What your Exhaust Temp is saying about your Diesel Engine. EGT.

In this video we are discussing the contentious subject of EGT and Exhaust Temperature.

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[stig]

I was told by an old deisel mechanic many moons ago "never lug on a heavy load or hill " let it rev.

[Jethrosgarage]

I have worked on marine engines my whole professional life - about twenty plus years ago I worked for a place that was a distributor for MAN diesels- we had some 1000 hp V12s in twin application, in 60 foot fiberglass sport fishing boats- they had lots of piston seizures and it came down to two things- the load on the engines accelerating the hull up on plane (similar to getting a loaded truck to highway speed) caused combustion gas temps to spike, and the engines used a sea water to air aftercooler (as do most high performance Cat marine engines, Cummins etc) and the sea water pump and system supplying the water did not have the flow at mid RPM to supply enough cooling to keep the inlet air temps down when the load spiked, and lo and behold we had piston seizures. This was also in the days of totally mechanical injection that could not alter fuel timing etc to assist with these issues. The cure was larger volume sea water pumps and larger aftercoolers. Also, unlike a truck with gears, the engines were coupled to fixed ratio transmissions and fixed pitch propellers.

[TroubleActual]

That's why i liked my 96 pete. It had gauges to monitor engine. We had general rule with 3406b, don't let pyro pass 1200f. Thx for your video!

[clydeacor]

Thanks Josh! It's great to finally get a straight answer! I've always just followed the rule of not letting it go over 1100°F.

[cstew]

Excellent video I’m new to HGV mechanics I’ve swapped careers from auto electrical to HGV mechanical and your videos have be excellent mate! Thank you very much for your time and effort.. 👍

[kevinwatt]

Great video Josh! Shows why a pyrometer is so important!

[duanebuck]

Excellent information. Makes me happy that I installed 2 automotive cooling fans on my 3126 in my DP to help pull air through the CAC and radiator., I can see my engine temp drop a few degrees anytime that the fans kick in, even when we were going up the grade out of Vegas to California. It just made sense to me to boost the airflow to help the engine cool down, and it's done wonders.

[mikekellokoski]

I appreciate the dedication to know everything about these engines by asking about the rep (then asking the engineer) to know the EGT upper limit

[wizard_of_poz]

I try to keep this in mind when the temptation to lug an engine comes up

[Chris-.F]

Very good point about raising RPMs to lower egts. I've always done that to lower coolant temp but never thought about it for egts kind of obvious when you think about it though LOL

[billcovert]

Very interesting. EGT temp of 1200 before turbo was understood in the mechanical engines as max. In Northern Calif. logging country there were some real guru's at building 600 + horse power while keeping EGT somewhat controlled. As you are saying it was all about fuel; air; timing. It took a good driver to keep pistons from cracking.
Something to keep an eye out for is a burnt ground wire between starter ground and engine block. Which would indicate a short in Alternator Positive cable to engine block.

[Charger]

Been watching you for awhile now and I really enjoy your content. I been working on gassers for 50 years and now I’ve got a diesel I can work on. Pretty simple, pretty much the same as gas but much bigger and much much heavier. Keep up the great work.

[rodneyward]

I am a Cat guy. Had yellow under my hoods for several decades. Even white. (Most A models) A, B, C, Peec, E, and 6nz I would run to 1300. I had 3 b models with a pyro installed pre turbo and behind. 1300 hundred hard pull would usually be 1370ish before turbo. I run ACERT to 1100. But the ACERT will cool down faster. From my experience all cats feel like at a certain point they are losing power but if you back off the throttle and lay into it again would start yanking hard again. Older cats would need a downshift at this time. Not because they needed it but because you needed to bring the egts down. I have found that the C15 will fairly quickly lose exhaust temps then lay back into her in overdrive.

[paullogan]

I love your Channel! I will be soon looking for an RV to retire into. Started driver professionally in 1988. My check driver hammered into me the 3 major rules. 1)NEVER exceed 1250 pyro. Ask why and was told go ahead and melt the valves. Good enough answer for me. 2) if you hear on the CB a monfort coming stay right.and 3) watch out for swift and company. I knew a lot of the Willis Shaw Frozen Express driver from when I worked at Lew & Teds. WSFE was my first company. He explained that the pyro was how hot and metal like are skin can only handle so much. I never crossed 1200. KEEP UP THE GREAT INFORMATION!!!

[JK]

Well shit now, guess I’m buying a 2nd pyro. This knowledge and willingness to teach free and charge to boot is mind blowing. The things I’ve learned and the engine work I’ve done, not possible without your help. Thanks!

[clinthall]

That was a very good explanation on how it works. On the 3406a and b's 1200 was the hottest we took them with the fuel turned up, back off the pedal

[buelowexcavating]

Great video! Keep them coming. I am a guy people would call when they had mechanical and other problems. As I age I find I have forgotten some things. So I started writing down things like this, I am now around 400 pages and a few videos of information. Yesterday I had a problem that I faced many years ago and was trying to solve, when I blindly started working on it, it all came back to me, and I added it to my book. About 50 years ago I worked on a job with an old guy who soon retired. He told me of the hazards on the job. About 20 years ago they sent a crew to work on it, but no one advised the crew of the dangers. Two people needlessly died on it! Please write a book or have these videos accessible for future generations.

[Bacongrease]

1250 continuous, 1250-1350 intermittent less than a minute or two 1350-1400 less than 15 seconds. That’s been my rule of thumb.

[pauldicou]

I climb hills in the summer like a icy road, with the engine fan on and I watch the temp gauge and boost very closely. Rpm around 17-1800 rpm I have crossed some big mountain hills at 80, 000 pounds just being patient and “easy” on my engine. Thanks for your videos.

[drdoutdoors]

Man, this answered a lot of questions for me as I run a MBN everyday and I've always heard of the high EGT's that come with the it. I don't have a pyrometer so I've always been a little nervous about it and the only thing I can think of doing to help keep it low is to run my fan more often than not especially when pulling hills. I'm glad that you touched on that and confirmed that what I was doing could help. I haven't had any problems with it but I've heard that it could melt pistons and such. Thanks for the video!