During the past six months, we've partnered with Airaid to test the most popular upgrades that readers make to their Super Duty trucks. Our goal was to see how the new '08 F-250 would respond to an air intake, an exhaust, a programmer, a lift kit, and tires and wheels. Working in stages, we began by upgrading the exhaust with a MagnaFlow system that replaced the stock hardware from behind the diesel particulate filter. Then we added Airaid's latest intake system for the 6.4L Power Stroke to ensure that the two upgrades would work in harmony.
Evidently, some exhaust-system and air-intake combinations can trigger a check-engine light when the backpressure sensor gets out of its operating range. Fortunately, we didn't have any issues with the Airaid and MagnaFlow combination.
For our second buildup stage, we installed a 4-inch Rancho suspension lift and 35-inch Nitto Dune Grappler tires mounted on the factory Ford wheels. The new ride height improved ground clearance, and the Dune Grappler tires were some of the smoothest and quietest 35-inchers we've tested. To see how big a tire we could fit on the Super Duty with the Rancho lift, we swapped on a set of BFGoodrich's redesigned 37-inch Mud-Terrain tires.
This month, we'll bring you the third and final stage of the buildup. Over the next 15 pages, we'll show you the latest upgrades for the '08 Super Duty and even throw in a roof-rack install on an '02 F-350 just for good measure. If there's something we left out that you'd like us to add in the future, drop us a line at our new e-mail address, dieselpower@sourceinterlink.com, and we'll bring it to you in a future issue.