chinook country

Hello, just wonderin' how the smarty is working out for those that are towing 8K and over? Just a smarty and injectors, no TST etc. I'm running the 275's with a VA at the moment and it's a decent setup for my towing needs, I'm pulling about 11K. The 24v is a great motor but doesn't seem to grunt and lug as well as the 12ers. With the smarty fuelling better down at low rpm's I'd like to consider trying one and selling the VA. Anyone have some input? Thanks! ~CC

Sixpack

With my setup listed below, I can't feel the 5r behind me until I shift into 3rd gear. The low end grunt is awesome....

BTW my 5r weighs in at around 8000#

P Kennedy

Chinook when you say it won't grunt in the bottom end-how are you driving it, I have Edge EZ and 275 grossing 21-22,000lbs and pull the Rogers pass at 60 mph. What are you expecting from your truck???? PK

chinook country

Well it will get up and go alright, the truck appears to be running perfectly. If the turbo spools quicker with the smarty then I would expect it to get up to speed quicker. A hybrid turbo would spool up 100 rpm's faster too, but I can't do both right now. If I went over Roger's pass with a 11k load (18k combined) I would not be able keep it at 60 mph on long grades or I would melt something. I'm driving a 5 spd SO. I would normally be shifting to 4th to keep the egt's below 1250*.

I don't drive like an animal, to conserve fuel mostly, but getting the load up to speed from a stop the smarty sounds great.

P Kennedy

OK Chinook how do you mean you would melt some thing, I am running basically the same setup and only if the outside air temp is above 80F the coolant gets on the warm side. EGT's are 1000-1100F tps post turbo and I will suckhole mine down to 1600 rpm if I can see the top of the hill with 28 psi boost. PK

duallydave

with your pyro being post turbo your running quite a bit hotter than what your seeing,probaly hotter than chinook at 1250,if i lug mine in 5th{below 55mph}my egt climb pretty fast,i agree the 24v wont lug as much as the 12v.

chinook country

Your truck is a HO 6 spd. Note my sig, I'm running a 3.55 rear diff SO 5 spd. I can hit 1100* WOT with my setup unloaded, or if I lug it down real low and gun it, I can get over that too. I'm under the impression based on my research here, that when towing all day 1250* is a good limit to back off the pedal or downshift. Even cummins uses that number as a reccomendation. Lot's of folks will hit 1500 or more on a WOT run but not stay there for long because you run the risk of overheating or deforming engine parts. Tap your pyro pre-turbo and check your numbers to see what your hitting. You've got a great tow rig if your doing what your doing, more power to ya.

Sixpack

BigBlue

1000-1100 post turbo equates to 1400* pre turbo and that's being conservative. I saw a 500* difference between the two at WOT. That would mean that your hitting 1500-1600* and that's VERY BAD for a long pull.

P Kennedy

I have been pulling the same loads since the truck was new, I have always had post turbo pyro probes on every diesel big or small, 225,000km's ( 135k miles) with synthetic oil, 412,000k's on 1991 CTD same numbers no problems. Chinook I realize you have a 5spd but on the same hill in 4th (direct) it is the same as my 5th (direct) with 3.55 gears you should see similar performance as the only differences are the tranny, air cleaner and VA box. 1000-1100F post turbo is normal on any class 6,7,8 truck with some fine tuning, some Macks pull 1250-1300F all day all with post turbo numbers set at 3-6" past the turbo outlet. Water temp is always more of an issue until low rpm pulling drives up pryo temps (1500-1800rpm 5.9B-1400-1650rpm NTC 855). Have run 3406 Cats lower until torque shake 900-1100rpm/15-22psi manifold and 1150-1200F pyro. Cummins made some high torque NTC 855 engines to run 1350-1850rpm and 1150F pyro never had trouble with turbos but they were Big Cam IV low flow coolant models and cooling the water was a bigger issue. Chinook I have looked at upgrading to a smarty with 1.6 EDM injectors as well but I can't complain about the performance from my EZ&275's. PK

BigBlue

Your lucky then. These engines have been known to eat the #6 piston when pulling heavy loads above 1300* pre turbo EGT's for sustained periods of time.

chinook country

Well I quess it goes to show ya that these cummins are great motors. PK, you may be running a fine line with your truck, you are at least 250* hotter at the manifold, but you have a lot more diesel experience than I do. I play pretty safe, when my isspro guage hits the red, I leave well enough alone. I was considering the mach 1.6's as well but I may go with the smarty and I think my clutch will survive, I hope Any more smarty towing experiences would help me out a great deal before getting on the bandwagon, hey bandwagons are cool

P Kennedy

I am amazed your truck still has the stock clutch, mine would not take both the box and injectors. SBC was installed and truck works even better with upgrades, mine is used for work not drag racing it needs to be able to pull. There have been some #6 piston failures but only reported here on DTR and TDR in Dodge pickups very little trouble with these engines in 300+ HP fire trucks, motor coaches and industrial equipment all which work at peak load and performance levels continuously. I must be "lucky" as I dont follow the owners manual on anything- maintence schedule, idling, break in, operating rpm's or shift points. I have not had the LP failures, VP failures, turbo issues etc every one else has had, but I do the same things to all my diesels. Had 1 turbo failure on a 3406 CAt being an idiot racing another truck up a hill and cooked (not coked) her good but she hit 1500F and was pushing about 46psi at 1500rpm- my fault should have shifted but I didn't to win $100. Chinook the Smarty's are a good investment but I don't think all your issues are your box and injectors. PK PS Chinook read the April 1 post in the get together forum for shindig Saturday in Red Deer, some of the other guy's may have some input and some BIG fish stories------------------