Folks,
I would appreciate your opinions. For my truck (details in sig), what pressures and temps etc. would you monitor and how would you do it? I mostly use the truck for light weight use but a few times a year I will tow my 5,000 lb 5th wheel. At a bare minimum I guess I should monitor fuel pressure, oil pressure and egt. I am about 99% sure my stock oil pressure gauge has been flashed - it never wavers a single pound whether idleing or WOT. Are there other systems I should be monitoring? Aslo, once we decide what I should monitor, what is the most effective way to do this? Should I add a small cluster of analog gauges or should I go with an Edge or something? I am not looking to change programs to add horsepower or anything, just monitor what I have right now. I would prefer not to have something obvious in the truck that would encourage people to break in and steal things. I park the truck at the train station all day while I am at work on days I drive it for commuting. I am very interested in suggestions. Thanks in advance for opinions. BTW, I am posting here rather than in the big forum as I would prefer solutions that I can source locally in Calgary rather than stuff that it turns out will be really difficult to source from the US.

 

Mopac in Calgary will have all the autometer gauges you can dream about. I don't know anybody here locally that sells isspro.

As for gauges, fuel pressure, pyro, boost. Other nice to have is trans temp.

 

A boost guage is a good trouble shooting tool.

Ive got all 5 in my 98. EGT, boost, fuel pressure, oil pressure and tranny temp.

There is no problem getting gauges from the US. And there are some Canadian suppliers as well. Peak Performance, Mopac, BD etc.

 

Some guys have even hooked up gauges from the front/rear diffs. Been trying to figure out where I can put a fuel pressure gauge in my 2010 truck.

 

I believe that for towing an EGT and tranny temp gauge are a must. Also because of the problems with the VP44 trucks and fuel pressure its a good idea to have a fuel pressure gauge as well.

My suggestion for you would be to get an Edge juice with attitude(Mopac has them). If had one on my 2001 and it did all of the above plus more and puts it in a neat little package.

Since you don't want to increase power just install it without tapping the pump wire. The Edge has 5 different settings, the first 3 will add a bit of power without the pump wire tapped but its totally settable by the driver(can turn it completely off). The edge also monitors EGTs and defuels the truck if things get too hot. Its a good safe chip for mild performance and towing.

If you are REALLY set against adding a performance chip Edge does make just a monitoring system(Edge insight?) but for the cost you may as well get the juice.

I would also think that the small package of the Juice would be less noticeable than a bunch of gauges.

 

Well, it looks like an Edgo Juice with Attitude is the most sensible way to go. Now, how do I convince Santa to put one under the tree.
Thanks for the help folks.

 

Make sure you have a good lift pump (that is, not an oem one). Airdog, FASS, Fuel Boss are some of the big names, before adding fuel with the Edge Box

 

So here is a question. If a person were interested in learning all there is to know about the fuel system in my truck, where is the best place to start. I am happy to do a bunch of reading. Basically I want to understand what things do what between the tank the exhaust manifold. You know - things like what does the LP do, what does the VP do, injectors and so on. I used to fly remote control airplanes and I wasn't really happy until I had read the 300 page tome that explained exactly how those little single cylinder nitro engines worked. I spent years learning the same for 4 stroke gas engines. These Dodge diesels are new to me and I hate not knowing what all the different components do or at least are supposed to do. Any suggestions about where to start the learning? That way when someone says 'make sure you have a good LP' I know what the heck he or she is talking about and why.

 

You, sir, are a GLUTTON for punishment! If you like to read up and learn about what makes your diesel tick (or not, as the case may be) then just learn how to master the search engine for this forum. There is soooooo much information stored here that you really shouldn't have to look anywhere else to get the full 411 on these magnificent diesel burning beasts. I'm in the same boat as you - I know squat about these motors and am learning as fast as I can.

BTW, I went with the Edge Juice w/A and the first thing it did was tell me that my OEM LP was barely functioning. I r&r'd that as quickly as I could before it killed my VP44. I figure just giving me the heads up about the failing LP paid for the Edge right there. I did the install myself and although a bit daunting at first it came out pretty good if I may say so!

Cheers!

Mike

 

Heres the lowdown Sean.

The lift pump (or transfer pump) supplies the Injector pump (VP-44) with low pressure diesel (oem lift pump ~6-10 psi). The injector pump takes the fuel and pressures it up to ~20 000 psi (maybe more) and delivers the fuel to the injectors where it is sprayed (atomized) into the combustion chamber where is is mixed with warm air from the grid heaters and burned. There is no ignition system on a diesel and on a 2000 the computer (ECM) controls just about all of these steps.

The injector pump (VP-44) is electronically controlled and unlike a mechanically controlled diesel, the VP-44 is lubed and cooled by the fuel itself. Even on stock truck, the oem llft pump is barely adequate to supply enough fuel to lube and cool itself. Throw in a fueling box or programmer that reprograms the fuel requirements for the VP-44 (needs more fuel) and you have a recipe for buying a new VP-44. Therefore, adding any fueling enhancements will absolutely require a better than oem lift pump and fuel pressure guage to monitor the lift pump performance. The EGT guage, again is needed because of the extra fuel and you not wanting to melt a piston(s) - which is an $$ fix. The boost guage measures turbo output, and like I said, is a very good troubleshooting tool. Most definitely worth the $40 that they cost. I prefer the analogue guages to the digital guages, but to each his own.

^^ That should save you a lot of hours of reading ^^








Hopefully, this post meets Pinds' approval. Im sure he will correct me if it doesnt.

 

I think that edge is now CT or CTS stuff, they just did an upgrade program. The new edge has a nicer display. Quadlizza makes a similar box, suppose to fuel harder. VP is part mechanical, part electronic. It was a short production run for 24v. Not too many parts will swap with the CR? I just spent the afternoon doing a comparison between a 02 VP and 03 CR.

 

Like I actually KNOW anything about diesels.... come on.


The VP pumps aren't as bad as some people think, I've only gone through 6 of them in 260,000km. actually in 230,000, thats when the last one was changed.

It is nice to monitor as many things as possible, but it is better to monitor what is practical. Fuel supply pressure, oil pressure, egt, and tranny if its an auto. Biggest problem with more monitoring, is you simply don't tend to keep an eye on that many gauges at once.

Take class 8 trucks. Most truck drivers have all the gauges in the world at their disposal. Oil, fuel, water, diffs, tranny, suspension, brakes, air supply, clock, speedo, tach, the list goes on. In most cases, the driver gets into the seat, and drives until the big BANG sound happens, which is followed immediately by the whining sound from the driver's seat. You ask " did you look at your gauges?".... " well no, it was running good"

Minimal is always a good thing.

Excellent post on the fuel delivery system Dr. Keep up the good work.

 

I know - you dont have nearly enough posts

 

I've probably gone thru just as many for that many miles, but I used to pull VP just cause my power was dropping off. I think you can get some big miles of them, if you don't run the wire tapping boxes on kill all the time. I'm currently running a high miler freebie VP in my truck. It complains on the big power settings, but still runs good.

The CR stuff is way worse, lots of parts to go bad/wear out. Seen lots of piston damage from those engines, but everyone remembers a bad VP.

Pind, your my diesel hero, no escaping, and no going back...

 

I am still not convinced high EGT's = melt down. Both Tate and I have run well over the end of our egt gauges numerous times, I know both my trucks have seen 1800 - 2000F many many times. The only time I start to lift is when the coolant temp starts to rise.

With that being said EGT gauges are good for diagnosing boost leaks, and poor fueling, but so is a leak checker, and your rear view mirror...