The only thing that I don't think I gained on was the intake, if I were to do it again I would work with the stock air box. I never had the truck dynoed so I really don't know where I'm at. Great idea on starting a thread for the early trucks!

 

Best help on 03-04 is smarty. Worst was Banks six-gun. I have a 235 hp engine.

Numbers are in the sig... that was stock long block and head with Smarty, power puck, flux 3's, floor it stage 3, Peak Performance BB twins, goerends tranny, HTT CAC, CFM+ manifold, FASS 95/200 and snow stage 3 water injection.

 

X2 Another couple of duds... Bully Dog power pup and triple dog(still trying tunes..none of them run worth a crap on an 03), Superchips(just like a BD),SP Diesel 100hp box, PPE 215hp tuner, I'd love to try the HOT(but not for $800-$900 after the turd the 1st DL was). None of these can top the 6gun/spd ldr on the big hunka junk-o-meter.

Best thing to date IMO is beta 4.2 for track, beta 4.3 for the street, I can't wait for the new TNTR for 03-04s:thumbsup:
Edit>>> Superchips 3805, also not a good tuner for a bomber, ok for stand alone mod on a stock truck at best.

 

Best investment on the 03-04 was the Smarty,worst was the heavy 20x12 rims.
Will have Dyno numbers next week.

1289HP on NOS was achieved by a 2003 CA edition 235HP - Richard Brown
1138HP on Fuel was achieved by a 2003 CA edition 235HP - Erick Brown

 

I tried the beta 4.4...It's real dud compaired too the 4.2.......but.. I dont run a pressure box either..

 

wt is the smarty can i run it with my juice will it help. great idea for all of us odd balls

 

It is arguably the best mod, for the money, you can do to a commonrail!

I have it stacked with the juice. I like it alot, just be careful with a stock tranny though, mines about kicked in the a$$. Time for an upgrade!!

 

Well the best thing i did was free up all the bottle necks in my 2003. It really helped with the power & to lower EGT's. A HE351 turbo swap, 4" exhaust elbow / downpipe, 2nd Gen Intake, upgraded lift pump & SMARTY have made this truck alot of fun.

 

Smarty 4.2 makes great power on our trucks, however it is very very smokey. Best upgrade i've made was the tranny. The injectors also woke the truck up tremedously, however without the turbo EGT's would be outa control. without the turbo/injectors I dyno'd 390/708 on standard revo tune. Haven't been on since I got the turbo/injectors/4.2.

 

Yep!!...I tried 4.2 sw7 today...Rolls the most coal on my truck so far....Soild haze at full boogie on the freeway(thats a first)...feels real strong !...:thumbsup:

 

Oh... I forgot, I was running TNT/r on the #'s in my sig... This was a custom tune from Marco, but not Erick Brown's version. I am somewhere in between.

 

Now where to start? I started with a vanAaken C3.1 pressure box and a roktech timing advance. Installed a 4 inch elbow and exhaust and drilled a 4 inch hole in bottom of stock air box. Gained good safe power and mileage. No numbers but noticed by the seat of my pants while towing around 10,000 lbs. Wanted more but was afraid of tranny. Bit the bullet and bought the heavy duty trans package along with flex plate and converter from Goerend. Big difference in shift points and shift pressure. Positive move. Knew that the stock LP wouldn't handle any more fueling. Gage showed "0" at WOT. Decided on an Eliminator from Wicked and set the pressure to 15. Another positive move. Eliminated stock LP entirely. Now that I thought the truck was ready for more I installed the TST PMCR37 and boost elbow. Set the elbow to produce 30 lbs and tested the truck with the vanAaken on high and the TST set at 3/2 while towing. Everything tested great. Thought I had the right setup. Took off on a maiden flight towing and blew'er up. Looked like to much timing between the TST and the Roktech. Not totally sure. Bought a NEW ISB 250 and started over. Eliminated the vanAaken and Roktech and purchased a Smarty to work with the TST. Best power yet. Can do more if I get it more air. A work in progress.
Currently I tow a 5er that grosses at 14,500 lbs. I guess my CGW around 23,000 lbs. With the current setup, truck doesn't know it is towing anything. Set the cruise and let her go. Onward.....

 

Question on intake box



Did you just cut a hole in the bottom of the box or did you place a homemade air ram or something to pull the air into the box? I was thinkg about doing something similar and then placing a drop in K&N or Green filter in the intake box.

2004 2500 5.9, Edge EZ chip, 6 speed

 

Well come spring im going to have to get a smarty. There all right for towing I hope? The most I pull is a 4 horse sooner, can't be more than 12000 loaded with horses and tack. With the predator it never goes over 1000 on the egts. Will the smarty get lower egts for the same power towing?

I can't really say what the best mod I did cause I think they all work together pretty well. Except for the intake I could have modded the factory for cheap for the same effects.

 

I have been happy with my Quad Std box. There has been some good info put out here, please keep it coming.

 

opcorn:opcorn:

4.2..:thumbsup:...TNT...

 

i have used and 04 jiuce with attitude but thought wat the hay ill try a 04.5 juice with attitude for some more timing and boy did that help aa bunch

 

so you can use a 04.5 edge/attitude on an 04??

 

I really like my Diablosport programmer / puck, especially on the perf/econ setting I toggle the puck on/off if needed.

The extreme tune allows the egts to get out of hand really quick with my stock turbo, so I don't run it much.

I have ran this for approx. 25,000 miles and still have my stock transmission kicking (knock on wood) I am sure it will be a matter of time

 

Anyone dropping valve seats in their 03-04 with all the hi-po goodies?

