Exhaust Brake Question
 

Does anyone have the D-Celerator Diesel Exhaust Brake? What are the pros and cons? Mounts in front of the muffler and appears to be a nice retrofit. Are you happy with it?

I dont have that one but I understand that the most effective exhaust brakes are the ones that mount directly to the turbo.

Because it is a closed exhaust (no leaks) I expected it to work the same. Anyone have this type that can guide me in how it actually works for you?

The only negative I have heard over the years with that brake is the solenoid tends not to like the high temps and possible wiring problems from road moisture etc. But it has been a while since I have seen anything about them.

In-line brakes can be just as effective as turbo mount brakes, but less responsive. For us guys with aftermarket turbos, its the only option really. The closer you can mount it to the engine the better it will respond.

Now remembering.....there was a good reason turbo mounted exhaust brakes were better than exhaust pipe mounted brakes and that was because of the heat. One main issue for exhaust brake malfunction is carbon buildup and heat is whats needed to keep the carbon to a minimum. Putting the exhaust brake where there is less heat to burn off that carbon allow for carbon buildup. If I also remember right, one of the exhaust pipe mounted brakes will cycle once upon every startup to ensure proper movement.

I'm confused, Lil Dog says the solenoid doesn't like the additional heat being located on the exhaust, yet Katoom says there is less heat. Can someone explain?

They're talking about two different things. Katoom is talking about the higher heat of turbo-mount being good for burning off carbon/soot from the butterfly valve. The solenoid is something different entirely.

Because, I believe, D-Celerator is the only exhaust brake available which utilizes all electronic controlling but the turbo mounted brands use either air pressure or vacuum which is controlled by a electric solenoid from a location mounted away from the brake. For this reason, the D-Celerator electronics can be subject to heat and road corrosion. Thats about all I know regarding.

FWIW the only time my BD brake (vac actuated full closure turbo mount) has hung up it turned out to be the vac actuator. I ran some oil through it and it freed up right away. Now it relieves vac from the puke bottle and keeps the bottle dry, and the actuator piston lubed.

Inline means more space to fill up with pressure before braking force applies- more lag as described above. One other thing that affects performance is whether it is controlled through the computer or through the apps sensor. There is a significant delay through the computer due to the logic "thinking" whereas through the apps it's pretty quick.

Also, full closure performs significantly better at low rpms due to no hole in the butterfly, but if you use them as a warm (brake on idleing) smoke may contaminate the ait sensor (easy to clean tho).

i have a d-celerator on a 12 valve 98 i got it in 99 it is on a 3500 camper. it is for the 35 lb springs. one solenoid closes off the flow and there is a bypass that holds the pressure to 35 lbs. the other 12 valve trucks that tow heavy we replaced the valve springs to 60lb and installed air pac and bd after a few years because of where pac mounts the compressor failures were common we now only use bd and we relocated the pac compressors and eliminated the failures. your 01 has the 60 lb springs and even if d-celerator now makes one for 60lb i would stick to bd.

I have a D celerator on an 01 been on for 10 years now works perfect and I personaly feel it pulls down harder then
the banks brake or PRXB brakes we have on the other trucks. it sits forward of the muff

Thanks ALL for your replys, and Rebal, it's great to actually hear from someone that has one on a truck closer to mine. Now to make a decision!

Beware of comparisons to Banks, they made MAJOR design changes from their early partial closure setup. The new ones are full closure like the BD and function basically the same way. IE eccentric butterfly with no hole versus centered butterfly with hole in it like most.

I noticed that The D-celerator has two types. One full closure, the "lighter duty" is not. If I'm reading it right, anyhow. HD unit has bypass valve that opens at set pressure. Light duty leaves this open. (?)

PS If I were you I'd get a BD full closure. It runs through the tps, is turbo mount and is really fast and works to very low speeds (right down to idle). This is PARTICULARLY nice on a stick shift, and the shifter mounted switch is SO SO nice. Second choice for me would be the Banks full closure, but I'd verify that it goes through the tps, since with a stick that speed is very nice. Also the Banks holds back more pressure, so it is closer to danger than the BD, but pulls harder. FWIW I can get rubber on 35" duals going from 4th to 3rd high rpm with the BD, and consider it more than adequate, but if you want more, the Banks setup holds more.

Unless you plan on a bigger turbo at some point, in which case you are limited to inline setups.

