Help a new guy out?

[wolve1060]

Hey guys. I am sure you guys have gotten this a million times but I am fairly new to diesels and was looking for some help. I recently purchased a 2002 ford f-350 7.3 powerstroke. It has a 6" lift with 33's, bullydog cold air intake, 4" turbo back and then 5" cat back, fairly new trans in it and he said he put a shift kit in it as well. I would like to get more power out of it and was looking at getting a 6 position chip for it. I was hoping to get your advice on how you would approach this whether I need custom tunes or what not, or what you would do different and so on. From everything I have been told it is highly recommended to put gauges in the truck before putting a chip in it so one of my buddies has a bullydog watchdog that he is selling and was wondering if you think that would be okay to use or should I get something else. You guys come highly recommended so I figured I would ask the experts. Thanks for your help!

[ToMang07]

Originally Posted by wolve1060

Hey guys. I am sure you guys have gotten this a million times but I am fairly new to diesels and was looking for some help. I recently purchased a 2002 ford f-350 7.3 powerstroke. It has a 6" lift with 33's, bullydog cold air intake, 4" turbo back and then 5" cat back, fairly new trans in it and he said he put a shift kit in it as well. I would like to get more power out of it and was looking at getting a 6 position chip for it. I was hoping to get your advice on how you would approach this whether I need custom tunes or what not, or what you would do different and so on. From everything I have been told it is highly recommended to put gauges in the truck before putting a chip in it so one of my buddies has a bullydog watchdog that he is selling and was wondering if you think that would be okay to use or should I get something else. You guys come highly recommended so I figured I would ask the experts. Thanks for your help!

The watchdog would work for reading the OEM sensors... but unless it has an EGT (Pyro) Probe... you won't be able to read EGTs with it. Also, the OEM sensor that it reads boost from only reads up to 22ish PSI....and with a chip and 4" exhaust you couls be pushing 30. Really your best bet is a set of gauges, which will have their own sensors.

Welcome to the forum. You will love PHP's tunes if you get them!

[88Racing]

[rammertide07]

Originally Posted by ToMang07

The watchdog would work for reading the OEM sensors... but unless it has an EGT (Pyro) Probe... you won't be able to read EGTs with it. Also, the OEM sensor that it reads boost from only reads up to 22ish PSI....and with a chip and 4" exhaust you couls be pushing 30. Really your best bet is a set of gauges, which will have their own sensors.

Welcome to the forum. You will love PHP's tunes if you get them!

Just FYI to add to that....you don't want to go over 24-25psi on a stock turbo.

[ToMang07]

Originally Posted by rammertide07

Just FYI to add to that....you don't want to go over 24-25psi on a stock turbo.

Very true....which is why it is important to actually know what you are getting for boost.

[DocBar]

Look up some sites like xtreme diesel performance and get a 3 or 4 gauge pillar set up. Transmission temp, boost and pyrometer are a very common set up. You should also consider installing a regulated return fuel system. The TS 6-pos. chip is what I like. I've used SCT and EDGE programmers. I still use an SCT to scan for codes.

Watch out for the power bug. Once it bites you, 7.3's get e-x-p-e-n-s-i-v-e!!

[rammertide07]

My input on gauges is the AeroForce Interceptor. Yes ive been having problems with mine, but I have to give props to their customer service. It is currently sent off for warranty repair (hopefully replacement). But the concept of it is awesome. It is the size of a gauge...like the 2 1/16" gauges. But it plugs into the OBD2 port and reads available pid's. It can also take 2 aux inputs for egt and boost. Boost is available through the MAP sensor, but as mentioned it is only accurate so far. The auxillary boost gauge is mire accurate up to 100psi. You could also put the 2 aux inputs on a switch to switch to another aux input. Just change the slope and y (or x?) intercept in the aux gauge set-up screen.

It also has an anunciation (spelling) option. So if you don't want propane or water/method to be injected until 10psi, when it senses 10psi it will send current to the relay to engaged the propane or water/meth.

It can pull/clear codes, run injector buzz test, and cylinder contribution test.

When my gauge comes back I should have all of the aux sensors and components needed to read egts and boost.