Hi all, I'm new to Dodge although I've always liked them, I just needed a bigger cab to haul the family. I've had powerstrokes before so I would imagine the basic diesel stuff pretty much applies. We took are first big trip towing our toy hauler which I estimate weighs around 14K. Before the trip I installed gages so I could keep an eye on the temps. First of all its stock. I was told by the dealer that if was kept stock then I couldn't get the EGTs to a dangerous level. Good thing I put the pyro in because I was surprised how much I had to back out of it. I installed the thermal couple pre turbo as per Diesel Manor's instructions. Is the exhaust brake holding in extra heat because of restricted flow? I wanted to get a programmer but now I'm worried about even more heat. Would a five inch exhaust help or would it do any good because of the cat. I searched the forums yesterday until my eyes were square, but I'm still wondering about this. Do I need to remove the cat and/or muffler ? Also what seems strange to me is with the Ford when the temp started getting high I would shift out of overdrive and the temps would come down. I tried this on the trip and the temps would stay the same or sometimes get hotter. I'm letting the temps get up to 1350 and sometimes to 1400 for brief moments. My first concern is lowering the temps ,then performance ,then the cool sound. If I got a five inch system and it was too loud but kept the temps down I guess I could learn to deal with it. If anyone has any ideas could you send them my way? Thanks, Jeff

 

First thing I would suggest is get rid of the stock muffler and go with a flow thru or just straight pipe it. That will be good for an egt reduction of 150 degrees if not more. Also look at adding a cold air intake, the better she can breath on both ends the cooler she will run. By the way welcome to DTR, now let the bombing begin.

 

Since when have you depended on a dealer to give you good advice?

Seriously, you already have a 4" exh. and 5" isn't really needed until you get above 450 HP or so and then you have a trade off of torque down low. It is more for high HP pullers, draggers and the like. The stock muffler is restrictive so a cheap start is to do a muff delete straight pipe or if noise is an issue then an aftermarket muffler like a Donaldson is popular. For more money, there are a number of manufacturers selling performance exh. like MBRP... they seem to be popular here but by no means the only good choice. The cat, by all reports, is not all that restrictive and "by law" you aren't supposed to remove it.

Some of the "chip" manufacturers are successful in lowering EGT's while increasing power. Search threads here for more info. While towing, it is usually better to run a gear lower and higher RPM's to lower EGT's than to lug the engine, which causes higher EGT's. A "boost fooler" allows the turbo to spool up a little more... more air, cooler temps.

A better air box also aids in lowering your EGT'S by letting the truck breathe....ahhh..

I'm sure you'll get some more good answers here shortly!

 

I am in a simlar situation, and have fixed my problems. First I got gauges, and a chip, I got the Quadzilla exilerator race version, because they dont exceed the OEM specks and that seems to me less likely to kill my truck. Then I got rid of the intake on mine, I have a 04 and the intake box and the down tube, they were restrictive and had a muffler in it. Replaced it with a blue cool down tube and the scotty airfilter. I put in a roc timing sencor, and that pretty much did the trick for me, I also put in a 4" exhust with from this source, and that helped bring it down as well. Now when im towing my big gear box, only one the big hills do I have to turn the chip down, and im also running about 75 mph pulling.

 

Im using an AFE stageII intake it works well but a little pricey Do a search for ****** whistler intake it is a slick inexpensive way to get cooler air. My cat also ran away and I installed a 4" flow through muffler this should help your EGT's

 

im also curious about he trans brake being a restriction anyone with any insight?