All I know about gold panning is that the pans make great camp dishware. KM

 

I'm quite familiar with gold panning and sluicing. I have probably spent 500 (or more) hours to get a total of 2 ounces of gold that I have found over my lifetime. I got most of my gold 10-25 years ago on the south umpqua river in Oregon, but I have prospected in many other places.

I know very little about hard rock gold mining.

 

I'm quite familiar with gold panning and sluicing. I have probably spent 500 (or more) hours to get a total of 2 ounces of gold that I have found over my lifetime. I got most of my gold 10-25 years ago on the south umpqua river in Oregon, but I have prospected in many other places.

I know very little about hard rock gold mining.

That’s awesome. I just want to find a little piece at least one time. In Colorado I think there’s rules about needing a mining claim or something to do panning and I think you can’t use metal detectors in the National Forest? I’m not positive but I think I heard that.

 

Passed my Journeyman test today and doing an oil change on my baby tonight!

 

Dude, that's awesome, congrats on the oil change

O, and the test!

 

Congratulations.

 

Upward and onward!

Congrats

 

Congrats !!!

 

What tires are those?

 

Zoom in on this. Looks like it says Open Range on top, All Terrain on bottom. I cannot make out the size info.

 

Alright guys, little truck update.

I’m dying for an exhaust. My buddy and I disconnected the exhaust at the downpipe connection and I drove my truck down the road for fun to see what it sounded like just for fun. It wasn’t too loud honestly, those four catalytic converters are pretty darn restrictive sadly. CVF is going to send me a downpipe soon so that issue will be rectified. Anyways, I put the exhaust back of course but when I floored it I could tell the turbos were just a tad louder and the truck seemed to like having less restriction. That stock muffler is restrictive, it’s not terrible but man, I miss that classic Ecoboost sound. Anyways, I’m on the hunt for an exhaust… and it probably will be Corsa because I love the way those sound after having one for years.

Brett is fighting some sort of limit on my truck, possibly barometric related. He’s tried like 8 different files now to no avail, trying to raise boost in higher rpm’s. its making around 48 lb/min on 11 psi at redline. If we could just get it to make 16-17 psi at redline I think that would be around 53 or 54 lb/min which is where I want it. I have a new file Brett made where he’s changed some barometric stuff so we will see what that does today!

 

Once he figures yours out I might go back down the rabbit hole. Apples to oranges ECM but the elevation challenges would apply.

 

I put my Corsa exhaust from my old truck onto my new truck. Sounds amazing.

 

Wooooo, post the link,,,,,

 

Saaaaay Whaaaaaat

Its out there, and it does sound nice!

I heard !

 

Exhaust sounds good Matt, any drone on the highway?

 

No drone. And during WOT it’s actually quite quiet. I’m surprised given how loud this setup was on my 2.7. My 3.5 does have 4 cats so that probably quiets it down a bit. But I have the resonator deleted on this setup and on my 2.7 that made it insanely loud.

 

Read your comment on "rasp". Snowflake did have some, but I never notice much at all on my exhaust. Maybe aged ears! Did not realy notice any on the track cruise last Saturday and I spent most of the time in second accelerating from 2500 to 4500 RPM and down again following the cars in front of me. KM

 

Sounds good! Well do you have aftermarket downpipes? Keep in mind, I had SPD catted downpipes and the later I had the CVF ones too. That made my exhaust way louder.

 

Top of Grayback Mountain, 12,660’

 

Awesome, is there enough air up there for those massive turbo lungs to breath....Lol

 

This was near Molas Pass 10900 feet, San Juan Mountains a bit west of Greyback. Beautiful area around you Matt!

 

Nice pic. Silverton/Ouray area is beautiful. We moved from NW CO to Prescott, AZ a few years ago. I miss my CO mountains. My truck misses the CO license plates.

 

We have towed our 30 foot trailer over Monarch, Wolf Creek, Kenosha, Slumgullion, and others. Teton pass last year. No problem pulling with ecoboost over any thing so far

 

Still working on dialing in tunes. Brett has a good setup on my truck currently, it runs about 21 psi down low and tapers to 14 by redline and makes 52lb/min. If we could just get that from 14 to 17 I’d be thrilled. Torrie is working on a tune too, but it’s not as far along yet. He was having trouble it seemed then it appeared as though he figured something out and we started gaining boost.

CRP wants me to test some stage 5 turbos with a 50/45mm turbine instead of the 45/40 turbine on my current stage 4s. I’m thinking of doing it since the larger exhaust side really helps at this high elevation. I’m also debating on doing an unlocked used ECU from ZFG and doing remote programming to get it set up for my truck and then doing a tune from him but I’m a bit hesitant to do that. However if I went to the dealership I just have to swap ecu’s I think.

 

What's your thoughts? Thinking your going to be able to still get warranty if things go south. I think the ECM should have some sort of serial/ID number in the background. Never know.

 

Elevation is absolutely killing the top end. My biggest fear is someone without the knowledge Matt has doing the same thing, forgetting he has an elevation tune on it, coming back down to earth (sea level) and boosting his rods to the moon. The changes I've had to try would have dangerous results at sea level.

We are progressing, its just harder than I expected.

 

The changes I've had to try would have dangerous results at sea level.

I guess you’re not taking the truck on any road trips off the mountains then!

 

Matt, what in your opinion the biggest restriction on the power level you are seeking, altitude, or the ECU? KM

 

Doesn’t history say it’s the connecting rods?

