07 5.9 and high EGT during high altitude towing - Stock

[Sean Flanagan]

I have recently upgraded my Travel trailer to a bigger unit and went from about 3500lbs to 6000lbs fully loaded. On top of that, I am hitching my 16ft, 2500lb boat on the back of my travel trailer and doing the "Train".



The towing I am doing is in the Colorado mountains on some 8+ percent grades up to about 11,000ft. Some of these grades are almost 10 miles long.



I have an Edge box with Attitude monitor I was surpised how high the EGT gets on my truck with the Edge set to stock. I could fairly easily get over 1500 degrees at 2000 RPM and wide open throttle while in 5th gear. I was constantly having to back off the throttle to keep the EGT below 1350. This kept me in the slow lane having to change lanes to get round the big rigs.



I tried the edge box on 1 or 2 and it only gets worse.



Is anobody out there done some high altitude towing with an '07 5. 9 and getting similar numbers? I know that if I didn't have the Attitude monitor gauge that I would be pushing it well into the high 1500's with a bone stock 07 5. 9 with a 6 speed manual.



Is there any real solution? Water injection?



Thanks for your input

 

[AH64ID]

The 04. 5+ 5. 9's run hot. . 1450* is said to be the max continuous EGT reading. Also I have read a few posts about inaccurate Egde readings...

The best thing for EGT' is the Smarty Jr, runs about 200* cooler than stock.

 

[cerberusiam]

Edge boxes run hotter than others. The electronic sensors always seem to run hotter than what a good analog gauge runs also.



The 8500 lbs should not effect it like that though. Thats not much of a load even at altitude.



Have any idea what boost numbers you were seeing with these temps?

 

[Motorhead]

Junk the EDGE and buy a smarty jr!! I set up a friends '05 dually with a smarty jr and pulling a 36ft, 14,000 fifth wheel, he only sees 1250* MAX. He had some Granatelli programmer on it and it would peg 1500*.

 

[CKelley1]

i agree, junk the edge and go to smarty jr

 

[Briman]

Altitude certainly makes a difference. I can see a difference pulling 9k lbs at 4300 feet (Salt Lake City) vs. Las Vegas (around 1200 feet???). When you go up things get hot faster. More fuel, more altitude, more heat.

 

[AWise]

Altitude certainly makes a difference. I can see a difference pulling 9k lbs at 4300 feet (Salt Lake City) vs. Las Vegas (around 1200 feet???). When you go up things get hot faster. More fuel, more altitude, more heat.

... And less oxygen!

 

[crobertson1]

My '04. 5 is the same way at altitude. Our trailer is about 8,000 lbs. I live in the mountains in Colorado, so whether we're coming or going, we're towing up grades. When stock, I always had to keep backing out of the throttle to keep the EGT in check. I have installed an aFe stage 2 intake, a RokkTech Silent Might muffler and now a Smarty Jr to help with EGT. The Smarty has helped the most. I still can't just hold the pedal to the floor, but I can use the available power better. I guess if I want to get it better, I would either look at water/meth or a bigger turbo.

 

[Sean Flanagan]

Thanks for the replies...
My boost is about 34psi, which seemed normal for stock.

I used to have a Smarty (not Junior) and sold it on e-bay because the truck smoked like an old dump truck, especially at high altitudes on a hot day. The power was great, but that was all. At that time I wasn't towing anything heavy enough up any decent hills to really test the EGT situation.

Does the Smarty Jr. still belch out obnoxious amounts of smoke like the it's big brother did a year and a half ago? I have heard mixed reports. A 200 degree reduction in EGT would get the job done so I could use all the stock power or maybe just a little more.

I like the Edge for a lot of reasons like turbo cooldown timer, audible alarms for things like speed and too high of EGT. I am really not too keen on getting rid of it.

I really don't need (can't afford) much more power than stock. If I set my Edge box at level 2 sometimes the clutch will slip and I am not into spending that kind of bucks right now because I blew my wad on a new (to me) trailer.

 

[Motorhead]

Sean, The Smartyjr still smokes some but you can adjust timing and torque settings to keep it to a minimum. I don't see on your signature that you have a clutch better than stock so you will probably only run the 40hp setting. I run the 40hp setting with the timing on 4 (Most timing), and torque on 2 (mild). I can run the 100hp setting with my Southbend Con OFE. Junked the DMF and clutch P. O. S. at 20,000mi. I would rather have some extra smoke than a "Smoked" engine!

 

[crobertson1]

I can manage the smoke with a little effort. My Smarty JR is set on the 70HP setting which is the towing setting. Really, it's the best of both worlds-I can black out someone who is too close or I can watch how I apply the throttle and no body gets offended!



I have a stock clutch and have not slipped it yet.