The speed from direct mount tps (apps) control is REALLY REALLY nice on a stick because with the shifter toggle you can flip off to shift and then flip it back on and it's almost INSTANTLY pulling again.

totalloser x 2

Totalloser, thanks for your input. Having a MBRP 4" exhaust, what will I have to do to the exhaust down pipe to mate it to the turbo mounted exhaust brake?

Will I have to modify the exhaust pipe to install a turbo mounted exhaust brake?

A turbo mount exhaust brake essentially just replaces the elbow on the back of the turbo. Unbolt the elbow, replace with the brake. On a stock truck, the exhaust downpipe bolts back on and away you go. If you have a turbo back exhaust such as a 4 inch system, again it just bolts back into place.

My truck has been running an exhaust brake since almost the day I bought it. It's gone from a stock HX 35 to a PDR35 all using a BD 4 inch exhaust system and it all just bolts on no cutting involved.

The brake has over 200,000 miles on it and I can still chirp the tires when I get it come on hard during downshifts and I have done absolutely nothing to it except replace the vacuum lines a couple of times over the years. And no, I don't chirp the tires on purpose.

You shouldn't have any problems mounting up a turbo mount brake unless something "odd" has been done to your truck with regards to exhaust.

You won't regret putting a brake on no matter what you finally get. Once you have driven an exhaust brake equipped truck, you will never look back.

Jeff

The Decellerator is the same technology that we used about 15 years ago and almost broke us in warranty claims. The problem lies in the solenoid that activates the brake. Electricity and heat dont normally get along very well together. You have an electric solenoid that sits right beside the exhaust. Over time the solenoids would fail and the brake wouldnt work. Think of it sort of like going out today and buying a beta movie player. Does it allow you to watch movies, yes, but why watch beta when you can have a Blue ray player....:cool:

we have an 03-05 2 01s 99 97 91 90 and a 92 all but the 90 have EB on them and #60 valve springs ,BD ,banks, decelerator and prxb the only ones never to have had an issue were the Banks and the D-cel, the others have stuck ,blown a compressor or a solenoid failure these trucks are hooked to heavy 12,000 lbs or more trailers and worked hard every day the EB are put to use hard and every one of the truck are modded but the 03 and like I said I personally feel the D-cel, pulls down the hardest then the banks brake , but for the most part all of them work great and are a must for towing heavy stuff and there all reliable with few to non problems

PS my D- CEL is electric and has worked everyday (10 years now) with zero issues but it sits back at the muff. not on a real hot turbo
R.

Thanks Homestead for the explanation. It really helps. I'm pulling 13k wet so I need something that pulls well. Thanks rebal. Lots of good info to digest.

Sorry for the late response. My BD bolted right up to my 4" which bolted right up to the stock elbow. IE bolt on.

For towing heavy I'd lean towards a full closure shifter toggle, personally. If you just gotta have the most pull the Banks gives you more, but I've pulled relatively heavy (6-10k) with some regularity on windy Norcal mountain roads with the BD and found it more than adequate.

I finally decided on the Banks, and I'm not at all satisified with the performance. You told me you can chirp the tires, and I expected a lot more than I got. With the Banks, I hardly notice it pulling. The only thing I can tell you is that is sounds kinda neat. Any suggestions on what I can do to improve the braking power?

When I first had mine installed and went on the maiden voyage to try it out, it sucked.

I said the same thing to myself, what a waste this is, I can get better results dragging my feet.

The trick is to just use it and learn the ins and outs. Keep your rpm's up and let the motor do the braking. When I downshift while pulling heavy coming to a stop, I'm not afraid to get it upwards of 2500 rpm or more. Do this and the brake will pull it down pretty good.

In deep traffic, I will run one gear lower than I normally would to keep the revs up and I will rarely touch the brakes unless it's really bumper to bumper traffic.

On a lot of hills, I can go down them using 6th gear and it will retard it but 5th is even better whereas I can use the brake and actually feather the throttle to keep my speed up where I want it to be.

After all these years of using it everyday, just for giggles once and awhile I will turn it off. WOW!!! It really pounds it home how much I rely on the exhaust brake.

And yes, good hard downshift will chirp the tires as well as a maximum effort hard downshift will stall the motor when you bring the revs up on the 3200 governed rpm.

