2005 F-350 Chip Question

Hello all, been awhile since ive been here, but I have a question, ever since my dad bought his 2005 F-350 cab and chassis truck, (flatbed now) he has been conplaining non-stop about how theres 0 low end on it compared to his Dodge. The other day on the way home from work we approached a very steep, low speed hill. We didnt have much of a load on it, a small trailer and an Ls170 http://www…0LS170.JPG anyways, the truck started to bog and eventually stalled. We had to throw into low and slowly, just barely creeped up the hill, the truck just wanted to die the whole entire time. My dad said “that does it” and he sent me to the computer to find the absolute best chip available for his truck. Any suggestions?

Don’t know about performance chips, but I think you need to take the complaint to a mechanic first. My F350 would carry the load you describe with ease. Tell us what sized engine, odomete miles, and what engine maintenance has been done.

well, it carrys a backhoe with ease, but just not on it’s low end. once it takes off its fine, but ever since he bought it, he hated the lack of low end. if you ever get a chance to drive a dodge ram 3500, it would snap the ford in half on takeoff. but anyways, it probably has about 70k miles on it, im sorry, but i really dont know the specific literage, maintaince is fine, we never get behind on oil and air changes.

There is clearly something wrong if it stalled. A performance flash for the computer is very unlikely to solve the problem. He needs to get the truck working up to original specs before monkeying around with performance modifications, IMHO.

OK, here goes, just some guesses. First if it is the 5.7L gas, you could be underpowered with the load. Second, if it is the newer 6.x diesel, there have been reports that they don’t work out as well as the older 7.x diesel. I think I would look at fuel flow and fuel filter first, based on your description of when it bogged down and you had to creep up the hill. My second choice would be plugs and wires if gas. If this is a gas engine, then the fuel filter and plugs are not due to be changed until about 120K miles, if I remember correctly. Some folks think that is too long an interval for effective performance. For a diesel, same drill on the fuel filter.

oh yes sorry, it is in fact a diesel, 6.0 i guess. anyways it is the same as my uncle’s truck, and its been the same since we bought it with 100 miles on it. (drove it to the dealership) any 6.0 will do this, i just wanna know the best chip available.

You’re going to need a tuner, not a chip. Bully Dog and Banks make such tuners and other supporting high performance parts. The thing to remember with a modified diesel truck are exhaust gas temp and the transmission temp. When you up the power on a turbodiesel you usually gain alot of torque, increases of 150-250 ft.-lbs. are not uncommon. However the transmissions in these trucks aren’t made to handle that much. So you have be careful not to break something and only use the power programs on the tuners when needed.

make sure you follow the instructions of the tuner. there are 2 or 3 settings 1 is balls out and will burn the back tires off the truck, but if you try to tow with it you will burn up the tranny. use the towing setting, you will notice a good differance. good luck

thanks guys :slight_smile:

ok

  1. who keeps flagging all my threads?
  2. we bought a superchips chip, ill get back to you on the specifics, but it really made a difference! down low it still doesnt pull as hard as the dodge, but up top when the turbo starts to spool up, its incredible!
    we also threw on a k&n cold air intake, and hes talking 4" exhaust, btw, the fuel injection module was out, making it hard to start sometimes for no reason, and killing power, we also got that fixed, and now everything is great!