Help with mod list by phase please and thank you.

[fairladyaffair]

Ok, so I have been procrastinating to purchase some much needed longevity/performance/asthetic/reinforcement geared mods. Ive made a short list of these mods and broken them up into 3 phases in which im going to purchase them.

The help I need is some direction of where to purchase and what brand mainly because I am new to the diesel world and the brands that are out there (alot of them anyway) are alien to me.

My overall goal for the truck is 500 streetable horsepower that will last as long as possible with normal maintenance with the main purpose of the truck to haul a 27' sailboat on accasion, but not wear my transmission out rolling around on 37" tires.

Thanks in advance.


Phase 1-
Airdog (what model and who sells them for the best price)
Programmer (been looking at the edge CTS because of its diagnostic and monitoring capabilities as well as its versatility)
Deep trans pan
rear differential cover
Fabtech Tie Rods W/ inner and outer tie rod ends (who carries these with the best price?)
Pitman and idler arm support kit (seen a couple of diffrent brands, any suggestions?)
Phase 2-
Shift kit (brand suggestions?)
Transfer case and transmission support braces (brands and dealers?)
Phase 3-
Road Armor front bumper w/ led fog lights. (fog light brands and dealers?)

 

[adeso]

Ok, so I have been procrastinating to purchase some much needed longevity/performance/asthetic/reinforcement geared mods. Ive made a short list of these mods and broken them up into 3 phases in which im going to purchase them.

The help I need is some direction of where to purchase and what brand mainly because I am new to the diesel world and the brands that are out there (alot of them anyway) are alien to me.

My overall goal for the truck is 500 streetable horsepower that will last as long as possible with normal maintenance with the main purpose of the truck to haul a 27' sailboat on accasion, but not wear my transmission out rolling around on 37" tires.

Thanks in advance.


Phase 1-
Airdog (what model and who sells them for the best price)
Programmer (been looking at the edge CTS because of its diagnostic and monitoring capabilities as well as its versatility)
Deep trans pan
rear differential cover
Fabtech Tie Rods W/ inner and outer tie rod ends (who carries these with the best price?)
Pitman and idler arm support kit (seen a couple of diffrent brands, any suggestions?)
Phase 2-
Shift kit (brand suggestions?)
Transfer case and transmission support braces (brands and dealers?)
Phase 3-
Road Armor front bumper w/ led fog lights. (fog light brands and dealers?)

Just go with EFI, for up around the 500 HP it is hard to beat a good tuner with EFI. I would go with a Mike L trans cooler over the deep pan. Really don't need a trans brace, most of the time a bad U joint that you shouldn't be driving with or breaking a driveshaft (slicks or a lot of power) takes that out. If you are not too sure on what you are doing with the trans, I would find a good builder near you and see what he likes to use

 

[paint94979]

Ya I'd forget a bunch of stuff on your list... Rear diff cover, deep pan, shift kit(a 5 speed requires removal of the trans), tcase and trans brace, and road armor bumper. Is put all of that money into a trans build

 

[sweetdiesel]

x2 ^^^
if you really want the bumper though that's your truck

a after market cooler is way better than the deep pan, rear diff is never given me issues so don't see the point?

being lifted truck I would go EFI so you can adjust shift points inthe trans.
air dog well personally I'd go big.....do it once and do it right! that being said there are lots of pumps out there.
save for a built trans!!!

 

[fairladyaffair]

All good advice, thank you for your time.

Ok scratch the trans brace, i see your point there.

The reason i was opting for the deep pan is because i was going to service the trans anyway while i installed the shift kit by replacing all the fluid and internal and external filter. Luckily i have a close friend that owns a trans shop and he will do the shift kit with me for next to nothing. but ill deff do the tranny cooler instead, was going to do that eventually anyway ill just go ahead and do it now instead of the deep pan.

Do you really think i should save to build my trans vs doing minor upgrades considering i probably will never exceed the 500hp? Please elaborate on the trans situation because i like to do things right the first time and have no problem spending the money if it will be worth it.

As far as the EFI tune, can you tell me a little more?. Will the EFI setup do all the Edge CTS with juice does? more? Ill try and read up on it a little more, i have heard alot of good things about them.

Also the rear diff cover was really more of a asthetic thing although its supposed to be functional. because my beds so high it shows off my pumpkin back there and thought it would be a cool touch. Bumper was mainly to give me a little clearance for the front tires . get sick of them rubbing when i take a hard turn on the stock one and if i remove the lower lip it just looks naked. Its deff not the next thing or even close to something getting done. Im more concerned about the maintenance that hasnt been done by the old owner.

any suggestion on the support kits for the pitman and idler arms?

thanks again fellas :thumb:

 

[whitetrash21]

All good advice, thank you for your time.

Ok scratch the trans brace, i see your point there.

The reason i was opting for the deep pan is because i was going to service the trans anyway while i installed the shift kit by replacing all the fluid and internal and external filter. Luckily i have a close friend that owns a trans shop and he will do the shift kit with me for next to nothing. but ill deff do the tranny cooler instead, was going to do that eventually anyway ill just go ahead and do it now instead of the deep pan.

Do you really think i should save to build my trans vs doing minor upgrades considering i probably will never exceed the 500hp? Please elaborate on the trans situation because i like to do things right the first time and have no problem spending the money if it will be worth it.

As far as the EFI tune, can you tell me a little more?. Will the EFI setup do all the Edge CTS with juice does? more? Ill try and read up on it a little more, i have heard alot of good things about them.

Also the rear diff cover was really more of a asthetic thing although its supposed to be functional. because my beds so high it shows off my pumpkin back there and thought it would be a cool touch. Bumper was mainly to give me a little clearance for the front tires . get sick of them rubbing when i take a hard turn on the stock one and if i remove the lower lip it just looks naked. Its deff not the next thing or even close to something getting done. Im more concerned about the maintenance that hasnt been done by the old owner.

any suggestion on the support kits for the pitman and idler arms?

thanks again fellas :thumb:

Stock trans will not like 500 hp.....even a shift kit won't cut it. Save the money, get it built right , any trans builder on this forum will point you in the right direction.

Efi will give you everything you need for tuning. Its a little more end user involved but the end result is worth. Edge CTS wont even begin to do what EFI does.... however, i had the cts, it does make for a nice gauge setup since those are all integrated into it.

I ran a ppe support kit on mine, it worked like it was supposed to. Most brace kits are the same unless you run Tony B's, and even then I'm not sure itll work on lifted trucks. Shop around the vendor list on the site, many carry this stuff. You'll get a good price from someone.

 

[jacobdewey]

Since you have an 04 truck, you can buy the edge cts insight monitor and use it to switch 5 premade efi live tunes on the fly. It still has all the gauges and everything, so that's cool. You can get a dsp5 tune on your ecm by talking with one of the efi live vendors on the site. (Idaho rob, Kory Willis, Steve Schmidt, ect ect..) The allison will only handle 90hp over stock before it grenades the tranny. Everyone says, "oh you can get away with it if you keep it out of OD."... no, that's not true. Adding any power to your truck, especially with those bigger tires, will toast a tranny in no time.

 

[fairladyaffair]

Oh wow, didnt realize how low of a margin over stock i had! I think i will look into a built tranny and hold off on some of the other goodies.

I have to buy a lift pump and thevtie rods though, the steering play i have and the overwhelming fear of injector failure keeps me from driving it as often as i would like.

Thanks for all the input. Any further advice is welcome!


2004 Lb7