Sorry, just saw your post this afternoon.

1) The smaller turbine housing - a "smaller" turbine housing means it has a smaller A/R which basically means its physically smaller. The benefit to a smaller turbine housing is quicker turbo spool up and works great for a basically stock truck, especially one with a manual trans which will have the tendency to "fall under the turbo" or let the turbo slow down when you shift gears and it takes the boost pressure a few seconds to respond and spool back up. This is part of what Banks sells for their package. Don't be fooled its not "sized" for their products, it will work just fine with anything you want to put on the truck. (granted, up to a point, if your installing huge injectors and stuff like that it wont' cut it any longer, but youre not there and thats a whole nother conversation)

2) As Diesel Dawgs Performance said, you will want a chip with "custom" tuning on it. The "big box" products are OK, but there is a lot better product out there. Both Gearhead and DP Tuner are good sources for tuning for the 7.3. A good rule of thumb is to stay away from any product that you would see advertised on TV, granted, not always true, but generally the large companies will sacrifice the personal touch you get with smaller custom shops as they attempt to appeal to a much wider audience and can no longer support a specific platform as well as the smaller product specific custom shop not run by a huge corporation. Read, i'm NOT saying their products are bad, its just that there are a lot of really REALLY good options other than the big guys.

3) Regarding the intake . . . you don't need to swap out the plumbing or any of that stuff, its actually the filter itself that is the issue. The K&N filter media is too loose for a diesel truck w/a turbocharger that creates significant air flow and can place a pretty good suction on the filter. Something like and S&B Intake is what you need. The rest of the plumbing is totally fine for you. Here is a link: S&B Filter 98-03 Ford Superduty

Good luck with your truck, they are a blast! Let us know if we can help any more!

 

Okay, so Ive narrowed it down to which chip I want. The DPTuner looks GREAT with little gauge pod and the LED numbers, but I threw together a couple custom tunes (not everything I wanted, just what I needed) and it came out to almost $700! The TSChip looks good and at a great price but its lacking something the DPtuner had that I found cool is a towing and decel setting (I tow large trailers full of other toys on occasion, found that the braking really really suffers). SO! One of the members her PM'ed this chip, has 8 settings that I can fill with everything I need and want.
POWER-STRUCK, osgood indiana, performance tuning

Your thoughts?

Route66Diesel: So for the intake, the banks "ram air" is sufficient for what I need, it is the filter element itself that I need to replace? The S&B you posted is a full replacement system that seems to do exactly what mine already does. Is there a better square filter I can replace the K&N with, or is it the intake box that lacks sealing power against dust?

And as far as the turbo goes, I didn't realize that originally the trucks came with two different choices in turbo size. So it just so happens that both the other 7.3l's I compared to had the smaller option turbo, while mine has the larger one? Or is there a serious optical illusion happening here.

 

you can choose any chip you want, but i would ride a bike before i ever put a DP on my pickup.

the turbos on the E99 and L99 are the same they just have different mounts on them.

 

Yeah I've ruled the DP out, too expensive for the same stuff. Anyone have any experience with the Powerstruck Chip

 

Turbo question- The old body style trucks came w/a 1.15 A/R tubine housing and were not waste gated. The new body style 7.3's came with the .84 (.86 i can't recall the exact number) and it was waste gated. Banks makes a different turbine housing you can install on your truck, my comments were in regards to the Banks aftermarket option for your truck, but you would need to confirm in fact you have the banks housing.

Intake/Filter question - If the filter housing provided by Banks reuses the stock sized filter, then you can replace the K&N square filter with this: S&B Universal Panel Filters

Tuning - Any of the custom tuners can make you a tow tune that will use the exhaust back pressure valve for engine braking, that's not necessarily specific to DP Tuners. What I would recommend is to do some research on the different options you have found. Gearhead's tunes have a very good reputation, so does DP Tuner. The chip itself isn't as important as who's tunes are installed on it. I would recommend giving the guys at Diesel Dawgs Performance a call on Monday and see what they can do for you . . . they can help point you in the right direction regarding what tunes will work best for you. Also, you can always add tunes to the chip later on if you want, so you don't have to buy them all up front.

 

For the turbo are we talking about the exhaust side of it or the intake? I took some comparative photos of another 7.3 and mine.

Top photo is my truck, bottom photo is same year F350



If I find time tomorrow ill hunt for some sort of marking on the exhaust side of the turbo.

(Just realized as I was about to post this that the engine from a 2000 F350 was put in. Did these have a different turbo? I dont know if the turbo was swapped with it or not, but I do not believe so as the truck came with the blown short block when I bought it)

 

Exhaust side is what you change to make it spool faster.

Both turbos in that pic are stock. Yours is an L99 and the other is an E99. Yours sits higher so it looks bigger but they are the same size. They are pretty much the same turbo.

 

Here is what Banks sells as their complete turbo upgrade kit: Here

But you could buy the waste gate actuator, wheel, and turbine housing separately, so there is no guarantee.

Honestly, I wouldn't loose sleep over if you have the different turbine housing or not, it doesn't have any thing to do with your lack of power . . .that is the Otto Mind's fault. There isn't any kinda of special magic to make a turbo work better . . . its all about shifting its efficiency range. Look at it like building a motor, you build it around a certain useable rpm range. Different parts shift where the engine makes power . . .the turbos are the same way. Parts that will make a turbo work great for a stock truck, may not make that same turbo work right on a modified truck. The turbo on a stock truck won't really light well until 2k rpm or so . . . that will totally change with proper tuning. So, the Banks exhaust housing is a good piece, but so is the stock exhaust housing when coupled with a good tuner. Fix the tuning issue and your turbo issue will disappear regardless of which turbine housing (exhaust housing) you have on it.