Unsurprisingly, after 180 hours with the new truck, I’m still quite ecstatic about my purchase.
I’m nearly done with the week long “drive everywhere” experiment in an attempt to get a fuel mileage baseline. I’ll be filling him up later today, but if the gauge is any indication, I’m getting approximately 18mpg in mixed driving (1/3 city, 2/3 hwy). Not bad considering that Bull weighs in at just under 7000lbs without me behind the wheel.
I dropped Bull off at the shop of the trusted mechanics for a front to back/top to bottom/inside and out inspection, which he passed with flying colors. They found one defect in the drivers side valve cover gasket causing me to leak about a teaspoon’s worth of oil in 300 miles. The appointment for the fix (under warranty) is already set up.
I’ve already stated to The Wife that I cannot wait to get a ton of pellets in the bed and see what it feels like to have some weight in the back.
I’m not sure whether the temperature was just right or if I perfectly hit the shift point, but Wednesday morning on the way home from work I got rolling with 1st and 2nd gears and then shifted into 3rd only to find that The Hand of God had decided to help me accelerate onto the freeway.
I’ve driven many a forced air intake vehicle, but watching the speedo and the tach needles parallel once again was exceptional. Again, this is 3.5 tons moving from 30mph to 70mph as fast as the engine can rev twice.
A number of the guys at work have already started asking me when I’m going to be upgrading Bull’s powertrain. My standard answer is “later”. Having 500ftlbs of torque at the rear wheels is plenty for now. The guys with automatic transmissions pay big bucks to get that through their slushboxes, which when they get hit with that much power turn their internals into Pasta Roni because they’re not engineered for it (and why I didn’t and wouldn’t by a used diesel automatic).
Right now, I’m just suffering from a minor lack of information: Like a Pyrometer to tell me my exhaust gas tempurature so I know when I’m working the turbo too hard. Or even a boost gauge to tell me how much pressure I’m putting into the cylinders via the turbo. So I’ll probably get those first, plus a fuel pressure gauge and a trans temp gauge. None of that silly A-pillar mounting of gauges for me. I’ve got an acre of dashtop and room for a quad-mount above the rearview mirror.
Then and only then, I’ll have a sit down with the folks at Gale Banks. Though I’ve already decided to include an engine brake when I get the intake/exhaust installed, for the full-on Peterbilt sound.
Life is good.
Be very, very carefull with you mods. I have been a Ford Tech for 20 years and have seen many many well meaning people ruin a good truck with poorly thought out performance upgrades. Lots of good truck and expensive aftermarket equipment have been wasted.
The quages you mentioned are great the more info the better. But when it comes to changing the way computer system and drivetrain operate plan your endgame, gather your components and impliment your plan all at once do not piecemeal it. And one you have it all complete, other than fine tuning, leave it alone.
And for Pete’s sake DO NOT gut or remove the Cat. Exhaust backpressure is extremely inportant to the operation of the Turbo.
I wouldn’t waste money on the Jake Brake unless you are regularly going to haul the maximum load. A Jacobs brake is designed to absorb hundreds of horsepower by braking, and the application of all that negative power is sudden, putting intense strain on the entire power train and also the exhaust system, which, BTW, should be totally replaced to deal with the back pressure of the Jake.
For probably a tenth of the cost of the Jake, you can upgrade your wheel brakes to give a major boost in braking effectiveness, which should suffice for those times you actually carry or tow a heavy load.
One more thing about turbos. As hard as they work, they get really HOT. In the military, we had a hard rule about not shutting off the engine until it had idled for 5 minutes. What happens is that the oil boils out of the turbo bearings, and there is huge wear (up to seizing) upon restart.
After a hard pull, you should make sure the engine is operated at high idle for at least 30 seconds. The fast idle will put extra oil pressure through the lube system to prevent the above issue.
Consider the installation of a pre-luber, also. The introduction of oil pressure BEFORE you spin the starter means less work for the battery and starter, and almost zero wear for that time that everything is momentarily not lubed. Up to 90% of cam and piston/cylinder wall wear is caused by friction during start-up. The pre-luber might even have the option of a momentary-on setting a little after shutdown to give that hot turbo a shot of oil.
Everyone I know who has installed a pre-luber swears that it will save them a ton of $$$ over the life of their engine. Since yours is about a third used up already, you might not save as much, but if you are determined to give that 7.3 L diesel the very best, put a pre-luber on FIRST. TexasRed’s advice is good, but doesn’t apply to the pre-luber, which you can install NOW, maybe even as a DIY project.
Don’t forget the railroad horn upgrade!
I have an ’01 crewcab that is stock. I pulled 35 foot 5th wheel up the Alaska Highway with out a bit of trouble. I am 100% behind Texasred on this one. It is an expensive motor and despite the claims of chip manufactures, there are trade offs; when you boost your horse power you add stress to the driveline, increase exhaust temperature and fuel consumption. I have an ’01 with 170k and have had very little trouble. A water pump, glow plug relay (3X, what with those anyway, Texas?) and a cam-position sensor. The latter was a factory recall AFTER I had one fail. Be sure your has been replaced. Run a good grade motor oil suitable for your climate. Change it often and use good quality filters. Depending on where you buy fuel you may want to consider fuel additives. During the winters, the fuel suppliers here change to arctic grade diesel and my fuel mileage drops from 19 to about 15. Adding a fuel conditioner seems to help, especially at the seasonal change over point.
The trucks that work the northslope all run synthetic motor oil and drive train lube. Next service interval I’ll probably change by diff and transfer case fluids to a synthetic.
I have gotten mine started at -30 but it wasn’t pretty. I am not sure where you live or how cold of climate you will be operating in, but don’t skimp on batteries! I bought a pair of elcheapos and they cratered with in 18 months. Use the blockheater when it get cold.
They are great trucks and should run 250 to 300k with out major work by you need to do the maintenance. Don’t skimp on oil or filters.
I can’t help you guys much with the cold weather stuff. Here in Central Texas our four seasons are a little different. You have winter, spring, summer and fall. We have December, January, Febuary and SUMMER with glow plugs only neccessary in Jan. In the summer here you don’t even wait for the “wait to start” light to go off. We even have the block heater as a delete option. I have seen the farm boys down here abuse these trucks 500k and just trash the truck but it keeps on goin. Wish we could of said the same about the 6.0l, the jury is still out on the 6.4l.
Well, we’ve been driving our new (to us) Dodge ram 2500 megacab 4×4 cummins since Tuesday, and we’re seeing 16-17 around town, and 20-21 on the highway.
I’m already planning our my upgrades. Edge Juice with attitude controller (they instrument better than banks), and Banks intake and exhaust.
I’m going to keep the tuner below 450hp and 750ftlbs though (stock is 325, and 610; and 500/800 are the hard limits on the Dodge without a new tranny) until I upgrade the tranny. Billet converter, flexplate, input, output, and intermediate shafts, a heavy duty valvebody, and a reprogrammed controller. I may just buy an ATS, I may not.
Best thing is though, I should see a 4mpg IMPROVEMENT in fuel economy with the power adds.
Lord I love diesels.
Oh and yes, I noticed the same thing about the acceleration.
Torque peak on this engine is 2200rpm, and it stays flat until 3900 rpm; so I can literally accelerate from 35-55 or from 55-75, about one second after it kicks down.
Torque is your friend.