My Stage 1 DuraStroke Thread

So I was chosen to test one of the stage 1 durastroke turbos.... heres how it went down.... I sent a 2004-2007 powerstroke turbo to Adrian and he did his thing and sent me my new turbo. I would have had it a few days sooner had it not been shipped to my local staples.... my fault I didnt provide a clear shipping address, so he shipped it to where it came from.

I got my 03 turbo out and got the new pedestal ready to go in, but something didnt line up right, this is why jesus made drills and drill bits. So after a little coaxing, drilling and cussing the pedestal was in. Turbo went right in, well as easy as a turbo goes into one of these trucks I guess. I got the turbo bolts started and lined up the up pipes and the down pipe, tightened them with no problems. I also had to change a driver side valve cover gasket and drill out 2 broken bolts on that so the turbo swap took a little longer than expected.

I got it all buttoned up, or so I thought, first start check under the hood and the oil supply line is leaking at the turbo...I shut it down and tighten it again.... start again....same thing. I removed both bolts and they were the exact same length but the far one would not go all the way in and make a tight seal.... so I put 3 washers on it... problem solved. Its late on Friday at this point and I have my 4 yr old helper who is getting tired and hungry at this point....darned kids.

day two, took it on about a 20 mile test drive... ran great at first....then it kinda got weak... I needed fuel so I stopped in to fill up.... truck is starting to overheat..... I think to myself ...not good. Well come to find out if you drain your coolant thru the bottom radiator hose, the clamp will not walk its self back up there to hold the hose on, so I lost all of my coolant.... thank god it didnt blow up on me. I proceeded to dig thru my truck to find a pair of pliers big enough to compress said clamp so I could get back on the road..... one pair of 6 inch slip joint pliers and 2 cases of Dassani later I am back on the road to find some ELC coolant.... I figure the water will give me a good flush.... so I get my coolant and head home, drain and fill...... spend the rest of the day with my 4 yr old daughter. she went back to mommys on sunday at 9am... I was too tired and busy cleaning up my shop to even drive it. I was like a little kid getting ready for work this am to finally drive this thing and get into it..... no dice raining.... the most i could do was about 1/4 throttle before the tires would spin and I would go sideways..... the VGT needs to relearn and it feels like in the 20 miles I drove this am, it kept getting stronger as I wasnt able to reall give it any type of punch to the throttle.... there is no, none, I mean zero lag whatsoever quarter throttle gave me 10-12 lbs of steady boost right now..... I cannot wait to get this thing out on a dry road and let it eat.... I did do one WOT at a stop sign (on a closed course) and it was insane.... the egts stopped at 1000, didnt go any higher, I thought my gauge was broken........ nope. Before WOT took me to 1400-1600 in the same time frame.... now.... its cool as a cucumber. this was all done with my Innovative Tow Tune, that is for my truck with out studs... so I will be updating my tuning soon and hopefully finding a dyno and a track to get some numbers..... I will also be towing my camper this weekend possibly to Morgantown.....numbers on that will follow as well

one other thing I noticed as well.... did they change the intake tube diameter on the 04.5 trucks? My 03 intake tube would not go on like it used to... It literally took me 45 mins to get it on there so I could clamp it down

Glad you're enjoying it. Let us know how it runs when its dry.

Sweet...another satisfied MAD turbo owner

You were seeing 1600* on your tow tune before? Yikes. I don't see that flat footing it with my camper hooked up...

Will you be trying some hotter tunes?

I will be yes.... and 1600 was on a long run with the throttle mashed to the floor..... when towing, I dont do that because the tires spin and the truck sits there.

my old tuning is set up for stock head bolts...... but all my other mods were incorporated and they are a few yrs old.

I can hit 1600 on my tow tune and I have stock injectors. I can't wait to see how this turbo dose for you pulling, how big is your camper?

30 foot, and I load the bed of my truck with firewood..... so its by no means a light load.

No it's not, that's the same size I'm looking at, will be nice to see how your setup works.

Yeah I'm only towing a 21' TT, maybe 5k total. With my aggressive tow tune from Innovative, the highest I've hit for EGT's was in the middle of the summer flat foot up hill. I was gaining so much speed I had to let off, still don't think I got above 1250*. I was over 70mph coming up on traffic, had to let off.

Either way, interested to see how this works out for you...

Glad to hear the truck is all worked out.The turbo will be getting stronger and stromger as the ecm figures it out.Once everything is meshed run the hell out of it and have fun,it's a hell of a turbo.:clapping:

should be dry enough to do some shake down runs tonight....... had to pick up an up pipe clamp today.........

loaded up my street tune from Innovative this am for my drive to work..... it runs real strong, just a little puff of smoke and youre gone.... its very quiet compared to my 03 turbo, you can really hear the exhaust and engine now...... once I had about 20 miles on the new tune, I opened it up on a pretty long stretch, at 104 mph my egts were right at 1100 and it was still pulling, once I let off the egts dropped instantly to 700-800. I am going to try and get some videos of my gauges next to my gps to show speed and egts, and boost. the highest boost I have seen so far has been right at 30 psi, but if you go WOT it gets there fast and holds as long as you keep your foot in it. I think I am going to take my camper for a little test run this weekend to get some numbers......

Good deal man. Are you seeing 30psi with a boost gauge or the factory MAP sensor??

boost gauge....

got ya. thanks man.

I want one NOW!!!!!!!

amarillo250 said:

I want one NOW!!!!!!!

Click to expand...

LOLLOLLOL You gotta hold out till' the Big Boy gets released. Your truck will be an absolute monster.

So how is it compared to what you had before,and what tune did you have on before?

The 03 is a boat anchor compared to this one..... its soo quiet......I was running my tow tune. I haven't loaded up my extreme tune yet...maybe this weekend....