 

Yes Sir, hence the 06 P&P head in my sig. I dropped 1 valve seat and was able to catch it before the valve broke(very audible). It did tap the piston and leave a visable mark, but at least I didn't trash the cylinder.

 

I have all the stuff in my sig I just bought the diablosport predator to stack with the puck I really like the predator my truck runs great, hauls a$$, and will blow alot of smoke when I want it to. Im going to phoenix this weekend and am hopefully going to get it on the dyno while Im there. I will post the numbers when I get back!!! The truck I had before this one I just wrecked like a week and a half ago was a 2003 HO 6 speed 5inch straight pipe, intake, 100hp injectors, and just the diablosport power puck it ran really good I really like the puck its not to expensive and gives you that little extra bump when you need it. It's not going to win any drag races for you but it's nice if you are doing some towing or just driving down the road and need a lil extra power.

 

My #'s and times are in my sig. Mod's are in sig with the addition of a Puck that I installed that day for a little more pressure.

Randy

 

Good thread going here. I'm tempted to try a Smarty and see what happens. Most the 03-04 guys are putting good numbers down but some are having the poping problem.

 

this is awesome. i really like my smarty revo. does the beta 4.2 or 4.4 add alot more power or wut do they put down. does everybody have the popping with TNT? thanks

 

It looks like everyone is liking this thread. That's what I was hoping for. A place where we could congregate and throw our $0.02 on the table.

I've used a Power Pup before, and I was rather unimpressed by it. With it on Extreme, it felt very similar to the Predator on Performance.

I'm running a Diablo Predator on my truck right. I've just had it set to Performance and it seems to give it a little more go, although it isn't earth shattering power by any means. I only get smoke if I nail the throttle with the torque converter locked, and even then it is only a very small puff.

Once I get my truck back from the tranny shop, I'm gonna try it on Extreme and Extreme RKL and see how it does. I gotta get my Commander put on first though to watch the EGTs. I've also got a HE351CW turbo coming to try an keep things cool. Hopefully, the EGTs won't be too out of control. If you've ran a Predator, what kind of EGTs did you see with everything else being stock (minus the exhaust, mine's straight)?

 

I've also got a HE351CW turbo coming to try an keep things cool. Hopefully, the EGTs won't be too out of control. If you've ran a Predator, what kind of EGTs did you see with everything else being stock (minus the exhaust, mine's straight)?

My egt's would wind up like a tach on anything other than the towing stack tune when the truck was stock. The HE351 turbo is going to drop the egt's alot & give the needed air flow for the stronger tunes. Putting the 4" elbow & downpipe on helped my EGT's also.

 

Under pressure, I just did the 351 swap on the weekend and I can only get 35 psi. Today was the first time I really got on it and it was up to 1400, but that was from a dead stop to about 90 mph. Is that right? Do I need a pressure box to get more fuel? By the way even at 35 psi it's made a really nice improvment.

 

Those EGT's sound about right with the Diablo. The only tune that was managable for me was the towing stack. I finally saw the light & put a SMARTY revo on. :thumbsup: As far as the boost goes, are you running an adjustable boost elbow? Also check all the intercooler hose clamps & crank them down.

 

My edge hot is a good daily driver setup, but I'm sure it doesn't put out the hp that some of the other tuners do.

 

Would you guys be able to give a recomended setup/modifying order that you would recomend to anyone who is buying a 03-04 ram which is stock. Also what setups you would recomend for each use. Such as getting better millage on a daily driver, best setup for towing. Also best/first upgrades someone should do when on a budget

 

I'm in your same situation, limited by my budget. I'm a college student and having no debt along with putting some savings back is very important to me. So that really limits what I can spend on fun toys.

Now take this with a grain of salt as I have not had near the experience in this as some of the others have.

The first thing that I did was to open up my exhaust. There are several ways you can go about that. Next, I bought a Diablo Predator programmer for $175 to get some fuel in there. I bought a Quadzilla Commander w/ fuel pressure kit and A-pillar mount for the gauges for $300. I then bought a HE351 turbo off an 06 with 19,000 miles on it for $250.

So for $725, I should have a pretty decent performing truck until I can afford to dump some more money into it. Now, this does not include the tranny mods that you would need to actually use this new found power.

they say the stock lift pump goes out average 80,000. mine went out 125,000 sure some people make it longer depends on how often they changed fuel filter and wut performance mods they might have used.

Well, looks like I need to start thinking about an AirDog. Over 85,000 so far on mine. Don't wanna get stranded on the side of the road.

I have a feeling that a SMARTY is in your future. The towing stack had managable EGT's for me with a pressure box. I tried there puck (very weak & not much of a change), Edge EZ (worked nice), & the best performer was a Dr. Performance module with the towing stack program. But.... EGT' are MUCH lower with the SMARTY & it performs better.

Describe "performs better". In what sense and in what ways does it directly compare to the Diablo (other than EGTs of course :S?

Those things are expensive, and I would need some more positives than the EGTs are lower to justify throwing down that many bones on one. Thanks.

 

Lift pump and gauges i would say first.

 

I agree......I was talking to my local diesel shop and the owner says with just a programmer, the rail can be drained almost dry under mild-hard throttle.

My AD150 and Glacier Eliminator Bracket should hopefully be installed by the end of the month, hopefully I will see some nice fuel pressure with the AD150.

 

they say the stock lift pump goes out average 80,000. mine went out 125,000 sure some people make it longer depends on how often they changed fuel filter and wut performance mods they might have used. everything i have read and researched said cold air intake and exhaust first. then i would say guages and lift pump. then chip. i would suggest smarty sr. i was very satisfied with s-06. but there r other nice ones out there i would just suggest not a superchip flashpaq know a couple guys who had issues including me