Serious EGT problem? And need overflow tank in Lubbock ASAP

[bobbiemartin]

If you are buying a new overflow tank, there are two available. The later one is for the K47 airbox, it routes the smaller hose forward instead of up. It fits better around the K47 airbox. If buying new, I would pick the one that fits best around your air cleaner.

This is the older (94-97) overflow for the plate air filter

And the newer one for the K47 airbox

The new overflow installed, it routes the hose under the airbox, keeps it from hanging up on the hood hinge.

 

[JeffMD]

Hey, that last post was actually Jeff, logging in from the KOA. Now it's Kevin again.

He replaced the overflow tank and straight-piped any possible exhaust restrictions. (nudge-nudge, wink-wink) EGT was good when running without the trailer before the stop at the exhaust shop. After the fixes, with trailer hooked up again, EGT still stratospheric and still losing coolant.

At the moment, he's in Clovis NM, intending to trade the Sub in on a 7.3 Excursion, a non-GM diesel crew cab, or possibly a gasser.

 

[great white]

Hey, that last post was actually Jeff, logging in from the KOA. Now it's Kevin again.

He replaced the overflow tank and straight-piped any possible exhaust restrictions. (nudge-nudge, wink-wink) EGT was good when running without the trailer before the stop at the exhaust shop. After the fixes, with trailer hooked up again, EGT still stratospheric and still losing coolant.

At the moment, he's in Clovis NM, intending to trade the Sub in on a 7.3 Excursion, a non-GM diesel crew cab, or possibly a gasser.

7.3 Excursion sounds nice!

Especially if you have to haul the fam around.

 

[Big T]

Stock fan? Waterpump? Was the rad cleaned?

My '95 always ran hot until I did the Heath Cooling Modifications. Now it runs cool, even while towing.

 

[JeffMD]

AFAIK, he's making a deal on an '02 7.3 Excursion right now. I don't even want to know what the dealer gave him in trade for the Sub.

 

[buddy]

Where were the boost numbers after the exhaust mods, any higher? He needs a little more boost than he had before.

Any luck on verifying pyrometer? With the way you described it being bouncy it could be suspect.

Seems like a terrible hand of cards to need to walk away today with a vehicle knowing it has to pull a camper of such weight thats in the lot on my inadequate current truck, and we are 1000 miles from home.

 

[great white]

AFAIK, he's making a deal on an '02 7.3 Excursion right now. I don't even want to know what the dealer gave him in trade for the Sub.

Well, that's a close to a modern diesel sub he's gonna get, so all the best of luck to him!

:thumbsup:

Those 7.3's have a good amount of aftermarket support behind them too. World of differnece compared to the 6.5

With any luck, it's the "limited" trim level. Really nice "pamper you" truck!



However, if he's even got a distant thought in his mind about a 5th wheel, look at the crew cab.

Excursion doesn't fiver very well.....

 

[JeffMD]

Seems like a terrible hand of cards to need to walk away today with a vehicle knowing it has to pull a camper of such weight thats in the lot on my inadequate current truck, and we are 1000 miles from home.

That's for sure. Continuing the trip with the Sub wasn't an option. It was either forget it and limp home, or buy a truck and continue. If he'd had a crystal ball, I'm sure he'd have replaced the truck 6 months ago, rather than dump the several thousand $$ into it that he just did.

The good news is, Hamilton Big Country Ford in Clovis NM did not take advantage of the situation. They treated him & the family well, gave a fair price on the Ex, and considering its condition, a fair trade on the Sub.

I'll let him fill in the details on the Sub problems when he gets back, and tell you all about his new toy too.

Thanks all for your help, and it's been a pleasure chatting with you. If you're ever in trouble around Tampa, let me know...

kevin

 

[bk95td]

What happens when the ford breaks down? trade for a non- gm or for a non-ford? They all can and do break down.
You can bet the actual trade-in on the sub is close to scrap price.[less than the price of the att]

 

[NVW]

I just found this thread, I would have checked the seal on the crossover. If they didn't get it right he would lose a lot of boost. I think his boost should have been higher.

 

[buddy]

Its really crappy if it was just because of a crummy pyrometer or PCM tuning. I cannot stress enough though, better to upgrade the exhaust to 4" system before changing turbos. Makes a big difference, even compared to straight 3".

 

[JeffMD]

Well of course, everything breaks. But he was thoroughly disgusted with his truck. And there's not a lot of nice 6.5 Suburbans for sale in Clovis NM today. Not a lot of Duramax Suburbans either. So it was either scrap the vacation or scrap the truck. I'm sure he was thankful to have the money that allowed him to make this choice. And now he has a cherry truck with less than half the miles, a much more robust drivetrain, and more power stone stock than his heavily-modified 6.5.

Maybe if this hadn't happened in the middle of a vacation, things would have been different. Hell, with all the money he has in mods and rebuilds to the Sub, there's no way a sane person would sell it voluntarily! (Do you know what that Peninsular motor cost??!!) But the Sub project was nowhere near finished - still running the original 4L80E with 300,000 miles on it! Still in original paint. Etc. So he'd have continued putting more money in it. Fun, but sometimes tiresome, and tough to justify when your family is counting on the truck.

I love Suburbans (have had 2 of them) but am not a big 6.5 fan (have come this >< close to buying one twice). I'd have loved to help him put a 12V Cummins in the Sub! I like 7.3s pretty well, but maybe in a few hundred thousand miles we'll put a Cummins in the Expedition...

