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quote:Originally posted by Bill-N-Donna
This has been an interesting thread reading back through this. I’m looking forward to the experiences and travels with the Ford diesel after switching from the gasser V-10 last fall. Haven’t had a chance to go anywhere with the ford other than two quick trips to a flying–J and back (while towing that is). Just had to hook up and make a couple of trips while waiting on good weather. Camping fever I guess! However, I really liked how it performed so far.
Rich, you stated you have an external gage for the transmission temperature; is that one you added yourself or are you using the ones that come with the Ford?
The Ford I have has got two temp gages, one for the transmission and the regular gage. I’m just curious as to whether or not I will need any additional gages.
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Bill, if I may offer some advice... I towed fifthwheels with Fords, exclusively, from 1995 until mid-2007. I noticed the Ford temperature gauges, both transmission and engine, seemed to stay in the same position on the gauge 99% of the time. Then, under heavy load uphill they might "suddenly" move to 3/4 of the gauge or higher. I did some research and found out the Ford gauges are built to always show the same position on the gauge so long as the temperature is within the range Ford thinks is "normal." In other words, let's say that normal is 160 degrees to 220 degrees. The gauge works like a normal gauge when below 160. On start, it shows cold and slowly moves to normal. Then it stays in that one position so long as the temperature is between 160 and 220. If it exceeds 220 the needle moves up to 3/4 (or wherever) and acts like a normal gauge again above 220. Keep an eye on the gauge and you'll see when it gets hot it will suddenly move to 3/4. It will take maybe two seconds to make that climb on the gauge. That is the reason I added external gauges to my Fords, like others did.
I had EGT for exhaust gas temperature (that's an important one), transmission temp and engine temp. If you go EGT you have to decide to have the probe installed before the turbo or after.
If before the turbo, you get instant gauge reaction to temperature changes. That's my preference so that you can react to the temperature climb before there is damage. The negative side of pre-turbo is the remote chance if the probe breaks it goes into and destroys the turbo. It's probably happened to someone but I don't know of anyone.
If after the turbo, the temperatures will read lower and the gauge will change significantly more slowly. It still gives you an idea and probably clues you in time to avoid damage but I didn't like the way it worked when I had one installed that way. I took the truck back and had them move the probe to the pre-turbo position. But post turbo is far preferable to no EGT at all.
That said, I've not yet installed external gauges on this Dodge. The engine temp gauge works well on this truck but there is no egt nor tranny gauge. So I need to install gauges one of these days.