Hello all!!

I know this subject has been brought up numerous times before, but its always fun to spend someone else's money right??

I'm pretty good with a wrench, but a novice when it comes to upgrading the Diesel. I have a 2001 Quad Cab, 2500, Diesel, Automatic 4 wd. I haul a #3000lb camper and a equally as heavy boat trailer. And for those GVWR police, yes I know I'm overloaded , gotta live life on the edge, besides my wife wont let me trade it in for a one ton

I must say the truck does pretty good, but I hate to see hills coming in the horizon. I am trying to figure out what performance upgrades to make in order to make hauling this load a little easier.

I looked into the Banks Powerpack, but doesn't sound like to many here recommend that (overpriced.) I have read recommendations such as the Edge EZ, turbo upgrade, new injectors, Exhaust, Air Intake.....etc....

Say you had $1400-$2000 to spend on the truck. What would you buy that would give it the most bang for the buck. I don't need to melt the tires off, just want something that's going to pull hard up the hills and still have some left in the pedal. I would also like to do it without leaving a trail of black smoke for miles, although I realize there will probably be some. I also don't want to hurt the reliability of the truck.

Any recommendations would be great!! Look forward to reading your replies.

Thanks,

Steve

2001 QC 2500 Cummins, Shortbed, 4WD, 35X12.50 16 Nitto Terra Grapplers, Rancho RSX9000 Shocks, Firstone Airbags, K&N.....

 

I have a 1999 and chose to go with the Banks stinger plus with ram intake. I run 32lbs boost and have plenty of power for towing. I tow a 38ft horse trailer with living quarters and it is pretty heavy. I do a lot of grades to 13% and it does real well. I installed the whole system and Banks was very informative. I have had this on since 1999 and it has performed flawlessly to date. I do not run an automatic though. Call them up and see what they have for you. There are a lot of performance upgrades out there and these people here at this site will let you know what and how they work. Good stuff.

 

Gauges and 275HP injectors... ?

 

Gauges (Fuel pressure, Boost, EGT, Transmission Temp), an Edge EZ, and a BHAF. If that's not enough, then throw some 275 injectors in there. That'll be about the limit your stock transmission can take.

 

1: Gauges
2: Full 4" exaust
3:Edge comp (wire untapped untill you can aford a new trans and turbo)
4:Mild injectors (I hear Don Ms are the best)
This will pretty much spend your budget but add serious WOOD effect to your ride The reason I recomend the Comp over the EZ is just that you will be hooked dont worry though you will have the Comp to tap and get your fix

 

I agree, add a 4" exhaust though...

 

The stock exhaust straight piped is good to 350 rwhp or so. With the EZ and 275's, he won't be pushing anywhere near that much.

ratsun, I didn't even think about the "hooked" factor. Definately get the comp instead of the EZ. You'll want more, I promise.

 

012500,

We do this everyday, we stock all the major brands and GUARANTEE all of our prices too!

Go With:
4 inch MBRP aluminized or T-409 system
EZ or COMP or van Aaken
275 RV Injectors
Gauges
AFE Pro Guard 7 Intake

Less than 2000.00 and tons of power, this can also be done in stages like:

Exhaust and gauges, then intake and injectors and finally a power module.

Call us if we can help.

Mark @ DPPI

 

Adding any more than 60 Hp will be asking for trouble with the automatic transmission. Some auto's will hold a little more, some will burn up with less 60 extra Hp added, some will burn up at stock settings. 60 Extra Hp is the recommended Hp to stay at before transmission upgrades are needed.

275 injectors = 40 Hp
EZ = 60 Hp
Add the two together = 90-100 Hp.

Guages, modified valve body, Mach 1.5 injectors or EZ-275 combination, boost fooler if you go with 1.5's, EZ already has a boost fooler built in, stock air box, stock exhaust.

