Properly Converting An '04.5 HO For EFI In An '02 Half Ton

Fellow CompD Tuning Guru's,

I am currently in the process of project that is in dire need of your expertise. I have a single cab short bed 2002 Dodge 1500 2wd that is getting a heart transplant. I have acquired a 2004.5 HO engine that I will be using for a power plant. The engine is currently apart and is almost ready for reassembly; however I am at a crossroads on pistons, injectors, & tuning. The engine and head are fresh out of the machine shop and needs pistons to be ready for assembly. I plan on running the 03-04 143* spray pattern QSB Marine pistons, because they offer a better yielding strength due to the double heat & coating treatment. I know it's not a big ordeal since all I have to do is let the injector builder know I'm running 143* pistons so they can accommodate the proper nozzles.

This is where it gets weird for me. I am planning on converting to an '06 ECM, harness, rocker box, TIPM, etc. What I need to figure out is how much of a nightmare will it be making the gauges work and properly communicate since it is not only a half ton, but a 2002, the first year of the 3rd gen? Should I acquire a legitimate 3rd gen 2500/3500 PCM & truck/gauge harness, or should I be able to reflash the current PCM, & utilize the current truck/dash harness?

I understand there is a lot of what the **** variables in the mix, 02 half ton, 03-04 pistons, 04.5-07 injector body's w/ 03-04 nozzles, 06 electronics, and your probably like this guy is crazy. I get it, I do, but I want what is considered the better piston design for heat transfer, durability, and longevity, and I want the tuneability of EFI Live. I will be having the pistons de-lipped and probably shaving them to drop compression ratio. Previous set up when in the crew cab 4x4 2500 made 920, fuel only and a single charger on SSR tuning. Granted it also had dual CP3's, full Hamilton valve train, single runner intake, and stock rotating assembly. Now it will have an S475 feeding an S591, worked over crank, more than likely a bigger cam than the 188/220 it has now, billet rods, tons more fuel than before and some laughing gas. I know the advances being made with the HPT are growing by leaps and bounds, but I truly feel like I can get the most out of it with EFI Live.

Any & all help is greatly appreciated. Thanks & God bless.

The original dash is not easy to make work. Out of all the ones I've ever seen done only 2 I have ever seen the tach work which is mine and one other, it would be a lot of work to swap the dash harness etc. especially using 06 electronics because they will not communicate to the 03-04 dash electronics. You would have to use 06 and up truck stuff which won't work the hvac that's in your truck. It would be a lot of head ache and a lot of wiring. Best bet is to figure out how to make the computer think that there is still a running factory engine in there.

Also with how much power your truck is going to make its going to be completely worthless to drive around on the street and will never hook up. I hope you plan to back half, 4 link and 9 inch the truck because the rear end won't survive under that condition. Either way good luck! I'm fixing to build another one soon with a 6.7!

There's actually more tables with HP, you can change things that efi live doesn't offer from what I hear. The only advantage with efi live is on the fly adjustment (dsp5) hp is one tune at a time.

I think in the near future we will see switchable tunes on the fly with HP.

maxwedgehead said:

Also with how much power your truck is going to make its going to be completely worthless to drive around on the street and will never hook up. I hope you plan to back half, 4 link and 9 inch the truck because the rear end won't survive under that condition. Either way good luck! I'm fixing to build another one soon with a 6.7!

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Already in the process my good man. She was a handful in the 3/4 ton, and she's going to be even wilder in the 1/2 ton, especially once the diet kicks in and it loses a few pounds. Another one of the reasons I wanted to go / EFI, is so I could ween myself into it one stage at a time. Start out with the smallest tune, and work my way up to the big tune a little at a time. Give the 5 position switch to one of the guys to hide until I'm ready to move up another notch. I don't wanna go full Ricky Bobby straight outta the gate.

Ugh, what a mess.
You would have been better off to start with a 2006-2007 3/4 ton regular cab and shorten the frame for a short bed.

I was considering doing just that with the 2006 regular cab 2500 6 speed I have, but I need to concentrate on other things.

FWIW, I'm not sold on the 1/2 ton regular cab short bed frame taking any significant amount of torque, for very long.
I feel I have good reasons for believing so.

Mark.

I know it has the potential to be a PITA, but I have $1,000 for a running driving 5.9L gas 5 speed truck w/ 140,000 on it, super clean truck inside & out. I have a complete '06 ECM, harness, TIPM, APPS, well everything under the hood needed, I acquired from a wrecked truck for another cool grand last year or year before? I understand the concerns for frame strength, and that's why we are doing the full back half and full cage. Even if I were to get a king bed 3/4 ton, I would still back half & cage the truck to a short wheel base. As for the cab frame, reinforcing will be done or just do a complete tube chassis using the cab and bed. I haven't made up my mind 100%. As of right now, working out trades with customers, complete truck trades and spare parts, I only have maybe $3K invested at this point. Other than some small machine shop fees and tuning, everything will be done in house, so I will only be out parts/materials.

DieselheaD said:

There's actually more tables with HP, you can change things that efi live doesn't offer from what I hear. The only advantage with efi live is on the fly adjustment (dsp5) hp is one tune at a time.

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Both HP and EFI are comparable with the adjustments. To most people they are the same.

Since you have all of the 06+ CAN bus parts needed, I don't think that it will be that difficult of a swap.

I recently converted an early 04 truck to run on an CM849 controller, we went from HPT to EFI, tune for tune with no engine changes, and picked up over 200rwhp. We have spent hours on the dyno with both tuning platforms and sent numerous log files to HPT asking for help, or where the "missing" hp came from, with little to no response.

Now, in no way am I knocking HPT, because I run it in my personal truck with no problems. Just sharing my experiences with it. But when it came to our drag truck, it was happier on EFI, and the switch definitely helps the learning curve.