What is the best Power Chip
- Thread starter Dale
- Start date
jimtoo
Moderator
Hi Dale,
Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum and hopefully to the family if your not already. We have a great bunch of people here with lots of information and all willing to share their knowledge if needed.
I can't help you with a suggestion, but you can bet someone will be in shortly to give their opinion about it.
Enjoy the forum.
Jim M
Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum and hopefully to the family if your not already. We have a great bunch of people here with lots of information and all willing to share their knowledge if needed.
I can't help you with a suggestion, but you can bet someone will be in shortly to give their opinion about it.
Enjoy the forum.
Jim M
Either of the programmers you mentioned will provide more power. If you are going to install one you should make sure you have gauges , either built into the programmer or install separately. IMO you need at least , EGT , boost , and Trans. temp.
For towing it is generally recommended not to increase more than 60 hp. The transmission will not like too much additional power especially if you abuse it.
Good luck on your pursuit of more power.
For towing it is generally recommended not to increase more than 60 hp. The transmission will not like too much additional power especially if you abuse it.
Good luck on your pursuit of more power.
As a former Ford owner, all my life and two 6.0 PSD, an '04 & '06, I would NOT add power to that engine. It is already close to MAX power that Navistar intended it to be with Ford's programing. Adding power could, IMO WILL, cause all sorts of problems for you. That engine if left stock can, IMO WILL, have problems pulling heavy loads. Not that it doesn't have enough power, it just has some weak points that wake up when the added pressure of towing is used. Adding power, IMO, moves the clock up on the problems wakeing up. This post is NOT a bash but from an experienced two 6.0 PSD owner who NOW drives a Cummins that just happens to be wrapped in a Dodge.
Bighurt
Well-known member
Does that mean you would drive a Ford given the choice of a Cummins power package?
I ran 65 mph with a 150hp street tune today towing my Sundance. Loved the extra power especially in the head wind, not going to love the fuel bill, price you pay I suppose. I have some other upgrades beyond the tune...
westxsrt10
Perfict Senior Member
Don't do it.... Listen 'BoatDoc'.
kakampers
Past Heartland Ambassador
Don't know about the Fords, but we ran the Edge Juice w/Attitude on both our previous Dodge Cummins and now run one on our C4500 with the Duramax 6.6...we only run on level two to give us just the little extra it needs, never had a problem out of either truck concerning the Edge....
Yes, very much so but the Dodge is just fine for us also. I have NOTHING against the ford truck but everything against the 6.0 PSD. IMO, I wouldn't wish that engine onto my worst enemy.
We run a couple of 6.0 and have all the power we need to pull the Augusta. What rear end/ends are you running? Sounds like you may be geared to high. I would never chip a 6.0 either however I would change the antifreeze at 50k and run a coolant filter.
TXBobcat
Fulltime
Don't do it.... The 6.0 has been given a large increase in power for the size of the engine. Go to the powerstroke forum and see what problems can/will arise.
I pulled my Bighorn up the 8% grade in Montana on I90 at MM239. This is quite a grade. I got down to about 35mph by the time I reached the top of the climb. Check it out in the mountain highway book for the west.
Your BH has a dry weight of 12,271 and a max weight 16,000. This is a heavy load for you, more so for weight than what the 6.0 can pull. Both the 250/350 have a max 5th wheel of 15,500# and a max weight of about 23.5k. You can check it out here. 2006 Ford Towing Guide go down to page 8.
Adding a chip to it would be a problem. Using the Bully Dog modify's the Ford chip and you can reset it,but you have to keep the original program to take it in for repairs.
Do what you feel you have to but I would not change anything or get a F450 or F550.
BC
I pulled my Bighorn up the 8% grade in Montana on I90 at MM239. This is quite a grade. I got down to about 35mph by the time I reached the top of the climb. Check it out in the mountain highway book for the west.
Your BH has a dry weight of 12,271 and a max weight 16,000. This is a heavy load for you, more so for weight than what the 6.0 can pull. Both the 250/350 have a max 5th wheel of 15,500# and a max weight of about 23.5k. You can check it out here. 2006 Ford Towing Guide go down to page 8.
