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BANKS EXHAUST - PROS CONS?

22RAMAlazan

22RAMAlazan

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Hello all,

Thinking on getting Banks monster exhaust. Any Pros or Cons? Worth it? Thoughts?
 
not worth it. go find a nice tip for the stock exhaust. it'll sound just like you spent $$$ on the banks kit.
 
the 5" exhaust from cat on wards has to help with something....according to banks? Or should I just get the exhaust tip that supposedly Banks says sucks the hot air out?
 
Banks makes some quality products for sure. I'm not gonna sit here and pretend they are completely worthless.

That said, the real thing Banks has is fantastic marketing.

While there may be a technical benefit, I highly doubt you'll see any performance improvements from it alone. For example, on his site, he lists there is slightly less back-pressure at the turbo, claims of 9%. Great! Less back-pressure is what you want for sure, but if they have those numbers then surely they pulled them from a dyno run right? Why no hp/tq numbers? I'll tell you why, because it would be in the single or teens for hp numbers, and that would kill their marketing game. $650 for like 10hp?

Here is the results of Kory Willis testing the banks intake and exhaust on the L5P, which has more HP than the SO Cummins. It picked up a whopping 15hp. Will you feel 15hp? No, no way your butt dyno is so finely calibrated that you can tell ~4% increase in HP numbers. But will it sound better? Also no, or not really, but maybe a tiny bit if you pay real close attention? (Link to FB post from Kory:
https://www.facebook.com/KoryWillis/posts/pfbid0VZ1pFr76YUzd8pZmACvM1J1czFSDFf8bvfVBFab6UZxsMENPoPGaJeqiTRm8oLnZl
)

So, if the exhaust is making 4% improvement on an L5P, assume it's the same on the Cummins SO, that's a whopping 14hp. If you're looking for noticible power, better off saving up for a larger drop in and/or tuning.

But, it's your money, so do as you wish obviously. For what it's worth, I think all their products are very well designed and developed. I think their tips look great, and add some value for sure. I do plan to eventually swap in their intake elbow, mainly to remove the gridheater but also keep a heater coil. Longer term, once someone comes out with a compound kit, I'll prob look into that.
 
UglyViking said:
Banks makes some quality products for sure. I'm not gonna sit here and pretend they are completely worthless.

That said, the real thing Banks has is fantastic marketing.

While there may be a technical benefit, I highly doubt you'll see any performance improvements from it alone. For example, on his site, he lists there is slightly less back-pressure at the turbo, claims of 9%. Great! Less back-pressure is what you want for sure, but if they have those numbers then surely they pulled them from a dyno run right? Why no hp/tq numbers? I'll tell you why, because it would be in the single or teens for hp numbers, and that would kill their marketing game. $650 for like 10hp?

Here is the results of Kory Willis testing the banks intake and exhaust on the L5P, which has more HP than the SO Cummins. It picked up a whopping 15hp. Will you feel 15hp? No, no way your butt dyno is so finely calibrated that you can tell ~4% increase in HP numbers. But will it sound better? Also no, or not really, but maybe a tiny bit if you pay real close attention? (Link to FB post from Kory:
https://www.facebook.com/KoryWillis/posts/pfbid0VZ1pFr76YUzd8pZmACvM1J1czFSDFf8bvfVBFab6UZxsMENPoPGaJeqiTRm8oLnZl
)

So, if the exhaust is making 4% improvement on an L5P, assume it's the same on the Cummins SO, that's a whopping 14hp. If you're looking for noticible power, better off saving up for a larger drop in and/or tuning.

But, it's your money, so do as you wish obviously. For what it's worth, I think all their products are very well designed and developed. I think their tips look great, and add some value for sure. I do plan to eventually swap in their intake elbow, mainly to remove the gridheater but also keep a heater coil. Longer term, once someone comes out with a compound kit, I'll prob look into that.
Click to expand...
Thank you VERY much for this information. To be honest, my end goal here is not really HP/TQ gains, I just want my engine to be as least stressed as possible or for it not to work as hard if not necessary. In my head, the less stressed an engine/transmission is on a daily basis it would last longer.
 
UglyViking said:
Banks makes some quality products for sure. I'm not gonna sit here and pretend they are completely worthless.

That said, the real thing Banks has is fantastic marketing.

