TOWING STOCK < KC Stage 1

Is there any truth to it?
How can this be true for anyone?
What does the data state?

The person that made this post was running 100% stock tuning and was mainly focused on comparing at 1600rpms and how the stock turbo could maintain 20psi at 1600rpms while towing where the s1 turbo could not. If he was running a good tow tune set up for the turbo it would tow better, keep the rpms in the sweet spot to take advantage of the larger turbo, be safer on the engine, etc. Much in the same way the tow/haul button keeps you higher in the rpms, a good tow tune will match those rpms to the turbo.

These 6.0 vgt turbos are electronically controlled, and you won't see the full potential out of a larger turbo without a tune. Even from the factory there were 100s of variations of pcm calibrations, aka tunes. There were also different turbo options, ficm calibrations, trans calibrations, etc. Some better, some worse. They sometimes didn't even use the same sensors (ebp, maf, 2nd iat, etc).

With all that said, there is wiggle room on how the factory calibrations were controlled... now add a larger turbo into the mix and you can get varying results. Getting a good tow tune set up for the turbo you have is going to give you the best overall performance.
How big of a difference can it make? Lets compare.

Here is a dyno graph attempting to measure hp at starting 1600rpms... which is nearly impossible because every trans calibration I tried would downshift if I tried to get into the throttle very hard.
I'm not sure how someone would tow a 40' 5th wheel at 1600rpms at 20psi of boost. It was impossible for me to replicate. OD would hit the speed limiter in 6th too early and 5th gear kept downshifting so I had to start it late in the rpms. I overlayed the 2 graphs to get the best 100% stock dyno number possible.

• Red - stock turbo, stock inj, stock tuning hitting speed limiter in OD

• Blue - stock turbo, stock inj, 5th gear

• Green - KC s1, safe tow tune
  
  

About 150hp and 300tq at 2000rpms

More power all throughout the rpm band

Also note how the stock turbo/inj/tuning was making about 60hp at 1650rpms?

• Purple - stock turbo, stock inj, max effort 2.4ms tune SUPER SMOKEY

• red - KC s1, stock inj, max effort 2.4ms tune Super Clean

• light blue - KC s1, 190/30, reduced fuel 1.6ms tune, SUPER CLEAN
  
  

So, you can see with proper tuning the KC s1 can basically do everything better, more power, less smoke, etc.

So was he lying? No. I am not saying that, for his scenario I am sure he is correct. But the scenario he is in is also something I don't' recommend. 100% stock tuning with larger turbo, lugging the motor at lower rpms is not recommended. If that is your plan then like he said, I would stick with the stock turbo like he said.

Also keep in mind that 2000rpms at 10psi of boost is safer than 1600rpms at 20psi of boost. I am not sure what peoples obsession with lugging the motor is... but that is not how the 6.0 cam/inj/turbo were designed.

There is a reason the tow/haul button forces downshifts, and the heavier trucks like f350,450, and f550 changed gears. These trucks were made to pull heavy in the 2000-2500rpm range.