I have an 04 cummins, quad cab, short box, auto trans. It's my daily driver, pulls the 5th wheel on the weekend and I would like to eventually do the odd 1/4 mile run. I've put on 4in turbo back exhuast and a bd low fuel pressure light. Thinking about some electronics next, I can get the hypertech max energy or the diablo sport predator and the power puck for super cheap right now. I would like to know how much the stock trany will take and what to upgrade first. I was looking at valve bodies but a friend said that i can do the same thing with a TCS shift kit and it is way cheaper. When should I put in a torque converter, flex plate, billet input or other internals?  

You need to increase your Torque converter and Valve Body as soon as you put a chip on there, Dodge transmissions suck big time.  They can only handle about 75hp over stock before they eventually start to ware fast.

A torque converter and valve body will increase the durability of your tranny quite a bit.  The Valve body would increase the line pressure and give you firmer shifts where as the TC will prevent slippage and put more power to the ground, not to mention it will increase mileage and make your truck feel COMPLETELY different.  Personally as far as a tranny go is completely dependant on where you're wanting to take the truck.  

Sounds like you still wanna tow, so personally for your tranny.  Do a Torque Converter, Valve Body, to aid in shifting and you can even do a shift kit, I have heard of some people getting around 1/3 to a 1/2 second off their 1/4 mile times from those.  And do a deep tranny pan.  


If you plan on going over 550hp then you will need an input shaft those can break at that level pretty easy.  The next thing that will break would be the output.  But personally if you're looking to get lets say 700hp range or above just upgrade all three shafts.  Once thats done do your clutches.  With a transmission you better find out what level you're wanting to take your truck and buy everything you need so you will be done with it. Once you have your shafts taken care of do your clutches

If you do a chip go with a smarty.  Hypertec is ok, predator is good for economy but they are VERY agressive with their Extreme RKL (180hp)tune is so aggressive that even with my earlier aurora 4000, intercooler, high ram intake, water methanol, and exhaust elbow, it was still killing the fire in my engine and I couldnt't boost launch, couldn't get above 9 or 10 psi. It also is heard on injectors.  Smokes so much I have had cops called on me and one person almost called the fire department, thought my truck was gonna explode.

SMART'S are the best on the market and you can see gains of 230hp.  It's pretty cool and you can change different parameters of your truck such as torque management, rail pressure, injection timing, and tinker with the wastegate.

Also when you put those chips on there it's best to invest in a boost fooler so you don't throw codes because you will be over.  It will also give you 10psi or so and lower egts significantly.  When dealing with boost make sure you don't go above 40psi otherwise you're gonna lift the head off the block.  

So what I would do is this.  Put on the Smarty, once the smarty do the torque converter and valve body and while you're at it do the input shaft at least especially if you're gonna take it to the strip thats your weekpoint.

Once you get those taken care of, stack those chips but watch your boost too (once you have the boost fooler) because you can lift the head off your block if you over 40lbs.  If you go over 40lbs stud it.  It would also be wise to invest in a AirDog 150/150 because your lift pump will struggle to supply fuel to your CP3, your lift pump struggles your whole fuel system struggles, it's that simple.  I say this lift pump because you said you were looking at the diablo stack.  Your lift pump will fail with that stack for sure.

I tell you what.  You have the same here truck I do. PM ME ok, I can hook you up with some GREAT stuff that you're looking for.  PM ME and I will give you the info.  

Thanks a lot for the help the reply was greatly appresheated.  

That's some good info there.



Kris  

When you talk about upgrading the trans clutches do you mean put bigger packs in or just beter clutches?  

I've been emailling questions to a tech at hypertech, he said that they make there tuners to run will the stock trans and that it would be safe to run it on the highest level (+174hp) this sounds fishy to me. Anybody have any comments?  

Yeah that's fishy, like a dead fish in a shoe box on your doorstep in August.

Think about it for a minute ... these engines are stock and run 305 to 350 horse and 610 ft lbs of torque.  With how easy it is to add additional power it just eats tranny's and TC's because they can't handle it.

Do the math; a stock engine at 350hp and 610 ft lbs of torque can easily get a 75hp boost and 100 ft lbs of torque.  Now you're running 425hp and 710 ft lbs of torque.  Something is bound to break and since the tranny and TC are the weak link, you'll end up with transmission fluid and parts down the street.



Kris  

That is what I thought. I think that I will save some money and upgrade the trany. The smarty sounds like the tuner to get anyway.  

