i have a 04.5 cummins with a automatic, i've put a juice with attitude, 4inch turbo back mbrp exh., and a k&n filter on it. with 4.11 gears and stock tires its great. I was wondering what i can run the egt's up to while playing aroubd on the road. What are my options for controling them also. And if my controler is defueling when it senses the tranny slipping what can i do to help tranny to not slip so it can use the power, preferably without buying a new tranny. this is my first diesel and they are great. thanks a bunch  

You generally don't want to exceed 1,400 for any length of time. I think water/methanol injection might help with EGTs while giving you a power boost as well. Remember, diesels are the opposite of gas engines: run 'em rich, they get hot, lean 'em out, they cool down. Without getting a full-on new tranny, you might be able to install a perf. shift kit that will give you a little firmer shifts.  

I've heard that you don't want to run your EGT's above 1,250F for anything over a quarter mile. It might just depend on where you live too... thats what they say around here tho.  

Just got back from out west. Pulling 4 sleds in N. Dakota my egt's would run up to 1420 degrees or so. That was with my programmer set at stock. This was not all the time but on a few of the longer grades it would happen. We were running around 82 mph. Should I be concerned with this or not. It seems high but if it's set at stock then it should be ok I would think but I would really appreciate your thoughts.  

Arrow 1420 is a little high. 82 with 4.11s tells me you were runnin in overdrive what i would recomend is slowin it back a little and pullin the hills in 3rd that will help get more air through the engine and keep temps down. if you dont want to do that the look into water/meth injection or a bigger turbo or intercooler or all of the above if your serious about performance.When i had my 06 cummins i was running the bully dog and i could tow my 10,000lbs toyhauler in level 2 which is performance level and never go over 1250deg. I live in southern oregon too where we have some serious grades.  

Even if you have it on stock mode I wouldn't run it that hot for any extended period of time or even more than a couple seconds.  There are a lot of things that will drop your temps.  I know you said you have a different filter in there but is it clean?  If you got into some dusty roads or something and your filter is restricted you are going to be suffering in the EGT department.  Water/meth will help but unless you add a big aux tank it goes really fast.  I think a gallon lasts like 2 minutes for me, I've got the snow performance kit with 2 650 mL nozzles I think it is and the system has the 220psi pump.  I expected the fluid to last a little longer but I do notice the difference when I flip the switch.  The biggest difference in EGTs you will see is with a different turbo.  With the stuff on my truck just swap the turbo back to stock and I could peg my pyro real easy, now I can't get it above 1350 even on the highest setting on the programmer, water/meth off, and a winter front on so my intercooler isn't doing much good.  

I thought that I read somewhere that I could run windshield washer fluid in a methonal injection kit, is this true? If I was going to upgrade my turbo what would be a good choice, how much would it cost, and would I have to upgrade my fuel system? I hate to change to much since I have another 65,000 miles left on my warranty. I really appreciate your opinions since this is new to me, thanks again.  

Yes it is true about the washer fluid. It actualy give you the best mix of a extra hit of power and low egts. Its because its about 30% methanol and 70% water. Turbo is about 1200-1500 dollars. BD super b single or HTT HTB2 would be a good choice. You dont really need to upgrade the fuel system for the turbo but its a good idea to do it for your chip. Injector nozzles for it are about 400-700 dollars and a aftermarket lift pump is a good idea in all diesels.  

id be real careful about adding injectors if you are already runing that hot on egts.  id look into a bigger exhaust kit and a complete air intake kit, maybe k&n or s&B, thatll lower those temps too. not sure on this, but what was your boost running? were you maxing out on boost too?  I live in an area with some real steep grades, ive towed in level 5 on my edge, highest ive seen is 1230 with the pedal mashed, but ive got the air intake and a decent exhaust on it.  i would defiently back down before you melt that thing down.  Also look into ATS exhaust manifold, thatll help a little too  

I have a 4" mbrp turbo back exhaust and a k&n air filter and tube to the turbo. Do I need a bigger exhaust system? I don't remember what my boost was but I want to think that it was in the upper 30's. I could be wrong but I had to raise the boost alert up to 40 or 42 lbs to keep the alert off, I don't know if it was when my egt's were that high, but it was on the trip sometime.  

Here is a quote from Ted Jannetty of
Jannetty Racing Enterprises Inc.
about EGT's

EGT: or exhaust gas temperature gauge, measures exhaust gas temperatures leaving the combustion chambers.  This is the window into the tune up of your engine, it will tell you everything you need to know, if you use the knowledge I will provide.

Average temps: stock truck (in degrees Fahrenheit -- ***

Idle – 250 to 450
Cruise no load – 400 to 700
Cruise with trailer – 500 to 800
Pulling hill no load – 500 to 1000
Pulling hill with trailer – 900 to 1250

Temperatures will vary whenever the throttle is moved or the terrain changes.  The peak number is the most important while towing, the ISB can be safely run up to 1450 for short bursts and 1350 all day long.  This number is strongly affected by modifications weather it be Air flow or Fuel delivery.  If air flow and fuel flow are increased EQUALLY, (Very important words here!), we can increase power to very impressive levels with no increase in EGT or smoke.  We will talk more about this later.  

There are a few things that will help with EGT's and you have them already.  For run, I would have put a 5 inch on there,  allows more exhaust to flow and will lower EGT's slighty, your 4 inch helps to though.  Also you have the K&N filter right, do you have a Air Intake or just a filter,  if just a filter, by an Air Intake, that will drop them also.  Also a CFM manifold is good too which will drop you EGT's lower.

A VERY CHEAP but wise upgrade would be a BOOST FOOLER, BD and Quadzilla sell a decent ones and there are a few others out there.  A boost fooler will increase boost about 10 psi and can lower your EGTS about 50 degrees on stock and over 300 degrees on heavily modded trucks (xtremediesel.com booster fooler page).  They are only like 60bucks or so.

Water Methanol in my opinion is a VERY WISE and healthy upgrade for your truck.  It gives power 70-100hp and lowers EGT's about 150 degrees.  Also it creates a scrubbing effect in the engine and will clean it of carbon and other harmful agents.  

An intercooler is a good one too but for 04.5 and up they are pretty efficent so don't do that yet.  

Another thing too can be your chips,  depending on the certain developer can help your EGT's.  Smarty is by far the best on the market, and is running lower EGT's than any other chip on the market for dodge.

Hopefully that helps.  PM ME for more question

peace,

John  

Running 4.11's @ 82 MPH means your RPM's were around 2700-ish if you're running stock tires.  Add your EGT's and that's really on the high side.

What makes this worse is you've said your boost is already in the high 30's so a boost fooler is out of the question, unless you've replaced your head bolts with studs.  Otherwise you're going to lift your head right off the block.

You really need to get a bigger exhaust, and add a CFM intake manifold that's been drilled and tapped for water-meth injection.  Get yourself the Snow Performance water-meth stage 2 kit, and a set of gauges for boost, EGT, and your tranny.

The other problem you've stated is your tranny is slipping.  This could also be your TC, so the reality is you need to plan to swap both in the near future, otherwise you're going to need to dump alot of money really fast to get it fixed.  I would also venture to say that since you already know its slipping then there is a really good chance that your clutch packs have some glaze on them which will cause some of the slipping.  This is also bad because it means that the tranny has gotten too hot and its a sign of early damage.  Like I said, you're going to need to plan for the replacement of both the TC and tranny.

To help out, a VB job would be ideal simply to give you some more time before having to buy a new TC/tranny.  While you're getting that done, put in the temp gauge and if you can find a deal on it, throw in a deeper pan for it, too.



Kris