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So, against my better judgment, I had a Banks Power "Six Gun" system installed on my 2004 Ford Excursion (6.0L Diesel). While the extra power is neat and all, I was really hoping for better mileage, particularly when towing my small enclosed car trailer (18', all aluminum, generally has a really heavy MIATA in it).
While I do get better mileage, it would probably take 100,000 miles of it to pay for the system, so it wasn't good enough to be worth it. It is incredibly powerful, though, but nobody really needs much more power than those things have anyway.
The real problem is the trouble I've had out of it. On the way to Atlanta last year it blew the hose off the turbo. This hose is about 6" long and connects to the plumbing that goes to the intercooler (a larger hard pipe than the factory pipe, connected to a larger intercooler). Took 20 minutes or so to figure out what happened and put it back on.
Unfortunately, it blew it off again FOUR TIMES on the way home from Atlanta. I did get the change time down to about five minutes, but it stlil involved a lot of sweating over a very hot engine (you have to climb up and literally stand on the radiator support bent over to the back of the engine) and a couple burnt knuckles, even with Mechanix gloves.
So I get home and we pull it only to find it appears that the original Banks hose had been cut improperly causing a defect on the inside of the hose on the side that was blowing off. So we call Banks and on their nickel, they do send us one. They don't bother to tell us they sent it UPS Ground from California, though, so the truck sits broken for a WEEK. Ugh. The new one doesn't look screwed up on the inside, though, so we chalk it up to bad luck.
My Dad is crazy and likes to drive, so he volunteered to drive my Excursion pulling my Miata out to California for the ProSolo in Atwater and then to Texas from there for the Mineral Wells Prosolo. But today I get "the call." I had warned him of that hose issue even though I've had some decent trips in it since that last incident with no trouble. He says "that hose is screwed up again, but this time it has a HOLE in it." Great. Fortunately it happened long before the business day in California was over, but it took a LOT of phone calls and voice mails and being put on hold for 10 minutes at a time before we finally got someone to say "okay, two of those have shipped to you next day." Believe me, it was WAY harder to get them to expedite anything than I thought it would be. Heck, people would say they would call right after doing things and just not bother.
So the truck is at a friendly Ford dealer who says they've seen this before (and they theorize the Banks stuff makes too much boost for high altitude conditions) and will put it on for him tomorrow. They even gave him a service loaner for the night since the closest hotel is 8 miles away. So, assuming it shows up by lunch tomorrow he should still make it in time without having to do any crazy driving (he's 18 hours away and we don't "need" him there until 3pm on Friday). If not, well, you're gonna see one really mad Banks customer. Right now I'm just annoyingly upset.
Freightliner Sportchassis here we come...
--Donnie
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