On the road again ... need opinions on combos

[Barn3.co]

My job has put me back on the road again. I need to get some better mileage from my 08 250 KR CC. I am having trouble deciding what combo to put on my truck. My factory ford intercooler has a few small holes in it, so I am going to replace it with a Banks Technicooler. That part I am sure of. I want to put on an intake, DPF delete and get a tuner. I have in consideration for a CAI ... S&B, Banks Ram Air and AFE Stage 2 SI w/ Progaurd 7. As for exhaust I am leaning toward the AFE MACHForce XP 4" with muffler. I don't want anything too loud due to long hours in the truck. I am not sure if I need bungs to connect the sensors or not. Any thoughts? As far as tuners go I have really only considered 2 options, either the SCT TSX or H&S Mini Maxx. I don't need/want any wild tunes. I just want a little better fuel economy. Added power is always a plus, but not looking for anything rediculous. I need a reliable setup that won't leave me stranded in the middle of nowhere (I go there a lot). I would rather spend the money now and have a setup that works well with no hickups than have to change parts later on down the road and waste more money. Please let me know what you think. Any advice is much appreciated.

[CountryAggie]

Why not use a No Limits intercooler? They seem to be of similar quality to the AFE or Banks but are much less expensive.

For intake, I have an S&B, it was an easy install and it works great. I have no experience with the Banks or the AFE, so take this as you will but I have no complaints with the S&B.

Exhaust. I have only changed the downpipe (which lessened the "hair dryer" effect) and have the straight pipe for the DPF/DoC delete and the stock muffler. I am thinking about a radical new exhaust design, but it will is going to require some more thinking (I am trying to stay quiet with a throatier exhaust note and remove as much of the "hair dryer" at idle as possible).

As far as bungs go, it depends on your tuner. I know my Spartan requires no bungs. I have no idea about the others.

For Tuners, I only have experience with any other than Spartan (but they are great!). But I will say, how diesels work, the hotter they run, the better mileage you get (as long as you keep your foot off the skinny pedal). I have run a lot of the Spartan tunes and I see a pretty noticeable increase as I go up from the 40HP DPF removed to the 300HP DPF removed (I am not comfortable to go with the 310 or 350 yet). Stock I was getting about 11MPG combined and tuned with the 300 I have about 18MPG combined.

[superduty6.4]

Originally Posted by Barn3.co

My job has put me back on the road again. I need to get some better mileage from my 08 250 KR CC. I am having trouble deciding what combo to put on my truck. My factory ford intercooler has a few small holes in it, so I am going to replace it with a Banks Technicooler. That part I am sure of. I want to put on an intake, DPF delete and get a tuner. I have in consideration for a CAI ... S&B, Banks Ram Air and AFE Stage 2 SI w/ Progaurd 7. As for exhaust I am leaning toward the AFE MACHForce XP 4" with muffler. I don't want anything too loud due to long hours in the truck. I am not sure if I need bungs to connect the sensors or not. Any thoughts? As far as tuners go I have really only considered 2 options, either the SCT TSX or H&S Mini Maxx. I don't need/want any wild tunes. I just want a little better fuel economy. Added power is always a plus, but not looking for anything rediculous. I need a reliable setup that won't leave me stranded in the middle of nowhere (I go there a lot). I would rather spend the money now and have a setup that works well with no hickups than have to change parts later on down the road and waste more money. Please let me know what you think. Any advice is much appreciated.

H&S doesn't require exhaust bungs either. I agree with contry aggie that the higher the tune you run, the better the mileage. I run the hd300 on hot when I am on the highway. I also run it in town most of the time but I just take it easy on the throttle most of the time. Also if an egr delete is a possibilty in the future then I know h&s & spartan will support that. I am not to sure of the sct.

[Barn3.co]

I have been doing some more research and found that H&S recommends removing the sensors from the DPF delete exhaust. If this is done, then how do you read EGTs?

[DSTRBD]

EGT's are read through the pre-turbo factory sensor. The pyro probes in the exhaust will not give you an accurate EGT reading anyway.

I would go with the H&S Mini Maxx, MBRP exhaust, S&B Intake, and Banks IC.

[Bellyboat]

^^^^ What he said that would be a sweet set up...

[Barn3.co]

Well I'm pretty well convinced that the Mini Max, with S&B CAI, and Banks intercooler is the way to go. I've been looking at the flo pro dpf deletes. Are these any good? On the exhaust bungs, will it hurt to run them or not run them? Also another question on my mind has been how much tune can a stock truck handle? All my experience and mechanical knowledge is on gasoline vehicles. I know next to nothing about diesels other than I love the one I bought but in the world of automobiles there is usually no such thing as free power or rediculous bolt on power. You usually can't do one thing to a motor without having to do something else somewhere in the motor. So I am very curious to know just how much power you can push with tuning before you start breaking stuff ... especially expensive things like the trans. Thanks for all the help guys. I really appreciate it! On a side note I am getting ready to pull the trigger on some bilstein 5100's, helwig sway bars, and dual steering stabilizers.

[Barn3.co]

I swear I'd lose my head if it wasn't screwed on ... to monitor EGTs with the Mini Maxx do you need to use their pyro or can it read it from the factory setup?

[superduty6.4]

Originally Posted by Barn3.co

I swear I'd lose my head if it wasn't screwed on ... to monitor EGTs with the Mini Maxx do you need to use their pyro or can it read it from the factory setup?

You can just use the factory set-up.