Adding Power To A 6.7-Liter Power Stroke With A Tuner

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Even in today’s 900 lb-ft world, a serious truck owner would never scoff at the idea of having more pulling power on tap. Anytime you can gain an extra punch and get away with it (by not voiding your factory warranty, or increasing the truck’s emissions), it’s a win-win scenario.

We planned to do just that to our F-250 tow rig, equipped with the 6.7-liter Power Stroke. With the help of Edge Products, we would be in good hands.

Emission-Friendly Upgrade

To reduce exhaust gas temperatures, particulate matter emissions, and increase power without leaving a footprint on the truck’s PCM. Because a programmer is still one of the easiest ways to wake up a late-model diesel, it’s no surprise that we interfaced our Super Duty test mule with one.

The programmer looked great out of the box, but what would happen when we plugged it in and got our Power Stroke on the dyno?

Opting for what is arguably the most refined off-the-shelf tuning in the industry, we contacted Edge Products about its Diesel Evolution CTS2. The (CARB-pending) Evolution CTS2 is an emissions-friendly programmer/monitor combination that provides significant horsepower and torque improvements, while the CTS2 allows you to monitor all powertrain vitals in real time. Read on to see how you can add a safe, clean-burning 120 hp and 250 lb-ft of torque to your 6.7-liter Power Stroke’s repertoire.

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Edge Products’ Diesel Evolution CTS2 is available for a multitude of vehicles, including the 2003-12 Cummins, 2001-16 Duramax, and 1994-2015 Power Stroke applications. The CTS2 unit is Edge’s second generation of its color touchscreen monitor, and is one of the most popular digital gauges in the diesel industry. The five-inch, high-resolution touchscreen allows users to view up to nine powertrain vitals at once. It can also select the preferred performance level, and (among many other things) is internet-updatable.

Left: All of the tune files are there to pick from on the CTS2. Right: The factory transmission control module (TCM) strategy is being saved to the Evolution. The factory PCM file is also saved to the Evolution, so users can always go back to stock.

The Race tune file claimed up to an additional 80 hp and 180 lb-ft on a 2011-14 6.7-liter Power Stroke, so we were eager test things on the chassis dyno. Of course, the water-methanol injection sounded incredible, too, and would make for some interesting dyno results.

The four available tunes on Edge’s Diesel Evolution CTS2 are: Stock (referred to as “Optimized Stock” by Edge), Economy, Towing, and Race. Changing power levels requires a few minutes, screen selections, a cycling of the ignition, and a few short minutes of downtime.

Putting The Power Where It Matters

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With the truck strapped to our Dynojet dyno, we first obtained a stock baseline (288 hp and 541 lb-ft of torque) and then proceeded to crank up the power on the Evolution. For all dyno pulls, the truck’s automatic transmission was left in Third gear.

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The dyno graph above illustrates the gains we saw with the Evolution being used as the sole power adder. The color key is as follows: Red (Stock), Blue (Economy), Green (Tow), and Yellow (Race). As you can see, we picked up 79 hp in the Race setting (nearly spot on with Edge’s 80hp claim) along with an additional 135 lb-ft of torque.

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Putting the tuner to work out in the wild, the truck was saddled with its usual workload – a 9,100-pound tandem axle enclosed trailer – and taken on several driving routes. To date, the owner has been more than impressed with the results, and thanks to the newfound pulling power, he often forgets when the truck is even hooked to the trailer.

With everything installed, it was time to take the truck out and test it in the real world. The F-250's owner noted that with Edge tuner on his vehicle, he hardly seems to notice the trailer weighing down; he has power to spare!

This would not be the last performance upgrade this Power Stroke would be seeing. Future plans are to add Edge’s Jammer intake and exhaust to let more air in and out. For more information on Edge Products, be sure to check out their website.

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About the author

Mike McGlothlin

Mike McGlothlin is a freelance writer and photographer whose entire professional career has revolved around the diesel performance industry. Upon graduating from Eastern Illinois University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism, he immediately went to work as a feature editor for Diesel Power magazine, and later as editor-in-chief. Currently, Mike is a regular contributor to several industry magazines. Over the years, dyno testing, product evaluation, OEM truck tests, drag racing, and sled pulling have become his leading areas of expertise and interest.
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