Hey yall, it seems yall know what youre talking about, so ive got a question or two. Ive got an 05 dodge 3500 with the 6 speed manual, and ive added a K&N air intake, a Silverline 4inch exhaust, and an ATS exhaust manifold, and my next upgrade is the electronics. Ive been looking at the Bullydog triple dog downloader and the outlook monitor, or the edge juice with attitude. The smarty sounds good but i dont have the need to monkey with stuff, id rather just hit a few buttons and go. I do wanna go fast, but im not worried about being the fastest around, otherwise i wouldnt have a dually. I still need to have my truck reliable for towing pretty heavy loads, either a 30 foot aluminum livestock trailer full of cows or a 24ft dual tandem flatbed trailer with 12,000 and 13,000 pound tractors. Whats yalls opinion, i know it sounds like you really like the smarty, but  i dont need so many different levels, on the edge or bully dog i would only use the first 2 and the highest 1. I would love to squeeze as much power as possible, but ill be happy with a regualr old tuner, i just dont know which one.  

I'd stick with the Smarty since the stealer won't know you've put it on and you've got a relatively new truck.

I've not messed with BullyDog or the Edge, so I don't know how much of an electronic trail they leave.  The Smarty works just like the others do, you just tell it (like you would the BullyDog) what you want and in less than 5 minutes you're driving.  When it's time to take it to the dealer, use the Smarty to go back to stock settings and you're set.  The stealership won't know what you've done.

See if you can get the CFM intake manifold on there as well.  I loved mine in my '03 and plan on getting one for my '06, and hopefully for my '08 if they make one for it.



Kris  

What is the price on the smarty? Can you get a monitor for it that has gauges on it like the bullydog and edge? Im not worried about the warranty, i got it for a steal cause it had been re-po'd, so i dont have a warranty.  

Run your gauges separate from any programmer you plan on using.  For instance, running the BD and boost fooling will report a lower boost pressure than what you're actually getting because it's fooling the ECM (hence, boost fooling) and unless you're using separate gauges you'll never really know how much boost you're running.  It'll just report what the ECM reads, which will be off.

Google the Smarty for prices, but most of your decent programmers will be in the $600 to $1000 range.



Kris  

Marine is right.  You defintely want to run guages seperate from a programmer.  

Also if you get the smarty, I know you don't care about the warranty, but the smarty won't void simply because it can't be detected also it doesn't raise EGT's as high as every other chip out there.  Just put the stock program in and you will be fine.  

Also, with you towing like you said.  With that K&N I would buy a CFM manifold which give you much better airflow over the stock manfiold I think like some 40 or 50 percent.  When you use a chip, everything dealing with temperature will go up, your engine and your tranny.  I would HIGHLY recommend a torque converter and valve body.  This will improve towing TREMENDOUSLY.  Another good recommended towing mod is water methanol injection simply because when you're going up a steed grade with a load your EGT's can get up to 1300-1500 degrees, which is dangerous over a short period of time.

Here is what I would do ok.  Buy that Smarty, I know you you don't want those levels, but it's a very good tuner and it won't void the warranty.  Also make sure you get a flex plate if you're gonna romp into  it a lot.  I hear those flex plates can break stock, but I dunno, never had that happen and if it does happen to people I would expect some mileage on it first.  Once you get those, get some guages, you need to monitor your EGT's and Tranny temps, it's also kind of cool to see what boost your getting too (don't forget the boost fooler either).  Once you get those, get your Torque Converter and Valve Body, a deep tranny pan would be nice too.  I said earlier in this thread that the Converter will prevent slippage and valve body will give firmer shifts, plus with more fluid through the lines will cool it some too.  A deep tranny pan is also recommended.  Plus these three upgrades to your tranny will be able to safely withstand 550hp at least which will be perfect for you.  Not to mention towing will be a so easy for you too with those upgrades.

Last but not least would be water methanol injection, if you're gonna be towing this is a good upgrade lower EGT's significantly and gives good power.

With you towing, EGT's will be your worst enemy, you need things cooler and those will help nicely.

As far as the smarty.  PM ME and I will give you a number to a guys shop I know who will have the cheapest price around.  He is out in California, very good person to talk too  

I appreciate all the good info, but just a few things. I wasnt really plannin on runnin a boost fooler, partially because of the money, or lack of, but i didnt see the need in a boost fooler if i was runnin a tuner. And since i dont plan on runnin a boost fooler, i dont see any reason why a bullydog or edge monitor wouldnt be accurate, which only matters IF i got one of those. I really want one of those CFM manifolds, but i cant afford it right now. As far as all the transmission advice, an aftermarket torque converter would be nice but i dont think my clutch would share that spot real well, lol, i forgot to mention my truck has the 6 speed manual.  

joehunt when you go to the track you can take your tailgate off drop the spare tire even take out all the seats. That should knock more than a half a second off your 1/4 mile time. Also check the build date of your truck it is on the drivers door. Sounds like you have the 04.5 up. Also is your truck a 4x4? It is alot easier to run the 1/4 mile with a 4x4 than a 2wd. Trust me my tires let lose even at 50mph. Might even be wise to get a good set of tires with some good steel rims.  

Crap I didn't even realize yours was a 6 spd.  I have a problem with reading people signature sorry.

You would need a clutch sorry about that.  I single disk thats a performance clutch would be good for you then.  Terrbibly sorry about that buddy  

The boost fooler will give you around 10 psi and drop egts about 50 degrees with a stock truck.  If it's heavily modified it will drop them around 250-300.  Boost foolers are very cheap too, like 60 bucks or so, so they aren't to bad bro.  

backwoodsboy916 wrote:

I appreciate all the good info, but just a few things. I wasnt really plannin on runnin a boost fooler, partially because of the money, or lack of, but i didnt see the need in a boost fooler if i was runnin a tuner.


Most programmers will do boost fooling, which means you won't need to buy a separate one.  Because the programmer is fooling the ECM, anything the ECM reports will be lower than what you're really running, hence the need for separate gauges.



Kris  

or how about a regulator from Lowes. Set it to whatever the psi# your truck starts to defuel. If the PCM doesn't know you are putting 45psi of boost in. Then the PCM will not defuel due to it is only like 35.

A regulator will cost you about $15  

A regulator?  You mean the wastegate on the turbo?  Because that's the job it does .... it releases the extra pressure into the exhaust.  Defueling is going to happen once you go over 3,000 - 3,200 RPM and will continue to defuel up to the redline and happens regardless of boost.

Running anything over 38 to 40 pounds of boost is going to do more damage than good.  If you're running that much pressure you're close to lifting the head off the engine block and are looking at turbine failure from running its RPM's too high.  If the turbo lets go you're looking at an engine rebuild.  If the head gets lifted off the block you're looking at an engine rebuild.  Consistently running 40 to 45 psi means you're got too large of a turbo or you're being cheap (and stupid) and risk blowing that engine.




Kris  

Anyone ever used the Granatelli in-cab monitor?  

Like Many have said!!!!   TRANNY FIRST!!!

Start there and then get the power!!  

MarineOne


Dude!!  I've been running 48psi of boost for a while!!
Stock head bolts and stock head gasket!!!
Run mid 12's and pushing 600HP

NO PROBLEMS HERE!!!

Now when you get around / over 50 psi, you need to start preparing for it, I.E.  studs, o-rings, fire rings, etc.

I've never cracked a bolt on my engine except to install the injectors and cp3.....That's gonna change next month..Going to TWINS, so I've got an o-ring'd head and Hamilton 110# valve springs going in to handle the 65-70psi of boost......Looking to do 650-700hp..