SPE vs Confederate Diesel side by side review

I am also learning a good bit from this thread. I have absolutely nothing to do with either company. When I bought my ford almost exactly two years ago, I had never heard of confederate diesel or SPE. The guys at SPE seem like very knowledgeable people. I don't have any experience with the guys at CFD other than on this forum. The review of the CFD kit done by another member a few weeks ago was very positive and they seem pretty good at holding their cool here even though Alan at SPE seems like he really dislikes CFD for some reason.

I also agree that there is absolutely nothing wrong with calling another company out about their products. I am not a professional welder, but have some experience with MIG welding on steel. It is not fair to compare a mig weld on steel to a tig weld on aluminum or stainless steel. Mig welders splatter much more and the welds do not look as pretty. Having perfect looking welds is great, but not nearly as important as customer service or how a product actually functions.

I'm not sure which kit I'm going with yet, but I'm not impressed with the kit from SPE and I'm even less impressed that they are not willing to participate in a straight up comparison like this. If someone did a ford vs chevy comparison and ford said they weren't going to play, that looks bad for ford. They all participate and we find that each has its own advantages and disadvantages. I might consider their system if they would get back on here and explain in detail why they think it's better and why it costs more and comes with less. They can say they have more r&d, but do they really? How many hours has their kit spent in how many different trucks? Same question goes out to CFD. I actually like that SPE uses the stock exhaust manifolds because they have heat shields and are proven to not leak. I hate exhaust leaks.

Again, I have no affiliation with any company whatsoever. I just want the best product for my truck. It's our only vehicle and its currently not operational due to ford's woefully inadequate POS turbo system.

Questions for CFD: does your kit completely replace the stock plastic tube coming out (cold side) of the intercooler? I can see that part of the stock plastic tube is gone (the part shown in the SPE kit, that clamps onto the intake manifold), but is the lower plastic part still used? I'm concerned about heat build up in the engine valley when towing extremely heavy loads in high ambient temperatures. How much extra would you guys charge to put heat shields on your exhaust manifolds? Maybe wrap them like the up pipes? This turbo is oil cooled and while I really like your oil supply idea, it lives in an extremely hot spot with exhaust manifolds on both sides.

Question for SPE: do you have any plans to offer a replacement for the stock plastic tubing between the intercooler and the intake manifold?

Anybody wondering why I'm asking these questions, refer to my earlier post showing pictures of failures of this particular part.

DirtBikePilot said:

Questions for CFD: does your kit completely replace the stock plastic tube coming out (cold side) of the intercooler? I can see that part of the stock plastic tube is gone (the part shown in the SPE kit, that bolts to the intake manifold), but is the lower plastic part still used? I'm concerned about heat build up in the engine valley when towing extremely heavy loads in high ambient temperatures. How much extra would you guys charge to put heat shields on your exhaust manifolds? Maybe wrap them like the up pipes? This turbo is oil cooled and while I really like your oil supply idea, it lives in an extremely hot spot with exhaust manifolds on both sides.

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Thanks this is the discussion we were hoping to have.
The manifolds are heat coated and this helps the heat.
We have had complaints about using the stock manifolds, the installation is very difficult, the up pipes don't flow smoothly and the angle of the right side is very sharp and warps. Also a turbo blanket will help with the heat in the valley. That turbine housing in a huge heat sink.
With our headers we have 1/4" gap or less to the compressor housing, if we welded some nuts and added heat sheilds they would need to be 2 piece.
I think this is a good suggestion but it will add some cost maybe 100 dollars.
We are not having high engine bay temps and the parts in the area do not appear to be discolored after 45 kits installed and 32000 miles on a kit we installed in January 2013. The heat wrap on the exhaust manifolds just would not fit.
We place the oil line which is steel braided in a spot where it is about 3" away from any hot piping. The shorter oil feed is nice for cold starts if there was a drain back problem we agree. We just have seen too many problems with DMax losing oil cooled turbo's when the cam bearing oil feed was used. We felt this was the best option.

If the user wanted to feed oil off our pedestal we could drill it to match the feed hole and weld an an fitting on the base to accommodate this for 75 dollars. But like I said We feel our oil line is the best option. On a side note I am fairly certain II and H and S are doing a custom cast pedestal with oil and coolant feeds built in. This will accommodate an EFR turbo very nicely.

On the plastic elbow at intercooler and the pictures. We don't care for plastic, but at the same time our turbo kit with the much less restrictive full 3" intake plenum makes 13 psi less boost pressure while moving 30% more air than stock, so the elbow has not been a problem.
That said we had 2 customers that just didn't like the plastic, so we have a piped aluminum setup with 2 new boots that works perfect

On the positive note egt's towing with the 63mm turbo are 200 degrees lower than stock on a reasonable tow tune about 350 rwhp or so. That alone will do wonders for keeping the engine cool.

Please keep in mind we trying to make a kit that is the same cost as replacing a factory turbo. So we are only providing what we fell is essential.

I am pretty sure if we lost the headers and intake we could be in the 2500 range or better, but we really feel like they should be included.
The black plastic intake will fir with our kit.
We can put stock manifolds in our jig and build upipes to fit no problem.
These are all stilll custom upgrades, that can be completed in 2-3 weeks time on special order.

I like my welds to look like so (coated for prettiness)... Still look about the same after 8k HARD miles later. Multiple times glowing during pulls



Good welders are easy to find, well at least here in Texas.