mod time
 

After 2 1/2 years of waiting I finally got my truck. I have about $1,500 to start on mods. I know i need an sct, but I can,t decide between x3 or livewire. I figure for know i wil have the programmer close the egr vslve until i get a delete kit. MBRP 4", is next.....which leaves about 500 or 600. Any advice.... I could swing a little bit more if need be.

gauges, bypass coolant filter, full egr delete kit

Yea I would.get a coolant filter first and a set of gauges fuel pressure EOT and ECT and EGT if you put any extream tune on. A EGR delete is always a good idea you can get good deals on e bay for about 150 bucks.

Yeah shutting the valve off doesn't do much, since it can still be "blown" open, and the cooler is still there to fail.

I'd start with gauges, ranger518 picked some good ones. Fuel pressure is very imporant.

I think for $1500 you could do almost all of this:

Gauges ~$350 for fuel pressure, EOT, ECT and a pod
SCT with custom tunes ~$500
Coolant filter ~ $130
4" turbo back can be had for under $300...

I'd do that stuff first if it was me.

I see a huge difference between these two kits, both of which are recommended on this site.

FirstCoastDieselPerformance.com -- Your Source For Powerstroke Performance

6.0L Ford Powerstroke EGR Delete Kit

Is the Sinister basically a bypass kit? Which is truly better? Also, I've noticed my truck sounds a little throatier than my buddies '05. He has a stock exhaust, but how can I tell if mine is, the pipe has the same OD. Could I already have an after market?

And please excuse the lack of knowledge, but what is EOT and ECT? I know EGT, and pyro, is there a glossary somewhere on the site?

The FCDP one is the entire manifold, and you send yours in back for core return. They actually modify the intake manifold. They weld the fittings on, they also hot-tank the manifold to clean the crud out, and powdercoat any color you want. It's a good kit.

The sinsiter kit is similar to what I have (same thing) which is the River City Diesel (often referred to as RCD here). It will remove the EGR valve, remove the EGR cooler, and replace the stock bellowed up-pipe (which will crack otherwise) with a solid up-pipe. I use this kit with great success. You can get the RCD kits for under $200 shipped from ebay. Sinister has more "bling" though.

Similar to the FCDP one is the GoGo manifold, where it's modified further and no coolant goe sthrough the manifold at all anymore.

Any of those kits get the job done, GoGo being the nicest IMO. If you don't mind spending the coin go that route, but the Sinister/RCD kits work just fine too.

As for your truck, the throatiness could be a deleted muffler or cat, just crawl under it and look. Could also simply be a different strategy flashed from Ford, where the turbo vanes are cycling more or less and just making it sound throatier depending on their position.

ECT is engine coolant temp
EOT is engine oil temp.

You'll pick up on these if you hang around more.

I have both a muffler and cat. I suppose it could be aftermarket, it does have a 5-inch stainless tip welded, not clamped, on.

In the interest of being able to mod as much as I can I think I will go with the RCD. Thanks Mdub.

You wont be disappointed. :c:

how long does it take to install the RCD delete kit, are we talking an evening project, or weekend project?

It can be done in one day. A long day. First time doing one I'm assuming? Cab on, it'd probably take a first timer over 12 hours doing everything right and taking their time. My last one was about 13 hours, but that was with a few beer runs in between, swapping a starter on a TDI and playing with the dog. However, I had a spare intake manifold already cleaned/prepped, ready to go on, so all I had to do was yank the old one, drop this one in with new gaskets and get back to reinstalling. I'd save a weekend for it, just in case. Having an extra set of hands helps tremendously.

12 hours......Seriously??? I would think since it's not a full delete a couple of hours tops.:scare2:

It is a full delete. couple hours... not gonna happen unless the cab is already off.

Seriously. You need to drain coolant, take the intake system off, take off the alternator, the intercooler piping, remove the turbo, remove intake manifold, clean up the sealing surfaces (I'd get a new set of intake manifold gaskets too btw), clean the intake manifold, remove the old up-pipe, put the new one in, and put everything else back. It's not a difficult job, just tedious, and I'd be impressed if someone could do it under 8 hours for a first time in the driveway. The most irritating process is getting the old up-pipe out. Make sure you have a good assortment of extensions and swivel end's. Small hands help.

Some kits say you can re-use the intake manifold gaskets, to me that's silly since you're in so far and they're not expensive. You could probably save some time by re-using what is there and not completely removing the intake manifold, but it's going to need to be cleaned anyways.

I don't mean to keep beating this horse, but I think we might be talking about different kits. I am looking at the River City Delete Kit, not the FCDP manifold replacement. I thought the RCD kit could be done without removing the intake.

We are not brother, I just put the RCD kit on a few weeks ago on my very own truck. I've done a few of these now.

They may say the intake manifold doesn't have to be removed, but you still have to loosen ALL of the studs/bolts holding it in place, to lift it up to make room to get the EGR cooler out. At that point, you've already broken the seal from the manifold to the heads, and IMO, you should just take the dang thing out, clean it up and put new gaskets back. The inside of that manifold is going to be straight nasty. You should look into getting it hot-tanked or something while it's off. Or buy an extra, so you can do it before hand, then just clean yours and resell.

Either way that intake has to be loosened up and lifted a little. How many miles do you have? I had about 81k at the time, it was probably questionable at best whether or not to re-use the gaskets. I did an 04 before with 100k, and the gaskets were no where near reusable. For around $35 or whatever, get the gaskets anyways, just to be safe.

It's really no worries dude, ask all the questions you want, we're all here to learn!:c:

Thanks for the info...If that's the case I will do just as you say, but if I do that wouldn't i be better off going with the manifold replacement. I mean, since I will have it all apart already, just spend the couple extra hundred and be done with it.

It's an 06, clean oasis, K&N cold kit, and I'm not sure about the exhaust, 142,000 miles. I do have to crank it for about 6-10 seconds to start when it's cold. I'm thinking about having IDP tune the FICM to 58V when I have them do my tuner. Some turbo lag, but have plans to clean that B#*!H when I have some time and don't need to drive it.

It might be a turbo clean, EGR delete, FICM send in, and coolant flush/filter install kind of week coming up.:jump:

Man, my $1,500 went quick. Might have to start trickin'........

You should test your FICM now, if it takes that long to get it going in the morning it could already be getting weak. The 58V upgrade is a hardware thing, it wouldn't actually be tuned yet. You can do tuning and/or 58V upgrade. I will be doing my own 58V upgrade very soon, having issues sourcing the pieces needed to do it, a lot of them are on major backorder.

Manifold replacement is up to you. Are you talking about a new one, or one of the FCDP setups? It wont really gain you anything other than it's cleaned and ready to go, and powdercoated color of your choice. I bought a spare intake manifold myself from the forums, that was already cleaned. Painted it what color I wanted, then when I did my EGR delete, just swapped it with the one on my truck.