I am trying to figure this all out. I have a 2016 Ram 1500 Outdoorsman with 3.92 gears. I am wanting to bullet proof my engine as best as I can. Do I

[JHoran01]

I am trying to figure this all out. I have a 2016 Ram 1500 Outdoorsman with 3.92 gears. I am wanting to bullet proof my engine as best as I can.
1. Do I do a tune that deletes my EGR (Stage 1 or 2).
2. Do I do a complete delete with a tune?
3. other.
Clueless in Florida. Thanks for any help to understand.

 

[ok3]

I am not repeat not an old timer re the eco...There are a lot of very knowledgeable people on this site...
I backed into the ehgine not knowing all the history..Worked my way thru a swap of latest gen engine into earlier gen (2014) truck that was not supposed to work...
Not simple but result is what I wanted .
Any advice I give is not from long time experience, on the eco but I have been thru a ton of engines and swaps.
I think this engine suffers from epa overkill, so all my effort was to get the engine back to just as simple as I could get..
I see many dead stock trucks that work fine, but I also see many that have issues..
I felt the basic engine without all the epa goodies had a much better chance of a good outcome..
If I bought a stock gen 2 truck (2014 to 2019) ...The things I would do If I wanterd to keep it epa legal...
1) drop the oil pan and clean pickup and pan..
2) if within budget pull intake, buy new one seems to be available for under $300, and replace coolant kine into turbo.
Change oil often again if I wanted to keep stock.
Yes this is not free, but I think it would be a good step towartd keeping the stock truck out of issues.
Dropping the pan to me would be a must do..That alone will tell you a lot about the carbon build up in the engine, which seems to be the major problem with the stock eco.
A lot of people would disagree to this , but dropping thev pan will tell a lot..
Since I have two rides other than my eco both of which have more hp , I can pretty well judge what the eco does in comparison.
My fully deleted 4x4 eco is a great freeway cruiser, 70-80 still plenty of passing ooommmph, 22-24 mpg .Not quite as quick as my 6.7 2x4 ram stick fully deleted ..But a limo in comparison.
I needed a 4x4 auto truck ,I did not want to spend 50K plus on a gas burner...Sooo I built it for under 25K..I am a happy camper..