I don't know if you have a back pressure guage installed. I just use a boost guage reading off the elbow to the brake. It's a good indicator on how your brake is working as well as showing you just how hard you hit it. Mine is set to bleed off at 40 psi of back pressure which if I remember right is about 130 braking horsepower....60 psi is about 190. It doesn't sound like much but it is there.

Just play with and use and you will get to feel how it works.

And it does sound cool!!

Jeff

As Homestead mentioned, using an exhaust brake takes a different approach. Low RPM's simply wont work and will result in very poor exhaust brake performance. That doesn't mean you need to stay at or near redline while driving either but the higher the RPM, the better the brake will work. Also, yes, after driving for awhile with the exhaust brake, you will occasionally surprise yourself when coming up on a stop if you forget to turn it on. I use mine all the time and it will even slow the truck to almost a full stop "if".....I care to downshift through enough gears but any lower than 25 mph and there's no point. But when towing the exhaust brake will enable me to sustain most downhill speeds I choose with almost no need for the mechanical brake unless something requires immediate action. No chirping tires for me though since that's to hard on everything and especially the clutch.

x2 on what Homestead said. The Jacobs e-break on my 01 works great. An exhaust brake is kind of useless if you dont know how to properly use it.

Thanks all! I guess this will be a learning experience as I never had one before. In September I'm heading out RVing so I'll see how it handles 13K pounds of trailer. Hopefully I can figure out how to use it properly to help me with that load.

Just reread what Homestead said above...thats probably all you need to know about using it.

Make you you arent in too tall of a gear. To get the most out of the brake you want to keep the rpms up (2500 rpm+). If you do this you will notice a big difference in how it works.

Homestead, thanks. I used the higher RPMs an lower gear as directed, and was surprised at the difference. I would never have figured out how to use the brake properly without your help. I really appreciate your help with this.

You don't have to Thank me, that's why we are all here, to learn from each others experience.

One thing you can also try while driving/using your brake. It's become a habit to me now but as I downshift, I blip the throttle and let the brake catch the motor at a slightly higher rpm just as I release the clutch. The brake will hold the motor up there a little longer before it starts to pull it down.

How is your brake actuated? Are you using a manual switch on the shifter? A micro switch on the throttle pedal? Just a dash mounted on/off switch?

Mine is wired through a master on/off switch and then through a micro switch on the pedal. But I have a shifter switch that interrupts everything. My "master" switch is always on and I use the shifter switch as my on/off. This way I can momentarily turn off the brake as I'm downshifting and then turn it back on as I release the clutch. During normal highway driving or traffic for that matter, the shifter switch is always "on" and the brake is actuated via the micro switch on the pedal by just lifting my foot. It might sound a little confusing but it's simple the way it's wired.

You are also aware of being able to use the brake for faster warm ups in cold weather as well as keeping heat in the truck while idling? I know it's not "good" for the truck but mine has idled for hours on end against the brake during our cold season and other than burning some extra fuel, it's always warm and hasn't hurt anything yet.

Hope it helps and ask away if you need anything else, that's why we are here!

Jeff

I'm gonna guess that it's wired to the apps and came with a toggle switch. If so I HIGHLY RECOMMEND GETTING A SHIFTER TOGGLE.

You won't know how you did without it. Splitting shifts is sooper nice, and your brake control is always right there where you need it with no need to fiddle with the throttle to control the brake on hills.

Skip a gear on a downshift and engage the brake before popping the clutch and I PROMISE you rubber! [coffee]

Your newer style (?) full closure Banks should pull better than my BD and on wet pavement I always have to be careful in corners using the exhaust brake at all because it will break traction. I ran 35x12.5 (315/75r16's) duals and could break them loose at will with heavy clutch/brake application. Big rig tires same story, but less apt to get loose in corners.

totalloser, you are correct. It is wired to the APPS with a switch on the dash. I've looked into a shifter switch but haven't seen any I like so far. Push-Pull claims to rattle and be noisy.

I have about two seconds of delay before the brake engages, which allows me to shift without having to shut off the brake. That part is nice. It only engages after the delay when the throttle is all the way up.

The brake comes off with the clutch pressed in, so no chirping the tires on down shift, due to the delay before re-engage.

It is also hooked to the temp sensor to apply the brake till the engine temp is up. I disconnected that as I didn't like it as hot out as it is, for the time being.

