juice/towing/scary loss of power

[fasterthanyou]

I was towing a racecar trailer up the Grapevine coming out of Los Angeles yesterday and my juiced D-max lost all power. I run most things hard and I think I pushed the limits a little here. I was towing in tow/haul on power mode 4 and I know the direction say don't do it past 2, but come awn! So I baby it up long grades to have the power I need to pass on flat ground. I let the truck get to 55 mph and around 1600rpm in 4ht gear. I was almots to the top and surrounded by tractor/trailers when ZIP, it sounded like the motor was off! I turned the stereo down and hit the hazard lights asap. started to pull into the shoulder and pulling the gear selector down, turned off tow/haul. When I would depress the accelerator pedle the rpms would rev, but there was very little noise and no lock up in the tranny to pull the truck forward. When I got to about 15 mph, I pulled the tranns to 1 and it ran fine. I hit the top of the grade and coasted down to Gorman and changed the setting to level 2. Is this the limp mode? Did I overheat my turbo or something?
The tranny temp and engine temp were normal. I was towing my trailer with only 1 car, normal 2 plus tools. This is an early Juice with 50k miles on it and truck has 85k and is always serviced on time, including fuel filter. I really need a egt guage, but I don't know if that was the problem, I was only in the throttle a little, not enough to image cooking something. Before I got the Juice I would run at 3200 in 4th pinned for hours on end, no BS. I figured if it didn't blow up then, while under warranty, it would run forever Juiced and only 1/2 throttle at the same speed. Not a real sound theory, but you know, fawk it!

[mackin]

fasterthanyou,

Yup you sure are ^.......... :eek:


Sounds like a classic limp condition to me, to much spin detected and ZING,welcome to no power.......Can't believe your taking that kind off chance ,Hey it's your truck.......No gauges towing ?Juice in the highest level while towing? You expect warranty service?
Good luck.......If you part it out let me know........


MAC ;)

[Desert Diesel]

fasterthanyou,

I would bet you were pushing close to 15,000 deg. with your EGT's towing in level 4 up that grade.
You should get a pyro to see what your actual temps are.
But don't change your driving habits.
We'll use your truck to prove to the naysayers that the aluminium heads in our diesels are just as good as their cast-iron ones :D

At least you have the right attitude.
We only live once!.

[Colorado Kid]

1600 RPM at 55 MPH would be 5th gear wouldn't it? And 1600 RPM is right in the fat part of the Juice enhanced tourque curve, and the Allison is known to have trouble holding upgraded torque IN 5TH GEAR. I'm just about certain that you simply caused a 5th gear slip and the Allison politely asked the ECM to save its life, which the ECM agreed to.

From a transmissions perspective running in direct drive (4th) at 3200 RPM all day long is a much less stressful life than running in overdrive (5th) while handling at least 40% more torque (just to make up for the taller gearing, assuming you really are just going the same speed you would have been without the Juice with the same load and in a higher gear...which I wouldn't bet a plug nickel on by the way). The lower RPM causes lower pump pressures and lower fluid velocites to and from the cooler, even if the guage doesn't show a tempurature increase the spread of temps inside the trans are increased by the lower flow.

I think you should count your blessings, you're towing with a chipped truck with a stock automatic trans, ignoring the chip maker's recommendations and pretending that you can "feel" the EGT's instead of getting a guage, and all that has happened it the transmission decided to protect itself. If you'd tried that in brand D or brand F and you'd now be in the market for a new transmission!

[ChevysRus]

Man ya just gotta love it! Even when we try to commit vehicular sucide, it won't let us do it!!

All I gotta say, is the way you drive your truck, should make all the competition give up when you pull your race car to the starting line!!!! LOL

OK first order of business:

1. Get a set of gauges today.

2. Upgrade that tranny to the deep pan and Transynd. If you already did that then good for you, it probably helped save that tranny this time. If not, you need to change that tranny fluid anyway as you really may have burned it a little this time.

3. Pull that juice off and take it in to the dealer to see what codes were set and why.

4. Put your juice back on and leave it at level 2 when towing as instructed (use your race car for all the fun)

5. I will send you a form to fill out, just fill it in and under beneficiary enter my name and send it back to me, I will pay the premiums and you just keep on driving like you do. Someday I will be able to cash in on the policy, because you can't go on forever like this, it's not fair that you get to take all the risk and have all the fun!! LOL (just kidding)

OK glad noting appears to be badly hurt and lessons can be learned for all of us.


Regards.

[hoot]

When it does that pull over and stop. Shut the truck down and wait a minute or two. Restart and you should be back to normal.

But like everyone else says, you are asking for trouble. Last thing we want to hear is a dissatisfied owner that thinks it should handle that type of abuse.

[3TV]

FasterThanMe,
You may wish to send your Juice back to Edge Products to have it updated to the current 4.0 settings. The reason I say this is because the newer versions have a sensor that monitors transmission slippage, and will defuel the motor before the transmission slips enough to put your motor into "limp" mode.

3TV

[fasterthanyou]

First off all, I would like to thank all of you who have replied with your great wisdom. I agree 100% that I need to get a EGT guage asap. As far as the comment about 1600 at 55 being 5th gear and it was the Alison sliping, that is not the case. I have a 6" lift and 35 " tires which changes the final drive ration causing me to be able to go fasterthanyou. only kidd'n but the motor defuels at 94-96, but my actual GPS speed is about 118. I think the stock spedo was off a few or more from the factory. Also, I really was baby'n it up the grade. I could have gone faster with no chip at all had I flogged it all the way. That was my reason for the post, I din't "expect" a problem being this conservitive. I know I said I run most thing real hard, and I don't dissagree that not monitoring my EGT is a boneheaded decision,(first time diesel guy) but I was not running that hard. I didn't love this truck when I first got it, in fact when I heard others talking about fuel milage etc, I was a little bummed. After the Juice and some other mods, I get excited to push it to its limits. And, I really do love the truck. Just trying to keep everyone posted on a development that concerned me. And, I didn't know if that was how the limp mode worked, I expected it would be less drastic that it was, always love adrinelyn(SP) rush! Thanks again

[MaxDMax]

fasterthanyou,
Please note from my experience. I pull a 13,000lb+ 5er almost every weekend, I left home last Saturday without changing the Juice to level 2. I remembered this as I was just leaving, but thought I would see what would happen. As I pulled out and noticed the EGT gauge moving like a tach as I accelerated! When I got to the first hill it jumped to 1,400+ degrees faster than I could react. I would think it would keep climbing and go 1,500+ easy. I pulled over and went back to level 2 w/tow-haul ASAP. How much does your trailer weigh? If you plan to keep running like this please keep us posted, I would be interested to know if the motor lasts under these temperatures. Good luck!

[Colorado Kid]

If the motor is defueling because it is in the RPM governor at 3400 RPM and 118 MPH that is equivelent to 1600 RPM at 55 MPH in the same gear. I know what gear I think you were in, but I'll probably not convince you. I also know that you think you were taking it easy, but that you have no boost or EGT guages to judge how hard you were pushing it. No doubt you didn't have the throttle burried, or it would have been in a lower gear, but you can be running quite a bit of fuel, especially chipped and in the highest setting, with relatively small accelerator application. I haven't experienced the transmission limp mode, but you aren't the first to note that it is startling when it happens.