 

If I had $2,000 for the truck to upgrade for towing/pulling, I would get:

1. Aftermarket Valve body and Torque Conveter $1400 est.

2. Get boost, pyro, and tranny guages, $300 new

3. Pick up a used Edge EZ box in the classifieds..I've seen them as low as $300, but usually around $350. Good for 65rwhp and 175rwtq.


I have heard from everyone on the board that a VB & TC will be the best thing you've ever done to my 24V Automatic. It is so much better then being stock its not even funny. I will get it done to my 24V Auto. one of these days when I quit spending money on my 12V.


When you get some more money, go for a better air intake, and maybe some injectors.

Justin

P.S. If you wanted to save money on the tranny VB & TQ, I have been looking at getting the B&M Transpak for the tranny. Helps shifting and ups line pressure. It goes for usually $50 on jegs or summit. And Jegs sells the TCI torque converter for our trannys for about $375 and one with a billet plate for about $500.....I would get the billet plate. I am still debating on that though, even though they might not be as good as the big dollar parts, they will still do a very good job especially for the money. Not sure how much power they will take though, but they will be considerably better then stock. Just read through this site and see what everyone else is doing.

 

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I have a pretty good idea now what all I should get. Like some of you have mentioned, I think the tranny needs to be one of the first things on my list to upgrade. No sense in building up the truck to be a beast is it can't handle the power.

As for TQ Converters and Valve bodies, I was looking at the ATS setup. Only thing there is $$$. JBlackwell mentioned the TCI converter....Anyone have experience with how much power those can handle over stock?

Thanks again...

Steve

 

As for TQ Converters and Valve bodies, I was looking at the ATS setup. Only thing there is $$$. JBlackwell mentioned the TCI converter....Anyone have experience with how much power those can handle over stock?

Thanks again...

Steve [/B][/QUOTE]

I dont know about the converter in question but I ran a TCI 8" converter in a powerglide for 3 seasons mid to low 9s in the 1/4
It hit at 5800 behind a 14 to 1 roller 498ci in a 3100lb car flawlessly. In the last season it even stood up to a few bottle launches with the trans brake (split a couple of the stock glide housings though ) So it sould be worth looking into.

 

Interesting story here:

The only thing I have heard about the TCI converters built for the Cummins is a neighbor of mine (David) has an '88 Ford F350 single tire 4 door with a 12V Cummins and 47RE (H) that he put in himself. He turned up the 12V a bit when he put the drivetrain in. He also installed a TCI converter and he only uses the truck to pull his race cars and the trailer loaded down weighs around 17K. Well, David told me that when he had the TCI in it, it kept burning up the converter...he would call TCI and they would send him another one no questions ask. Well he burned up another one, and another one, and another one. I think after about 4 or 5 that TCI and him boith said something has got to give here. He ended up asking TCI for his money back and they did. David then went and bought a ATS Triple Disk converter and hasn't looked back since.

Point of the story is that I found out that the TCI converter didn't have the Billet Steel front cover yet for the Cummins (this was a couple years ago I believe). So the billet Steel converters TCI has must be better then their previous converters. David said he loved TCI's service. When he called to say he burned one up, they would ship him out another converter ASAP and no questions ask, then he would send them the ruined one. I think that is why TCI makes the billet steel covers now, cause of Daivid.LOL Another thing that I can't believe is that the transmission is nothing but a bone stock 47RE or H (forgot which one but same thing). He says the tranny has around 300K miles on it now. He bought the tranny when it had somewhere under 200K. He opened up the tranny to see if it needed anything and it was perfect he said, so he put it back together. The last 100K+ miles it has pulled that 17,000 lb. trailer. I wouldn't believe it but I have known him for a while and he has helped me with my race truck, so I can feel him out on what he says about his Cummins powered Ford. I've been trying to get him to get some power out of that truck and get a VB for that tranny, but he says it does plenty for him now. He says he doesn't like pulling those hills doing only 30mph though, so I might change his mind one day.

Justin

Here is the link to the TCI converter with the billet steel front cover. http://www.jegs.com/cgi-bin/ncommerc...62&prmenbr=361