What to get first?

jboy2015 · Jan 19, 2018

So i finally got some cash to spend on my truck. Right now my budget will allow either of these options...

Lowering Kit AND Tuner

or

Long tube headers.

Whichever one i dont get right now will be purchased in a few months. Which do you guys recommend to start? future plans beyond these include gears and LSD.

Thanks,
J

Solid State · Jan 19, 2018

I would say your first option. Because, if Im not mistaken, you're gonna need a tuner for those longtubes.

Graygoose · Jan 19, 2018

Yup, Id lower and tune first.
Looks, and performance.

Gary's Hemi · Jan 19, 2018

What yr, trans & cab do you have

jboy2015 · Jan 19, 2018

Gary's Hemi said:
What yr, trans & cab do you have

2015 8spd single cab

Pull Ya · Jan 19, 2018

tuner
Jay

MADDOG · Jan 19, 2018

Yup...lower and tune that truck. Then get the headers on it.

MarshRam · Jan 19, 2018

And post pics when your done. A lowered single cab looks badass and we all want to see it!

Txhemirt · Jan 19, 2018

Tune and lower.

Gary's Hemi · Jan 19, 2018

I recommend a custom tune 1st. Being a 2015 you will need an unlocked pcm. If you dont want to keep your factory pcm then I suggest doing the pcm swap through Diablo. Much cheaper. Its $499 for the pcm swap & Diablo I3. They send you the unlocked pcm 1st, once received you install it then send your factory pcm back. If you want to keep your factory pcm then your looking at $899 for the extra unlocked pcm & Diablo I3.

If your wanting to do headers then you will need a tune anyway so do the tune 1st then headers. I highly recommend a custom tune from Jay Greene. A huge improvement over the canned tune. Are you wanting to do longtubes with cats or without cats?

If your wanting to lower the Belltech kit w/ the Street Performer shocks is an ok start. The truck will most probably wobble at highway speeds w/ just the Belltech kit. Some dont have that issue but most do. To correct that issue you will need Illicit Customs rear control arm brackets which corrects all the rear geomatry that gets thrown off after lowering the truck. Those 2 things will be a great start to lowering the truck. After knowing what I know & going through what I did I absolutely would not install a lowering kit w/o the Illicit brackets. Those brackets are the only reason I'm still running my lowering kit. Before I installed them I was about remove the lowering kit all together due to rear wobble & unsteadiness. Thats a good start if your wanting to lower 2/4. If you want to go lower then the Inez kit is the way to go.

All just depends on the current money your looking at spending.

Here is mine w/ Belltech 2/4, front Bilstein 4600 stock replacement shocks, rear QA1 TS-905 adjustable shocks, Spohn adjustable panhard bar, rear Hellwig sway bar & Hellwig adjustable endlinks, Airlift rear helper bags & Moog F150 front sway bar endlinks.

Also have a Jay Greene tune which works very well. It runs mid 12's on the 22" street tires w/ just mild bolt ons

craigsez · Jan 19, 2018

OOOOORRRRRRRRRRRR........Buy a used pcm and have diablo set that one up as your tuner/pcm combo...Dont think you have to buy the diablo combo but they will charge you to do their magic on the 2nd pcm..

Gary's Hemi · Jan 19, 2018

craigsez said:
OOOOORRRRRRRRRRRR........Buy a used pcm and have diablo set that one up as your tuner/pcm combo...Dont think you have to buy the diablo combo but they will charge you to do their magic on the 2nd pcm..

Thats 1 way of doing it but everybody I have talked to that went that route still has about the same money in doing that as if they would have bought the pcm out right from Diablo, just more headache added to it.

jboy2015 · Jan 19, 2018

Gary's Hemi said:
I recommend a custom tune 1st. Being a 2015 you will need an unlocked pcm. If you dont want to keep your factory pcm then I suggest doing the pcm swap through Diablo. Much cheaper. Its $499 for the pcm swap & Diablo I3. They send you the unlocked pcm 1st, once received you install it then send your factory pcm back. If you want to keep your factory pcm then your looking at $899 for the extra unlocked pcm & Diablo I3.

