I've been going back and forth between these two options...trying to figure out what the best choice is for the money.   My 05' F250 is mainly a tow rig. Cross country camper trips with the family is what we do. The camper comes in at around 6K loaded...but it's like pulling a sail, it really sucks down the fuel over 60mph.  Currently I'm running a stock turbo and stock injectors with an IDP towing tune. The truck makes plenty of power, but on steep hills I have to watch the EGT's if I really mash the throttle trying to maintain 70mph...I can hit 1300f pretty quick and have to let off the throttle a little to keep them in the safe range.

Turbo has been cleaned out multiple times and it's at the point where it just needs replaced.  I've got a couple of injectors that are starting to act up, so I'm thinking about replacing all of them since they have 200K+ miles on them.

So here are my options I'm looking at.......

New stock Garrett Turbo and new OEM injectors for around $2,096 total.

KC Stage 1 Jetfire 10-blade turbo, Warren Premium 155/30 injectors, and adjusting my current tunes  for around $3,625 total.

So....for a tow rig, would you spend an extra $1,500+ for a larger turbo and injectors, or just replace stock parts with stock parts?  What will that extra $1500 get me?  


What would you do?  I'm not planning on getting rid of the truck any time soon...so I don't mind putting some money into it.


Any info would really help me out.  Thanks!

Stock or bulletproofed?

"bulletproofed"  I guess.  ARP Head Studs, FELPRO Head Gaskets, New Oil Cooler, EGR Delete, Blue Spring Mod, HPOP Fitting fix, all new stand pipes and dummy plugs.......

Stock for longevity, build it up if you don’t mind working on it more.

Actually, the KC stage 1 turbo has several reliability improvements over the OEM turbo that was designed over 20+ years ago.  And as far as the injectors....even the "new" OEM injectors you get kw are refurbished....so I don't know how much you are trading for reliability when it comes to those ones or aftermarket ones.

I'd do KC and Warrens.

My truck isn't tuned- just studs, delete, straight pipe, blue spring, ELC, and a cam

I'm wary of tunes after blowing the HGs on a studded F250, but JMHO

More power available means you will stand on the skinny pedal more or harder because it’s fun. I’ve got a 7.3 that I’m fighting the urge to do any mods to because I’d just like it to last for another 200k

As long as I can maintain speed while towing up hills...that's all I really need to do.  I'm not out hot rodding my truck when I'm towing my camper and family cross country.  I've got a fast car if I want to go fast....

More air will keep EGT's down. Injectors are up to you are you happy with the power? If so I would upgrade turbo and let it roll on stock injectors.

Why do you feel the need to maintain speed going up hills? You're pulling a trailer, just take it easy. Let people pass. Ignore them if they're being pissy.
I had a bulletproofed hot 06 6.0 F250. Returned it to stock tuning the moment any trailer was hooked up. It's hard on equipment otherwise, and not worth a breakdown with the added complexity of getting your rig and your load towed. If I recall in stock tune it would only do around 1250 egt's or so under extended full throttle.
I have a gmc 10 yd dump truck with a 6.0 gas engine. I long lost my give a fucks about going slow uphills and people behind me getting impatient. Ha ha.
Share the road, mofos.
Just accept the fact people are going to want to go around you because you're big and they can't see around you. And that's OK.

Because that's why I bought a diesel.  If I wanted to be going 45mph at the top of the hill on a highway was a speed limit of 70mph, I would have kept my gas truck

Honestly, for the most part...it will maintain speed going up hills now pulling my camper. It's fun passing SUV's and soccer moms going up hills when they slow down to 5-10 under the speed limit.    It's nice having plenty of power on tap, especially when you are out in the maintains towing up some steep grades.

