#11 Plate and AFC spring kit installed....

[CCiatteo]

First thanks to the board for the absolute wealth of info and experiences which is invaluable to a newbie like myself.

Well tonight I installed the #11 plate and the AFC spring kit. Surprisingly, everything went pretty smooth, and took about 3 hours, going slow and taking extra care. I had to use the chisel method on the break off bolts, and that was the scariest part, because the access to the break of bolt on AFC housing is pretty limited due to all the fuel lines running over top of it. Once past that hurdle then I used the TST jig to position the new plate (which puts the plate in the stock position?), replaced the factory AFC spring with the medium spring from the TST Kit and adjusted it per the instructions. Then reinstalled the AFC housing (full forward, per the instructions) hooked everything back up. Primed the fuel system and she kicked right over.

Now for the test, was this all worth it? My observations are generally positive and I made no attempts at playing with the star wheel or plate position as it was already late. So with some fine tuning maybe there is more to be had:

+The truck has more snap in 3rd,4th and 5th. I can cruise at 70 and have throttle left for passing without winding it up like a top, so that is good. In fact I seem to be able to cruise at a given speed with less throttle than before...so bonus.

+Max boost is now around 25psi and EGT's are still under 1000 (pre-turbo), seem about right? More smoke throughout the rpm range, but mainly at shift points, so this perfectly acceptable to me. Not looking to be the mosquito machine or black out the sun

+The rpm's seem to climb faster in every gear and I think I picked up usable rpm from maybe 2200-2500+/-, whereas before the motor fell flat in this range, so this is good.

+I felt no signs of clutch slippage or any other driveline calamities from the additional power, good thing.

-The one noticeable drawback is that now I can't just let the clutch out in 1st gear or the truck will stall. I have to give it just a bit of fuel to slip the clutch out. Prior to the install, you could just let the clutch out without any problems (running empty), so I am a little disappointed by this, but again it might be a tuning issue. It was dark out so it was tough to see how much smoke I was really putting out. Any ideas?

I am still debating on the 3KGSK, I really think it would help (maybe with the plate slid full forward?), but I'll try this setup for awhile and see how it does.

This weekend I will tab the KDP.

Then get the timing bumped to 15.5 and that's it all done.

Then start to tend to other maintainance issues that I would like to take care of; new batteries and possibly relocate them too, typical fuel sender issue, fuel pressure guage install, remove fuel heater and replace fuels lines as preventative thing, new shocks.......does it ever end?

Thanks again