i will be picking up my truck in tuscon in a week or two with a new engine. while not being "mecanically inclined" i had added the things listed below to my truck (injectors being added just a week before we dropped the number 5 piston)
question is: with the add-ons i have listed should this truck be able to tow 14000 lbs without me having to worry about another meltdown ?
i do not beat on or push it hard and maintenence is above average.
the dealer who is doing the work suggested the the radiator was somewhat resticted and that the antifreeze did not have enough water mixed with it but the engine temp gage never registered over 210 and the egt's never got over 950

 

herb,

Those temps should not harm you! How many miles on your truck? You may want to be concerned about your factory gauge and your pyro should be checked. I'm shore some other folks will have many more thoughts. just my .002

good luck

 

Herb, you don't state whether your EGT probe is post or pre turbo, but my guess from the temps you list is post turbo.

Remember that you need to add about 300 degrees to the gauge, to get an accurate reading when taking the temp from behind the turbo.

The other thing to bear in mind is that ANY time you up the fuel to these engines, you are also raising the heat issue. When towing the chance for higher temps increase even more and you can reach critical temps pretty darn fast!.

With the EZ and the Injectors, you are pushing more fuel, which means more heat, so your EGT gauge now becomes EXTREMELY important.

I can't give you a definitive answer as to how likely you are to see TOO much heat with your current mods withstanding, but from my point of view, you are in that area where you really have to be careful.

We can get a bunch more out of these power houses, but in the process we make it easier to hurt one at the same time. I had to back out of mine many times towing my camper home from Claremont, the temps would spike very fast when I hit a hill.

I think I drove the last 100 miles with one eye on the road, and one on the EGT gauge. Never had that problem till I added the fuel plate, but I was warned ahead of time to be careful

Good luck on your new engine, I hope you don't have any more troubles any time soon.

 

Herb,

If your EGT gauge (pyrometer) is post-turbo (and I'll bet it is if you never saw anything higher than 950 degF), the variance between pre-turbo and post-turbo can be anywhere from 200 degF at light loads to as much as 500 degF at heavy loads. We just towed our new 16,000 GVWR 5th wheel (see signature) from Houston up to Fort Worth and back in 100 degF ambient temperatures. Although coolant temps were fine, I really had to watch EGT's - with a heavy foot, I'm sure I could have been in the 1350-1400 degF range with no problems. Although my truck would hit 1300 degF pre-turbo EGT stock, I'll drive by the pyrometer and try to keep it at or below 1200 degF for the long grades. If I hadn't been watching the EGT's, I'm sure I could have run the risk of melting it down with the DD2 injectors at the load and ambient temperatures we saw last week.

Rusty

 

i honestly do not know if the pyro was pre or post turbo (rest assured i will Know this time) , had it installed at a cummins service center
the truck has 80,000 miles on it --50,000 that i put on since i bought it.
sure liked the way it ran after i put the injectors in it but maybe i will pass on them this time.
what's the "do" when you are pulling up grades and start to "heat up"? down shift--get off fuel --or let the duramax's and strokes go by ?

 

Downshifting helps - the 6 speed gives more flexibility in gear selection than the automatic here. EGT's will be lower when pulling in a lower gear at higher RPM than when the engine is struggling at a lower RPM in a higher gear.

I just adjust the position of my right foot to hold the EGT at 1150-1200 degF pre-turbo on long grades. Generally speaking, I don't have any problem with equivalently loaded Duramaxes and Powerstrokes going around me while I'm doing this.

Rusty

 

while its apart make sure the pyro probe is put in the exhaust manifold.[pre-turbo].

 

herb,
Since Cummins Service did the pyro install, I would bet that it was done "post-turbo".

 

i had the ATS tranny put in with the triple lock torque converter and it sure seems a lot stronger and the shifts are without pause.seems this would help keep things right in the shifting dept?

 

Yeah, I guess my concern would be if you found yourself pulling hard in OD with the torque converter locked up and engine RPMs down around 1700-1800 or less. The transmission might hold up fine, but the EGTs would be through the roof as compared to running in 3rd lockup at, say, 2500 RPM.

It all goes back to the BHP = (Torque x RPM)/5252 equation. If it takes a given amount of BHP to pull a 5ver up a grade at a given speed (the sum of aerodynamic drag, rolling resistance and gravity), then I can do it with lots of torque at low RPM, or much less torque at higher RPM. Running at lower torque output (actually, lower brake mean effective pressure, or BMEP) at a higher RPM will result in lower peak firing pressures, lower cylinder temperatures and lower EGTs.

Rusty

 

makes sense

 

14K trailer....... Not what you want to hear but a 3500 with 4.10 gears would be much more suited to pull that kind of weight.

 

no the trailer is 6500 and the cargo horse buggy @6 are in range of 5000