I was complaining a while back about seemingly low power and a slight reduction in fuel economy, both especially notable while towing. The other real oddity was that while towing, I could no longer generate EGT's above 1100 (pre-turbo) or so, no matter what. Now, this may seem like a good thing, but the truck simply did not seem to be running hard enough to generate the heat, thus my complaint about a power loss. Anyhow, the cheap thing to try was fuel and air filters. Well, neither were particularly dirty, but they were replaced nontheless. So, I hitched up again this weekend, and sure enough, still down on power and absolutely could not get the EGT's up. It used to be if, and this was a large if, I couldn't pull the hills in 6th, I'd drop down to 5th and had to immediatly start watching both speed and EGT's. Lately, if the truck smells a hill coming, it acts like the brakes are on. Dropping into 5th will barely let me hold speed, and like I said, it won't even develop EGT's much above 1100. Through all of this, boost has remained what I would consider normal, although cruising with a load it seems to be higher than what I remember, possibly indicating the truck is working harder??? Anyone got any ideas?

 

Did you have this problem before installing larger tires? Do you have 3.73's? The larger tires with the 3.73 could affect the towing performance.

MikeyB

 

Tires and gears don't sound like the problem (I think he had the 315s on before this issue came up). Taller tires should increase the load felt by the engine and should increase the EGT all else being the same. It sounds like not enough fuel.

 

Yup, had the tires since about 12k miles (32+ now), so that's certainly not it. I've had the truck since it had 0.4 miles on the ticker, so I know what it should and shouldn't do, and exactly what it's capable of. SOMETHING just ain't right...

Blown32- You and Scotty have now both mentioned a possible lack of fuel. Without a gauge, I suppose there is really no way to tell what my pressures are, so I can't help myself out much with a diagnosis on that one. But I agree, it just doesn't seem to have the oomph that it should, and that is typically associated with a lack of fuel, at least on gassers...

I've broken down and made a service appointment at the ***********. Needless to say, I'm scare to death. Keep your fingers crossed for me!!

 

OK, took the truck in this morning. Still no word back yet, but I suggested they look at fuel delivery. My worry now though is that they will check for fuel volume, and not necessarily fuel pressure... Am I just being paranoid, or does their computerized check-up give them all parameters?

If it does turn out to be fuel delivery, say a bad lift pump, what's the best way to ensure this doesn't happen again? Pusher pump?? FASS??