quads4_life

I was just wondering what everybody recomended as a safe highest continuious EGT temp if towing a heavy load

Polaraco

900 to 1000 is usually allowable as a steady diet. . They can take 1200 short term.

If your EGT's are too high, you have some problems to look into.

quads4_life

well I am running the ADR and still stock turbo and fuel system so I cant really go much higher then 5-6 but under wot my egt will jump up to 1200+ QUICK!!

ct2500

cummins says 1200 all day long,watch ur water temp though

cumminsdriver635

You can run 1200* all day. Some say 1300*, but that makes me nervous.

I usually dont hold over 1150-1200* for any amount of time.

Eric

97 D-Tec

as far as i cab tell 1400-1500 in somthing to watch out for 1300 should ve fine n 1200 wont hurt anything

Big Blue24

Short blasts to 1600 don't hurt too much either. Sustained heavy towing should be 1200 max but like others have said, your water temps will start to overheat if you maintain 1200 with 15-20K in tow.

quads4_life

ok hell I have been trying to keep it under 1000. But thanks for the info

Big Deezul

Thats not a bad thing

BigErksG2

I usually sit at 1200 up mountains with a trailer.... im in it for a while before water temps creep up, then i have the heat blasting.

somis13

I run mine at 1250* for up to 10 minutes before backing out.
1300* is my back off point during acceleration. you'll never get a straight forward answer on this subject, only hear what others have dun. so your kinda on your own, what ever you feel comfortable with, run it. just keep in mind the aluminum pistons will melt at 900*. so the question should be. How long does it take for the E.G.T. to heat the pistons to 900*? obviously the higher E.G.T. will heat the aluminum pistons faster.

psd tuner

when it hits 1300* i back off of it.

ellerman

Make sure your pyro probe is mounted on the exhaust manifold if you are going to hold 1200 while towing. If it's mounted after the turbo you will get a significantly lower reading and can melt pistons at a sustained 1200. Eric

quads4_life

nope its mounted on the manafold!!

username taken

Aluminums melting point is 1220* - well above the 900 quoted earlier. I would suspect that the pistons in the Cummins are alloyed with other metals that help to raise the melting point significantly above that. Titanium is commonly used to raise the melting points since it has a melting point of 3135*F.

EGT is just an ballpark indicator of what's really happening inside the engine - what we are all really concerned about are combustion chamber temps but impossible for us to measure. CC temps at WOT are usually between 1800 and 2500 degrees in case you're wondering. So the 1220 melting point for aluminum is not really relevant.

The fact that the piston is only exposed to combustion temps for about 25% of the time (remember the combustion stroke is only one of the four in a 4 cycle engine) gives the piston and cylinder time to cool off before the next round. Add in the physics of a boundary layer, and you begin to see that what the piston is actually subjected to becomes very difficult to determine.

All we really have is anecdotal evidence from friends and ballpark guidelines from Cummins, but I think 1200 all day should be safe, and 1300 while climbing a hill shouldn't hurt anything.

For reference, in my 07 5.9, I have seen 1450-1500 pretty easily when pulling in the mountains with the stock program, and Cummins assures me that I can't melt a stock motor. Others with stock programs only see 1350 max under the same conditions. Some only see 1200. I am guessing that the differences in gauges and installation are responsible for the difference. So I use 1400 as my all day max when turned up, and 1500 as my uphill max. 45k miles so far and haven't burned a piston.

Then again, I watched my 2003 6.0 powerstroke burn to the ground after a meltdown towing across flat land at 70mph. Stock tune, light load. Go figure.