bad pull in bishop Ca

[JD_Diesel]

Last year went to bishop with telescope club up about 9,000 feet in the white mountains truck pulled the 21000 pounds with out any problems no over heat just ran a little warmer then usual. Air temp was about the same as last year. This trip going up the mountain engine temp and trans temp way up. Had to stop and let cool off. Could only pull in 1st gear. Last trip truck went into 3rd gear on a lot of the steep pulls. This time barly made it to top of camp area. last 150 feet warning lights and warning bells trans over heat engine coolant to high stop idle engine. The only thing different from last year are tires 265's where 245's, boost stick, diablo on tow setting, egr shut off with diablo, speedo changed for tire size with diablo. Had the banks exhaust on last time to. any ideas or suggestions of what might be going on. plan on leaving friday to go on a 700 mile trip up the 5 towards central cal. I'm a little concerned now. Thanks JD

[7.4 VORTEC]

Sorry to hear about the stressful pull. How frustrating that must have been.
I would guess (if I read your post correctly) that since last years trip, the diablo has been installed. I don't own a duramax (run 6.5TD and 6.0 powerstroke) but have run into situations where the diablo is causing an overheat problem, especially in 6.0 powerstrokes. From what I'm being told, its in the timing and causing the engine to overheat or spew coolant due to high temps. This was happening even in "tow" mode, which is suppose to be "safe". Scarey no matter how you look at it.

I'm sure Kennedy or some of the other experts on the board will be able to nail it on the head and solve your problem quickly. Do you have a egt and boost gauge to see what kind of numbers you were pulling? I couldn't tell by your sig if you had those installed.

Regarding your telescope club, thats gotta be the coolest thing I've heard of in a while. It must be incredible at 9000 feet to stare gaze. We have so much light polution where we live that we often wonder if there are any stars left.

Cheers,
George

[ronniejoe]

Make sure your radiator and other heat exchangers are not plugged up with bugs and other debris.

[JD_Diesel]

yes I have boost and EGT. Have seen boost up to 32psi. Exhaust temp where very scary. At times hitting 1500 on this run. Even on some of the mild climbs the temp was close to max. not sure what to do about this. I am going to put stock tune back for this trip to san benito Ca, This run will be up the 5 and the grape vine and see what happens on this run. I have been really thinking about going with the edge attitude, I like the fact that I can change tune on the fly. I think that might be better. Thanks JD

[Jomar]

From my experience, it`s the PREDATOR and I haven`t even pulled that much weight. You don`t want 1500 F exhaust temps for very long.

Jomar

[carco]

I traveled over Cottonwood Pass in Colorado last summer with close to 22000 gross. I too had overheat and trans overheat issues moving up the east side. I was, in all fairness, pushing the truck hard and on level 2. I run the edge/attitude and am very happy with Edge. When we left for home up the west side we took our time and the temps were not even close to overheating and we were 800 pounds heavier, 2 more atv's. I now usually use level 1 for towing and works good, I pull most hills nearly the same speed as level ground and I'm near 22000#+ most of the time pulling. I believe some overheat problems may be due to more power, from addon boxes, therefor alowing for harder more agressive pulling thereby produceing more heat than the systems can dispose of quickly enough. If we still pulled @ speeds allowed only by a stock engine, with our boxed/programmed engines, the cooling systems would be able to keep up. bob............

[JD_Diesel]

I only go 62 mph max I'm not really in any rush to get any where. I just like to cruse. fast enugh to not hold traffic up to bad and slow enugh so the coppers don't mess with me. I very really push the truck hard when towing. So on this trip up north I'm putting it into stock mode to see if there is any problems. my next plan is to get the edge and attide. check the grape vine out on this runn. staying at thousand trails camp ground san bento any body going there look me up can't miss the giant AMSOIL sticker in the back window of my truck. JD

[Craig M]

For non California readers, the maximum legal speed for a pickup with any trailer atttached is 55 mph. 65 and 70 are allowed for cars on some freeways, but any trailer is treated as an 18 wheeler and limited to 55 mph.