While there may be a technical benefit, I highly doubt you'll see any performance improvements from it alone. For example, on his site, he lists there is slightly less back-pressure at the turbo, claims of 9%. Great! Less back-pressure is what you want for sure, but if they have those numbers then surely they pulled them from a dyno run right? Why no hp/tq numbers? I'll tell you why, because it would be in the single or teens for hp numbers, and that would kill their marketing game. $650 for like 10hp?

Here is the results of Kory Willis testing the banks intake and exhaust on the L5P, which has more HP than the SO Cummins. It picked up a whopping 15hp. Will you feel 15hp? No, no way your butt dyno is so finely calibrated that you can tell ~4% increase in HP numbers. But will it sound better? Also no, or not really, but maybe a tiny bit if you pay real close attention? (Link to FB post from Kory:
https://www.facebook.com/KoryWillis/posts/pfbid0VZ1pFr76YUzd8pZmACvM1J1czFSDFf8bvfVBFab6UZxsMENPoPGaJeqiTRm8oLnZl
)

So, if the exhaust is making 4% improvement on an L5P, assume it's the same on the Cummins SO, that's a whopping 14hp. If you're looking for noticible power, better off saving up for a larger drop in and/or tuning.

But, it's your money, so do as you wish obviously. For what it's worth, I think all their products are very well designed and developed. I think their tips look great, and add some value for sure. I do plan to eventually swap in their intake elbow, mainly to remove the gridheater but also keep a heater coil. Longer term, once someone comes out with a compound kit, I'll prob look into that.
Click to expand...

Did you see the new $200 kit from BD Diesel?
 
22RAMAlazan said:
Thank you VERY much for this information. To be honest, my end goal here is not really HP/TQ gains, I just want my engine to be as least stressed as possible or for it not to work as hard if not necessary. In my head, the less stressed an engine/transmission is on a daily basis it would last longer.
Click to expand...
If you're solely looking for long term reliability, then you don't really need to look at anything except keeping up with maintenance. There are a lot of cures out there for problems that are functionally never likely to happen. The CP4 was a known killer, and it affected less than 4% of all Cummins trucks manufactured with it, admittedly within a really short timeframe, but still.

Here is the list of known "killers" and how to avoid them:

Grid heater bolt
Everyone knows this one. Grid heater bolt becomes loose, that poor contact results in the bolt/nut arcing when the relay turns the heater on. Solution that is free is to giggle the mount every time you replace the engine fuel filter, you're right there anyway, give it a little giggle, if it moves that's an issue, no movement, no issue.

If you want a permanent solution thats free, take the plate off, weld the nut to the bolt, you're done. If you want a cheaper solution, buy the BD kit. If you wanna ball out, buy the Banks intake elbow, and you get the added benefit of removing the grid heater, which can cake up soot if you're not running it hard enough often.

Trans cooler thermostat bypass
The trans cooler has a bypass that helps speed up the trans fluid heating up, not really important if you live in a warm climate, but important if you live in a cold one. Free solution is to keep your eye on the trans fluid temps. If the temps start rising above what's normal, then your thermostat may be stuck. Replace it when it's an issue. If you live in a warm climate, then a bypass block can be installed once it becomes an issue. People make a huge deal about this, but I rarely hear about failures caused by this, that said, it's a cheap enough thing to replace, and if you're in a warm climate, there isn't a downside.

Hydraulic lifters
Jury is still out if this is a long term issue or not. Most guys that seem to have an issue are either chasing HP gains, or using 15W40 when they should be using 5W30 or 10W30. Use the right oil weight, you should be fine.

Brutal_HO said:
Did you see the new $200 kit from BD Diesel?
Click to expand...
I did. Personally, not really super worried about the bolt. More cautious about the grid heater caking up. I don't let my truck idle much except startup, but it would be nice to remove the thing that can cake with soot, and removing the bolt is a benefit.
 
When you all say "running the engine hard", what constitutes running it hard? I use it as a daily driver and tow a 12 foot dump trailer with about 2 tons of weight every once in awhile and a 2 horse gooseneck trailer maybe 1-2 times a month to go on a trail ride. Thats about it.
 
22RAMAlazan said:
When you all say "running the engine hard", what constitutes running it hard? I use it as a daily driver and tow a 12 foot dump trailer with about 2 tons of weight every once in awhile and a 2 horse gooseneck trailer maybe 1-2 times a month to go on a trail ride. Thats about it.
Click to expand...
Give it the beans
 
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