I am not a new diesel owner, but not a gearhead or mechanic of any sort. I currently have a stock dodge 3500 with only a 5 inch TBE. Wondering what other upgrades I should be looking at (intake, tuner, transmission, etc.)?

 

It all depends what you wanna do with it and how much money you have. I have a Afe intake and a smarty s06 pod on mine and 5 inch exhaust and im happy with it for being my daily driver.

 

I'd say get gauges (egt,boost,tranny temp) know your numbers. I have edge juice with attitude cts and its has all the built in gauges on the screen and its perfect. Intake would be nice too for cooler egts and more flow. If you really wanna fork money out first I'd say tranny haha

 

Power is nice, but it takes a back seat to suspension mods for me.

 

Intake will gain you practically nothing until you start making osme real power, definitely won't make anything cooler.

Add a tuner and all you do is jeopardize the trans or clutch, you don't say what trans you have. Power and trans upgrades need to go hand in hand.

A Smarty and a few trans mods will make a world of difference.

The 5" TB system is a mistake, killing your low end. A 4" thru the muffler is more than adequate wothout the spool penalty. If you want to keep the 5" then manifold blanket, turbo boot, and DP wrap should be mandatory.

 

Pointclair,

My suggestion would be to keep things simple. The 5 inch CBE is definitely a step in the right direction. If you are looking for a modest bump in power with a stock trans, I would look into the Smarty Jr. I have five Dodge Cummins, and having two 2nd gen Dodge Cummins with Smarty's, 47RE tranny re-builds with all the HD upgrades, I still prefer my 3rd gen with the stock 48RE and the Smarty Jr.

The only mods for my 3rd gen are a K&N intake (drops in OME box), 4 inch CBE, Nitrogen Filled Nitto Grappler A/T's, and Smarty Jr. My 3rd gen performs like a dream towing with 445 RWHP/785 ft-lbs torque, and when empty getting 29 MPG HWY and 24 MPG in town.

If the suspension is something of concern, take a look at the on-board rear-axle air systems by Firestone to help stablize your ride while towing or hauling. Balancing drive-lines is helpful too if needed. That's my thoughts.

Good luck with it.

 

A little fantasy always makes it worth reading, no matter how unrealistic. Now you have the stuff dreams are made of to balance against reality of guys getting 10 mpg with the same mods.

Once you step away from stock power all bets are off on the mpg and the stock transmission. Decide what you want to do and do some research on how others got there and what really works before jumping in, you will be a lot happier.

 

Well after all, he is a member of the "Cummins High Mileage Club!"

 

No problem, say what you will, but the numbers have been consistent for the last 4 years, and there is a limit of MPG seen in my trucks. We do see mild variations sometimes when using antigel additives.

However, I did not mention the impact of other contributing factors to improving MPG, such as, tire compound, tire pressure, rear axle gear ratios, and simple changes that improve fuel atomization at the injector. My only point is that things can be done to improve MPG.

Those mods I did list all have an additive benefit when combined. The MPG on any truck can be improved, but keep in mind mileage is RPM dependent. For the ISB 5.9L, Cummins recommends 1,800 RPM Max for the best fuel economy. The mileage I quoted for my 3rd gen is hand calulated. We have been doing this a long time, so agree to disagree. You make a valid point; before any mods, research. Thanks for the feedback.

Regards.

 

I appreciate all the advice and I am looking in the direction of a built trans in the very distant future, but until then I believe I will go with a smarty. Does anybody have any recommendations where to get one at a decent price? Monitoring ability would be a plus.