See my sig for the specs so far. I need to be able to reliablely tow my camper/trailer/jeep combo. Right noww I still have a problem with the engine running hot on long extended pulls. I had the timing set at 15* but pulled it back and that seemed to help. EGTs will hit 900*(pre turbo) but not much more.

Right now I have a fair bit of smoke off the line if I mash the pedal but when pulling hard its clear. This makes me think it needs more fuel, are diesels like gas motors in that if they run lean they will heat up?

I debating between injectors and the HTTIV kit. If I do go with the injectors before the HTT kit I'll probably put the 16cm WG back on.

Sorry for the ramble, any thoughts?

 

If I'm reading your post properly, the problem you're having is coolant temps that are too high on a long pull, correct? If that's the case, neither a set of injectors or a bigger turbo are going to help. Pulling the timing back will take some heat from the coolant and send it to the pyro. Since you're only running 900 on a long pull, you could take a little more timing out, and you'll likely see the coolant temp come down as a result...egt will go up, but you've got some room to breath there. Beyond that, how's the radiator? When's the last time it was professionally serviced? Also, Dodge has a better fan assembly available that is lighter and moves more air...oh, do you hear your fan clutch engage when things start to heat up? Even the stock fan/clutch moves a TON of air, and can usually keep temps under control even when pulling at max GCWR.
greg

 

What transmission is in your truck? Either I'm blind or it isn't mentioned in your sig. An automatic is going to push heat into the cooling system via the water to oil cooler under the the exhaust manifold. On a long pull your water temps are going to climb from the excess heat from the trans fluid.

 

good call on the auto making more heat

 

It is an auto with an aftermarket TC and and the line pressure turned up. The guage for the tranny never goes above 180*F(pan) but I've had the coolant as high 250*F.

The timing has been moved back to 1/8" over stock on the timing cover, I guess I could try to move it back to stock and see what it does.

I getting annoyed with getting passed by motorhomes cause I have to back out of it as its getting to hot. As well the bumpy ride and horrendous road noise/vibration is wearing on the wife(and me as well).

Its getting to the point where I'm really debating on weather this truck will stand up to what I'm demanding of it in the long run and maybe I'd be better off with a 2nd gen truck. They are coming down in price now so I can actually afford them(ie under $10K CDN). But I've got a lot of time/work invested into this truck and don't really feel like starting over.

Anyway can anyone address the question as to running a diesel lean(is this even possible) will cause increased coolant temps like on a gas engine?

 

On a diesel, engine speed/power is determined by how much fuel is injected. The less fuel you inject, the slower the engine runs. Our engines are at their leanest at idle. When you mess with the idle speed screw you are actually changing the minimum amount of fuel injected. The less fuel running through the engine, the cooler it will run - but power drops off as well.

There's gotta be something wrong with the cooling system. I know a couple guys who tow heavy with tweaked 1st gens and they don't have cooling problems.

 

Thats the problem, your pan temp is good, I wonder what the hot pipe temps are. I can tell you they are alot hotter than 180*F. What kind of aftermarket TC do you have? From what I understand depending on how they do the stator in the converter they can make a heat monster from modifiying the stator incorrectly.

I have one truck at home thats going to need a radiator soon, either new or recored. I've had it come out of OD going up a hill already, that was just an empty truck. Water temps always run higher on this one than they do on the grey one you rode in when its loaded.

 

Well since towing season is now done for the most part maybe I can spare the time to have the rad pulled and checked.

Any thoughts on which upgrade would give me more bang?