I compeltely agree with Marine here,  thats very fishy and I don't trust it.  I would never run a 180hp tune on my stock tranny, those converters on our trucks bad, the worst of the three (dura, power, cummins)


Before we go into buying stuff for your tranny.  What exactly are you wanting to do?  Are you wanting a daily driver lets say with 500+hp or are you wanting a 11 second diesel with around 800hp or so?

You can still buy a chip if you would like, but if you do buy a pressure box first.  The modules will add so much power you will smoke the crap out of your tranny. At least get the box so you can enjoy better mileage and have some extra power.  

But yeah, let me know what you're wanting to do with your truck.  Whats your plans with it.  Are you wanting to smoke sport cars?  Or tow anything?

You let me and Marine know here and we can help you out for sure, we'll lead ya in the right direction  

let me take that back.  Do the Smarty and stick with that, had a brain fart there but there are nine different performance levels you can choose from ranging from added timing to no timing.  It's pretty safe too if you're wise about it.  It will give you some good smoke too so you can have fun with it.  

DO NOT, and I mean DO NOT run it at the highest level.  a few weeks and your tranny is toast.  

I don't think I can thank you guys enough for the help. I think that I'm going to shoot for the 500hp daily driver that can still tow and be reliable but will also put you back in the seat it will also have to run the odd bracket class on the weekend, by the way about what would 500hp run in the 1/4mile? So I think my plan is to get a smarty then put in a torque converter, input shaft, shift kit, and possibly a flex plate(i would like some input on the flex plate) form there I would upgrade the fuel and air systems as needed. So does this sound like a plain or what? What else would i need to upgrade to get to this level?  

This is what I would do ....

A tranny upgrade and a new TC should be first as it's your weak link.  Make sure you get a deeper than stock pan on the new/upgraded tranny and that's drilled and tapped for a temp sensor.  Making sure the power gets to the ground and stays there is the single best upgrade you can do.

Gauges.  Man, I cannot stress enough about having a set of gauges.  If you're doing any kind of towing you need the basic three: EGT\pyro temp, tranny temp, and boost.  I would throw in a fourth for fuel pressure, but you're smart since you've already installed the BD low fuel pressure light.  Because it's gonna be doing the 1/4 mile once in a while and towing, your temp gauges will really come into play to help you keep an eye on making sure you don't fry something.

Air flow.  The 4 inch exhaust is a good choice over stock and lets more air out.  Then I would add an AEM Brute Force HD intake and CFM intake manifold to get more air in.  I ran the AEM/CFM setup on my '03 and got a 4 MPG increase and noticed more off the line power than I did over stock.  Make sure you get the CFM that's drilled and tapped for water-meth as this will help you out with power later on.

Fuel flow.  Since you're wanting to run around 500hp, a set of injectors and either the AirDog or FASS fuel system to replace your stock lift pump is needed to keep your CP3 wet with #2.  You could at this point add another CP3 with a dual feed line or swap out yours with a modded CP3.  If you don't upgrade the lift pump you'll burn up the CP3 since it uses diesel for lubrication, and that's like a $3000 mistake.

Once your fueling is set, add the Smarty to handle all that new power, and then add the Snow Performance water-meth injection.  Since the CFM is tapped for it, it's a simple bolt on install.

Now the only thing that concerns me is your year model.  Do you have an '04, or the '04.5?  On the '04.5 and newer the Smarty will control your boost level, otherwise you'll need to get a boost elbow to manually adjust the amount of turbo boost.  This is actually the cheapest upgrade as it's around 10 bucks, but because you're fooling around with your boost, you're gonna need that boost gauge to make sure you don't lift the head off the engine block.  Everything ties in together when you're doing this kind of power increase, and will help you keep that truck running better.




Kris  

I have the early 04(305hp)model. I know i need gauges, I like the bd digital display but they seem pricey to me. know of any other ones? I would like something a little more discret than the autometer a pillar gauges.  

They make an overhead headliner gauge mount (up high where the liner meets the windshield) for the '03 and newer Dodge trucks, you'll just need to do a few Google searches to find what you like (color, style, etc.).

ISSPRO makes great gauges and it's usually cheaper if you buy them in a kit rather than individually.  They also match the Dodge dash really well and it gives you that custom look.

Quadzilla sells the boost elbow since you're identified your truck as an early '04.  You can Google it as well to find the cheapest price online.



If you need more help just post up.



Kris