Anyway, I'm sure you'll hear more from Jeff next week.

later
kevin
1996 Ram 2500, Cummins, not stock

 

[great white]

Congrats to your bro.

I'm sure he'll enjoy that 7.3!

Nice diesel right ou tof the box and lots of potential left to pull out of it if he wants.

Great puller and people mover.

A project truck is nice, but not when you have to count on it every day.

Here's hoping my old 98 doesn't wind up in the same boat as your bro's sub during our trip east....

 

[Acesneights1]

He did the right thing. No comparison. Powerstrokes(7.3) are probably the best towing rigs out there. Certainly a 7.3 excursion is in it's own class. I had a 7.3 Powerstroke and you could not get that thing hot no matter how hard you worked it. Even blew my Cummins away towing. He won't be dissapoited, just ashame he took such a beating on the Burb. You now they are shipping that thing off to the auction...Probably see it on Joe Slimeballs used car lot...I would love to dump my burb for a 7.3 excursion but the price tags on used 7.3 Excursions are nuts.

 

[GM Guy]

that is a shame he had to get rid of it, hope he does ok with the ford, got a neighbor that is duramax now, and he said his 99 7.3L 6spd was one of the least reliable trucks he has had, it was always stranding him with electrical glitches, hopefully he had a lemon, and jeff has a creampuff, as it would be a shame if his reliability went down going away from a 6.5L.

 

[btfarm]

It's my understanding from my brother, who has a 2000 7.3 F250, that it's pretty reliable but the cost of repairs is very high.
Anyhow, glad to see Jeff was able to resolve it and go on. Good thing he had Kevin as a go between.

 

[Acesneights1]

Injectors are pretty pricey . Keep the oil changed regularly.

 

[JeffMD]

Thank you all for your input and support!
The family and I got back from the trip about 6:30 local time last night.
I got very lucky. I bought the Excursion under about the worst possible conditions but seem to have lucked out. Other than some cracked plastic trim and a torn coupler on the intercooler plumbing and the CD changer not working in the stereo the truck is in great shape. Of course after all the modifications to the Suburban I had three of those couplers in my garage, but had to pay $65 to Winslow Ford for one. Then had to buy a wrench to install it!

The Excursion is 99% of what I was trying to turn my Suburban into. The only thing it does not have is a console with a fridge built in. That was a project I ran out of time on before the trip. The Excursion was able to accelerate up 8% grades hauling a 6,000 pound trailer with the aerodynamics of a brick without visible smoke, and the pedal was not to the floor.

I think the basic problem with my set up was I was mis tuned. I had built the truck pretty much around the stock GM-4 turbo and a basically empty truck. The Banks Stinger exhaust I had on it was perfectly adequate when running unloaded. The first thing I noticed about the A-Team Turbo was that it is big. I don't have the specific numbers but just looking at it I figured it was going to take longer to spool up. Running unloaded I babied it and ran it through lots of heating and cooling cycles without kicking it in the rear to make big boost. The day before I went to pick up the trailer I spun it up to ten pounds a couple of times. I did notice that the boost was coming in later. The new crossover pipe improved things a bit but it still was not spooling up like the GM-4. The EGTs were not that different from the GM-4 when running unloaded.

When I hooked the trailer up things changed. EGTs at idle were normal but as soon as I got on the throttle things started getting hot. Boost would not build as fast as I was used to. Running flat ground I was showing about 1.5 pounds of boost and post turbo EGT's were over 800 degrees. I attributed some of that to the fact that I was no longer running an intercooler. The problems really started showing when I tried to pass or climb any kind of a hill. I would see smoke (not a lot but previous build only ever showed a slight haze) and EGT would shoot past 1200 degrees. In Lubbock a muffler shop was kind enough to remove the soot trap and muffler and weld in a straight pipe. I was back on the road in 30 minutes vs waiting a day and spending $900 for them to get a 4 inch Duramax kit to cut up and weld together a custom exhaust. The turbo was spinning up better but the EGTs were still too high. On top of this it was 112 in Lubbock that day and did I mention the rear A/C crapped out three days before we left? After about an hour with our speeds dropping to 40 at times to keep from melting things down, we had four options. Dump the rented trailer and attempt the vacation without it and staying in hotels. Replace the truck and only be a day behind schedule. Attempt to continue with the Suburban as is and hope we don't have a critical failure while in the middle of the desert. Abandon the vacation and nurse the truck back home and try to refit it and get back on the road about four days behind schedule.
We decided the least worst option was replace the truck. We were looking a crew cab and mega cab pick-ups and stumbled on the Excursion that had just been traded in.
Two things I have learned. 7.3 Powerstrokes take FIFTEEN QUARTS OF OIL!!!! That could be a negative thing as oil changes are now about twice as expensive as they were before. And, this truck has TEN cup holders! An eight passenger vehicle with ten cup holders.
But to offset the expensive oil changes the on board computer said I was getting 19.6 miles per gallon driving back from dropping the trailer off. That is about 50% better mileage than I was getting with the Suburban running on B100.

 

[buddy]

Glad to hear the dealer did not take advantage of the situation.

Were you running B100 on this trip, or just in the past? B100 has a higher cetane rating and lower BTU rating than diesel, so not the best to tow with, and requires less advance. You are probably right about not being tuned for the way it was set up and to tow.

 

[Burning oil]

Thats a shame to hear Jeff. You just did a bunch of work on the Burb too. Someone just posted in another thread about the value of a Burb. Mind if I ask what they gave for yours? ( I know its going to make me sick)