Adding a chip to it would be a problem. Using the Bully Dog modify's the Ford chip and you can reset it,but you have to keep the original program to take it in for repairs.
Do what you feel you have to but I would not change anything or get a F450 or F550.
BC
This is a very controversial subject when applied to the 6.0 Ford engine. I have considerable experience, good and bad, with this engine. Here are some of my opinions on the tuning issue. I am sure there will be disagreement.
1. Do not do any upgrading of any components on the 6.0 powered truck before doing these three steps. Install a coolant filter. I recommend dieselsite or defuser brands. Install engine monitoring systems. The cost here is less than $200. For the majority of the monitoring needs, I recommend the Edge Insight Engine Monitor. It will cost around $400 complete. This is NOT a tuner, only a monitor. It will watch up to 24 parameters at once. Make sure you order the optional exhaust temperature probe. You need to monitor the engine oil temp/engine coolant differential. It is vital to your engines health. Iff you have more than 15 degrees difference in these temps, you are in the midst of an evolving oil cooler failure. However, in almost all instances the egr cooler lets go before the oil cooler. I have written here before about these issues. The Edge Insight will help you avoid a costly failure by warning you of its impending status. The third upgrade is a fuel pressure gauge,This is important for a stock truck, mandatory on a truck running performance enhancements. There is no way to monitor fuel pressure from the OBD port where the Edge Insight plugs in. This information, along with oil pressure, is not supported on the 6.0's computers. There are two routes to fuel pressure monitoring. Both are gauges, the difference is pricing. The economical route is using GloShift.com for your gauge setup, about $100. I went with ISSPRO EV2, Made in USA, for $200.
2. Do not use programmers from any manufacturer that advertises tune on the fly. Bullydog, Banks, Edge and others advertise these products. They have proven quite problematic with the 6.0. The 6.0 Ford/IH diesel was a leader in computerized engine and transmission technology when it was introduced. To truly tune this engine and transmission combo,the computers must be rebooted for the proper changes to take place. Think of it as having to reboot your Microsoft Windows computer after making any changes to make the changes work. Tune on the fly tuners are not really programmers. They work by digitally lying to youe truck computers to over fuel the engine, hence more power. This practice is hard on the engine and has proven to be very hard on the otherwise bullet proof 5r100 automatic transmission.
3. The absolute programmer of choice for the 6.0 is the SCT X3 programmer from SCT. This is a true programmer. All tuning changes require shutting the engine down, program while shut down and then a restart for programming changes to take effect. The engine and transmission computers are both programmed. If you watch the display, it first tells you it is programming the engine computer. when the engine is programmed, the display switches to telling you that the transmission is now being programmed. Although there are several respected 6.0 tuners writing custom tunes for this engine, Eric at Innovative Diesel is probably the most popular. When you order the SCT X3 programmer from Innovative, you will get three custom tunes of your choice. You will be asked what your truck has for modifications, stock head bolts etc and what do you want to accomplish with the programmer. I ordered their 60 hp street tune, their 120hp aggressive street tune and their heavy, above 10000#, towing tune. I was very happy with all 3 choices. I ended up running the 60 hp tune all the time except for when I was pulling the Big Horn. I ran the heavy tow when pulling the fiver. It is a sweet tune. You will see a big difference and get an exhaust brake for free. They tune the turbo to actually act as a brake. It works great. The 120 hp tune was way too much fun. A 8400# truck should not be that fast. I only ran it when I wanted to show off.
4. You can safely run a SCT X3 programmer on a healthy stock truck. The stock truck tunes have been designed to run at stock cylinder pressures. I must stress though, your truck needs to be healthy beforehand or potential problems will arrive on an accelerated schedule.
There is a lot more knowledge now on the real issues that have sullied the 6.0 reputation. Many of the reliability enhancements available have been the result of experiences only truly understood over the last two years or so. The head bolt/head gasket issue was originally believed to be a design flaw in the 4 bolts per cylinder block design. We now know that more failures are related to egr cooler/oil cooler failures and the subsequent cascading of bad things that happen when this occurs. There was also a huge problem with inexperienced technicians trying to use old knowledge to fix new problems. Unfortunately, this still goes on. I am sure some will disagree with me and they are entitled to their opinion. I will not argue with them here. Too much of that at RVnet.
