No guages, 4" exhaust. Sold my other truck so I have enough $$ to buy a toy or two.
I'm thinking a re-location kit and a box of some sort.
My problem is that I just can't make up my mind !!@#$%^&*

Smarty sounds good, but I'll need guages
Juice has guages, but do Edge products eat VP's??
Van Aakens, EZ, etc are nice, but limited power
Quad's have reliability issues?, but good power gains
Big G modules..?? 5 miles from my house, but who are they???
Dr perf...never heard one good thing
Diablo pucks..Just don't hear anything about them.

I pull a 20' bass boat and haul an 8.5 camper. I'm 50 yrs old, and in reality, probably will never race. But I'm human, and do enjoy the feeling of power. I don't want things breaking either, and I have a stock tranny (auto)

aaauughhhh

 

i would get a pyro, boost, and tranny temp gauge then the smarty. Your auto should be ok. being as how you dont pull a lot of weight and are a more responsible driver (older) than some of us

 

You need guages even if you never modify anything else. I'd recommend Pyro and tranny temp as bare minimums. Boost is important too, but secondary to the the lead two.

Fuel pressure is a subject of much debate on here-- but we tend to debate HOW MUCH fuel pressure you need. What's generally agreed upon is that you SHOULD monitor it, if possible-- or at least have some way of knowing when it fails to be greater than zero. That's the most important part. You don't really need to know how much FP you have-- just that it's not zero or negative!

Also-- relocating your pump isn't as critical, imo as relieving some of the restriction in the fuel plumbing. If you buy any fuel pump kit or line kit, make sure it eliminates the banjo fittings that are so restrictive.

After fiddling with different FP guage setups, I finally went with what's worked out the best so far-- a cheapo 1.5" Glycerin-filled guage from Summit or Jegs. Like this:

You can plumb up the guage pretty easily using just grease gun hose or socketless hose and the like. As a bonus, these little gauges are about the same size as the factory tweeter pod on the A-pillar. This allows you to buy a "tweeter" guage pod for a truck that doesn't have the tweeters and PRESTO-- a 4-guage pod where there would have only been three! Neat, eh? Of course, you could also just leave it under the hood-- these little guages are tough as nails and <$20


As for power enhancement, I've made no secret of my affection for the Smarty Tuner. I think it is the perfect "first mod".

Edge products don't "eat VPs." VPP44s are just something that's either weak or strong. Some will die, some won't--- and the manufacturer of the power add-on doesn't seem to have anything to do with it. Heck, I lost a VP at only 40K miles and never had the wire tapped!

Diablo is old tech and pretty much dead. Consider a distant option for enhancement on the cheap if you can buy used.

My recommendation for power enhancement, towing performance and all-around sensibility is to get a Smarty only. Then put money into the trans before you add any more power. The Smarty will tow your setup like it's not even there. But all-around enjoyment and performance will be MUCH greater with at least an aftermarket Torque Converter and Valve Body installed.

With guages, a Smarty, and a TC/VB in the trans, you'll have a great performing truck that will be as safe as you could ever want without the need for a turbo upgrade or shelling out huge bucks for a lot of other mods.

If you decide you want a little more grunt later, a mild set of injectors would be perfect and still be safe. Smarty and some Don M Mach 1.6s is a tower's dream rig that's plenty of power to have fun

jmo