Banks Six Gun

[Power__Stroke]

It had the P1000 and P2002 in the system. I only had it checked once afer showing up..... Yeah thats the other thing they told me when I called Banks the last time. They said some people are seeing a code but it only happens once and then never again.

[jimd1050]

I installed the tuner today... wasn't too bad either! I figure it took about two hours (actually read the instructions) and it was up and running. Now the "Learn Process" - that's another story! Trying to find a quiet stretch of highway at 3:30 on a Monday afternoon was a joke. I finally found a long stretch of Industrial park road that had nothing on one side of the street. I just kept running in that direction. I did all levels up to level 6, just to see what "SIX" had! It really wakes the diesel up, that's for sure. I ended up dropping back to level four and will run it there for a few tanks of fuel to see what she does. The turbo lag is all but gone - the truck really snaps when your say at 1500-2000 rpm and you boot it. That's where I feel the biggest difference, for sure. It really sits you back now!

When I got home from the "Learn Process", the Banks Ram Air was sitting on my step - of course I had to install it. I have to drive it back and forth to my new job tomorrow - should be a little over 100 miles. We'll see if she throws any codes with the air intake. My truck is a "Job 1" so I half expect to see one. If I do get them again, I'll reset them 2 or 3 times and then make a decision! O.K., I've rambled enough... I'll come back when I have some mileage news, good or bad!

[AIRDOG1138]

thanks Jim

[jimd1050]

I started my journey this morning with a "regen" as soon as I left the house - completed without any problems. Drove the 46 miles to work - no problem! Started it up after work, warmed it up and started the drive home - at 80 miles since CAI install, a P2002 popped up. I pulled over and cleared it immediately and finished the trip home without incident. Will probably fuel up tomorrow night on the way home and get my first mileage reading. My standard "combined driving BB" (before Banks) mileages have been around 12-13 without babying it. I will also monitor for more errors - stand by for more...

[Power__Stroke]

Jim,

Do you ever have the problem with the smoking, hesitation, and shutter under heavy accelaration during damp conditions? Just curious because if it is job 1 trucks that throw the codes with Banks CAI and its job 1 trucks that have the smoking and hesitation than they might be related. I had my intercooler replaced by the FSB(under warrenty) and my truck never did it again. That is smoke or throw code! Just curious... Sorry if im beating a dead horse..

Dave

[jimd1050]

Originally Posted by Power__Stroke

Jim,

Do you ever have the problem with the smoking, hesitation, and shutter under heavy accelaration during damp conditions? Just curious because if it is job 1 trucks that throw the codes with Banks CAI and its job 1 trucks that have the smoking and hesitation than they might be related. I had my intercooler replaced by the FSB(under warrenty) and my truck never did it again. That is smoke or throw code! Just curious... Sorry if im beating a dead horse..

Dave

Hi Dave,

None of those symptoms at all... and today was DAMP for sure! I have just under 6000 miles on it and have never experienced any of those. The codes have only happened with the 2 CAI units. Three times with the S&B, returned to stock for two weeks with no problem and now once since the Banks was installed! I will keep an eye on it...

[oneshot976]

Originally Posted by Colin Banks

Guys,

I think we need to provide you some clarification on the release of our new Ford 6.4L Six-Gun Tuner. This product is released for sale and it will begin shipping within the next 9 business days. We will finish building and shipping our first batch of 475 by the 31st of March. We’ve been in development on this product for the quite a while now (a little more than a year) and have a great product to ship. We spent a lot of time testing the soot output with our Micro-Soot Analyzer which is a must when developing product for a DPF Equipped Truck. We made a $250,000 investment in buying, training and setting this up so we can protect our customers DPF’s and help them avoid spending the $1,500-$2,500 (parts/labor) to replace their DPF when it fails prematurely and the dealer won’t warranty it. We’ve tested the product on our 6.4L on the chassis dyno, the road and the engine dyno over the course of thousands of hours. We’re always careful but with the new emissions equipment we want to be triple sure that we minimize the soot output. We truly do have a “Clean Tune” for the Ford 6.4L.