[EZHAULER]

Hey JD DIESEL, Sorry to read about your bad pull experience. I just returned from that same hwy 395run up to Mammoth Lakes going through bishop with outside temps of 105F, pulling 12K trailer. There are some long hills to pull up that way. I recently put on the Edge Juice W/Attitude Monitor and MBRP cat back Ext- and I'm very happy I had it on this pull. I found out by watching the gauges and speed- all together and trying to lug it up the hills ( low) RPM and maintaining speed the truck would get hot-up to 230+engine & trans up to 230-250 in tow mode level 2. but as soon as I would hit the fuel paddle down a little to down shift and hold the RPM around 2000-2200 approx 50 MPH, you could watch the gauges start to come down to normal range 200-210 Eng & 200 trans and Ext temp around 1000-1150 while still pulling the hill-Just by keeping the RPM's up. I could tell that I had lost some power from the HIGH temp's,but I'm very happy the way the truck reacted and pleased with the choice of gauges the EDGE gives you to use.

__________________________________________________ ____________
2004, LLY 2500HD,CC/SB 4X4,Edge Juice W/Attitude Monitor
MBRP 4"Cat Back Exhaust,K & N Air Filter,60 Gal Aux Fuel Tank
Sprayed in Bed Liner,Firestone Air Bags,Front End leved W 305/50 R20 Tires

[JD_Diesel]

Craig M here in calif it is 55 with trailers in tow to , but my experiance is that most peace officers won't bother you at 62 mph if your not doing anything stupid. JD

[mark45678]

anything less then 2000 RPM on a lly pulling it will not make power and sill start to warm up ! often time even one size larger tire will change your engine RPM to a slower speed where the turbo will not make boost .... a stock lly truck running 245 tires starts to lug around 60 ish....in 5th gear

[EZHAULER]

What is the best or ideal range to keep the RPM's during a long pull?
__________________________________________________ _____________
2004, LLY 2500HD,CC/SB 4X4,Edge Juice W/Attitude Monitor
MBRP 4"Cat Back Exhaust,K & N Air Filter,60 Gal Aux Fuel Tank
Sprayed in Bed Liner,Firestone Air Bags,Front End leved W 305/50 R20 Tires

[JD_Diesel]

Ok back from hollister Ca this weekend. did the the grape vine both sides in stock tune had no over heating problems just got a little warm. going north the out side temp was 102. Trans got upto 220. Engine got upto 235. 35 mph Dont think that was to bad for how hot it was. Going south temp was 95. Trans was 210. Engine was 220 to 230. Did 45mph on south side. So is it better to tow in stock tune? Because when I tow in tow tune had all kinds of over heating problems. Is there a fix for the lly over heating problem form GM or after market. I have heard that the lly's tend to over heat? This was much better then my bishop run was. JD

[Mark Rinker]

Dumb question, but are you sure your fan clutch working properly?

I got pulled over with truck and empty trailer, just north of LA on interstate 5. Was doing 75mph in the left lane - bascially running with traffic. The officer asked me what I was doing - I told him I was hurrying because I had to pee.

He (quickly) told me to "stick in the right lane and I'd be alright up to 60mph" and handed me back my license - without even going back to his car to run it. We both had short flattop haircuts, he must have assumed I was in the corp.

[Craig M]

Mark, you must have caught him in a good mood. I got a ticket pulling an empty trailer with a pickup truck North of Sacramento on I-5 for going 62 mph. Legal speed for autos was 65 mph. No trafic to speak of and good visibility. Like your officer stated they normally will allow one 5 mph over the legal speed. One rerely sees an 18 wheeler going 55 mph. Coming back from the Colorado river there are dozens of pickups pulling jet skis and boats hauling at 70/75 like you were doing. CHP could give as many tickets as they have books for.

[spongebob]

JD..i can see that pass you went up on from my patio..
did you go see the antennas up on top?? i do the refrigeration on those puppys..

[More Power]

JD,

What gear and engine rpm do you run up the long steep grades?

The highest EGT's I've seen were at or near the governor at full pedal, whether using power adders or not. This I attribute to the turbocharger efficiency falling away at higher rpms (turbo is not quite large enough for the high rpm flow requirements). The turbo seems to be more efficient when operating in the 2400 rpm region. I believe a larger/higher flow turbo would help (to reduce EGT & ECT) at the higher rpm ranges.

Jim

[JD_Diesel]

on most of those hard pulls was in tow haul. Most of the time it will stay in 2nd and in good spots stay in 3rd try to maintain 2500 as max 2100 as min. and EGT temps higher then I like to see upto 1450 for short periods of timehad to keep it there until until steep area smoothed out. last pull in bishop I did bury them EGT gauge when all the warning bells and whistle's went off was not going to stop on that steep of grade only had 150 feet to go to flat area to cool offf. JD