I am watching the Durastroke development also and I think the guy is on to something, is it the "miracle pill"? I dont think so. I think everyone is always hoping for that new mod or product that will redeem our 6.0s. We need to just accept that our engines are more or less the redheaded stepchild of the diesels. Can you get over 1000hp? sure if you have the money, alot of money. Are you then going to drive said 1000hp moneypit back and forth to work and Walmart every day and then hook up the toybox for a camping trip up to the mountains for the weekend? I doubt it. This is a limited short term production engine and the aftermarket is not going to be spending money for new R&D and production for the 6.0. Custom tuning was the best big thing for us and it was the best bang for the buck. There was never any good "affordable" turbo options until the Powermax and I think the hype overshadowered what it really was, an affordable drop in replacement for the stock turbo with a "little" more air. Like I said I think there is merit to this guy and his Durastroke turbos, but and there is always a but. He is basically one guy tinkering in his garage, will he be able to take it to a production level? How will the quality hold up? There is already a bunch of guys jumping on and wanting his turbos and I dont think one has been on a dyno or to the dragstrip for 1/4 mi times yet. I for one hope he is able to prove his turbo out and get to a point to make them available. For now I will just be watching.

 

DD'ing any diesel with 1000hp is no easy feat, no matter what brand. Some claim it, very few do it.

 

Agreed. What I was getting at is alot of guys get hung up on ever bigger numbers and dont realize there is a tradeoff involved. We are good with custom tunes and exhaust to a little better than 400hp after that we had an expensive gap that calls for bigger injectors which need more turbo without good dependable options short of twins if you still wanted to tow. Until the powermax and now maybe this durastroke.

 

Im running stocks, when they give out will be going AD2 with 190s. So ya I never wanted a powermax but the 68 modded Pmax is probably what Im going with. They seemed to fix the surging issues and that turbo si good for over 600hp which I dont really want to go over anyway.

 

A few things have come out in the last few years that have helped us tremendously. One, modded intake manifolds. They make spool up SO much easier for those chargers we could never DD before. Also, the BD diverter valves. Expensive, but worth their weight in gold. They are another item that has allowed the 6.0 crowd to setup up charger size while maintaining drivability. And of course, tuning is ever evolving for us, with more and more options all the time. It does get expensive after a tuner/intake/exhaust, for sure though. Unless you just strap on a big blue bottle and a tune change...

You could always run the p-max for the time being, and when you do upgrade sticks send the p-max in for the 68mm conversion...

 

DM= DuraMax

The cam plays a part not necessarily the answer to the problem.

 

So, what can I do about surging?
I have a PMax turbo with SCT SRL tune.
As an example, when I'm cruising along the highway at about 50 MPH and I encounter a hill, if I keep the accelerator steady, the truck bogs down, starts blowing black smoke and then surges forward. The rpms climb and the smoke clears, but not for a couple of seconds of lag.
This symptom exists at a wide range of speeds.
I can push the accelerator down early before I encounter the hill, wait for the rpm to rise and the transmission to downshift. But, this is not ideal. The truck should be able to power up the hill with the accelerator kept steady. It should downshift without the rpm's bogging down.

The powermax produces a lot of horsepower once you get the rpm's up past about 1800....it's pretty boggy and smokes below this.

 

I had the same issues with my PM. I installed a GOGO Stage 1 manifold to resolve the problems. Turbo spools nicely, power is smooth and doesn't bog on the hills.

Maybe some custom SCT tuning could help as well.

 

Did you get your tunes updated AFTER the install of the PM? Everything I've read about surging or lag issues with the p-max has been fixed with tuning.

 

Yes, the tune was custom for everything I have, including the PMAX.
I haven't gone back to the tuner with this information yet. I wanted to understand what others are seeing before I did so.