 

If you're running the wastegates almost closed and they're actually in the commanded position for the whole pull I'd think you'd be making boost. It doesn't really have a choice does it? You'd either have a leak (bov if it's vta), or your exhaust is choking the flow enough to keep them from spinning. Or the turbine or impeller is either too much or to little and not spinning up properly. Unless it's holding the throttle closed and opening the wastegate, which you'd be able to see. May be totally off with those shots in the dark...

 

I wouldn’t be surprised if the exhaust was choking it to some degree. There won’t be a way to tell until CVF sends me downpipes. For now I’ll just have to wait. I don’t think the compressor side or exhaust side on these turbos are too big, even the stock turbos were doing the same thing these turbos are doing.

 

How far is CVF from sending you new downpipes?

It would be nice to know how fast your actually spinning the turbines. Is there a provision on the turbo to install a turbine speed gauge.

 

I’m not sure. They’re getting redesigned right now due to some figment issues.

It would be nice. No there’s not. I wonder if there’s a shaft speed PID though…

 

Alright. Big update for y’all. Turbos from Turbobay will be done in about a month I hope.

A few days ago Torrie told me there must be some limit that no one knows about for why he can’t get boost any higher on the top end. Brett is also at a stand still. It’s not their fault, there simply is a limit somewhere.

With that being said… I have an Unlocked ECU from ZFG Racing coming tomorrow and the flyaway kit so we can program it remotely (don’t have to take it to the dealership). Adam will be doing a 91 octane tune with my hp Tuners RTD+. Brett was still wanting to mess with my truck too, and he tunes on HP Tuners as well so he can keep messing around but this time on the unlocked ECU with HP Tuners.

Still haven’t heard from CVF… I’m almost more excited for downpipes than I am for the new turbos.

 

Back to living on the edge I like it! lol
Ohhh the addiction is so real, I've definitely been there, with other things.

At least now you know to have extra $$ on hand if warranty is denied again!!

I'm excited to see how this new adventure goes, hoping it's with no bumps in the road! 🤞🏻

 

Please forgive my lack of knowledge, but what does utilizing a seperate unlocked ECM give you that tuning the existing ECM prevents?

I understand the potential for stealthier warranty work. But from a tuning standpoint....

... Are there certain features or "levers" available with this new ECM that can't be touched in the existing?

 

Please forgive my lack of knowledge, but what does utilizing a seperate unlocked ECM give you that tuning the existing ECM prevents?

I understand the potential for stealthier warranty work. But from a tuning standpoint....

... Are there certain features or "levers" available with this new ECM that can't be touched in the existing?

That is a question for Adam, not me. I think it allows everything to be manipulated completely by HP tuners software since HP cannot tune an existing ECU. Kinda like Cobb, except Cobb is way dumber

 

Doing fancy stuff!

 

OH My!

 

Alright guys here’s the scoop.

Got the new ECU reprogrammed with FDRS, Adam did that remotely for me. Then got the truck running. I learned a lot watching him do things mysteriously on the little tablet. My truck was running terrible and he fixed it and set it all up. Was really cool to watch.

Then I had to buy 4 credits which is 200$ 😬 so I can tune the truck with HP tuners. Then I loaded the baseline tune and it made 52 lb/min on 15.7 psi of boost. Then I loaded the next tune and it made 60.2 lb/min with 17.5 psi, and, Adam said we have a lot more turbo left. Adam wants to shoot for 65 lb/min. The stock turbos can flow 60lb/min, so asking 65 from these doesn’t seem like a tall order.

We’ll see what it does. I’m shooting for 12.5 1/4 mile. That’s the goal.

 

I think your goal is conservative and very achievable. In fact, if it doesn't go 12.0s, maybe even high 11s, when it gets sorted out, I will be shocked.

 

Let's go! I bet you do see lower 12's at worst!

The new goal posts:
Car & Driver just got 4.2 0-60 + 12.8 @ 106mph in the quarter for the new Ram 1500 3.0 High Output.
And that was in the super fat Limited Long Bed 4x4 configuration weighing in just a hair under 6k lbs.

Granted that was at sea level, so I'm really interested in what it would do at our elevation - to see how much turbo overhead Ram baked in. My guess is absolutely none.

540hp from 3.0 liters courtesy of 28psi.

If you hit 65 lb/min that's 100 more hp AND at least 500 fewer lbs to motivate.

For context BMW has been honing their 3.0 inline six for well over a decade now, and offers only 523 hp in their high test M3/4 Competition spec (though admittedly everyone knows the Crank numbers are closer to 600hp).

 

Let's go! I bet you do see lower 12's at worst!

The new goal posts:
Car & Driver just got 4.2 0-60 + 12.8 @ 106mph in the quarter for the new Ram 1500 3.0 High Output.
And that was in the super fat Limited Long Bed 4x4 configuration weighing in just a hair under 6k lbs.

Granted that was at sea level, so I'm really interested in what it would do at our elevation - to see how much turbo overhead Ram baked in. My guess is absolutely none.

540hp from 3.0 liters courtesy of 28psi.

If you hit 65 lb/min that's 100 more hp AND at least 500 fewer lbs to motivate.

For context BMW has been honing their 3.0 inline six for well over a decade now, and offers only 523 hp in their high test M3/4 Competition spec (though admittedly everyone knows the Crank numbers are closer to 600hp).

Will be interesting........ 91 octane to be at 12.5 or even better at 7000 ft...... here are a lot hurdles to get over and to do it with some kind of safety parameters

elevation and all the tuning tweaks that come with it
91 octane - limited to timing and detonation protection in a direct injection platform