what turbo upgrade do i choose???

[a1captaincraig1]

I have an 05 that I want a better turbo for but have no idea what to choose. I've done the Banks Big Hoss Bundle to it only and don't want to replace the injectors because of costs so i'm thinking a better turbo will be next. I prefer a simple bolt on to existing exhaust manifold and pipe without having to alter those. help please???....

 

[cerberusiam]

There a lot of choices that "bolt on" to your application. The variants of the S300 series turbos are many and relatively cheap, a mod could be made to your existing turbo to increase its performance, even a water cooled BB turbo will work, last but not least compound turbo's are popular. All depends on what you want form the turbo.

 

[a1captaincraig1]

ok well what I want is more power, faster and faster on takeoff. I have a 4 in exhaust with no cat, cold air intake, new intercooler with new tubes and air horn, banks iq tuner--the bamks big hoss bundle... it's supposed to give another 100+ hp but i'm not seeing it really... so what turbo should I look into?

 

[cerberusiam]

A little more info on your truck would help; transmission, gears, tire size, etc. Any others mods besides the Banks stuff?

That sure is some purdy stuff, the Big Hoss Bundle. Totally unneeded on your truck for anything other than visual appeal. Sorry but you really got sold down the river on that deal.

The stock turbo on your truck, a Holeset HE351, is one of the fastest spooling turbo's available and is easily capable of supporting a usable 420-450 BHP. They are so good they are used in a lot compound setups. Since you haven't really defined what you want to do with the truck it is a good bet you really don't need a turbo, just a tuner that will allow to take advantage of the ISB engines potential. Be forewarned, the ISB's tendency to DESTROY the light duty drive train behind once you unleash and undo the factory safeties is the NEXT problem you will deal with.

I am not real familiar with the Banks tuning but what I do know is it is will be on the milder side the lower the rpm. It was built to be relatively safe for the platform and eco friendly. It may very well add up to 155 HP as advertised, at 3500 rpms. At 2000 rpms it is doubtful you will even know it is there. Remember HP is speed and rpm, that is not going to get you off the line quicker under 2000 rpms with the heavily TQ managed programs in these trucks. Unless you modify that particular aspect of the programming the feel with not really change.

If you really to go thru the process the first thing is you need to dyno your truck to see what you have. You can NOT make changes and gauge the results with the SOP meter if you want solid information. If you don't know where you are, you simply cannot plan to go where you want. Even getting good dyno results to start with is a challenge as you have to know you to make the run for consistent usable results. Once you get a graph of the TQ and HP across the rpm range you will begin o see what can change to make it better. As an example; turbo spool and output is a function of exhaust flow, to get quicker spool and more air requires more exhaust flow, to get more exhaust flow requires more fuel.

If you don't add enough fuel at 1600 rpms the turbo is not going to spool quickly, need to reduce the preset fuel management that limits that. You need a tuner that will do that and I am not sure the Banks allows much adjustability in that area, might want to investigate to see what is available before you do what I would advise, dump the Banks tuner and get a Smarty Touch.

I would advise figuring out what you want before starting. The build for a useful DD weekender towing a pop-up camper is radically different than a rig doing well over 20k GCVW all the time. Before you can get there you have to know where you want to go.