AH64ID

Amsoil MTF here. The NV5600 calls for a Syncromesh fluid and there aren't many that meet that spec.

Yes it's normal to overshoot a little on the initial opening; however, that overshoot shouldn't regularly go more than 195-198° and if it does it's time for a thermostat replacement. With the LARGE cooling system on these trucks and the 17° range from cracking to full open (190° crack, 207° full open) it's not abnormal to develop a wear spot on the thermostat if they don't often see loads sufficient to get the thermostat to fully open. It takes a decent load for that to happen, more than just a small trailer. Yesterday I pulled a 7 mile grade with 7-10% sections at 70 mph in 110° heat and only got to 204°. No trailer and no load, about 8600 lbs GVW. The cooling systems are efficient!

Good choise. There is enough room to R&R it with the cab installed. IIRC it takes a bit of an angle during entry.

The pan is a major PITA to install with the motor in the truck as it has to come out pretty far to get it on. Who is doing the rebuild?

The hood does have to come off, but I don't believe the cross brace does. The cross brace does have to come out for a cam swap thou. Separating the fenders is how you pull it without cutting it.

I just did a 45 mile drive on the interstate at 75-77 mph in 105-108° weather. My trans was 200° on the PTO cover with a laser thermometer. Ambient temp may have played a roll :-)

Holy crap! That's putting the passenger tire over 22" in the air. What kind of jack are you using? That would put the fluid volume about 2" above the fill hole static, so that should be good. Still seems odd you warm up that much in town and cool off that quickly at speed. The cool off should be slow with the heavy cast iron case and no coolers, but who knows.

That made me wonder so I ran the math. The 3/4" NPT plug is 1.050" across and the NV4500 is approx 10" wide at the fill port. That means it needs to be at an angle of 6° to get a fully submerged plug dry, that means the outside of the passenger side tire needs to be at least 8" off the ground. So there is what you need to know the static level. You never did answer the question on how you verified that it's submerged at speed. Not arguing, just curious... The lack of cooling air will have an impact but you should have less friction at those speeds so the temps shouldn't increase unless you are either pulling heat from the gears you cannot pull at highway speed or the level of fluid over the sensor changes.

Yes you could have an early lockup issue on top of it.

Was the previous thermostat a NAPA one too? There are plenty of complaints on non-Cummins thermostats. Lets go lower and say you were making 250 rwhp on the hill. I still would have expected to see 207° out of that much power since 207° is full open. In my experience getting to 207° isn't all that hard above 16K GCW and it should climb slower once it's full open. It's been a few years but the last time I towed with stock software and stock injectors I would go to 100% load at 65-70 in 6th on very small hills at ~16-17K GCW. The rpms and stock power curve put me at ±200 rwhp. Coolant temps would go to 205-207° on short 1/2 mile shallow grades. So you may have been making more power than you think. I assume that the 10-11K was the trailer, so you were at 17-18K combined? 206° on a small hill is where I would expect to see the coolant at.

I would suspect thermostat before radiator. At flat cruise, even with a trailer, the radiator shouldn't be really even all that warm. IIRC you replaced the thermostat recently. What brand did you go with? 50% throttle is still about 100% of stock :-) 400-450 rwhp is about the limit of the cooling system (oil and coolant) for sustained use on a ISB. Did you pull/clean the radiator with the rebuild? No clue on the fan... 3rd gens are electronically controlled.

For a 190° thermostat? That's 100% normal. The 190° thermostats aren't full open until 207° and have a max allowable temp of 225° (per Cummins, not Dodge). I generally see 213-215° when pulling hard.

He has regular UDC already on it and it runs great. The pilot and some rail pressure at altitude would be good reasons to swap to Pro.

That would work. I haven't really kept up on stand alone controllers but I sold my HE351VE because I wasn't impressed with the controller options and interfaces a few years back. It would be cool to take an elbow mounted brake and adapt it to the twins, if room permits. The exhaust brake isn't what's holding me back from getting twins. If I bit the bullet I would just go remote mount as close to the primary as possible. For twins I just have a hard time justifying them. I can run up a 4-5% grade at 70 mph on a 75° day above 6,000 feet at 20K GCW, so I am not sure what I would gain from towing as I don't plan on getting much heavier or going faster. Until UDC came out I was seriously considering them but proper tuning took away the "need" for my application.

With the exhaust brake after the 2nd turbo the response time is increased. There is also enough air in the exhaust that it "pops" when released. It would be nice to have it between the primary and secondary.

Yes I have read it, and initially read it differently but it appears you're correct. Whats the additional license cost? May be worth selling my S06 that is on my dads truck and putting UDC Pro on it.

Given the space limitations of a 17" wheel I am not sure you could get better braking power out of a drum than a disk. With big 22.5 or 24.5" wheels there is a lot more room for big drums. Brake fade is much better with discs. So while a drum may have better stopping power at the top of the hill the disc should have better stopping power at the bottom. I'm a huge fan of exhaust brakes but they are fairly irrelevant in the conversation of rear brakes.

I don't think you can be VIN locked to more than one VIN at a time.

Very impressive!! Between the towing, hauling, and dirt roads I am lucky to get 30-40K out of a set.

Yes we can. I am still amazed at how little timing there is on the VP44. Seems too low to work well.

So it can be programmed. Based on what we have seen over the last 10 years in diesel tuning I bet it can be done without Bosch giving away the golden key. Time will tell. It reminds me of the 09+ ECM's that were designed to not be flashed with a programmer. They weren't un-tuneable very long.

Is the PSG solid state or does it operate like the ECM? If it operates like a ECM and can be programmed then working directly with Bosch is likely no required (as I understand your work with Bosch comment). If it cannot be programmed then all bets are off. But hacking a PSG shouldn't be any different, fundamentally, than hacking a ECM. The ECMs have been hacked without Bosch's assistance so, IMHO, a PSG shouldn't requrie Bosch's assistance either. It all depends on the capabilities of the PSG and what interface may be available. I have no clue in this respect.

With reverse engineering in mind they may not have to deal with Bosch. It won't be an easy task but I wouldn't discount it yet. While it would be nice to do everything with one programmer or module I personally would run UDC with a fuel only box. Set all the ECM characteristics how you want them and then add only fuel as needed. The base tune and operation of the truck will be much better than anything else out there...if properly tuned.

For the cheap cost of distilled water it's just not worth it, IMHO. If you don't have your water tested it's really a crap-shoot. There are certainly going to be locations that have tap water than can be used but it's cheaper to use distilled water than to test the tap water. This is one of those things that just because it works well on one or two hoses that you cannot recommenced as standard practice. How do you know what the source water will be like for whoever takes the recommendation. No different than drinking creek water without treatment or filtration. I drink out of several creeks and don't worry about it, but that doesn't mean that I can tell you to drink out of your local creek. I have no clue what is in your local creek and the fact that mine is potable doesn't mean yours is. Taking a guess...but I would wager than the vast majority of tap water found in the US and around the world should not be used inside engines.

Everything starts somewhere. This has more custom options that UDC did when it first came out.