[dfish1247]

Got my stage 1 wednesday, had it in after work with my dad helping out.He says these things are more trouble than their worth, get a 6.4. Took a little over an hour(flippin' y pipe) 20 minutes after that and loading up the srl tune I got when I bought the truck. And changed oil just in case any metal from my mishap got by the rings. First fire up, thank god no more screaming and no leaks of any kind.

Drove to work thursday morning and the truck was a laggy pos, egt's were a touch higher than my old pmax. Drove home and was the same. Total of 20 miles.

Piled the wife and little'n in this morning and went to knoxville for some aquarium items. Started out the same, and noticed about 40 miles into the trip I had backed off the throttle a good bit to hold 70mph and egt's were around 700. It started getting its pep back somewhat. Got to knoxville and noticed it didn't seem to lag nowhere near as bad as wednesday. Ran around and on the way back home, the truck didn't hardly need much throttle to hold 70 at all and egt's were in the low 600's depending on wind of course. Don't the vgt relearn suck.

Dropped them off and ran to see one of my friends, finally got to have a little fun and man this thing has way more off idle getup than the pmax did or my stocker. Everyone knows the srl goes in od at 45 or so, truck lugged 1/2 second and just started gaining speed. Doesn't seem to be under the turbo hardly at all. I am hoping to see some better numbers as this thing keeps learning and to see how good my diy ported intake manifold will pay off.

As of right now, this truck is way better than it has ever been. I fell in love all over again. Oh, and it seems to start running out of air at 3900 rpms instead of 3400 like my pmax did, or 3300 like my stocker did. this is what should have come from the factory to start with.

Only thing I hate, is I don't have the ability to blow as much smoke as before, that's a good thing, until some idiot needs a good smoking. I have to floor it dead stop to get a puny little puff and its all gone after that.

Adrian, this was worth the wait, except the sand in the bolt holes. :haha:

 

[TexasA&M]

Thanks for the review. I'm waiting on mine right now and am hoping for similar results!

 

[windrunner408]

Glad to you hear you likey likey.

 

[kdogg85]

Dave, I'm glad you like it. Wanna see if you can outrun me now. :laugh:

 

[dfish1247]

I bet in 2wd I could get you. You need wider tires you cheap skate.

Little update, seems the relearn is over I think, egt's at 70 with no wind on flat ground are 600-620 with 6 psi boost. Tops out around 1280 from a dig. And up a long steep hill, hits mid 800's and sets there. I'm thinking the turbo has some to do with it but my ported and gasket matched intake is doing a great deal of the work. This is with temps in the mid 70's.

 

[kdogg85]

Looks good on the egt's, just a tad higher than what mine does. When you can get her sideways at 70, let's dance. i'm gonna start putting my 4 link in monday, wanna help?

 

[madpowerstroke]

Got my stage 1 wednesday, had it in after work with my dad helping out.He says these things are more trouble than their worth, get a 6.4. Took a little over an hour(flippin' y pipe) 20 minutes after that and loading up the srl tune I got when I bought the truck. And changed oil just in case any metal from my mishap got by the rings. First fire up, thank god no more screaming and no leaks of any kind.

Drove to work thursday morning and the truck was a laggy pos, egt's were a touch higher than my old pmax. Drove home and was the same. Total of 20 miles.

Piled the wife and little'n in this morning and went to knoxville for some aquarium items. Started out the same, and noticed about 40 miles into the trip I had backed off the throttle a good bit to hold 70mph and egt's were around 700. It started getting its pep back somewhat. Got to knoxville and noticed it didn't seem to lag nowhere near as bad as wednesday. Ran around and on the way back home, the truck didn't hardly need much throttle to hold 70 at all and egt's were in the low 600's depending on wind of course. Don't the vgt relearn suck.

Dropped them off and ran to see one of my friends, finally got to have a little fun and man this thing has way more off idle getup than the pmax did or my stocker. Everyone knows the srl goes in od at 45 or so, truck lugged 1/2 second and just started gaining speed. Doesn't seem to be under the turbo hardly at all. I am hoping to see some better numbers as this thing keeps learning and to see how good my diy ported intake manifold will pay off.

As of right now, this truck is way better than it has ever been. I fell in love all over again. Oh, and it seems to start running out of air at 3900 rpms instead of 3400 like my pmax did, or 3300 like my stocker did. this is what should have come from the factory to start with.

Only thing I hate, is I don't have the ability to blow as much smoke as before, that's a good thing, until some idiot needs a good smoking. I have to floor it dead stop to get a puny little puff and its all gone after that.

Adrian, this was worth the wait, except the sand in the bolt holes. :haha:

Sorry about the long wait, dam cores are killing me. I also have be blowing the heck out of the bolt holes, but Ill start to run bolts into them to make sure they are clean. Glad you waited and let the truck learn, I get alot of calls about the same thing that happen to you at first, and sometimes the customer thinks I'm trying to lie to them. I always say just drive it and it will start to learn the turbo. Thanks for the review of the way things went down so it helps other members. Stage 1 is still my favorite turbo, that gives me the least amount of trouble.

