Power loss

[Chrisgerman]

I recently purchased an 04.5 automatic short bed. Pretty much stock besides edge cts2, cat delete and flowmaster muffler.
Runs well with good power until I hit 4th gear lock up then power drops especially going up hill. I just changed the oil and fuel filter about 300 miles ago. Fuel pressure about 9 psi idle and 4-5 psi wot. Boost hits 25 psi easily under those conditions. EGTs about 1100 up hill in lock up. The only thing I noticed is rail pressure hasn't gone above 21k

 

[AH64ID]

I recently purchased an 04.5 automatic short bed. Pretty much stock besides edge cts2, cat delete and flowmaster muffler.
Runs well with good power until I hit 4th gear lock up then power drops especially going up hill. I just changed the oil and fuel filter about 300 miles ago. Fuel pressure about 9 psi idle and 4-5 psi wot. Boost hits 25 psi easily under those conditions. EGTs about 1100 up hill in lock up. The only thing I noticed is rail pressure hasn't gone above 21k

Boost should hit 31-32 stock, and rail pressure around 23K, as well as EGT’s over 1200, up to 1400 towing. Of course some readings could be limited by OBDII, such as boost. Where is the pyro probe?

Fuel pressure is good.

What does engine load show?

 

[Chrisgerman]

Boost should hit 31-32 stock, and rail pressure around 23K, as well as EGT’s over 1200, up to 1400 towing. Of course some readings could be limited by OBDII, such as boost. Where is the pyro probe?

Fuel pressure is good.

What does engine load show?

Pyro probe is next to the collector between 3 and 4. Haven't looked at engine load but will check it tomorrow. Also there's no smoke as far as I can tell

 

[AH64ID]

Engine load is 80% of the reason I run a OBDII monitor.

Report back with what it’s showing when you feel down on power.

 

[cerberusiam]

If all you ever see is 25 psi the WG controller has failed. Crimp the boost reference hose on the front of the turbo and see if that will increase boost.

21k max rail pressure sounds right for a stock tune. Is the CTS just for gauges ior are you doing tuning with it? A good test is remove it and see if it changes anything.

If you still have a stock transmission you may not be losing power, rather you are losing TC clutch holding ability. A slipping TCC is really hard to evaluate unless you know what your rpms should be at a given load and throttle position.

Is the 1100 EGT loaded or empty? That seems high for anything but a decent grade and load but stock it may close.

 

[AH64ID]

23.6K psi is max for a stock 04.5 tune. WOT above 2400 rpms should yield more than 22K psi.

Depending on how the CTS2 is reading boost 23psig max is a OBDII limit at sea level and not always indicative of a boost issue. It just depends on how the CTS2 reads it. Get up in elevation and they can read 25psig.

Assuming he is limited to 25psi that is enough to call for
full fueling, and that should read 23.6K and get a lot hotter than 1100° on a stock tune with a prematurely opening wastegate.

To the OP, what elevation are you at?

 

[Chrisgerman]

Took the truck for another drive today. Running edge on tune 3 which they call street driving with mild performance tune. It seems to do better if I'm already in lock up and let boost build before I hit the grade which isn't all that steep. App % about 55. Load about 70% . This time egts didn't hit 1000. Also it an onramp with a slight grade power and egt temps all good until tcc lock. Then egts hit 1150.
I'm wondering if it's just me and nothing's really wrong at all. Like I said truck is new to me. I'm just comparing it to my 2000 vp44 truck with iquad on 3 and 75hp injectors. That thing would be sluggish until I hit 3rd and 4th lock up then it would take off like crazy

 

[AH64ID]

Ahhh... so a CTS2 is a just a monitor and implies no tuning. You also have an edge module.

The boost at 25 could be the boost fooler, as could the low rail pressure readings. Downfalls of modules vs programmers.

Was 70% the highest you saw the load?

 

[Chrisgerman]

Yeah 70% was the highest and that happened right at tcc lock up

 

[AH64ID]

That seems very low, it should be hitting the low 90’s or slightly higher.

 

[Chrisgerman]

What would lower load indicate? Slipping clutch?

