Montana Owners Club - Keystone Montana 5th Wheel Forum - View Single Post

skypilot · 06-23-2007, 07:16 PM

Rich: Reason for the extra guages is to provide an idea of how certain areas of your truck are doing before damage is done; for example - EGT: by knowing pre-turbo temp you can shift gears, slow down (i.e. reduce the amount of fuel going into the cylinder) before damage is done (yes the engine will 'defuel' at a certain point but by then you are either too hot, or in the middle of traffic when you can least afford to lose power); Trans temp: similar issue -- allows you to modify your driving before the tranny fluid reaches 220/230; Ford guage goes from OK to Oh crap I just fried it, there is no in-between (at least as I remember my 04); and on it goes. If you just drive your truck as a daily driver, never load it up and work it, then the stock guages are sufficient; however, since we all pull trailers of fairly substantial weight, the stock guages are minimally satisfactory (in my opinion).

One other thing to remember; the way that a diesel develops more power (climbing a hill; pulling a load) is by adding more fuel. More fuel equates to more heat (aka power and heat); more heat without somewhere to go leads to piston melt down, turbo-failures, etc.... hence, once again, the guages. You get low RPM, high boost, high pressures, etc.... Different people look at different things, from my reading and own experience, EGT and boost are pretty much universally shown; others go for Tranny temp while some others go for fuel pressures (especially in the earlier Dodges where the fuel pumps were known to fail fairly frequently)

You can't beat a diesel for the power, but you have to treat them right as well.

Well, after all that rambling; I guess to ultimately answer you question -- the reason we want guages is so that we can see (electronically) more of what is happening to our engine and tranny. It may all be mute today anyway, as I and several others have written in several others threads, the big three are really frowning on any aftermarket mods. In the case of Fords and Dodges, if you have guages installed, their dealers must do a fine-tooth look-see for velcro, extra screw holes, etc., anything that would show the addition of aftermarket chips or controllers. If the guage can, in any shape form or fashion, be made to appear to have caused, or been a factor in, the failure of a item, they will not honor the repair as a warranty item (local Dodge dealer has an 07 with 8K miles sitting in their lot -- needs a turbo and STAR will not warranty it because they drilled the manifold and installed an EGT. Owner is fighting it because the failure is on the other side of the turbo but truck has now been down for almost a month.

Enough of my soap box rant -- I get carried away typing sometimes. My wife is reading this over my shoulder and says I should simply say -- because us old people had them in our vehicles before and we want them in our new ones today! Guess that is true as well.

06-23-2007, 07:16 PM	#15
skypilot Montana Master Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Manhattan Posts: 1,144 M.O.C. #1846	Rich: Reason for the extra guages is to provide an idea of how certain areas of your truck are doing before damage is done; for example - EGT: by knowing pre-turbo temp you can shift gears, slow down (i.e. reduce the amount of fuel going into the cylinder) before damage is done (yes the engine will 'defuel' at a certain point but by then you are either too hot, or in the middle of traffic when you can least afford to lose power); Trans temp: similar issue -- allows you to modify your driving before the tranny fluid reaches 220/230; Ford guage goes from OK to Oh crap I just fried it, there is no in-between (at least as I remember my 04); and on it goes. If you just drive your truck as a daily driver, never load it up and work it, then the stock guages are sufficient; however, since we all pull trailers of fairly substantial weight, the stock guages are minimally satisfactory (in my opinion). One other thing to remember; the way that a diesel develops more power (climbing a hill; pulling a load) is by adding more fuel. More fuel equates to more heat (aka power and heat); more heat without somewhere to go leads to piston melt down, turbo-failures, etc.... hence, once again, the guages. You get low RPM, high boost, high pressures, etc.... Different people look at different things, from my reading and own experience, EGT and boost are pretty much universally shown; others go for Tranny temp while some others go for fuel pressures (especially in the earlier Dodges where the fuel pumps were known to fail fairly frequently) You can't beat a diesel for the power, but you have to treat them right as well. Well, after all that rambling; I guess to ultimately answer you question -- the reason we want guages is so that we can see (electronically) more of what is happening to our engine and tranny. It may all be mute today anyway, as I and several others have written in several others threads, the big three are really frowning on any aftermarket mods. In the case of Fords and Dodges, if you have guages installed, their dealers must do a fine-tooth look-see for velcro, extra screw holes, etc., anything that would show the addition of aftermarket chips or controllers. If the guage can, in any shape form or fashion, be made to appear to have caused, or been a factor in, the failure of a item, they will not honor the repair as a warranty item (local Dodge dealer has an 07 with 8K miles sitting in their lot -- needs a turbo and STAR will not warranty it because they drilled the manifold and installed an EGT. Owner is fighting it because the failure is on the other side of the turbo but truck has now been down for almost a month. Enough of my soap box rant -- I get carried away typing sometimes. My wife is reading this over my shoulder and says I should simply say -- because us old people had them in our vehicles before and we want them in our new ones today! Guess that is true as well.