I have a bone stock 98 12 valve...215 hp. Great reliable truck. I'm using the truck for my daily driver to work and also have an enclosed car trailer that I pull. Once every couple years I make a round trip to Alaska pulling a heavy load with a few pretty good hills to pull. I'm not interested in spending an *** load of money and ending up with a 500hp rig. Dependability is important to me and fuel efficiency is important on my Alaska trips. Daily driving...I'm less concerned about fuel mileage since I can use other rigs for economy and my drive to work is short.
I've read a lot of posts and articles here and have a good idea of what I can do for cheap or free to gain some extra HP. I'm old but would enjoy some better black smoke when I mash on it. I don't want to fumigate the neighborhood while I'm off of it and tooling around but there are times when I want to pump out the black. I'd also like to get a quicker response when I mash on it. It just seems like it lags a bit to me.
I've read that I can get about 100 free HP by moving or removing the fuel plate and turning the star wheel. I don't want to grind my plate...I want to be able to put things back to the way they are now if I don't like what I did. I'm not sure how much modified plates are but I'm not willing to spend hundreds to buy one. I guess my options with the plate are moving it forward or removing it and keeping it in the glove box. I understand that the star wheel controls when the turbo kicks in. I've read articles that say turn the top toward the engine to get quicker response but no mention about how much. I read one post where the guy said he turned it something like 25 clicks.
I'd like to rely on everybody's experience with this so I'm not spending weeks trying to dial in this modification. So, I have a couple questions.
Will removing the fuel plate decrease my mileage drastically if I'm just putting around to work at 1200 rpm? or does it only come into play when the pedal is down?
How many clicks on the star wheel to get a quicker response when I mash on it? I'm not looking for pealing rubber...just better.
Guess the bottom line is move or remove the fuel plate?
How many clicks on the star wheel?
I appreciate your advice

 

I would slide the stock plate forward and leave the starwheel alone until you see how the truck responds. I would spend a little money tho on gov springs there well worth it and will make more difference than the two mods your asking about.

 

what 94 said. you can do the super basic mods see how you like it. if you want a nice package and that explains the system swell you could get afc live stage 1 or 2, 2 would be good for those moments you wanna roll some coal or have a dramatic performance increase and have it tuned to your liking regularly. they have an outline on all the afc mods, it involves removing the plate so the tuner can control the plate position. and you can tune it all on the fly from in the cab. they also can supply a boost elbow to up your boost a bit to clean up the added fuel. afc live and a 3gsk would be the perfect set up for just a stout stock truck. maybe throw a afe dry bhaf on there and your set at probably a solid 250 wheel horse. maybe more

 

WPG, thanks for introducing me to the AFC Live Stage. I've done some research on their web site and I'm impressed. I might just go that route.

 

its a great product for every performance level but i think it would really shine cost and performance wise to the person just looking to upgrade what they have now with the simple mods available on a 12v but now with afc live you can do it from your cab and no need to buy plates or any of that. along with the afc live, the boost elbow and a 3gsk you should have a nice stout truck.

 

Consider gauges, Boost/EGT. These 215's can get hot pretty quick.

 

Isspro is the brand I suggest. Ev2 far nicer then your standard autometer, and much nicer to install.

 

^ 100%

 

You can also check out hewitt.

 

Thanks for all the input. I don't want to do all of this at once. I've been shopping ebay for an A-pillar mount and gauges. The one I'm looking at says 98 to 02 and I'm not getting a straight answer from the guy if that'll fit the early 98...or does it matter? It's $260 with gauges, senders and the mount. I figured I'd go with the gauges first so I can see where everything is at now and then when we get closer to warmer weather, I'll spring for the AFC Live.
I'm a little worried about the AFC Live because it's only as good as the person adjusting it and, with infinite settings, there's an infinite chance that I'll screw up the settings somehow. After the AFC, I'll look into the 3gsk and see if I can do it with the pump still on the truck...I don't want to pull the pump again.