 

[TexasA&M]

So what's the latest with the cores? Will my turbo be shipping soon????? :dunno:

 

[madpowerstroke]

So what's the latest with the cores? Will my turbo be shipping soon????? :dunno:

Yes this week, Thanks for you patience

 

[dfish1247]

I was kidding about the sand, I ran the bolts in it just to check and they went in smooth. Like we talked about, being a one well 2 man band now, just don't have the luxuries of a bigger company, that's why I waited as long as I could, and I am glad I did.

I went through the relearn with the pmax, is definitley a lot peppier truck than before. I tried letting the truck lug down to 1000 rpms and still it doesn't seem to be too far under the turbo, it'll lug a second and haze but picks right up around 1200 rpms and starts pulling hard, I mean comes up on boost wicked fast. I'm hoping to get the mpg's back around 17 or so, that's what the stocker gave me. The pmax was around 14-15.

thanks for everything man, quality work and customer service. :nod:

 

[Snake]

I like what I'm reading. What's the turnaround time on the Stage1 now? Meaning if I ordered one next week, when could I expect it?

 

[MyTractorsSexy]

since hes lacking cores i bet it would depend on if you were to send him your turbo to be built or not or if he has to wait on a core to build.

 

[TexasA&M]

Yes this week, Thanks for you patience

Please let me know as soon as it is shipped. My goal was to get it in the truck before a trip I have planned, which is now only 10 days away. It's going to be close.

 

[Karls03]

I bet in 2wd I could get you. You need wider tires you cheap skate.

Little update, seems the relearn is over I think, egt's at 70 with no wind on flat ground are 600-620 with 6 psi boost. Tops out around 1280 from a dig. And up a long steep hill, hits mid 800's and sets there. I'm thinking the turbo has some to do with it but my ported and gasket matched intake is doing a great deal of the work. This is with temps in the mid 70's.

Those EGTs are awesome, although I seriously doubt it had anything to do with port matching the intake for 2 reasons:
1. It's forced induction, the air is being jammed into the heads, not sucked in like a naturally aspirated motor.
2. I gasket matched an RPM Air Gap on my 340hp/302 crate motor once, there was no difference until I was in the mid/upper RPM band, then you could feel it.

Great review overall, sounds like an awesome product that I need to get in line for.

 

[new2deisel]

I keep reading that these turbos need time to relearn. Is it going to take 70-100 miles to relearn each time you put a new tune in it or is it just a one time thing then I can switch tunes whenever without an issue? Reason I ask is I leave a hot tune in for DD but switch to a tow tune just before I tow the trailer.

I too wonder how much difference a modded intake made on lowering EGT's. I just installed a Soot Intake Manifold and even though I've only put a few miles on it, I don't feel the EGT's lowered much.

 

[dfish1247]

It's a one time thing. the pcm will know the flow coming in no matter what tune you install after the intial re-learn.

As for the intake, I done mine myself and it mounts the same as the soot, I did make some small gussets to reinforce the bolt holes for fear of collapsing the roof in somewhat when torquing it down. One of my friends had a gogo on his and it didn't do squat for cruising egt's, just 1/2-wot is where they came down.

 

[dfish1247]

I haven't paid attention to this, but when pulling out the truck will give a puff of white/slightly bluish(maybe?) smoke. If I barely touch the pedal, there is nothing but between there to 1/8th throttle there is that smoke and it gets thicker the more you give it, after that it's black. My stocker did this before and thought the oil seal went out, but there was no residue on the turbine.
I will pull the DP and check, but I oiled the bearing and was easy on it during the re-learn, it did cough some but nothing big.

I was running this same srl tune then also. Think maybe it's the tune, truck runs fine and all. I checked ficm and it was still 58v.

 

[Evil Eye]

Are you thinking that this is an issue? I have a small puff of smoke as well and mine's a similar color. I think that it's the tuning...

 

[dfish1247]

Well yes, it's emabarassing if it's not mechanical failure. I'll call him and see, it doesn't do it while idleing, I also smelled the exhaust and only smelled diesel, didn't smell antifreeze or oil. I am using 5w40 rotella oil. Maybe it's just the fuel has set for over a month and is kinda cruddy. There is no sounds from the engine, no stumbling, etc.. I changed my fuel filters out 5k ago and use diesel kleen every so often. I had his pmax srl and it didn't do it, just black if you gave it too much pulling out.

 

[dfish1247]

I swapped back to stock program and still getting the smoke pulling out. And even had a little while idleing, oil was under 110* though. So I thought maybe sticking injector, but have no symptoms and fuel psi is 65. And after I got home, there was no smoke at idle, but still with pulling out and I could make none or more depending on throttle usage.

I can only think it's an oil seal or the "mild" flash on the ficm from php. Or could some of the anti-seize be burning off and making the same thing?