EGR Delete Kit / Head Gasket Problems
 

I recently purchased a Sinister Diesel EGR delete kit and H&S MiniMax tuner (tuner comes with emissions delete upgrade) w/ Flo-Pro exhaust for my 2008 Dodge Ram 2500 with manual transmission. I purchased this system for beter fuel economy and towing capability on my towing vehicle.

I WILL NOT be using any of the higher horsepower settings available on the MiniMax, I'll be staying with the standard towing setting. Would someone here that is more familiar with the Cummins diesel advise me if I should be concerned about a failure of the head gasket on the engine?

I just deleted my 2008 Dodge 6.7 Mega Cab and also have an H&S Mini Maxx. I'm just curious whether you blew the head gasket through every-day normal driving or were you really stepping on it? I'm just curious if I stand any risk of blowing my head-gasket through everyday normal driving?

the fastest way to kill a head gasket is to add a bunch of timing to the injection side of things, if your just going to use the stock and or tow(mild on the old minis) you should be fine

So if I were to add a bunch of timing but keep my right foot off the throttle, would I stand a risk of blowing the head gasket?

not to any great extent from my experience. I've spent an awfully big percentage of my time running up and down the road empty with my mini turned up on either hot or performance depending on which it was called in the different updates (the mileage is better the more timing I add) and have done some towing with it turned up as well, the timing will advance further depending on your engine speed, load and throttle position, so you can run with it turned up for all its got but if you don't ask it to build all that it can build for power it wont add all the timing that it can...... I don't know if there is a magic number as to what is safe in terms of timing or not, I just set my mini to monitor injection timing for a week or so and watched what it was doing and rarely saw it over 7 degrees under normal acceleration and couldn't get it over 10 degrees unless I drove it like an idiot.

If anyone has any other data to help or disprove any thing please feel free to chime in, I know I'm not the smartest guy on here with regards to engine tuning parameters but i know i haven't killed anything yet ............ haha

You misunderstood me. I have NOT blown my head gasket. I'm merely soliciting advice as to what to avoid with regards to my MiniMax settings so that I DO NOT blow the head gasket on my Cummins.

I've read a multitude of postings on this forum and others talking about what causes gaskets to blow after the removal of the EGR cooler. Overall, people have been talking about the increase in driving pressure (DP) when the EGR cooler is removed on the Cummins. It seems that the EGR cooling system seems to function somewhat like a waste gate, relieving excess drive pressure on the engine.

General concensus of all the information that I've read is that the standard headbolts will put up with the moderate increase of DP when the EGR cooler is removed, the lower settings on the MiniMax are used (stock & tow), AND you allow your Cummins to warm up to operating temperature before using the truck.

I Will agree to the majority of that and it was my train of thought for quite some time so I know what you mean, the EGR system did help relieve drive pressure when it was still there however, with that being said the way it was explained to me was that the cylinder pressures created with advanced timing and lots of fuel in higher HP settings will far exceed that of the 55 PSI that I can see on my exhaust back pressure monitor function on my mini maxx. the stock gasket isn't really the weak spot, its the bolts, if you trust that your head gasket has been treated well enough to be trusted then I've heard of good luck with just threading out the stock bolts one at a time and thread in the new studs and torque accordingly

The tow setting on the MiniMax adds an additional 40HP on the 2008 Dodge to the engine and I've heard from many people that this is a safe increase in HP that should not jeapordize the head bolts or gasket.

ya, I've got close to 100,000 kms (60,000 miles) on it since I deleted and the head gasket has held up fine to more than just the tow setting, even when towing haha

That's very good to hear....