Looking for some advice on my DD

[booneylander]

Well, in keeping with my truck's legendary lemonyness, I tried to drive it the other day and the head gasket blew.

I had been staying away from doing any performance mods just because "if it ain't broke" but now with the head about to come off I think it's time for a few upgrades. My priorities are fuel economy, reliability, driveability/smoothness. I've had the truck almost 2years now and haven't driven it that much thanks to it being broken most of the time, but when I have driven it I have been fairly happy with the power while the truck is empty but when towing I could use a bit more jam. I think the pump has been messed with because it smokes, I will say quite a bit by my standards, anytime I try to accelerate if I'm off boost, once it spools up it cleans up and pulls nicely but then it seems like as soon as I get into the jam it runs into the governor and I have to grab a gear and start all over again which can be annoying when towing. So I'm looking for some opinions/advice as to what I should throw at it. It is a 90 non-ic with stock turbo and I find it very laggy (normal for a non-wg setup?).

My thinking so far has been:

-HX35 wastegated, cheap and plentiful.
-New nozzles and repop, not sure if there is anything that stands out as the 'best' nozzle for fuel economy and no smoke (suggestions?).
-fuel pin (again - suggestions?)
-3200 rpm spring
-60# valve springs (90#?)

I was going to deck the head and check everything out in the valvetrain, new oem head gasket and was going to stick to head bolts as opposed to arp studs if there was a big price difference. Haven't priced new bolts though yet so if the studs are just a few more dollars I will go that route. Was also going to quickly go over the VE pump to check settings and look for wear/damage. Should I do anything special with it? It's been running fine for me.

Any other suggestions?

Sean

[tampabayBill]

4 in.exhaust, M2 pin, BHAF. Think about an intercooler.

[BILTIT]

I highly recommend the he351cw for a standard.

[RCCUMMINS89]

Depending on the power goals..............nothing wrong with the good ol' hx35, as it's a bolt on operation.

He351cw is hands down better, no doubt about that.

[SuperiorRam]

The hx35 is not a direct bolt on on a non ic truck. However I just did that last night on my crew cab it took a few hours of fab work but was a nice little step up. Next is the he351 that's on the work bench it would have been that but the compressor wheel I got off of eBay was too tall for some reason or another so it will have to wait

[booneylander]

What fab was needed to get the hx35 into a non-ic?

[RCCUMMINS89]

It doesn't connect directly up to the crossover piece.

[booneylander]

Any tips on a "best" injector/nozzle setup for economy and low smoke but still able to make more power ?

[RCCUMMINS89]

Mild injectors are generally clean.

5x11 VCO or SAC (from personal experience SAC tends to be cleaner, but for whatever reason makes slightly less power in smaller sizes)

The above up to about a 5x13 is generally VERY clean. As long as they are quality.


Recently sold a 5x13 SAC injector with an S300G combo............ was told it is as clean as a gasser.

[cmann250]

Call me crazy, but you can rock out some fuel with the stock non-IC injectors. The smoke level is about 75% your foot and 25% injection pump tuning with stock injectors in my opinion.

Especially if you tow, you ought to look into an intercooler as mentioned before.

[RCCUMMINS89]

You're not crazy at all.

The factory non i/c injectors are a very decent injector. Make great power............... they CAN be decently clean as well.

[booneylander]

Thanks a bunch for the chit chat and ideas guys, really appreciate all opinions.

Doing some more reading and was wondering if the bosch 190s might be the way to go? If they are the tits as far as efficiency goes?

Also looking at the 3800rpm spring on your Site RC, is that a bad idea for street/DD? Is it just a matter of running the right valve springs? Are there other things to consider reliability wise if I were to use that spring?

Reason I ask is because my train of thought is that if I were to widen my rev range out a lot more, I can build the truck to make power just at the top right? Like, big turbo, lots of advance, doesn't boost until higher up in the rev range, but has a nice big, free flowing exhaust housing (great for fuel economy?). That way I'd get good fuel economy when I'm puttering around empty or just hauling in the bed, but when I'm towing and need to get a load up to highway speed I can just hold a gear and reviews it out to get into the meat up top.

I dunno, just thinking out loud, feel free to shoot my idea full of holes.

[RCCUMMINS89]

Bosch 190s are an excellent choice for your truck, they will be a slight decrease in power...........however they will be a tad cleaner.

I keep forgetting you have a non i/c truck...............so the smaller sizes I listed above like the 5x11 SAC I wouldn't still recommend.

The 3800 rpm spring is totally fine for daily driver. Needing valve springs just depends on your control of your foot. I run a 3800 spring and have never taken above the rpm I did with the 3200.

It makes the truck more driveable IMO (strictly opinion) but it CAN also make it a bit twitchy at certain low speeds.


The only problem to building it for power up top..................our pumps don't fuel well up there and you're essentially "wasting" a lot of power. Also a lot of timing (more than needed) only hurts fuel mileage.

[booneylander]

So I am looking at getting an he351ve and coming up with a controller. As I understand it I would need an adapter to bolt it to my exhaust manifold but then I also read somewhere that the 6.7 manifold would bolt right up to my head, however I'm not sure if they were talking about a 1st gen or second gen 12v, or if there was a difference or what? Looking at some pics it seems like the 1st gen 12v has squarish ports and all the newer stuff has round ports. Anyone have any insight on that?