Having it hooked to the temp sensor, it also seemed to mess with my Edge with Attitude. With it disconnected I haven't had any problems.

A down side, I think, is that it only comes on if your above 30 mph. If your under 30, no brake if you have interupted it by downshifting or reving the engine to catch a gear. If you don't interupt it, it will apply down to 15 mph before it shuts off.

Interesting..... I've never heard of a 2nd gen exhaust brake having the features yours does. Maybe the '01.5 ECM is different than the 2001.
Anyways, Pacbrake has a really cool and functional shifter mounted switch.

I've never heard of the ecm application either and quite honestly I wouldn't want it anyways.

Mine is directly wired and I control it. I can use the brake right down to zero miles per hour. Use it to warm up anytime I want, immediate engagement, etc, etc.

The one concern I would have with the ecm running the show is if the brake sticks and they do, what happens then?

The two speed rear end switch that is most commonly used as a shifter switch can and does rattle on occasion but most cases you can't hear it even if you wanted to being the 2nd Gens are noisy.

Auto disengage on the clutch would be cool but doing it manually is a hoot when you really get going.

Jeff

Here's a picture of Pacbrakes switches. http://www.pacbrake.com/index.php?page=accessories

Wow, it sounds like they take a good brake design and make it completely suck butt with the electronics.

Having a setup that uses it as a warmup valve WILL foul the AIT sensor due to combustion gasses burping back into the intake, and the two second delay must REALLY suck. So no benefit in speed from the Apps sensor hookup. Also very minimal benefit from a shifter switch.

Contrast with my BD is that it's on so quick you can't even measure the engagement time. I'll say that the clutch cut out must be a nice feature, though. Mine doesn't have that, so I toggle between shifts.

I wonder if you could pitch the microswitch and get a BD one to control the brake so that you get instant brake engagement?

I would be SOOOOOPER bummed if mine didn't work below 15mph. I roll up to stop signs and hardly touch the service brakes using the exhaust brake with mine. (I guess it's silly but it sounds super mean, too!) Low speeds is where the full closure really shines compared to partial closure.

The BD wiring has a microswitch thing that the toggle and apps wiring goes to, and from there it controls a vacuum 4 port solenoid to route vac to both sides of the piston actuator. If this sounds pretty familiar, I would SERIOUSLY consider using their control setup so YOU have control of the brake instead of the dumbed down 2 second delay and no low speed op. This sounds like a real bummer, but might be easy to modify to something more effective.

totalloser, the delay is hardly noticeable and its not a "full" 2 seconds either but somewhere between 1-1.5 seconds. And not only does that small amount of time give me a minor delay to allow shifting but it also keeps the EB from coming on every second I happen to not be on the throttle. Some like that, some dont. I do.

Also, the warm up feature is kinda cool but I understood that only the 3rd gen trucks had this feature and when it was activated then the EB was only partially on instead of fully on, which yes, you're correct, when the EB is fully on then it fouls up the IAT. Also, in warm up mode the EB automatically shuts off at something like 170*-180* so as to not chance overheating if no ones in the truck.

And as I've said before, I would really like it if my EB automatically shut off around 20 mph or slower so that I dont have to toggle it every time I come up to a stop light/sign. The EB isnt really functional below that speed unless I'm downshifting into 2nd or 1st, which I rarely do.

But really, I'm not sure how 01RAMer has any of those features since I've been told that no 2nd gen EB offers that. But good for him if he found one that does.

A foot switch, that's an interesting concept! Never thought of that.

Remember when highbeam headlights where on foot switches?[laugh]

Yeah, I do remember them. As far as the delay, on the one I just installed, the delay is quite noticible, but it is fine and I can live with that. I hate that it won't come on below 30mph.

The warm up feature goes off after engine temp reaches 125 degrees.

I've never had an EB so what I'm telling you is what I got, with the exception of the Clutch disengage, I may have mis-spoken on that. I use to drive tractor-trailer and got use to using throttle for downshifting, and with this unit, as soon as you touch the throttle, the EB is disconnected and if your under 30mph, it won't come back on.

Oh, another gotta with the banks, is that if it is engaged, the cruise control is defeated. If I want cruise, I have to shut off the EB, but if I'm using it cruise and flip on the EB, the cruise is shut off. With what KATOOM is tell us, I kinda wish I had the older model without all these new features.