Consider that the medium duty applications of the 6.0 (VT365) is rated something like 25% less HP than the 3/4 and 1 tons. Even the new 6.7's in medium duty trucks are the same way.
In my opinion, that's the true rating of the engine. Manufacturers crank up the HP in pickups because it sells, they aren't looking out much past the warranty period.
The stock diesel is already over stressed when using it for heavy towing in extreme circumstances, if it wasn't then the medium duty trucks would have the same power ratings. And then adding even more on top of that on a 20 year old pickup just so you can hang with the 4 wheelers is going to have you sitting on the side of the road for hours waiting on a tow.
I have no problem with going slow up grades. I think of all the cars following me as my parade. The same cars - if they're the ones in the lead with no reference of anything in front of them - will not use cruise control and go slower than you anyways. They just see you as a road block they can't see around and want to go. That aint worth a potential break down just to show off. In my opinion.
So, to answer your question, I'd leave that thing as stock as possible minus the emissions and common problems which it looks like you already took care of.

OEMs are looking past the warranty period on the medium duty vehicles either…..  The warranty terms may be different.

True. I guess the thing I was trying to say is medium duty trucks with the same engines (with less power) as the light duty pickups are expected to be driven by employees who treat them like crap hauling and towing max load all the time it's entire life from the very beginning. Vs light duty pickups that are owner driven and treated like pavement princesses, and while tempting to modify - doing so would void warranty.
A guy would think higher horsepower would sell just as well in medium duties if the tech is easily there to make the engine as powerful as the pickups, but they don't do that. Guessing some engineer figured out the max power these engines can sustain 100% duty cycle indefinitely under all circumstances and sticks to that number.
Which leads me to believe (and I've read) that pickups are cranked up already from the factory past their 100% duty cycle because Ford doesn't believe most of its customers are going to hit it anyways for extended periods of time and horsepower sells cars, though with "limp modes" installed as somewhat of a failsafe.
So when actually doing "truck" stuff with your light duty pickup, keep the power levels down at stock levels to not further push limits. Especially when the family is with you and breaking down in the middle of nowhere would be extremely expensive and ruin the entire trip.
Anecdotal evidence, but I work with a bunch of younger guys we use as contractors and it's always the usual suspects that are always broke down. Diesel guys rolling coal while pulling their contractor trailers and every other week it ends up in the shop.

It's your money but time and time again it's going to cost a shit ton of money to save 30 seconds on your trip. Just my 2 cents of lessons learned to do with what you want.

Why is it going to cost me a shit ton of money to give the truck a little more throttle and boost heading up hills in order to keep pace? It's not like it's going to melt down from that....I monitor EGT's, coolant temps, oil temps, fan speed etc, etc.....what are you thinking is going to happen to it?  

Go for it, sounds like you have your heart set on it. I laid out my reasons I would never modify a diesel pickup for performance when using it for towing. Use that info however you wish.
Obviously we have completely different minds. I think it's absolutely ridiculous to have the need to keep up with little cars when towing heavy up hills.

Caterpillar doesn't expect all of their equipment models (generators & gas compression systems might be the exceptions) to be running 100% power capability 100% of the time > Garrett Turbo doesn't expect turbos to run max RPM/max T1T 100% of the time.

Um. Ok.
But good example. Lets say the very smart engineers at Cat make an excavator. Not 100% duty rated because it does have breaks as it swings back empty.
Now lets say another company buys it to sell to the public. They add 25% more horsepower to it without doing anything else (International VT365 ---> Ford Powerstroke 6.0). Probably not a big deal, the machine can handle it.
Now lets say the customer adds another 25-40% more horsepower on top of that. Ok, the excavator can probably handle the light work. But now say you're operating that machine doing the max it was designed to do, digging out the hard stuff with the biggest bucket as fast as you can.
Cooling system can't handle it, hydraulic pump, drive motors, the machine itself is going to be majorly stressed and it's life shortened. Internal parts break, gaskets fail.
All just to show off to a few spectators (who don't really care) how fast you are.

Yes medium duty warranty is often miles, time and engine hours. Cummins used to give us whatever was still in play even if the other 2 were out and Cat denied everything first chance they had. It was interesting dealing with engine manufacturers over warranty.

I mean...it's got 260K+ miles on it, runs like a top....I think I'm past the "it could break down on me if I mod it" phase :)  It's basically a stock truck with a mild towing tune and head studs...far from what I would call "modified for performance".