A friend on another forum bought a '94 Bounder diesel pusher, that has a B5.9. It has the P7100 pump, but only makes 190 hp. The tranny is an Allison 542.

He said it's pretty much gutless as it is, which make sense given its 19,000 lbs of mass. So he wants to do some mods.

What I've told him is this: Add gauges first. Then add a TST plate and see if the EGTs stay reasonable. If so, add injectors (like the 275 RV's) and see how temps are then. I'm not sure what exhaust housing is on his turbo...

He's been talking about using a Banks system, but they're so overpriced. Then there's another shop near where he lives that says the motor can only go to 235 hp without needing a cam job (and they don't mean a cam plate -- they mean an actual camshaft, ***?). I had a '96 RAM and had 300 hp in it and did just fine even towing heavy.

Anyway... I wanted to post here gather opinions as to which way for him to go.

Thanks!

Rob

 

Rob, the Allison at 542/545 series tranmissions are limited to about 235 max input for diesels.When that unit was built the power weight ratio is around 1hp per 1000lbs and pretty much holds true today.For the low end I went to the smaller turbo housing.Is your friend looking for low end grunt,higher top speed or?