Machinos

After a little over 3 years of owning it I finally actually used my truck for hauling cars. I'll post some pictures once I dig my camera out.

It was about 4500 miles from MN to NYC to FL and back. I definitely wasn't totally prepared for the trip (for a whole lot of reasons) but somehow it made it with only minor problems.

The main thing is the injection pump. Some previous owner tampered with it after the engine was rebuilt. It's always chugged in a weird way at idle, usually when in drive but sometimes not, and it doesn't always do it (I think I posted about this awhile ago and even made a video). I had tried turning back the fuel screw without any real change. This is just kind of annoying, the real problem is that it has way too much power.

1. I don't really want to go faster than 55-60mph while towing and hauling anyway, but I have to admit it's nice having more than enough power to go up any hill without slowing down while moving 16k. But it gets too hot - EGTs and coolant temp. I have no idea what the marks on the temp gauge actually mean or how hot the engine can safely get, but many times the gauge got really close to the last line of the "center" area of the gauge - that is, not past that center section to the thicker line on the far right side. At idle it will stay dead centered in the gauge. It never actually seemed to overheat - the coolant in the reservoir stayed where it was, the radiator was full to the top whenever I checked it, it never puked coolant (and I never smelled any), and it always ran the same even when the needle was way up there. Still, it would get soaked with heat even on small hills and only come back down slowly - it never seemed to actually "cycle", just move up and down. What's normal? I hate that they don't put numbers on factory gauges. On the 5.9 school buses I've driven, they usually run at 190 minimum and then kick on the electric fan clutch (something I REALLY want!) at 210, it blasts for 30 seconds or so and yanks the temp way back down, and repeat if necessary.

2. I don't think I ever got the pyro over 1300 but I was being real careful. Going over the long steep bridges on the east coast got me worried about overheating either the exhaust or the coolant or both. I'd much rather have foot-to-the-floor driving keep it in the safe zone. It also blasts out a bunch of smoke on startup and hard acceleration from a stop, which I'd rather it not do - it looks bad.

3. The pedal is WAY too hard to push. I took off both safety return springs that connected to the throttle arm on the pump from the timing case and it made no difference. I noticed that the tang of the return spring on the bellcrank thing that the accelerator cable/kickdown cable attach to was off, and putting that back on helped very slightly, but it's still way too hard. Is it possible that spring is supposed to be wound around once again or something? Someone obviously took it apart at some point so I dunno, but something has to be done - my foot hurts.

4. The duals aren't wearing properly - I think the front probably needs an alignment, and for all I know the back is out of alignment too (the back tires definitely aren't smoothly worn), but the outer duals on both sides are wearing too fast. I've noticed before that when I've gotten it stuck on ice or something that they seem to contact the ground more, which doesn't make sense to me unless the axle is bowed up in the middle or something. The bearings should be good, I had a shop go through them a couple years ago.

There's a ton of other little things I'm sure I'll think of later. Thanks for any help!

jesussaves

I dont know for sure but maybe the inj pump problems and the throttle problems are connected. To help keep exh temp down its a good idea to get a 4in Down pipe and exhaust and even better would be a bigger turbo. A cheap worthwhile upgrade turbo would be a he351 from i think a 06-08 3rd gen

wannadiesel

Check the bellcrank on the side of the engine. I have seen the shaft it pivots on get rusty and make the linkage hard to move.

Kinda weird on the duals. I swap mine inner to outer a couple times a year, but mine likes to wear the inners faster.

Machinos

I don't think it got much past the right-hand red mark in your picture. Still, I don't want to worry about it. I would guess that reducing EGTs a lot would also reduce coolant temp a lot.

wannadiesel

A LOT of the heat you are seeing comes from the torque converter. The factory unit does a very good job of converting torque to heat...

TLRMAN

Yes sir a real good fresh converter will cool that thing way down..

Machinos

Maybe I should just bypass the heat exchanger then, or change the order the fluid goes... The way I have it going now is through the exchanger, back through the stock trans cooler under the edge of the hood, and then through a huge B&M fin-and-plate with a fan that I installed. I put the temp sensor on the output of that cooler and was thinking it wasn't working until I was going up steep hills in stop-and-go traffic and saw it get up to 180 with the fan off.

I have an enormous Spicer 5 speed that I want to swap in but I can't find an SAE2 flywheel housing and setup for anywhere near as cheap as I got the trans, so maybe I should just get another converter.

wannadiesel

Since it's not overheating I don't see a pressing need to change things. It's tempting to try to make things run the same under load as they do empty, but it's just not practical or necessary. The truck is working hard and stuff is going to get warm, that's not a bad thing so long as it doesn't overheat.

dodgenstein

The dealer installed supercool system runs the fluid through the underbed cooler straight from the trans then to the heat exchanger. I assume this is to keep some heat away from the motro cooling circuit.

Machinos

I could've sworn I read that it was the other way around, but in my case at least I think it's a good idea. Time to buy some more trans line hose.

dodgenstein

Check out the factory installation instructions in this thread:

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...t=super+cooler