learned something about the Predator 3

[Gypsyman]

excellent! let us know how this turns out. the beauty of the TST is that you have 81 combinations to play with!

I just ordered the C3. 1 from Piers so I'll let you know. Will you have any rail pressure levels for the C3. 1 in your report?

 

[DLeno]

Lee. congratulations on the warranty fix! thats worth a celebration. hmm as to the low boost problem -- it could be the turbocharger but I'd want to be more careful before jumping to that conclusion. I'm actually not that experienced in troubleshooting low boost conditions, even though I'm not sure what else it could be if there are no leaks and you have the fuel. the dealer might be right. I will say that it seems likely to me (here I am diagnosing over an internet forum... ) that your TST box fried the turbocharger. the stock huffer is just not made to take the abuse TST is capable of unleashing. If you can get the 'charger to boost well at way higher than stock fueling, then that does suggest your charger won't spool up like it used to. It sounds like you just need to continue the service experience with the Dealer, unless of course you want to persue an after market turbo to avoid attracting more attention to the fact that you have the meanest baddest hardest-on-turbo fueling box known to man.



One of the advantages of being able bring the truck back to stock condition is that if they can verify fueling (like measure rail pressure and other fueling parameters from the ECM while they ride with you) with no box on there, then boy it does start to look like turbocharger. yikes, that may give the STAR line a double take. pressure relief valve AND turbocharger. boy I hope your good relationship with the dealer stays intact enough to get you through this!



Richard -- yes, I will publish rail pressures from the C3. 1.

 

[Not_Agn]

I don't have a stock turbo on there now. I just put a high tech killer b turbo on about 2 weeks ago. I went and pick up the truck tonight. When I got home I started going through taking the tst box off and trying it that way. Didn't fix. So I put it back on, stacking the ez. I found a female terminal pushed up in the stock map sensor wiring plug. Pushed it back out and amazingly the truck revs pretty good again. I can't say that it is the way it was before all this happened, but at least I can pull out in traffic again. Thanks for your help. Lee.

 

[DLeno]

I guess I must have missed your sig or a comment about the turbo.



Aahhhh, now it all makes sense. the stock ECM needs to see boost pressure before it will fuel. with your boxes on there trying to fool the ECM anyway, the electronic disconnect on the stock harness was nearly a don't care -- since the boxes fuel according to boost, and they were reading it just fine.



But I'm sure that even the stack works better now that the ECM can see boost levels up to 20psi. thats how it dials in duration that gets augmented by TST.



Well, you've got a good dealer -- to troubleshoot down to the pressure relief valve, fix that under warrenty and all that, all the while staring down a turbo capable of amazing boost levels. they HAD to have known you had a box on there, and just looked the other way. those guys are keepers.



At this point what I would do in your case -- if you have questions about the pressure relief valve repair itself --- is to ask what diagnosis they performed that pointed to that valve. In what way was it bad and how did they confirm that. to be fair here, given this new information, we have to ask for validation before we absolutely conclude that you popped the pressure relief valve.

 

[RankRam]

Does anyone know how much the pressure relief valve costs? If they are not that much $ maybe we should carry a spare?



Hey this reminds me of packing around a spare lift pump in my 99. LOL

 

[JRG]

The pressure relief valve, as I understand it, can only be replaced with STAR line approval, which means your truck will get a lot of attention. the stock truck just does not pop this valve, and the dealer knows this. so does STAR

I don't think they will sell you one.



JRG

 

[DLeno]

thats a great question! one wonders why the R&R on such a device would be such a challenge. unfortunately, I fear that this part is a STAR approval only part and cannot be purchased. It would be great if I'm wrong about that.



Lee -- can you tell us the part number of the valve they replaced? should be on your service order. Then some of use can call our respective dealers and see if the part can be purchased. And then someone with a service manual can tell us if there is a special procedure or tools required or not!

 

[Not_Agn]

I don't have the repair order yet. It was ordered through star. It comes by itself. When I talked to mark from tst he said you would have to buy the whole rail to get it. Valve was $460, rail was $480? I don't know if this was list or cost. So I guess carrying a spare would be a little bit of a stretch. However this didn't fix my problem. Truck still revs slow, and only builds 10# of boost w/out the boxes. With the boxes it takes until 4-6 gears to pull and boost and then it goes. Tst said it could be a bad map sensor, or even a bad ecm. So I guess I am going to see if that will fix it. I didn't take a thing off of the truck when I took it in. The service manager said I didn't need to do that, unless the rep wanted to come check out the truck. Any other seggestions or help is still appreciated. Thanks. Lee.

 

[DLeno]

yea, lets get the word on why the diagnosis pointed to the valve before we conclude that the valve actually blew. I thought the bent pin fixed the problem? do you have an OBD-II scanner? if so you can read Manifold Absolute Pressure right from the ECM.

 

[Not_Agn]

no on the scanner. I have a cheepy from pep boys just to erase codes. The put A different bolt with a barbed end on it in place of the regular banjo bolt that runs through the valve. The tech said that fuel was seeping out so it was bad. Does this sound correct? I thought the bent pin made a difference but it didn't. The truck seems to run better the high the setting of the edge. I have only gone to level 4. Not really up to testing 5 if the valve is going to go again. Then the tst kicks in once boost starts up. The pin that was pushed in was a light blue with a white stripe on it. If anyone one knows what that wire is reponsible for? Thanks. Lee.

 

[DLeno]

yea, seeping fuel is the halmark of a busted pressure relief valve. say no more man thats the slam dunk evidence. stay on level 4, bud and warn all of your friends! thats over 26,000 lbs already. still you could have a damaged MAP sensor. nuts. wish I could hook up my obd-2.com software to it and read the dern MAP reported by the ECM. Hey wait--you have a boost gauge on your TST! it reads right off of that sensor. So leave the edge box off, hook up just the TST and read your TST boost gauge. you haven't got the Edge box on there first do you?



not sure exactly which wire that is, but there are only three possibilities: ground (not likely), +5V, and MAP signal. If you are getting a boost signal then +5 and ground are working too.