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06 seems low on power - but have plenty of fuel

Old Aug 5, 2009 | 12:47 PM
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06 seems low on power - but have plenty of fuel

My 06 in the last month seems to be getting low on power. I'm currently running the Smarty on level 3, and the quad is off. It seems to take forever for the turbo to spool up, but after that, according to the guage, I'm getting normal levels of boost. I'm getting a ton of black smoke, so I know I'm getting fuel - and EGT's aren't really out of hand (although I havent had time to do much testing). This seemed to start after I loaded level three on it after running on 7 (but I towed with it for a week right after changing levels, so my "seat of the pants" dyno didn't have a chance to calibrate!).

What things should I start checking?
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Old Aug 5, 2009 | 01:37 PM
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I would start by checking for a boost leak if you haven't done so already.
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Old Aug 5, 2009 | 02:26 PM
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Kinda what I was thinking - is there an area that would be more succeptible to low end boost leaks (since it seems to do ok once it starts building boost)?
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Old Aug 5, 2009 | 02:29 PM
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Check any place where there are boots first...
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Old Aug 5, 2009 | 03:48 PM
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If not a boost leak then check manifold gaskets and I had a similar prob until I capped my rail then the responsivness came back immediatley.
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Old Aug 5, 2009 | 04:59 PM
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Hate to sound simple but did you check you air cleaner? I had similer problems and found a almost plugged AFE drop in.
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Old Aug 5, 2009 | 05:35 PM
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Originally Posted by ELIMINATOR RON
Hate to sound simple but did you check you air cleaner? I had similer problems and found a almost plugged AFE drop in.
That has crossed my mind also - I'll give it a look over.
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Old Aug 6, 2009 | 08:14 AM
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I did a fairly quick look and push/pull on all the hoses/clamps last night and nothing obvious showed up. The filter is maybe 5% clogged....not bad, seen it much worse than that (not much dust here in the city). I did change the Smarty back to 7 finally, so I'll see how that feels. I may have just gotten used to how it felt on 7 earlier this summer, but something just didnt feel right. I did notice that I have the timing on the Smarty set to 4, all others are at default.
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Old Aug 6, 2009 | 08:16 AM
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check the fuel filter too, i doubt thats the problem but sometimes it's the dumbest things that give you a problem.
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Old Aug 6, 2009 | 08:40 AM
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Good suggestions.

Did you get some leak detector soap and spray all the inter cooler connections to check for boost leaks?

Timing 4 on the Revo program is for fuel economy, correct?

If so, that is where mine is set and it smokes a lot less than any other timing number...
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Old Aug 6, 2009 | 12:33 PM
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Originally Posted by megacabdad
Did you get some leak detector soap and spray all the inter cooler connections to check for boost leaks?

Timing 4 on the Revo program is for fuel economy, correct?

If so, that is where mine is set and it smokes a lot less than any other timing number...
No, didn't have time for that.

And yes on the 4 setting. That's why I'm thinking its smoking too much. Do you get any timing rattle on 4? I don't.
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Old Aug 6, 2009 | 12:37 PM
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No rattle for me, either.

I'm running SW 5 with the timing on 4 right now.

With the same SW, and everything on default, it smoked like a freight train for some reason...

Now I really have to lug it to get it to smoke.
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Old Aug 6, 2009 | 12:59 PM
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Hasn't it been abnormally hot up there the last week or two?

When it get over 95 here, my truck smokes like crazy and takes what seems like forever to spool.

Maybe this is what you got going on?
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Old Aug 6, 2009 | 05:56 PM
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What is your rail pressure looking like. Those are the same symptoms my truck has. My injectors are shot. Truck runs and drives fine but i can't get over 12k of rail pressure.
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Old Aug 7, 2009 | 07:48 AM
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From: Edmonds WA
Originally Posted by CrazyCooter
Hasn't it been abnormally hot up there the last week or two?

When it get over 95 here, my truck smokes like crazy and takes what seems like forever to spool.

Maybe this is what you got going on?
It was yes (miserable, i tell ya!), but now its back down in the high 60's, with no change in how it runs.

Originally Posted by Dave04600
What is your rail pressure looking like. Those are the same symptoms my truck has. My injectors are shot. Truck runs and drives fine but i can't get over 12k of rail pressure.
This morning on a fairly short full throttle run on the freeway (55 up to about 75) RP hit 23K, so its likely not that.

After that run, I have a suspicion that my Commander is giving a bad boost number. Remember that my Smarty is set to the defaults with the exception of the timing on 4, which means the wastegate is turned on. However on that short run, my boost hit 45....that shouldn't be possible - should it?
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