Kbuterbaugh04
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- Oct 19, 2014
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Recently threw a Barder Stage 2 VGT on my late 04. My mods are in my signature.
Previously running white rain from Nate Windrunner which was an amazing tune when I had the stock turbo. I ran the same tune for a few hundred miles and it spooled the turbo quickly as stock, may be a slight variance, but not much. The bottom end power was slightly lower, which I expected, but the mid and top was a real big improvement as it pulled with no signs of stopping. But, didn't take long till it was hitting 1200* on the flat before I got out of it. Later lock up in 5th would help a ton, but tow haul has been getting me through.
But once hitting the mountain, the egt's climbed quickly without giving much throttle, even with the tow haul. and had to back out of it to keep the temps around 1000.
The under boost is where I've been having some trouble with temps, as well as WOT pulls. I know some bigger sticks would help, but for the moment I'm looking to get the most out of this setup via tuning.
Always wanted to try Quick Tricks tuning, so Eric hooked me up with Looney Fuel and I gave her a quick flame test today. The tranny tuning needs a slight adjustment, went into 5th TCL rather quickly, but the EGT stayed around 750*. Which got me closer to my happy zone lol
I noticed this tune does not build boost as fast, although I can hear the intake sucking in large amounts of air (didn't have the MAF PID on my CTS to take note). And seemed to be under powered, but still pulled smoothly. Once getting to a certain throttle percentage, it became a different animal and pulled harder than before. All while the EGT stayed less than 1000*.
After riding back roads for awhile I decided to do a WOT and was really impressed with the wow factor and EGT temps, never got over 1150 and was quickly up to 75 from a 30 mph roll. On a 1.5 mile uphill pull, the temps stayed around 800* at 60 mph, where as the White rain would have up to 1100 in no time at all, even without the TCL locked in.
I have SRL+, 8k Tow and unlimited tow from ******** that I'm waiting for to get revised. The SRL didn't like the new turbo at all. Wouldn't build boost past 20 psi and just seemed dead. Won't be towing until the spring, if even then, so I'm not in a real big hurry on that.
This is my first "big boy upgrade" so I'm learning as I go and wanted to share my experience. I read a lot of people are happy with their stage 2 and stock sticks, which made me choose it over the 1 or 1.5. But never gave a detailed review, sort of like mine.
One final note. The truck has a lot less smoke and you have to really get in it while under boosted to get a nice little puff. It really clears the stock sticks up nicely.
Big shout out to James at Barder, he has been answering my questions via Facebook. Customer service is bar none.
Previously running white rain from Nate Windrunner which was an amazing tune when I had the stock turbo. I ran the same tune for a few hundred miles and it spooled the turbo quickly as stock, may be a slight variance, but not much. The bottom end power was slightly lower, which I expected, but the mid and top was a real big improvement as it pulled with no signs of stopping. But, didn't take long till it was hitting 1200* on the flat before I got out of it. Later lock up in 5th would help a ton, but tow haul has been getting me through.
But once hitting the mountain, the egt's climbed quickly without giving much throttle, even with the tow haul. and had to back out of it to keep the temps around 1000.
The under boost is where I've been having some trouble with temps, as well as WOT pulls. I know some bigger sticks would help, but for the moment I'm looking to get the most out of this setup via tuning.
Always wanted to try Quick Tricks tuning, so Eric hooked me up with Looney Fuel and I gave her a quick flame test today. The tranny tuning needs a slight adjustment, went into 5th TCL rather quickly, but the EGT stayed around 750*. Which got me closer to my happy zone lol
I noticed this tune does not build boost as fast, although I can hear the intake sucking in large amounts of air (didn't have the MAF PID on my CTS to take note). And seemed to be under powered, but still pulled smoothly. Once getting to a certain throttle percentage, it became a different animal and pulled harder than before. All while the EGT stayed less than 1000*.
After riding back roads for awhile I decided to do a WOT and was really impressed with the wow factor and EGT temps, never got over 1150 and was quickly up to 75 from a 30 mph roll. On a 1.5 mile uphill pull, the temps stayed around 800* at 60 mph, where as the White rain would have up to 1100 in no time at all, even without the TCL locked in.
I have SRL+, 8k Tow and unlimited tow from ******** that I'm waiting for to get revised. The SRL didn't like the new turbo at all. Wouldn't build boost past 20 psi and just seemed dead. Won't be towing until the spring, if even then, so I'm not in a real big hurry on that.
This is my first "big boy upgrade" so I'm learning as I go and wanted to share my experience. I read a lot of people are happy with their stage 2 and stock sticks, which made me choose it over the 1 or 1.5. But never gave a detailed review, sort of like mine.
One final note. The truck has a lot less smoke and you have to really get in it while under boosted to get a nice little puff. It really clears the stock sticks up nicely.
Big shout out to James at Barder, he has been answering my questions via Facebook. Customer service is bar none.
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