade my tow vehicle.

my first question is about break in. i've read my manual and also checked out the cummins site. the manual says not to tow the first 500 miles. other than that, the manual and cummins site says to not baby the engine during break in. so is it OK to ocassionally get on it during the first 500 miles or should i keep everything mellow until after 500?

also, it seems there is all kinds of stuff you can do to improve performance and even mileage. i wouldn't mind improving my towing performance and fuel mileage, and maybe some extra "fun" for daily driving. i'm not looking to race kids with coffee can mufflers, have to replace my tires at 10K miles, or beef up my tranny. so what products should i look at for my desired improvements? also, should i wait until the engine is broken it good before doing anything? if so, how many miles?

thanks for any advice.

masonic-dodge

All i can say about break-in is if it lasts the first 1000 miles it will last 400,000miles.

If you are wanting a little extra HP for towing, fun and the most importain more MPG I would buy a MP8 box from TS Performance 270-746-9999 and ask for Dennis, he is the owner.

The MP8 is a pressure box that will give you 100hp + 200ft lbs+or- and will not hurt anything on your truck.

It gave me 3mpg extra even when towing my 12,000lbs 5th wheel.

CRIS

estesbubba

cris - thanks for the advice.

i've been reading past threads on here for 3+ hours and boy is my head spinning.

it seems the bully dog power pup is popular and pretty safe without having to make any modifications. what do you think of this?

also, it sounds like i should get some gauges before i do anything. the reason i upgraded from a 1500 hemi to a 2500 cummins is to tow my travel trailer and possibly a 5er in the future. so i'm thinking a tranny gauge should be on my list. the other 2 gauges i'm thinking about are pyrometer and boost. how do i determine what range boost gauge i need?

the other gauge i've seen on here is a fuel pressure gauge. would this be needed for something like the bully dog?

i like the pillar gauge holders. any suggestions on good places to get them?

ramtd02

First thing, before even considering a box is pyro and boost guages at a minimum, fuel pressure is highly rcommended!!! As for ranges, get the 60 psi boost, stock on these guys is 32 and with any box, you will see higher than that!!

texaspower19

what was said above about guages , and quadzilla makes a 65hp tow box thats called XZT, it mild enough u wont have to wory about your tranny and will give u more power and better fuel milage if u keep your foot out of it. these are the guages i have, girst is auto meter ultralites and second is the comander by quadzilla

Booger

If you go with the BullyDog you wont have to worry about too much boost, it stays in the stock range. If you run Edge you can see boost as high as 43 lbs, thats why it is not on my truck anymore. I would at least do egt and boost guage though. I wish I had done a fuel pressure with mine. I may add it later.

estesbubba

thanks for the advice. after posting i read some on the quadzilla xzillaraider. how does this compare to the bully dog power pup? is the xzillaraider pretty safe with a stock truck? i'm looking at the 0-30-60-100 model.

texaspower19

its a great bow bu youll need to get guages to monitor it, thats the same box i got