PowerMaxTom (was DieselTechTom)

[PatO]

I, of course, never saw 100K miles but those 4 replacement and cleaning activities took place in the 7 year emissions window with the last one just 2 weeks before that expired. All work was under warranty, one time they charged me a $100 deductible but later refunded it. I do not know how they can say the turbo is not covered. If you have multiple documented repairs and a dissatisfaction with the service runaround check with a lemon law lawyer, they can evaluate your case for compensation with no cost to you.

Pat

[Zeta]

Things may have worked out for DieselTechTom after all. Having discovered I needed a new turbo after only 57k miles--I opted to sacrifice some low end for mid range and get a Garrett Powermax turbo. I also replaced the braided oil feed with a rigid line, updated the drain tube to the new, much beefier version, replaced the backpressure sensor


and cleaned the EGR valve.:



The turbo was a big job for an old, fat guy with large hands and forearms. Reassembly is a puzzle where everything has to be installed in the correct order, or something won't fit later! Took me a while...

So what was the result? OK performance and high EGTs. Hmmm. Never occurred to me that a slightly larger turbo would cause my EGTs to go up markedly--if anything I expected to not reap the full benefit of a larger turbo, but would be happy with it. Some quick Binging gave me my answer--Powermax turbos need custom tunes to work properly.

Jody at DP-Tuning came up with a couple tunes for the 6.0 E350 diesel. I went with a 60hp tow tune to keep EGTs and ECT down, emphasize the mid range and activate the fan 5F earlier. He sent me the tunes via email and I installed them with my new SCT 3000 tuner.

The first used F250 transmission shift points and the van hated it.

The second used stock van shift points and was awesome. The EGTs have never been lower, low end is better than it was with the bad turbo and mid range is amazing. Pulling a steep hill near my place, I was able to accelerate (which never happened before) to 65, keep the EGT under 1000F, boost below 20psi and NO black smoke.

At this point everything seems to work together perfectly. I'm very happy with my $2000 "investment". The worst part was having to use a PC laptop to get the custom tunes on the SCT device. Took three years off my life at least.

Z

[daveb]

Can you afford to loose 3 more? I'm due for a trip to your area

[PatO]

I'm talking to these guys about the turbo replacement for mine.

http://www.madturbowerks.com/index.p...how&Itemid=147

They aren't real familiar with it in a van but worst case would be to get a tuner. Check out their other turbo options.

Anyone on the forum familiar with them?

Pat

[jage]

Originally Posted by daveb

Can you afford to loose 3 more? I'm due for a trip to your area

I have dibs on DTT, plus I'm now claiming I need the vaca more...

[Zeta]

You guys are better off having it done where you live. My SCT tuner is keyed to my VIN, so I'm only able to tune my rig. Besides, you would have to kill four or five days here while I got it done--I take a lot of breaks. I do need some yardwork done though...

Z

[Zeta]

Put around 600 miles on the rig this past week. The PowerMax turbo and custom tune are awesome. Power everywhere, more low end than before, great hill climbing, lower EGT and even better fuel mileage (14.3mpg). It even seems to be running a little cooler--never saw over 210F the entire trip. EGT never goes over 1100F pre-turbo, and can be easily kept below 1000F even when pulling a grade at 70mph. For the first time it feels as if the throttle pedal is actually connected--it's not--to the engine.

Four inch exhaust is coming...

Big success I'd say.

Z

[carringb]

Did you ever dig into the cause of the rust? This is not a normal condition. It is almost always due to a cracked EGR cooler. if the stuff you cleaned off the EGR valve was sticky or oily at all, that's a pretty sure sign of sucking in some coolant. Normally it would be crudded up with dry carbon deposits.

[Zeta]

The stuff on the EGR valve was just dry powder. I put a new EGR cooler in it two years ago when I had the oil cooler replaced. It was one of the Bulletproof Diesel EGR coolers. The van sat in Portland, Oregon for five years before I bought it, maybe that's where the rust came from. It's not using any coolant, so I think EGR cooler is okay.

Z

[carringb]

Originally Posted by Zeta

The van sat in Portland, Oregon for five years before I bought it, maybe that's where the rust came from.
Z

Yup, that can do it too, especially if it was fired up for short moments to move it around the lot.