This truck came with the exhaust brake that you see in my sig when I purchased it. It is a remote mount, and is mounted about 4" before where the muffler used to be. If anyone wants to know, It works "just OK". I have a BD turbo mount set up on my 2002 PSD and that works awsome. You people with the BD turbo mount on your 1st Gens probably agree. Anyway, my question: I read about the importance of changing your valve springs out to avoid "valve float" when using any type of exhaust brake, regardless of the manufacturer. How do you know if someone has/has not done this when they installed the exhaust brake on my truck? Do all the springs have to get changed out? Easy to do? What is the poudage rating for these new springs again? Carmyne

 

Pull a valve cover - there is a noticeable difference in the spring diameter on the exhaust valves. If the look the same then the exhaust brake is set to operate at a lower pressure. This would account - in part - for how it operates. My BD exhaust brake, mounted right off the turbo does an excellant job. I haven't seen a warped rotor in 80,000 miles.

Only the exhaust springs need to be changed out and they are rated at 60lbs. It is not a difficult install - with the right tools. The heads do not need to come off. Hope this helps.

Bob

 

Easiest way to tell would be to pop off a rocker box and look at the springs. If the intake and exhaust springs look the same, nobody changed the springs. That's probably your problem, the brake is set up for the stock springs. The HD valve springs are usually referred to as 60 # springs because they will tolerate 60 PSI of back pressure. Stockers are good to 30 PSI. There should be a test port on the brake where you can install a pressure gauge (an old oil pressure gauge would work well, use copper tubing) to check the back pressure. The brake can be adjusted for more pressure when the 60 # springs are installed, I'm sure US Gear will tell you how to do that.

Changing the valve springs is not too bad, and you only need to change the exhaust springs. If you're planning on going with a 3200 RPM spring, you might as well do 'em all for peace of mind at high RPM. A couple of threads that cover doing this:
https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...threadid=57415

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...threadid=62572

It's actually easier on our trucks than it was for these guys, since #5 and #6 aren't buried under the cowl.

 

You know what's great about this site? You get all your questions answered! Muchas Gracias! Carmyne

 

So change them all... where can I purchase these springs? Carmyne

 

I bought a used remote-mount US Gear D-celerator off ebay last year and talked to US Gear about reducing the backpressure on it until I had time to change the springs and they told me that there was not an adjustment but that the only way to do it was to replace the external vacuum pot that controls the pressure setting. That was something like $50. I bought the springs from Cummins for around $10 each. No-brainer there in my opinion.