Brain Fart ???


EGT and Pyro are the same thing.

 

Fuel pressure.


An air dog would help alot, ive noticed a huge difference with mine

 

Heres the deal on guages - adding fuel, which is necessary to get the performance gains you are after creates more heat (even towing on a bone stock truck you can creat dangerous amount of heat). To get more performance out of your diesel you have to add more fuel and add more air, which in turn, makes heat. The problem is that the aluminum pistons in your engine can start to melt at around 1300F (sustained temperature). So, it is necessary to have gauges to monitor what is going on. Bombing a truck without them will undoudetly cause damage.

Heres a quick rundown on guages:

Exhaust Gas Temperature guage (or pyrometer) - this one is VERY important because its give you have idea of how hot the exhaust is and yes, if you are too hot, you either back out of the throttle or turn down/off your box(es).

Boost Guage - measures turbo output. Important when adding more air.

Fuel Pressure - necessary so that you can determine the performance of the lift pump which are prone to failure. This seems to be a bigger problem on the second gens but its still an issue on third gens, I believe.

Transmisson Temp guage - not sure if you have a auto or std Winston but this is necessary if you tow with your truck. If you dont, its not required but is still a good idea.

That being said, most of these guages should be included from the factory. Not only are they good troubleshooting tools, but they should help make your truck last longer. NO its not too late for you - that is a low HP tuner and as long as you havent really bagged your truck - you will be fine. I would suggest turning the box off until you get a pyrometer though

Since you seem new to diesels heres another tip - after running your truck and especially important if youve been running hard is to cool down the turbo. The turbo needs to spool down and dissipate some heat as they run a hundred thousand or more rpm. Shutting down early is hard on it and can coke (not cook) the oil whch can lead to turbo failure. Therefore, its necessary to let the truck run in park or neutral generally 3-6 minutes so it can cool. Again, having a pyo helps because you simply watch the guage and shut down when the temp reaches 300F.

Hope this helps.

 

... Thanks, I learned more from thatone, single explanation then I could gather searching the Internet until late last night. Of course, it probably didn't help that I was on my 8th beer or so

 

One more thing, you cant use the word bombing and budget in the same sentance. Three are different levels of bombing, but the bottom line is "if ya wanna play ya got to pay"

 

Ok, so I think we've beat the gauges to death but I think you can now see how important they are?

A simple equation with the oil (diesel) burner is this:
(Air + Fuel) - (Waste + Restriction) = Power

What that means to you is the more fuel and air in (compressorr, intercooler, fueling box, boost fooler, injectors, air box) the more power you will get assuming it can get out safetly (ie exhaust, turbo etc.). It really isn't that hard but can get VERY expensive if you aren't careful.

Ex: running your 2004.5 truck (which is a 600, not a 610) on excessive fueling without a fuel pressure gauge and your OEM lift pump switched to the factory setting of dumb *** (no there is nothing you can do about it) you will burn it out. This is a big problem because now your CP3 injection pump is sucking fuel without the pusher. This burners that out and poof - you are now not moving anywhere except to your local service centre with a major bill ahead of you. This is not fun. Most of us have had this happen because we thought that all this advice was just ney-sayers.

Sure my truck, like Evil's is older than yours but I was like you when I started out. I added a FRAM oil filter and a K&N drop in air filter and until a good friend smacked me upside the head I would never have known any better. BTW: don't use either of those products on your truck - ever. Then, I proceeded to go through 2 lift pumps and 2 VP44 injection pumps before I did anything about it. Not fun is all I can tell you.

So gauges should be next on your list and you'll be fine.