I've had my truck a couple of months now. It has 200,000 miles and everything appears to be stock, except the tires. It's got 18" Dodge wheels and 275/75-18 tires, those magnificent Firestone Transforce. Not great but should be OK for mileage. Made a trip from Houston to Vegas and MPG ranged from about 14 to 17 (hand calculated) with myself and my girlfriend plus luggage, no towing, temperature ranged from mid-20's to mid 60's. I do have a 23' travel trailer I will be towing and I'm wanting to get decent mileage and save wear and tear, especially on the auto trans. I don't have gauges or an exhaust brake yet, but know I need them. I wanted to get a feel for what the truck did before I started any mods, and, like most folks, I have a budget. So, after reading til my eyes are crossed, I think I may have a workable plan.

I'm thinking I'll get the Smarty Touch w/EGT first. That way I take care of most, if not all, my gauge needs plus will have a tuner. This way I can check lots of values to see if I can determine if I should work on intake or exhaust next. (I've looked at EFI live and it just seems to be much more than I need. Plus, I don't want to spend hours just trying to figure out my tuner). For intake, if needed I would go with an S&B CAI and intake horn. After that I would store the kitty and possibly get a different muffler.

I also plan to install the Cat fuel filter system and upgrade the transmission pan. I know I will also need to get some upgrades for the tranny, but it's still holding, so that's down the road. Exhaust brake will be at some point along here too.

Any advice or suggestions are welcome. If you do have something, I would love it if you tell me why. I've seen lots of posts that someone says something is great or horrible, but they don't say why, so that isn't much help. For instance, someone told about wiping the air intake hose after the filter and finding dust instead of just saying it didn't work.

Thanks in advance.

 

leave the stock exhaust and intake. it wont do anything for you and just be a waste of money. also dont put a k&n filter in the air box, they dont do that well at filtering the air. just stick with the stock filter or one = to it, like a napa filter. smarty is good, but take the money you dont spend on exhaust and intake and go with efi. they will be better tunes with the right tuner. i have a manual and dont really know about autos other then yes, upgrading it is a good ideal.

 

There will be no advantage to changing your intake, it adds nothing on
performance side. You can drill out the bottom of your stock air box, 1/4
drill, many holes, add a screen on inside box, free and just as good as anything.
Save your money for trans upgrade.

 

I put a 5in straight pipe exhaust on my 06 and got a 200* drop in egts. my pickup wasn't stock but i would think it would make a difference on a stock pickup. that is if you don't mind was a loud truck

 

3rd gens respond nicely to an intake upgrade. Look at your stock intake elbow and notice the choke point as it curves, right where the 2 mounting bolts are into the engine. A cheap alternative is a 2nd gen intake elbow. It looks similar, but does not have the choke point. Any upgraded intake elbow will wake up your engine and help in cooling EGTs b/c its ingesting way more air help combustion and decrease black smoke.
Also, at the very least, ditch the kitty, if its got one, and go for a free flowing muffler. This will also help lower EGTs and increase power potential as you mod your engine. Your truck already has a factory 4 inch exhaust. Just improve on that a bit. your engine needs to breathe easier as you do your mods. There's no sense in modding your engine if you don't let it breathe more efficiently. It will just work against itself. You wont be sorry. But most important question is: What is your goal and what do you intend to do with it, racing, pulling, increase efficiency.....?

 

Good to hear from Texas! What part are you in?

I want my truck to have a very long life mainly. I have a travel trailer (about 4000 lbs) that I tow for camping in the mountains, so I am probably looking at some trans upgrades. I want good fuel economy for that and reliability. I'm past my hot rod years, way past.

BTW, truck has about 200,000 miles, not sure if the trans has had any work or not.

I did change the intake horn to an Arctic Air and the lie-o-meter is reading way higher. I had just filled up so it will be a while before I can calculate the actual mileage though. Plan to ditch the cat soon.

Thanks

 

Im in El paso neighbor! Take a look at my sig. My mods are very conservative. It does all I need it to do without tearing **** up, and I can still light up the duallies out back if I wanna show off. Ya might wanna look more into the trans with that many miles. I had to do mine at 175k. Ihave 3.73s on mine. If you have 4.10s, its a bit easier on the
trans. Gauges is a real good investment as you will know what your engine is doing, especially if youre working it. My travel trailer is right about 9200 lbs, and my rig pulls it like lts not there. I don't rely on the lie-o-meter, but use my gps. Its a hell of a lot more reliable. Pulling my trailer at 62 mph will net me a couple of thenths under 17mpg. My lie-o-meter will show 19 but I know that's crap. I also use wallymart brand 2stroke oil at one qt per full tank, for increased lubricity for the IP and injectors. My motor runs more quietly and seems to have abit more pep.

 

I'll chime in from the heart land too- I second EFI- way better tunes than a box tuner I have not run smarty but used to run edge juice w. Attitude. If you keep stock intake some will say remove baffling on the inlet tube it's easy. If you have OEM shocks it's prolly getting a little rough I'd recommend Bilstien 5100s, if you have original injectors then you need to think about replacing these sooner than later! Bought mine a little over a year ago with 170k all stock and will be getting hp sticks this week since my mpg has dropped and idling rough. Lots of good info on the site here! I'd take a look at sigs of guys and you will notice what's working well!

 

One other thing on my wish list is a Pacbrake. I looked at Banks cause they offer a trans controller, but after reading about some problems, and finding out that my 06 appears to already be set up to control the trans, decided on the Pac.

If I understand EFI, most people don't buy the hardware, just get a tune from a shop, is that right? If so, can the tune be changed without going back to the shop? One reason for the Touch is the gauges. They can add up $$ fast, and don't really want the Christmas tree look.

When I got it the shocks were Mopar, probably original. Slapped some Rancho 5000's on first thing. The *** end still rides like a heavy duty truck, but it's a heavy duty truck.

I want to get the trans looked at to see where I am with that. If it's going belly up, that will be a top priority and take a big chunk of any budget I have.

Lots to learn, thanks for the responses!

 

EFI is controlled by flashing the computer- I am not an expert when it comes to formatting- I have a buddy who set me up with a 5 tune pack for a good deal. I have a switch with 1-5 similar to smarty but can change on the fly. I believe it's the software package you purchase then a shop/tuner downloads the files and sends them to you to upload on your computer. I am using old edge gauges and have no complaints but will be switching to the tree and steering column look soon