 

[AH64ID]

What would lower load indicate? Slipping clutch?

That the ECM is limiting something.

Try disconnecting the Edge, all the under hood stuff, and just having the CTS2 monitor installed. See how it drives, what your boost/EGT/Rail Pressure are then.

It would also be good to find out what power adder your truck actually has.

 

[Chrisgerman]

It actually felt worse before installing the edge and running the tune. When you say disconnect under the hood do you mean the edge harness to the injectors or just turn the tune back to stock? I'm pretty sure I need to keep most everything plugged in for the monitors.
Also noticed something interesting today. Starting up the grade with about 35-40% app and about same load% rail pressure is about 18k psi then as load increases with more throttle, egts rise and rail pressure drops to 14k. Is that normal? You might be right that the ECM is cutting fuel pressure back. I'll hook my mechanical fuel pressure gauge back up to make sure lift pump pressure doesnt drop drastically also. Would 2 psi be about minimum?

 

[AH64ID]

The lift pump should hold 3-7 psi under various heavy scenarios.

The CTS2 is also a stand alone monitor, all it needs to read is the OBDII connection.

The stock rail pressure map does crazy things like that on 04.5-07 motors.

I mean disconnect everything but the CTS2 at the OBDII port and see what it does for rail, boost, EGT’s and load.

Lots of problems for folks with edge modules over the years, programmers are much more reliable.

 

[Chrisgerman]

I disconnected the tuner and just left the gauges on and the obd plugged in. No change really.
What I've noticed over the last week is that when the torque converter locks up or the transmission shifts onto od railpressure drops down from 19k to about 14 k and egts start to climp over 1000 up to 1300 until I let of. About 60% on app. I'm sure egts would keep climbing if I didn't get of the throttle. I never see egts that high in any other gear

 

[AH64ID]

I disconnected the tuner and just left the gauges on and the obd plugged in. No change really.
What I've noticed over the last week is that when the torque converter locks up or the transmission shifts onto od railpressure drops down from 19k to about 14 k and egts start to climp over 1000 up to 1300 until I let of. About 60% on app. I'm sure egts would keep climbing if I didn't get of the throttle. I never see egts that high in any other gear

What are the rpms?

Stock tuning can exceed 1400°.

 

[Chrisgerman]

What are the rpms?

Stock tuning can exceed 1400°.

Rpm right around 2k. 24k max

 

[cerberusiam]

21k max rail pressure and 70% load is normally for stock tuning, an add-on box will not change that. Need to verify boost will get to 30 psi with a manual gauge since the electronics can be fooled, and, verify that LP pressure is staying around 5 psi or greater. 1100 on the pyro with an Edge tune is not unusual as they run hot anyway.

 

[AH64ID]

So your rail pressure is higher with the Edge disconnected?

Load is still low.

I can look tonight and see what you should be seeing for rail pressure at that rpm.

What is the boost doing when it shifts into OD and your EGT's are climbing?

21k max rail pressure and 70% load is normally for stock tuning, an add-on box will not change that. Need to verify boost will get to 30 psi with a manual gauge since the electronics can be fooled, and, verify that LP pressure is staying around 5 psi or greater. 1100 on the pyro with an Edge tune is not unusual as they run hot anyway.

23,206 psi is commanded by stock tunes on 04.5-07's.

70% load is much lower than I have ever seen on stock tuning, it should be around 94%. 100% load is 140mm3 and max on my 05 was 132mm3, which is 94%. 70% is only 98mm3 and quite low for an 04.5 truck.

 

[cerberusiam]

Never saw over 70% engine load on a stock tune, never significantly over 21k stock or even the lower Smarty tunes. Always had to kick the rail pressure up to make it go anywhere near 23k. Mine behaved pretty much the way he says, drop to 14-15k when rolled into it hard then climb back and the EGT's pushed 1200 with enough grade and throttle. After I put a boost elbow in the boost reference line and it would hit 35-37 psi then EGT's stayed well under 1200 all the time.

Stock tunes seems to be limited on engine load and RP, no matter what the tables says. Actuals never would go as high as the limits until the safeties were pulled with a tuner.