Here are a few of my personal thoughts and experiences on this subject.
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The #11 plate will work fine for towing with your friend's truck, however the #10 plate provides too much fueling for continuous pulling. I have run both the 10, 11 and a couple other oddball plates and prefer the #11 overall. The mistake that most people make is installing the plate too far forward from the stock position. I set the position of my plates in the pump to provide no more than 1300 degrees under very hard continuous pulls with a load in tow. The plate's position may be set back from the stock setting depending on what injectors and turbo I have on at that time.
The most likely cause of high Egts besides improper plate position is a plugged converter. I have the same truck as your friend and experienced a plugging converter at only 60,000 miles (as have many others on this board). The most cost-effective improvement to lower egts would to be install a 16cm turbo exhaust housing (<$200) and a free flowing cat. You can come to your own conclusions on how to make the cat flow more.
One down side to the 16cm housing is the reduced low-end response when running the stock 215 injectors. This can be easily overcome by increasing your fuel at low boost conditions, but will also increase your smoke. This comes down to a personal preference about what you like seeing in your rear view mirror.
Once you have installed the plate and exhaust housing and have corrected the converter, you can then look at a K&N filter or equivalent. I have run the K&N from the beginning and have never been able to pull the vacuum gauge down on the filter housing (I have pulled 50# of boost with an 18. 5 HX40 playing around)
The four inch exhaust isn’t really needed with this set-up but will provide an improvement if used. I wouldn’t recommend going to the 4” until you plan on adding more power (such as injectors) to the truck.
I have run the same set-up as described here and have encountered no problem with the stock clutch. However this is the limit for the stocker. I went to a Centerforce at the time of making modifications as it was the only proven and available clutch on the market. There have been a few very good high HP capacity clutches to hit the market since then. I will attest that I have punished my Centerforce severely and it is still holding up. The clutch only holds up to the mid 300 hp range; after that you need to talk to Joe D. He has a very good article in TDR # 30 issue on clutches. One benefit to the Centerforce clutch is the low cost ($479 with throw-out bearing) and smooth stock-like operation.
All these suggestions are based on a sound running in-tune truck from the start. As with any other project, you need to have a good foundation to build upon.
I am presently running my truck this week as follows: “Max” egts are 1350, towing in the mountains, (I have to work very hard to get there) with minimal smoke.
97 SLT, 5spd. 3:55, 255/85/16, BD 370 injectors, BD #11, 16cm Hx35, BD exhaust brake, BD 4” exhaust, Centerforce, US gear under drive, Rancho 9000.
Who knows what I’ll have under the hood next week.
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97 SLT 2500, 5sp, 3:54, 285/16, US Gear Under-drive, BD Hx40-16cm, BD 370 injectors, TST #10 plate, BD full 4" exhaust, Centerforce Clutch, BD Governor Kit, and a few other items... with a lot more on the shelf!
[This message has been edited by DBR (edited 11-22-2000). ]
[This message has been edited by DBR (edited 11-24-2000). ]
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