Well boys, topped off the tank on Friday night and left for Spokane. Ran up the hill to Yakima outside Ellensburg to establish power and egt's with the camper on. Pedal to the floor showed 1250 degrees (new X Monitor) at 3100 rpm and 75 mph in third... transmission downshifted out of OD to make the hill. Stock engine, 3:73's and even put factory tires and wheels on for experiment.
Got to Dishman Dodge at 11 am the next day and Josh and I went across the street to Davis's dyno and put down 260 hp in tow and 270 in the high speed run. They just run through the gears so I have a tow dyno and an OD dyno.
Chad from Diesel Performance Unlimited (Pasco) was there with his fine young son to show Josh the ropes on an injector install and brought his injectors to install. He verified the claims for the injectors which I recounted for verification. His customers get about 20 mpg.
We had a nice (and hot) install at Dishman and I lost all my fears regarding doing this kind of job. Pretty easy once a master shows the ropes and Chad obviously has changed out skads of them. Back across the street for a post-install test which showed 326 in tow and 360 in the high speed run. So a gain of 66 in the tow run and 90 hp in the OD run. Boost was down a little (4 lbs) which may be the intake gasket or hose clamp. The power is there.
Josh was actually in on his day off just to do this which gives you some idea of the Dishman Dodge spirit over there. I bought my truck there as well (Big Bob deal... $1000 under invoice plus rebates) and they are straight shooters.
I refueled (36. 6 gal... I have oversize tank) and headed west. I climbed the hill at the same time and temp as the night before (luck) but my egt's ran past the safety cut-off so I made the run again. I could have shot up that hill in OD so I put it in 3rd (Tow) with the lockup, held 3100rpm and 75 mph with plenty throttle left. I had reset the X Monitor so it would climb to 1500 and showed almost 1350 (pre turbo) at that speed. So there is an EGT issue in the pre-turbo probe site. In OD the temps shot right to the top. I forgot to look at the boost as I was freaking on the egt's. Chad is convinced that the probe should be as close to the back side of the turbo as possible for a good heat mix and to get past flames. He said he has seen as much as 400 degree differences in as little as a half inch location on manifolds (I assume this was different trucks but may not have been). He said his injectors are producing 1000 to 1100 degress at that site. FYI, this shop has some incredible custom diesel vehicles including a 12V roadster that will be at the Spokane show next week and at the drag strip. He and his partner Scott Howell have built lots of diesel projects over the years and raced them.
In making the extra run I strayed off my course but I did do two dynos on the other tankful. My boost was up 3 to 4 pounds coming back west and I attributed that to the wind coming in for the weekend rain storm. Wind and a camper can make a big difference. The overhead was showing less mpg than the way over. I refueled at 36 gallons. I will try a run this weekend down to Portland and back and see how we do. At this point, given the price of the injectors ($2000), I am not very happy, unless my further testing shows a good gain. My truck runs about 11 with camper and 14 empty. I would have bought the injectors WITHOUT a power increase to gain that mileage! Well, maybe a little power
. In talking with Chad and agreeing that headwinds and campers suck fuel (3 to 4 more pounds of boost coming home) that a little more apples and apples testing is in order.
Yes, it was expensive to do this but the claim is too attractive. It cost me a day or so but I learned to fearlessly replace injectors, found Josh to be a straight arrow who is leaving the invoice open until I make a decision and found a left-hand tow mirror at Dishman to replace the one I shot gopher hunting! A freebie from Josh! So no sweat... all part of this psycho diesel addiction we have.
At this point there are good $1300 injectors out there to do what I have experienced here. I will give it a try this weekend to see if there is a difference in mileage. If it improves I will move the probe. I REALLY want this to work but not to the point of coloring the results. Just want the truth.
I would like to think there is a box coming that will take us all back to the mileage of the 12V or at least the 2004's. SOME 600's are doing well.
Until next week... when I get back from Portland. George
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