If your wanting to do headers then you will need a tune anyway so do the tune 1st then headers. I highly recommend a custom tune from Jay Greene. A huge improvement over the canned tune. Are you wanting to do longtubes with cats or without cats?

If your wanting to lower the Belltech kit w/ the Street Performer shocks is an ok start. The truck will most probably wobble at highway speeds w/ just the Belltech kit. Some dont have that issue but most do. To correct that issue you will need Illicit Customs rear control arm brackets which corrects all the rear geomatry that gets thrown off after lowering the truck. Those 2 things will be a great start to lowering the truck. After knowing what I know & going through what I did I absolutely would not install a lowering kit w/o the Illicit brackets. Those brackets are the only reason I'm still running my lowering kit. Before I installed them I was about remove the lowering kit all together due to rear wobble & unsteadiness. Thats a good start if your wanting to lower 2/4. If you want to go lower then the Inez get is the way to go

Wow man, thanks for going so in-depth. That truck of yours is pretty much my goal lol. Now you have me considering just getting the tuner and the headers to start off. I just really don't want to deal with a crappy ride if I get the belltech.

I'd be getting the jba silver coated installed with a custom catless y-pipe.

Will the tuner have a nice "wow-factor" when it's installed? Or does it feel like just a minor change?

The concensus is in and it looks like a tuner is the place to start!

jboy2015 · Jan 19, 2018

craigsez said:
OOOOORRRRRRRRRRRR........Buy a used pcm and have diablo set that one up as your tuner/pcm combo...Dont think you have to buy the diablo combo but they will charge you to do their magic on the 2nd pcm..

Yeah I thought about that but it seems like it'd be too much trouble. What's the real advantage of having 2 pcms on hand?

Gary's Hemi · Jan 20, 2018

jboy2015 said:
Wow man, thanks for going so in-depth. That truck of yours is pretty much my goal lol. Now you have me considering just getting the tuner and the headers to start off. I just really don't want to deal with a crappy ride if I get the belltech.

I'd be getting the jba silver coated installed with a custom catless y-pipe.

Will the tuner have a nice "wow-factor" when it's installed? Or does it feel like just a minor change?

The concensus is in and it looks like a tuner is the place to start!

The Belltech doesnt ride bad on its own, just that most have a high speed wobble w/ it. A few get lucky and dont but if you get the wobble the fix is the Illicit brackets.

A canned Diablo tune doesnt give much of a wow factor however a custom tune gives a big wow factor. I dropped 7 tenths in the 1/4 mile w/ a custom Jay Greene motor only tune(before trans tune came out), 180 t-stat and clutch fan delete. Then once the trans tuning came out I dropped another 2 tenths.

The advantage to have 2 pcms on hand is if you need warranty work done you can swap back to stock. I have the stock and Diablo pcm. I wish the pcm swap would have been available when I tuned mine. I would have went that route and saved some money. But now if I need to bring mine to the dealer I have my stock pcm if I need it

Wild one · Jan 20, 2018

Not sure this is up your alley,but you can get away with up to a 75 shot of nitrous with the stock tune if you run one step colder on the spark plugs and use 93/94 octane fuel.Just throwing that out there for you to think about.Odds are it's cheaper then buying an unlocked pcm and tuner or a set of long tube headers,and will definitely give you a noticeable performance boost.This is a good entry level nitrous kit

https://www.rpmoutlet.com/dodgetran.htm

Simpsj2 · Jan 20, 2018

Gary's Hemi said:
I recommend a custom tune 1st. Being a 2015 you will need an unlocked pcm. If you dont want to keep your factory pcm then I suggest doing the pcm swap through Diablo. Much cheaper. Its $499 for the pcm swap & Diablo I3. They send you the unlocked pcm 1st, once received you install it then send your factory pcm back. If you want to keep your factory pcm then your looking at $899 for the extra unlocked pcm & Diablo I3.

If your wanting to do headers then you will need a tune anyway so do the tune 1st then headers. I highly recommend a custom tune from Jay Greene. A huge improvement over the canned tune. Are you wanting to do longtubes with cats or without cats?

