Just Picked up - 02 F-350 CCLB Dually - need some advice

[barrakudaman]

I have been looking for a good 7.3 diesel truck that needs a motor for a month and a half now and finally found one. I picked up this Truck for a fair price do to the fact that it needs a motor. Piston #5 (front left corner) has no compression or weak compression. Guy i bought it from was told it needed a new motor. Kicker is that this truck only has 55k miles on it! Current mods: 4" exhaust w/ cat delete. K&N Filter. 40/50 gallon auxillary tank in bed. and Air ride suspension for rear with on board pump. I am planning on keeping this truck as my DD. I would like to do any necassary improvements to the motor/Trans while the engine is out. I have a Fresh long block I will be installing. I figured I would use all the stock engine components accept install new injector cups and injector o-rings. The research i have done makes me want to install a BTS torque converter and valve body for more reliability and to make the trans last longer. Right now i have no plans of running a tuner..... that may change though. All thoughts/suggestions are appreciated. Thanks

[dieselcrawler]

And another one bites the K&N dust... LOL

You say you don't want tunes... nothing wrong with that, but once you've seen what tunes can do, you'll never go back... trust me!

Swap that K&N filter for a 6637 filter, and you'll be set, you got the exhaust, get some gauges... EGT, Boost, Trans temp, even if you don't tune it... once you got that, you have all the supporting mods you need for a tuner.

[camp nh]

Welcome, to the 7.3 club. I have 01 with 71,000 on it now. Bought it with 58,800 a year ago. I am second owner. Mine is F350 CC LB Dually with the 6637 filter. Its awesome truck. Have fun bringing it alive.

[barrakudaman]

Where is a good/reasonable place to buy guages? What are the benifits of tuning? besides more power? Dont wanna hurt anything in the motor with tunes. Since I have the long block sitting in front of me, any good things to do to it since it will be easy? Does everyone agree with the trans upgrades? ITs about $1500 for the converter and valve body.... any cheaper routes that are just as good; is it necassary with the low milage truck? I will look up this 6637 filter, K&N is what came on the truck.

[85_305]

Originally Posted by dieselcrawler

And another one bites the K&N dust... LOL

Originally Posted by barrakudaman

Does everyone agree with the trans upgrades? ITs about $1500 for the converter and valve body.... any cheaper routes that are just as good; is it necassary with the low milage truck? I will look up this 6637 filter, K&N is what came on the truck.

Not me... unless you plan to do a lot with the truck. A good valve body is 150$ or so, and a good TC is 6-900$. A lot less than $1500.

[barrakudaman]

Which torque converter and valve body would you be refering too? $1500 is BTS components.... where would you suggest to get a nice guage package? Thanks for the info so far.

[HVAC SuperTech]

You won't hurt the truck with tunes, it will help it, trust me. You ain't gotta put the 140 smoke tune on it. Get the hot street or 100-120 horse power tune and get the trans shifting tuned by a good tune(PHP, TW, BEANS ECT...) and it will lengthen the life of the transmission. Do get a bts valve body and either a BD torque converter or a bts one. Both are good quality. Get the guages and watch your right foot on the go pedal and you can make more power with the chip and get better fuel economy.....

[HVAC SuperTech]

Stealth automotive sells the complete kit on their website. They are also site sponsors, and you can pm Raul with stealth directly. His name on here is Raul@stealthautomotive

[barrakudaman]

Which tuner/company are you guys happy with?

[HVAC SuperTech]

I have a tony wildman chip and a PHP chip. Both are great tuners. I am very pleased with both of them. Tony's tunes are more throttle touchy and aggressive off the line and bill at php tunes his to have a more stock truck feel until you get into the fuel more.