Fishermedic

I forgot to add, you will enjoy any of the tunes for your truck with stock injectors. It really wakes up the truck. One thing you should now is most of the high HP tunes do not treat the truck nice in cold weather that we have. The injection advance is way too advanced when the engine is cold. Unless you park in a heated garage, a mild tune (even street perf canned) will give nicer starting and running in the winter. For example, Wildman's Extreme tune is finally behaving with +3C weather. I also found the old free Spartan tunes are pretty good as well, but for some of them you have to give the transmission time to learn to shift. With the larger charger you could pretty much run any of the tunes and tow your boat without any problems.

My build date is 04/05 and the production sequence is 23910. I kind of wish I knew how many were made, I know they stopped production Sept 30/05 and finished selling them as 06's in Mexico but that's all I could find.

what is the build date of your ex?

Hey Dave, thanks for the compliments. With the work you've done on other motors I think you'd be fine. Take your time and think things through, if you don't know ask and research. I had absolutely no mechanical experience other than skidoo's when I was 15-20... that's 15+ years ago!

I'll send you a PM about the A/C.

This project was a real confidence builder, if I have the tools needed I'll take on anything this truck needs now. On top of that this site has realy given me some knowledge on diagnosing problems and spotting them before the bite me. As a bonus if you do the work yourself you'll love your truck even more than you do now!

If you have any other questions I'll do my best to answer, I'm still new to this but I've learned a ton on this site and can help with the "This is what worked/didn't work for me." scenarios.

Bryan

hello fishermedic - looks like I'm in a similar pickle as you were and I'm almost tempted to install a BPD kit on my own - you've truly inspired me with your outstanding write up! I'm reasonably mechanical but have never torn into a diesel before (have rebuilt a few 1, 4, 6, & 8 cylinder gas motors over the years). The part I'm scratching my head on is how I evacuate my A/C - any tips there? I'm in a very rural area in North Carolina - nothing like you, but still a multi-hour tow to get my truck into a shop recommended by BPD...

thx,
-dave