Exhaust temp. and Boost

[Strasburg]

I know this is a basic question, but I love my '00 and want to do everything I can to keep it around. As well, I'm pretty new to diesel's in general. I've heard a fair amount of discussion about adding exhaust temp. and boost gauges to your truck, but am not sure what they can tell me and how I could use them. Can anyone shed some light on this and/ or what TDR issue goes into this?

 

[ToolManTimTaylor]

Well EGT guages (Exhaust Gas Temp) can tell you a variety of things. It's main job is to keep you aware of exhaust temps (Well Duh) ut it goes much deeper into it than just that. As a general rule of thumb PRE TURBO readings should not exceed 1300* F for an extended period of time (I. e for over say a minute) And that is for your every day mild mannered street driven long term truck. Higher than that and bad things begin to happen starting with our friend the piston and his buddy the head gasket. You can go above that for a few secconds (1500 ish) with no ill effects but I stress a few secconds like 13 of them.



The guage can ALSO tell you things like the gasses are running hotter to what you are used to which can be a few things (Air filter clogged= less air , Left the comp on 5x5= more fuel , Too little boost or not enough inlet air=inlet air plumbing may have a leak) etc. And can keep you abreast to the situation at hand. It also can tell you when to back out of it when towing up a hill and downshift to bring rpm's up to cool her down.



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Boost guages can tell the rest of the story. Inlet forced air is "Boost' Boost is good. However as with everything moderation is the key. The stock cummins comes with an ecm limited 20 lbs o' boost. The stock head gasket can handle 46-50 with no major work. ... that's later. Boost guages tell you how much you are generationg (Again Duh) but are a much more useful tool than that. If you see low or no boost on the guage and your buddy the EGT guage is tapping on the glass saying "Look at Meeee" chances are you have popped an intercooler connection hose off and the engine hase lost it's ability to breathe that fine forced air. At that point there is waay too much fuel and not enough air in the engine and you can thank your guages for that info before serious damage has happened. Now if you have the boost guage pegged at 50 and egt's are low ... you have twins :-laf :{



A boost guage can also keep you awry of the opposite ... yes higher than normal boost. In some modded trucks a "Boost Fooler" is used to tell the ECM that everything is fine and boost is at 20 (This is useful when adding more fuel than factory as fuel = boost) when in reality you are whirring away with 40. . Now if you have no major mods and saw that You would probably raise an eyebrow at that. That would tell you that the wastegate on the turbo is stuck closed.



O. K I'm going to bed. Hope that helped