Regards
We only have one 6.0 and it has performed well up to the present 104,000 miles. Most of the 2005 and later 6.0 engines have held up well as the early poster stated. The big thing with the 6.0 is the anti-freeze break down. You need to change it at 50,000 miles and not a bad idea to run a filter. As far as power goes we sure have enough to pull the Augusta but that really isn't a heavy load unless it is windy. Try to go down one size on the diameter of the tires if you need a little more power. The tow haul mode seems to work very well and we are quite satisfied with ours. I have had to do quite a few repairs on the 7.3 engines over the years but overall they have held up well. The 6.0 has more power however.
Doubleringer
Member
I have a 1999 Ford 350 SRW( stock ) 7.3 Diesel crew cab (155,000 + miles). Had a little concern if the truck could handle my 2011 BigHorn 3610RE. Pulled from Florida to California, to Grand Canyon and home to Michigan. I did not have any issues, pulled the hills as good, or sometimes better, than other Diesels on the same roads with me. I think the big thing is wise use of the engines RPMs. I would not trade my 7.3 for any other truck right now.
Bighurt
Well-known member
If I found the right 7.3 used, I would snatch it right up...not a trade just another for the collection.
The 7.3 to date is the best powerstroke, aside from the injectors, there are no real issues.
I have to agree that the 7.3 was a great engine. I have experience with it as well as the 6.0. I am now driving the new 2011 6.7 powered truck and am very pleased so far. Although it is early in the game, the engine is proving to be rock solid and very powerful. Fuel mileage is great as well. It may topple the 7.3 from the lofty perch it has now. Only time will tell.
Regards
Regards
I hope you're right about the 6.7!! It will be the first thing Ford has done right in the engine compartment since the 7.3.
hddcyclone
Member
Ricatic, I couldn't agree more with your post. I have quite a bit of experience with chips/tuners on all different pickups, as most of my friends/co-workers have diesels and the first thing they want to do is go Fast! Some have found out the hard way that fast trucks aren't reliable. Since I need my truck everyday and I make my living moving around the country, modifications on my Cummins are reliable and not extreme. I'm not near as scared of the 6.0 Ford as I used to be, there are many flaws with this pickup, mostly cause by the EGR system that can cause headaches. We've been through many issues with these trucks from the guys that wanted the Banks/Edge/Bully Dog products that you see when you open a copy of any Diesel publication out there. They provide many power gains, but most aren't safe for the heavy towing that we do. I'm sure some of you 6.0 guys have had egr issues, coolant puking, head gasket issues, etc. and most all root from the heat that is transferred from the exhaust gases to the engine coolant via the egr cooler. The best way to prevent/eliminate these issues and keep your truck out of the shop, should you feel the need to increase the power/towing capability, is to eliminate the egr cooler system and use the custom tuning from SCT that was spoken about in the above post. This will keep all your exhaust coming out the tailpipe, instead of superheating your coolant and being recirculated back into the intake of your engine. Even if you don't want to completely remove the egr system for regulation/warranty or any other reason, most all of the SCT tunes will disable the EGR valve and keep it shut, to block off the flow of exhaust through and superheating of coolant through the egr cooler. The benefits of custom tuning on these trucks are huge. With a good tow tune, you'll enjoy 45-60 extra horsepower in the rpm range you need it, stock cylinder pressures (for head gasket reliablility), optimized transmission tuning in tow/haul mode, and the use of your stock vgt turbo as an exhaust break is a huge asset. I've driven these trucks, and seen the results of what good custom tuning can do instead of off the shelf "Big Name" tuners/chips. As said before, gauges (boost, egt) are a must for any performance modifications. I've got them in my truck and was amazed how hot my egts would get with a stock tune in the truck (1400+), and with a good tow tune from Smarty I've never seen over 1250. I'm no diesel expert, and just thought I'd share my experiences and opinions on the subject, hopefully it's of use to you. I'm not into advertising for people, but if you'd like to know some good vendors and custom tuners, I happen to know a few, just PM me and I'll get you more information.