Our business is located in California, 10 minutes away from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) headquarters. We know what’s going to come on the emissions testing side for both current vehicles and retroactively (from both CARB and the EPA). Testing will start and removing your DPF, overriding EGR or using electronics to shut down the DPF functionality are all against the rules that are in place. They EPA/CARB also told us at SEMA and again recently that they will be starting this almost immediately (some of our largest distributors have already been notified). We don’t make these rules and have nothing to do with them whatsoever. But, we make a product that can be used with your DPF that makes great power and fuel economy and has safety features that no one else has. Some of our competition offers a “Clean Your DPF” function in their electronics. This exists because they’re pouring so much unburt fuel into your DPF. They’re trying to extend the life of the DPF by doing this but in reality the more you regen your DPF the shorter the DPF lifecycle. We’re serious about having a clean tune so that you don’t fail your DPF (costs thousands to replace), void your warranty (they’re looking for every reason in todays economy) and to maximize your fuel economy.

If you have to shut off your EGR (using electronics) and hack off your DPF to make power using somebody’s product you will be removing a federally mandated emissions device and shutting off your EGR is against emissions compliance rules as well. According to what the EPA/CARB told us at SEMA, you can do these types of mod’s on vehicles that are towed to events and truly used for “race only” applications. Once again we (Banks) don’t write these rules and having nothing to do with them and we’re sitting in the same room as Edge, Bullydog, Superchips and Hypertech when we met with EPA/CARB.

I wanted to clear up a few things specific to the release of this product:

1. The information specific to this product will be added to our website (bankspower.com) within the next 2 business days.

2. If you have had an issue with one of our sales, customer service or tech reps please post the name of who you talked to and your full name and I’ll be happy to get you help and figure out the issue with my employee. You can also feel free to e-mail me directly at cbanks@bankspower.com. We’ve posted many times on enthusiast forums only to never hear a thing back from anybody. If these issues are real (not a competitor blowing air up our dress) than I will be more than happy to address them immediately.

3. We will be releasing our test results to include competitive test results with soot output data within the next 1.5-2 weeks. We have all the horsepower/torque data already.

Please feel free to contact me with any other questions or post here in this forum. We have moved Jeff Barker into a full time enthusiast forum position and he will always be available with information and ready to answer any questions. He will also post information on promotions/sales under our vendor section on this site.

Thanks,

Colin Banks
General Manager
Gale Banks Engineering
cbanks@bankspower.com
800-438-7693

I always have been and am still concerned with putting a tuner on my trucks. I am on my 3rd diesel and would really like to do this to my 2008 F350. However, I don't want to damage my tranny among other things or void my warranty. If I ever do get up the courage to head down this path I will use the Banks system without a doubt based purely on this type of responce to the customer (or potenial customer in my case).

Great responce Colin!

Thanks!!!

[AllWhite08]

I ordered the banks after much research. It does not make the most power by far but i beleive they have the resources to pull these claims off. When my 6 gun arrives i will know for sure. In the mean time for those of you who have not seen this its funny even though i dont beleive all of it.

Episode all hail!!!

[jimd1050]

Well, it looked good as the tank was running down... I felt pretty confident that mileage had improved. I filled up on the way home tonight - 20 gals and 250 miles = 12.5 mpg! As someone stated earlier on in this thread, "I guess if you increase horsepower by 60 or so and the mileage stays the same, you've still won!" I ran the tuner at level 4 for the entire tank and most of it was highway at 70-74 mph. I did not baby it - as a matter of fact, once you feel the extra power, your foot trains to it. It's too much fun to NOT keep your foot out of it! I'll try a couple of more tanks and see if I can drive normal for at least one to see what I may have gained in economy.

Bottom line - I would do it again based on the way the truck feels and the improvement in throttle response and pure, "sit you back" torque. Remember, it still has working emission control and the tuner is mounted out of sight. I recommend the Six Gun to anyone who wants reliable power and to maintain the factory DPF (for whatever that's worth)! If you don't care about tearing the truck apart and you want 200-300 horsepower, get the Spartan and remove the DPF... hope this helps!

