E350 6.0 and the 34' toyhauler

[methayn]

I picked up an 04 E350 6.0 van conversion and need to look into getting more from under the hood. I have already added pyro, tranny and rear diff temp gauges. I was looking at possible tuners (thought of the banks auto mind but have heard mixed things). The trailer weighs in at around 16000 when loaded but the real problem is the wind resistance at speed. does any body have any input, keep in mind I woould like to improve top end power and possibly econ when not towing.

[JUGGERNAUT]

come on 6.0 guys!!! I told him he could get some good answers here.

[mudrunninpig]

get a custom tuned sct, have a tow tune written for the toy hauler and get a hp tune for economy, if you can keep your foot out of it

[tabraha]

I'd stud the engine and block off the EGR then run a tow tune off of an SCT X3 from one of the programmers here on the ORG. When I'm hooked up to my fiver my gross combined weight is closing in on 22,000 and the ole' 6.0 MOVES that load well enough for me. I currently run DJ's tow tune when RV'ing and his looney tune as a daily driver but I'm probably going to get some tunes from Eric @ Innovative b/c all I ever hear is bigtime praise and need to try them to satisfy my curiousity!

[tabraha]

Doh! I was typin' while y'all were. Good to see ya Mike!

[elibenson]

The very first thing you ought to do on that van is block off the EGR. It's really simply on a van. There is no reason to do a complete delete when you can get to the up-pipe so easily on a van. Being an 04, it won't even have that little scoop thingy causes problems in the up pipe. On a van, studs wouldn't be practical because you would have to pull the engine. That is just not something that anyone wants to do on a van, let alone a 6.0l van. You can't even pull a valve cover without removing the engine mounts and lowering the engine down. Studs would be impossible.

I would suggest getting at least 4.10 gears maybe even 4.30 .. The truth of the matter is that you aren't going to get much extra horse power out of this thing without it catching on fire. So the alternative is tune it moderately, and then get some better gears. The stock horse power out of these things is 235, which is not that great. With their smaller intercoolers you will really be cooking the pistons/valves/turbo if you push the horse power too high. You'll definitely cook the EGR if you tune it without blocking it off.

Now, one solution might be water-methanol injection. Mostly for it's cooling effects. So when you are trying to merge traffic, you can push it a little harder than you would be willing to do without. I hear this can cool your exhaust down by several hundred degrees.

Building a DIY intake of some sort might be a good idea too. The factory intake sucks. On a truck the factory intake with it's Dolalson filter is actually not too bad (for a factory intake). On this van it has a single square pleated filter.

A load-leveling hitch is a must. Also you might want to put some air bags on the back end. The more you smash down the back end of the van the more your alignment in the front is going to go to hell. The twin-ibeams in the front works well enough under a level load. If you press the front end down or raise it up (by loading down the back), you will have horrible camber problems.

One last thing.. I would stay away from Banks. Get some sort of custom tune.