Dyno Dominator & Outlook Monitor

Ford Powerstroke 6.0

By Brian Hofmeister

Adding power to diesel engines is getting easier and easier.  But adding power also adds some negative effects that need to be watched.  Exhaust Gas Temperatures (EGT's), engine temp, transmission temp, and turbo boost all need to be monitored to make sure none of them get out of their normal operation temperature.

Bully Dog has created a all in one package of a chip with a monitor.  This allows you to allow the chip and monitor to do some of the gauge watching for you.  It allows the user to set the max level for each of those parameters, and when they are reached, the chip will back itself down as needed.  Quite a nice set up for new diesel performance addicts, or a nice option for a guy who has a lot of people driving their truck.

The Ford 6.0 has the computer tucked nicely next to the battery.  This does not make it a 5 minute set up, since you have to remove the battery and relocate some of the factory wiring to get the truck to look factory again. The Bully Dog Dyno Dominator uses the two engine control modules to adjust their settings.  They have a nice harness that allow you a lot of room to tuck the connections away nicely.

Once the battery was out, I hooked up the wiring harness, and connected the chip to the harness.  That is about a 5 minute deal, including routing and tucking away the harness.  Bully Dog recommends the chip be installed inside the truck, but I found it fit real nice on the outside, on top of the engine compartment fuse box.  The box will be open to water and the heat of the motor, unlike inside, but I have done some testing, and this spot is nice and dry, even in rain.

Once the wires were routed, we just put in the battery, and worked a little more on the wire routing to be able to put the factory battery cover back on.  You have to really work to get this back in place, but it is well worth the effort.  At this point, the outlook monitor was all I had left to install.  And that was a simple plug in.  I routed the wires through a rubber grommet down by the brake pedal, and up to the chip.  I already had a pyrometer probe installed in my manifold, and found that easily done under the truck on the drivers side.

Once everything was hooked up, I started the truck and watched what as happening with the motor on the outlook.  I went for a drive on the low setting, allowing the tranny to get used to the new power.  I slowly moved the power up, the farther I went.  While I was driving around, I was looking for a nice place to mount the outlook.  Bully Dog recommends that you glue the mounting tab to the windshield, but I'm not really into that, and I am still looking.

The truck was totally different with the new power.  This chip has more hoarse power than other chips that I have tested, but it also seemed to run a lot warmer EGT's than other chips at the same level.  Running in the higher level, 120 hp, I found it easy to run 1550 degrees of EGT's with a simple 1/4 mile run.   These upper levels are nothing to tow with, and I think this chip would run much cooler with a larger and more free flowing exhaust system.  I also found the lower levels a little low on low end power, but the chip screams in the upper band.  Since Bully Dog does nothing to electronically adjust your tranny, it is probably much safer that way.  If you planed on running this chip in the upper levels, I would advise tranny upgrades, since the stock transmission does not do well with over 100 hp added.

Bully Dog Technologies
2854 W. 2200 S.
Aberdeen, ID 83210
208-397-3200
www.bullydog.com