[citus23]

Ok so I havent posted in this tread for a while, and have been skimming through most of the posts, and have noticed that noone has mentioned an aftermarket DPF. I am not sure what magazine cause I dont have it right in front of me, but i think its Diesel Power, and its the latest issue. ATS is in development of an aftermarket DPF which they say will allow for more flow with the same or less amount of Regens, and with their upgraded secondary turbo, aftermarket DPF, and 4 inch stacks increased horsepower and mileage. I dont remember if they added a programmer to it or not.
Anyways since there is a lot of controversy about keeping or removing the DPF when placing a tuner: banks, spartan or other to keep it legal. I was wondering if anyone would consider adding this mod just to keep the truck legal.
I know as much as I travel for work and my truck being my liveleyhood, I cannot afford to get it impounded when im houndredes of miles away from home and the DOT or police want to be stupid (putting it nice) So for me if I go with Banks or Spartan I would spend the money to keep legal once it was on the market.

[W5DVC]

Originally Posted by jimd1050

Don't do that... I'm about to install mine!

Well here is some more input for you . I' m A TEMPORARY Head Operator on an Ethylene Unit , and we had about 4 guys call in the other night ( CO-INSIDED with a fishing tournament) sick and couldn't come to work . Well I called all the available off duty operators eligible to work the overtime and got two guys to come out , that left 2 schedules not filled which meant that me and my guys were (4) going to have to work 18 hrs. Two of us would have to stay 6 hrs and the other two were going to have to come back for 6 hrs. As things turned out I was the last person to get forced for overtime ( because I had the highest accumulated number of overtime hours , so I HAD TO COME BACK . Well I wasn't to pleased about that and had a good case of the CHEAUX (PRONOUNCED CHEW) ROUGE ( CAJUN ) ( YOU CAN FIGURE IT OUT ....NOT ROCKET SCIENCE ) well sir I was on my way home 22miles away and son I HAD THE HAMMER DOWN . A guy I work with named GENE GUIDRY saw me .....and was on his HARLEY......WELL HE TRIED TO CATCH ME AND COULDN'T DO IT. MAYBE HE COULD HAVE IF HE HAD SEEN ME SOONER , BUT HE TOLD ME HE TRIED AND THE HARDER HE TRIED THE FURTHER I PULLED AWAY . IT'S NICE TO BE ABLE TO MOVE THRU TRAFFIC AS THOUGH IT'S STANDING STILL..... AT LEAST EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE . I WASN'T TO PLEASED THAT MORNING ..... BUT I HAD TO SMILE WHEN HE TOLD ME THAT STORY. W5DVC

[444-4D]

Originally Posted by oneshot976

If I ever do get up the courage to head down this path I will use the Banks system without a doubt based purely on this type of responce to the customer (or potenial customer in my case).

Great responce Colin!

Thanks!!!

Colin also sent an email to me answering the questions I spoke about earlier in this thread.

[AIRDOG1138]

It's clear that the people at Banks know that this tuner will not in reality improve your fuel mileage to any great degree. Why do I say this? Because on their own website featuring the Six Gun for 6.4l there is nothing at all suggesting any MPG gains. Nada. Zero. Zip.
The old page mentioned "Big HORSEPOWER, Big TORQUE, And BETTER MPGs". The page on their website now talks about HP increase but is oddly silent on the topic of MPG.
I appluad Banks for not trying to sell this product on the bases of MPG. Somewhat sad that it took this long for them to realize it though.

That being said, based on what JimD1050 is saying I am still leaning towards buying one.

[jimd1050]

Originally Posted by AIRDOG1138

That being said, based on what JimD1050 is saying I am still leaning towards buying one.

I'll add some fuel to your fire - stop leaning and buy it! I've had it for a week now and driven it every day. I try to behave around town and at lights (casual restraint) but on the highway... WOW! I'll be cruising along 65-70 in the passing lane gently passing someone slower and someone screams up behind me. Push the pedal down 1/2" or a little more and your doing 80 almost instantly. Mash the pedal and it just puts you back in the seat and exhibits some serious giddyup! (Yeah, I know... that's not a New England word!) And I am running Level 4! I am thrilled - for all the money and effort that I dumped into my '07 (Supercharged) Ranger, the little bit I've done on the Super Duty has yielded much better results. I am thrilled...

[oneshot976]

Jim, PM sent.

Thanks in advance for your help,

Oneshot