If your wanting to lower the Belltech kit w/ the Street Performer shocks is an ok start. The truck will most probably wobble at highway speeds w/ just the Belltech kit. Some dont have that issue but most do. To correct that issue you will need Illicit Customs rear control arm brackets which corrects all the rear geomatry that gets thrown off after lowering the truck. Those 2 things will be a great start to lowering the truck. After knowing what I know & going through what I did I absolutely would not install a lowering kit w/o the Illicit brackets. Those brackets are the only reason I'm still running my lowering kit. Before I installed them I was about remove the lowering kit all together due to rear wobble & unsteadiness. Thats a good start if your wanting to lower 2/4. If you want to go lower then the Inez kit is the way to go.

All just depends on the current money your looking at spending.

Here is mine w/ Belltech 2/4, front Bilstein 4600 stock replacement shocks, rear QA1 TS-905 adjustable shocks, Spohn adjustable panhard bar, rear Hellwig sway bar & Hellwig adjustable endlinks, Airlift rear helper bags & Moog F150 front sway bar endlinks.

Also have a Jay Greene tune which works very well. It runs mid 12's on the 22" street tires w/ just mild bolt ons

View attachment 118313

Sweet Ride!

Drewroni · Jan 20, 2018

Gary's Hemi said:
I recommend a custom tune 1st. Being a 2015 you will need an unlocked pcm. If you dont want to keep your factory pcm then I suggest doing the pcm swap through Diablo. Much cheaper. Its $499 for the pcm swap & Diablo I3. They send you the unlocked pcm 1st, once received you install it then send your factory pcm back. If you want to keep your factory pcm then your looking at $899 for the extra unlocked pcm & Diablo I3.

If your wanting to do headers then you will need a tune anyway so do the tune 1st then headers. I highly recommend a custom tune from Jay Greene. A huge improvement over the canned tune. Are you wanting to do longtubes with cats or without cats?

If your wanting to lower the Belltech kit w/ the Street Performer shocks is an ok start. The truck will most probably wobble at highway speeds w/ just the Belltech kit. Some dont have that issue but most do. To correct that issue you will need Illicit Customs rear control arm brackets which corrects all the rear geomatry that gets thrown off after lowering the truck. Those 2 things will be a great start to lowering the truck. After knowing what I know & going through what I did I absolutely would not install a lowering kit w/o the Illicit brackets. Those brackets are the only reason I'm still running my lowering kit. Before I installed them I was about remove the lowering kit all together due to rear wobble & unsteadiness. Thats a good start if your wanting to lower 2/4. If you want to go lower then the Inez kit is the way to go.

All just depends on the current money your looking at spending.

Here is mine w/ Belltech 2/4, front Bilstein 4600 stock replacement shocks, rear QA1 TS-905 adjustable shocks, Spohn adjustable panhard bar, rear Hellwig sway bar & Hellwig adjustable endlinks, Airlift rear helper bags & Moog F150 front sway bar endlinks.

Also have a Jay Greene tune which works very well. It runs mid 12's on the 22" street tires w/ just mild bolt ons

View attachment 118313

Hey, new to this whole site. First post actually. Love your truck, but was wondering what year it was. I have a 2009 single cab and am looking to upgrade to the projector headlights you have. Would it be plug and play? Thanks in advance.

craigsez · Jan 21, 2018

jboy2015 said:
Yeah I thought about that but it seems like it'd be too much trouble. What's the real advantage of having 2 pcms on hand?

Dont know what yr your trk is but if its still under warranty,its a safe guard that when you go in to dealer for issues they dont re program your tuned ecu and lock you out of it some how,reflashing your ecu can get expensive from the dealer..That really only applys to the 15's and up,cause you "HAVE TO" have a 2nd ecu..Cant tune stockers with a tuner..If you bought a stocker and tried to tune i hear it locks the truck out..Diablo does what ever they do so that tuner and ecu talk to one another and in turn to truck.

If its not under any warranty(and a 14 or older) do as your budget allows plus you can just retune if dealer plugged in and did something..

craigsez · Jan 21, 2018

Drewroni said:
Hey, new to this whole site. First post actually. Love your truck, but was wondering what year it was. I have a 2009 single cab and am looking to upgrade to the projector headlights you have. Would it be plug and play? Thanks in advance.

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