pybyr

Hello all-- despite my title for this thread, I am (I hope/ think) not a dummy and am very "hands on" in paying attention to a vehicle (have added vacuum gauges and watched/ shifted by watching vacuum and tach) in some of my prior gas vehicles). But this ('06 quad cab 2500 auto 4x4) is my first diesel. I am VERY pleased with this vehicle, and want to bring out its best, now and for a long, long time to come. I live in very hilly terrain and sometimes really use the truck as a truck. But I am not going to "bomb" it for HP or pull gigantic trailers. How much benefit am I likely to get from adding gauges? of the typical gauges (boost, EGT, and trans temp) which are most recommended. With an auto trans and my mostly non-extreme use, what would the gauges do for me other than alert me to situations where the vehicle is suddenly out of healthy parameters? Thanks

TexasCTD

I think you have kinda answered your own questions to some degree. IMO, gauges should be the first thing to add so that you are not running blind. They give you a feel for what your truck is doing and if something is not right hopefully they will tell you right away with a glance.

The turbo boost gauge will just let you know how hard you are working your engine at any given time (on a hill, pulling heavy, accelerating etc.). The EGT gauge is very critical if you are pulling heavy in the hills and allows you to see when the turbo is cool enough to shut down. Auto tranny gauge is critical too if you do pull heavy in the hills on a hot day or backing up a trailer in slow moving conditions.

One more gauge to consider (even if you are not planning to Bomb on the truck) is a Fuel Pressure gauge. They are not as critical on our CP3 injection pumps as the VP44 pumps on the 2nd gen trucks......but fuel pressure does matter. There are lots of threads on here about running aftermarket FP pumps such as the FASS system or Walbro and they address FP to the CP3. Just do a search.

Hope that helps. I am sure others will chime in too. But, In a nut shell.....YES get the gauges and learn to monitor them.

TonyB

As you read through the owners manual, you read commentary similar to the following:
Idle the engine for x minutes before shutdown after y load
When sitting in traffic, shift into Neutral.

With gauges, you can monitor the exhaust temp and avoid hot shutdows and know exactly when to shift the trans into neutral, when sitting in traffic.

I have no intention of installing go-fast-goodies; as you can see by my sig, I have a full complement of gauges.

I want this truck to last >200k miles and/or 10 years. I figure the best way to do that, is to stay up on the maintenance, and know (to the best degree possible) what is going on inside. Yes, it may be a little extreme, but I am also doing oil analysis at every oil change, just to track what's going on inside.

HTH

Tony

rockcrawler304

TonyB... I noticed in your sig you have a Diff temp guage. What kind of temps are you getting? Just curious. Also, what style are your guages? I am looking to get some for my truck as well. I don't plan on "bombing" it for a long time, if ever.

TonyB

I don't have the diff temp hooked up yet....not until I need to change the gear oil & install the mag-hytec cover. What I did read on my F150: ~240 in 110F weather vs. 180F in 70F weather. These were all after running ~120miles. Around town I'd routinely see ~140. I spoke with Roy @ mag-hytec about this when I first installed the cover & these temps seemed pretty universal regardless of diff size. It appears that diff heat is directly proportional to diff speed. the faster you go the more heat is generated.

I have the NV series, but found they are far too bright for an a-pillar install. I used a resistor to drop current & voltage, until the brightness was reasonable/tolerable.

HTH

Tony

rockcrawler304

Tony.. Thanks. I'll look into the NV series guages.

telcobilly

I'm thinking of getting one of these Quadzilla RECON XZT digital gauges: http://www.discountpowerparts.com/ca...roducts_id=813
It's small enough to fit above the steering wheel below the dash and will be giving me the vital EGT/boost/trans temp OR fuel pressure readings to stop flying blind...