post for a friend with 08 6.7, just had the turbo replaced by the dealer under warranty because the exhaust brake was stuck on. When he bought the truck the they told him to run with the exhaust brake on all the time has anybody else had this problem? Do you really need to run with the exhaust brake constant and if so why? the truck is bone stock and has just under 50k on it. thanks

 

The reason they suggest running with the exhaust brake on all the time is that it helps keep it from sticking. The turbos on our trucks tend to get full of soot which in turn causes other problems, such as low boost codes, exhaust brake malfunctions and poor performance in general.
The egr system on these trucks is a major contributing factor to the soot problem. If emissions inspections are not an issue, I recommend deleting the egr and dpf. Either a Smarty, Black Maxx, or XRT, will allow you to do so code free. As a bonus, fuel mileage will be up considerably, as well as the ability to run more power.

 

I have an 08 with almost 40K on it. I have been running with the EB on full time since day one. Lots of stop and go driving daily with 1,000 pounds in the bed at all times. The truck would lose power for several weeks before the light would eventually come on and this was every couple of months - they tapped and blew the turbo several times and replaced it once from all the soot. That is considerably less than a lot of other guys who I have talked to that never run the brake at all. I did a dpf / egr / cooler delete a few months ago and I am kicking myself in the *** for not doing it when it was new. City mileage went from 12 to 15 assuming I don't do a lot of idling and highway has gone from 13 up to 20+. That is all hand calculated since the overhead is off by anywhere from 2 to 6 mpg on mine as well as everyone else who checks theirs by hand. Plenty of power and no more codes or constant trips to the dealership for lack of power and having them tell me to come back when the light comes on. If the engine is on so is my brake and I have no known problems.

 

should cost no more than $5000.00 for all of it

 

I run the brake on my truck all the time, have since it was new.

I don't understand everyone saying the overhead is off, I haven't done a thing to my truck, other then change the oil every 5000 miles, and I put an S&B intake on it when the stock filter needed to be replaced and it runs great. No codes, no problems. I had one small issue when it was about 5 months old, but I was using the truck to go back and forth to work and was only going about 7 miles each way... since I changed jobs, and now have a 30 mile each way commute the truck is as happy as can be. Overhead usually realda high 17 to low 18 for mpg, I hand calculate it all the time, and it's never more then a tenth off.

I do want to do the deletes to see what that will get me, but CT has bi-yearly emmissions, and if they plug in and see anything you're going to fail. Sucks, becasue putting it all back every other year seems like it would be a real pita.

I do drive with a pretty heavy foot, it's a 75 to 80 mph ride to work every morning, and the ride home is alot of punch it and stop in the hartford area traffic, I don't know what kind of an impact that has on anything, from what it sounds like, I may be having no problems, because of the use, and the 1/2 hour of good speed it sees every morning, keeps everything blown out. I dunno


When I tow with it, I have about 7500 lbs on the back, and we go up a mountain on the way to lebannon valley dragway.... that's got about 4 to 5 miles of strait hill and I leave it in 5th and maintain about 70.. I'm sure that blows EVERYTHING out of it if there's anything that's not getting knocked out of the emmissions and whatnot during my normal driving. Truck hasn't yet given me a problem.

 

as far as your fuel milage on your overhead is concerned, mine was fairly close until i put the dpf/egr deletes then it started telling me i was getting 29 to thirty mpg. i hand calculated it to be 17.5, hince the overhead being untrustworthy...