Compounds vs single for reliability?

[NY_Mott]

So iv done a good amount of reading and have not seen this topic.
I'm a couple months away from getting the truck back on the road and
When reliabilty is brought up more often then not someone says it's all how you are on the skinny pedal.

Well here's my question, what if I don't want to be easy on the skinny pedal.

What is the better choice for being able to run it kind of hard and have the least issues single or compounds?

Ulitimitly it's a D/D that I'd town the ocasional load of wood and boat; would also like to get an equipment trailer one day for small stuff. Nothing like some of you guys tho.
I still want the truck to be able to work and tow while having the choice to break the tires loose from a stand still and
I'll have a decent build minus rods.
I know you can tune out some of the low end to help, but not sure if a single would be an added help.

Interested to see what yall have to say, not looking to break any power / speed records just want a fun truck while being as reliable as it can be.

Or is this just a complete stupid question and being easy on the skinny is a must.
Thanks.

 

[johnp115]

Overall reliability id have to say is 80% how you drive lol.

Single set up (when set up right) is typically a ton more reliable (non vgt... less moving parts, simpler setup, bp almost 1:1, way quicker to pull the single turbo off to replace/fix anything compared to compounds)

 

[johnp115]

I dont necessarily think you have to be "easy" on it, just not full out abuse 100% of the time.


I see a good amount of single turbo 6.4's dynoing 950-1000+ on fuel/spray (almost every weekend), drag racing all the time, street abuse, and they seem to take it very well.

 

[powerstroked08]

I agree with its 80% how you treat the truck. And the single has to be setup for how your going to use the truck. They are not as "forgiving" with towing heavy on monday and racing on friday. This is just my opinion on it because you really want a small single for towing and just daily driving to keep it from being hot, smokey, and laggy. This doesn't mean that every single is laggy or smokey. But one thats improperly sized(too large) will not be fun to dd or haul with. But a large single will be a blast at the track just ask Corselli! Now I think compounds are nice because you can go quite large with them and not lose any of the quick response(again a smaller single can light just as quick, and a larger one can with some help from a looser torque converter but thats another topic) and it has a flatter power curve.

Now there are some guys running larger singles with good street manners but it does take some careful tuning to achieve that. Another argument is that singles don't make the low end torque like compounds do. And that's easier on the rods. Also the back pressure is lower with a single. So i guess each setup has its good and bad, at the end of the day its going to boil down to your personal preference. Both can run good!

 

[powerstroked08]

I dont necessarily think you have to be "easy" on it, just not full out abuse 100% of the time.


I see a good amount of single turbo 6.4's dynoing 950-1000+ on fuel/spray (almost every weekend), drag racing all the time, street abuse, and they seem to take it very well.

I agree 100%! If you beat on it some and keep up on the maintenance especially the fuel, you should be good for a long time. But some freak things can happen to ANY truck regardless of brand.

 

[NY_Mott]

Appricate the responses fellas.
Iv been tossing around the idea based off what powerstroke 08 said with the single keeping the low end torque down.
I do like the quick spool, and understand it can be a give and take with both. I'm really just worried about going this far into the engine and not getting a good 100k out of it.
I understand things happen and you gotta pay to play; just figuring out what's the safer bet.

Brandon- your going to have to show me what is considered safe and whats not when it comes to driving the truck. I know that sounds silly, but I don't truly know as it's my first diesel and really have not been in any other powerful diesels.
Correct me if I'm wrong but it's also my understanding that a good tuner can take out some of the low end torque to make it all around safer if you slip up and get to excited on the skinny.

 

[Powerstroke Man 6.4]

Agreed 100% with the above.

The reasons I went single route was, Easier to work on, less back pressure than a compound setup, cheaper to replace if the charger decides to give out and more room in the engine bay, little added power over going back to a stock set of turbos.

Once Matt got my tune down, yes it takes a little bit to get used to how the truck drives with a single if you are going to DD it, IMO the truck with this Billet S366 drives very similar to a compound truck.

Spool up is very quick from a dead stop (stoplight etc), cruising egts are around 600-700 at 60, WOT 1350 W/ low to no smoke.

(at first with different tunes) the truck was very laggy and I could not drive it without it smoking out the road, egts were outrageous, had no power at all.

I switched to GH a few reversions for fueling and shifting later all my drivability problems solved.

I tow 8-10K once in awhile and it does excellent towing.

I'm happy to say I love this setup , DD'ing the truck drives awesome and the quality of the Midwest kit is top notch.

 

[getstroked27]

YUPPPPP these guys hit the nail on the head. i have ran multiple stock turbo setups as well as multiple single setups. what i have found is that if you maintain the truck properly it will usually treat you well. i have ran nothing but "race" files on my truck for the past 4 years with god knows how many different setups and i have had but one issue, and it was not related to anything other than i was beta testing tune files and had a fuel system failure that took out my engine. like i said thats not from lack of maintenance or anything other than ****ty luck. which you can never plan for but always have to expect. after about 15 months of having a single setup on my truck, i would never go back to a set of drop ins. BUT. every truck/driver/situation is different. there are plenty of applications where drop ins are a better option. high altitude, towing heavy, stuff like that. one isnt more reliable than the other, as long as you set the truck up right for your application. singles are easier to work on, sound better, run cooler if you have the right turbo, and are more interchangeable as far as swapping chargers/housings to get the perfect setup. all comes down to the application though.

 

[Rubenk]

Tune plays a big part too, if you bring the power in hot and heavy down low you're significantly harder on the bottom end. Singles by nature alleviate this by moving the power band up. But upgraded compounds can easily push 20+ psi below 2000rpm.

 

[NY_Mott]

Again appricate the info, With that I guess for now I'll just stick with the compounds and have it tuned on the safer side down low.
Still pretty interested in a single but I guess I can look into that more down the road; as right now I just want to work on the reliabilty side of things.

 

[drunk on diesel]

Honestly, all of the factory compounds I've seen dump out were due to poor maint schedule...

I've seen stockers put up with an insane amount of abuse. Did a tune on my buddy's 2010 that made 60psi. back pressure was off the charts. he ran it like that for a year beating the tar out of it. I talked him into trading it in on a 6.7 before the truck went bang. It had about 170k on it when it got rid of it.

 

[ckrueg]

Honestly, all of the factory compounds I've seen dump out were due to poor maint schedule...

I've seen stockers put up with an insane amount of abuse. Did a tune on my buddy's 2010 that made 60psi. back pressure was off the charts. he ran it like that for a year beating the tar out of it. I talked him into trading it in on a 6.7 before the truck went bang. It had about 170k on it when it got rid of it.

Wondering why he wanted a tune like that? Trying to blow it up lol?

 

[drunk on diesel]

the tune was stupid, but he wanted the Ricky Bobby special

I will say, the truck was an animal. It would hose the 37's through third. I regretted making the tune because he was so hard on it and refused to let me turn it down. He would race any/every thing on the road.

I will say that he's super picky on PM's and never gave it much fire until the truck was fully warmed up.

I was waiting for it to go bang, but it never did.