Engine damage or not?

[Oliver88]

I towed about 14,000 lbs. about 150 mile round trip Sat. didn't know I had a problem before I left home. EGT's started climbing quickly. I tried to keep them down to acceptable levels, but sometimes I'd take my eye away from the guage just a second and I'd find it at 1350 or 1400 degrees, then I'd back out of it. I found the problem when I got home, a rubber coupling loose on the intercooler pipe. An older truck driver told me " you've burnt your pistons and/or cylinder walls by letting it get too hot. " (This guy is so smart he also said " don't believe anything you read on this site") Truck seems fine now. Could this have happened? I pulled a load after fixing it and it seemed to have plenty of power. I guess I'll learn to check my truck closer between trips. Oh, the oil level is still good in the truck.

 

[cumminsgetme]

If you only held those temps for a few seconds it shouldn't have hurt anything. I can/and do (on occasion) peg my guage @ 1500 when racing or playing around, but it's only for a few seconds. My truck has 200K and has been fighting egt's for the last 100K. No problems yet. It's amazing that people will say to stay clear of something when chances are they've never seen what they are staying clear of. There is a fair amount of b/s on here, however there is also a lot of good info. You just have to be sharp enough to pick through it.

 

[Garry Verheyden]

Most truck drivers are used to driving with thier pyrometer probes post turbo. I am assuming like most of us rerformance nuts on this site yours is pre turbo. Mine is, I had a trucker tell me I was going to ruin my engine because of the engine temps I have run. I tow a 35 ft fifth wheel wieghing between 15-16000 lbs. I have driven up many long hills maintaining a steady 1350-1375 degrees. I also have regularly pinned my pyrometer at 1500 degrees (daily). I had a head gasket leak and pulled my engine out 2 months ago with 140,000 miles on it (over 380hp for last 80,000 miles). I was very nervous to see the inside of my head,Piers told me I would probably have cracks in it (most likely between the valve seats). To my surprise everything was perfect. Then the next stressful part for me was wiping the carbon off my pistons and inspecting them. Again I was relieved that there was no hairline cracks or other signs of overheating. Maybe I was just lucky , but I definately wouldnt worry about hitting 1400-1500 for short time periods.

By the way since I put the engine back in I have put in Piers modified HX35, ATS 3 piece manifold and timing at 17 degrees . This combination makes it almost impossible to hit 1500 on the pyro anymore!!

Garry.