First Diesel

I traded in my F-150 this week on my first Diesel truck. I picked up a Ram 3500 crew cab with 8' box. So far I love it and feel like it was the best decision I could have made. I have a few questions though, I understand what the exhaust brake if for, but is it ok, to use is all the time? Does it effect fuel consumption? Why doesn't it stay on when depressed, I have to turn it on with each startup of the engine. Lastly, I'm going to have a set of Amp power boards installed to make life easier for my wife, but down the road I plan on installing Carli radius arms and drops, will I need to install the front section of the Amp power steps in a different location? I'm not sure if they would be in the way of the radius arms or drops and don't want to have to remove later down the road when ready to install suspension.

That's a nice ride! Hope it treats you well, but more importantly hope you enjoy it!

My exhaust brake has three settings. The first and default setting is no exhaust brake. One push of the button sets the exhaust brake to full exhaust brake. In other words when you let off the accelerator the exhaust brake engages. The second push of the same button will set it to engage only after you tap the brakes. One more push and the brake is completely off. The benefit of the exhaust brake is to hold your truck back/slow it down with minimal traditional brake useage. It holds heavy loads back while descending a hill. I suspect it would decrease your mpg somewhat but save your brakes in the process.
My truck has an aftermarket tune on it that keeps all of the settings set the way I like them even after shutting off the ignition switch. The stock computer automatically defaults the exhaust brake to the off position once you turn the truck off.

Thanks. The Amp power boards will be installed next Thursday, now on to the next mod

Do I need to look into diesel tuners or should I just stick with stock settings?

With the planed Carli lift and 37's will I be needing a gear change? I want ARB lockers, so if I'm going to change gears I'll do both at the same time.

I'm running a 6"BDS and 37 12.5 20. Our trucks have a 3:42 from the factory. As far as tuners, gears and tires goes you may want to consider your warranty. My truck has everything deleted and I fear if something would happen to the drivetrain it would not be covered secondary to all of the modifications. It scared the dealer to death just doing mandatory recall on my truck for fear of messing something up.

If you decided you really want to do it, the market is flooded with companies more than willing to help you. It's pretty easy to make significant power gains. I do feel the standard limited slip is pretty darn good but if I had my choice it would have ARB lockers front and rear with an on board compressor. I'd go with a minimum of 3:92 gear ratio up to 4:56 with 4:11 sitting nicely in between. I'm scheming on a compound turbo system but fear it might hurt overall reliability in the long run. It runs strong enough deleted with 5" exhaust, EFI Live with a BullyDog Monitor. Nothing like rolling down the highway in a near 8000# truck 8' tall with all the power you could possibly need but then again there's no such thing as too much power.

jk, very nice ride. as for a tune, you will most likely kiss your warranty good bye. i would drive it awhile before i started changing geometry.

That's a nice looking truck Ram444

yeah, to warranty thing sucks when you just cant keep anything in its stock form.

As far as tuning & modifications go, you should talk to the service writer and diesel tech at the dealership that you most likely get any work done. You will find that dealer service depts will fall on either side of the line when it comes to modifications. It is much better to know this upfront. The dealer closest to my work seemed to only want to do oil changes and brake jobs and would reject processing warranty any repair if the truck had the slightest modifications. The one where I bought my truck lived off warranty work, it helped him keep the best techs busy and making money. As far as when/if to delete. The early versions of the emissions equipment could be very problematic if you didnt work the truck hard often enough. Reading this I decided it was better in the long run to get all that stuff out of the way. I tuned my '12 after its first oil change. I am at 53k miles now and my only powertrain related problem was a failed water pump, which was replaced under warranty a couple months ago.

It does seem that the newer emissions design is much less problematic. I see more and more of the newer trucks running stock emissions without any issues. It use to be that if you wanted to make any decent power you had to delete to run a tuner. Now there are tuning platforms that some add power and much more drivability while keeping emissions intact. If I were to get a new truck that is the route that I would likely go.