I picked up an 04 F250 Superduty last week for a pretty damn good price! I've been told by 4 different people now that I need to get a performance chip for it. I'm no diesel genius or anything, but was always under the impression if you chip one you also need to upgrade the exhaust, & the air intake. Is this the case with the 6.0 Powerstroke? My first purchase will be new tires, but after that what steps should I take for performance improvement? I'm not wanting a sicka super asphalt burner but a lil more horsepower and fuel savings would be outstanding!

 

Upgrade intake, exhaust, and add exhaust temperature gauge, then pick up that Banks Six Gun that 4WheelParts has on sale for half price, and you'll be set. Congrats on the new truck, but where are the pics?

(or just get the entire kit in a box) Banks Six Gun Complete Kit

 

You can upgrade it by going muddin' ~ you get these cool brown splatter and pin-strip designs!!

Congrats on your new truck pard!

 

I'd be real careful about modding and early 6 liter diesel. Do some searching around these forums and you'll see why. I can tell you from personal experience with a number of 6 liters in our fleet and those owned by friends that the earlier ones didn't last long after modding. Yes, one friend with an early 2003 Excursion did the whole Banks Six Shooter kit and it ran like a scalded cat for the whole 65,000 miles he owned it with virtually no problems. I'd say he was the exception to the rule though.

Just for grins, drive your stock truck around for a while and notice how sweet it runs compared to just about anything else out there. Next, do some searching here for stretched head bolts, blown head gaskets, etc. - mostly caused by modding a motor that wasn't really ready for it. Then you can decide if you want to pull the trigger. Just my 2 cents.

 

Skip the Banks systems, get twice more power with other systems for half the price, and use the money saved towards headgaskets and ARP Headstuds, cause if you mod it, you WILL need them, especially on an 04.

 

well it would be smart to do the big 3!!!
but i have a story.
dad use to have a 04 6.0L dually (before his 08) with a chip air intake and 4 inch exhaust and digital guages.

the chip was a quadzilla
setting one- stock
setting two- 60 hp
setting three- 120hp
setting four- 165hp

the intake was a green air intake.

the exhaust was 4 inch with the muffler turned backwards

the gauges came with the chip

anyways. it had all the power in the world! pulled our 21,000 camper with ease. and got 11 mpg at 75 doing it! (this was on the 120hp setting)
it lasted 65,000 miles and he stretched the studs... so he got rid of it.
it had alot of problems. was in the shop more then it was out.

now my mom has (and still does have)
a 2004 F-250 6.0L with a 115hp dr. performance chip and nothing more. stock exhaust stock filter stock everything no gauges nothing. just the chip

this pickup has been chipped since 7,000 miles and it has 92,000 on it now.
get this it has never even had a check engine light come on!
it has been in the shop once for them to put a new U-joint in...

this pickup pulls the same 21,000 camper with the same amount of ease and it gets 9.8 pulling it at 75mph.

we bought the 2 pickups the same day and moms has not been in the shop at all for motor reasons.

the other one had alot of problems. studs... he blew the first engine... and when we traded it the rearend was making weird humming noises so it was about to go out also.

anyways i told this story to make you see that if you get a older 6.0L like these its kind of a gamble. it may be a stalion like moms (will do anything you throw at it) or it may be a stalion like dads and break down all the time.

i hope you got a good one. cause if you did then it your pickup will last for pretty much ever.

P.S. dads pickup GOT 16mpg on interstate at 75. it had the 4.10 gears pretty good for 4.10's

moms gets 19 on the interstate at 75. it has 3.73's

i hope you got a pickup similar to my moms. becasue i guarentte you will absolutly love it!
the 0-60 times on moms pickup are extremly good to!!! i guarentte you will love your pickup if it is one like moms.

 

for motor mods.
SCT custom tuned for your truck.
intake.
exhaust.

that setup will put most 6ls in the 13s in the quarter -

 

Ive got a edge juice with attitude on my 04 and just use it for fuel mileage and towing and dont have any issues. Its the guys who go buy these programmers who know nothing about them, turn em wide open and just beat the **** out of there diesel pick up they dont really need in the first place