StewB

I have to agree but let's just say there are many victims of good marketing out there, including me. The fuel economy gains they claim are too tempting to pass up. ?

@AH64ID, thanks for the boost and temp specs. I feel better about my running temps and boost pressure now. Looks like I have a learning curve for pulling with a diesel in a hotter climate. I didn't have these issues in Alaska. ? With my airflow problem fixed maybe the egt's will be easier to manage.

Boy do I feel stupid. It turns out it was a clogged air filter. I ASSumed there was no way it was the filter because I cleaned it the day before I left Alaska and only put 3500 miles on it. Other than a few bugs, it also didn't appear clogged when I was looking around under the hood.Ken Jones at Wild Diesel in West Haven, Utah, did an injector test and verified they were within spec. They also checked rail pressure and it was good. Turbo and everything downstream checked out as well. When he took it for a test drive he saw the same symptoms I did, pulled over on the freeway and took the filter off, which fixed the problem. Ken really did me right. He didn't charge me a dime for his diagnostic time. He said the Airaid filter was probably no good any more and recommended I replace it. He offered to order one for me; however I never liked the Airaid Quickfit system that was on the truck when I bought it, so I asked him what he recommended for cold air intakes. I ended up getting an S&B air intake system based on his recommendation. He had it in stock so I put it on tonight and drove about 60 miles without a problem. Anyway, lesson learned was never assume anything. The upside is I found a good shop should I need one again. Thanks again for all the inputs and suggestions. Stew

Sorry about the slow leak on the update. Nothing to tell yet. I looked around under the hood for a half-hour and didn't see anything. I'm taking it to a place called Wild Diesel in West Haven, Utah, on Friday. I'm in the middle of a move and most of my tools aren't with me, so I just don't have the time or resources to do any more right now. More to follow...Stew

Thanks all for the suggestions. I hadn't thought of a leak in the intake system, but then that's why we come to forums like this. Will poke around and see what I find. Thanks,Stew

Additional info. Now that I'm in Utah my boost psi at idle has gone to 0 where it used to be 1-3. Last night I revved it in Neutral to 2000 rpm for a few seconds with no increase to boost psi. In gear it eventually responds as described in the previous post.

Well, it appears I have a new issue with my truck. Under acceleration I get a fairly thick cloud of black smoke along with sluggish acceleration. The harder I mash the pedal the worse it gets. It rarely ever smoked before unless I turned the Minimaxx up and romped on it. Even then it wasn't near as bad as it is now. Some background:I've just moved from Alaska to Utah. I drove roughly 3500 miles with a gross weight of 22,000 pounds. Minimaxx was set on the Tow setting (+60hp). At the beginning of the trip the temps at 65mph on relatively flat ground were as follows:Ambient 60*Coolant 195-200Tranny 170-180Egt 900-1000When I got to Washington state the temps were sitting atAmbient 95Coolant 210+Tranny 190-200Egt 1000-1050During hill climbs, of which there were 100's, my egt (pre-turbo) would climb well into the 1300's and occasionally briefly spike over 1400. I was a little concerned about the temp increases, particularly the coolant, but attributed them to the rise in ambient temperature. We picked up a car in Seattle and my wife told me at our first rest stop that I was blowing more black smoke than normal. She's followed me a lot before so I trust her opinion on this. I attributed that to being about 5,000 pounds heavier than ever before and having to lay into the throttle more; however now I'm not sure I was right. Now that we are in Utah and empty again it is still blowing excessive black smoke, even under light acceleration. The turbo also seems to take too long to spool up. It's well into the 90's here and I've never driven this truck in temps warmer than 80* mostly under 60, so I don't know what to expect in a hot climate. The truck is very sluggish for 2-3 seconds from a stop but seems ok at cruise. I haven't even run a full tank through yet so I don't know my current mpg. I got 9.8 mpg on the trip. I've read some possible problems could be bad/dirty injectors, dirty air cleaner or MAF, or problems with the turbo. Worst case was a melted or deformed piston. Any opinions on where I should start? I eliminated the air cleaner and MAF.I can provide more info but don't know what else would be helpful. Thanks,Stew

For the record, the cat alone with my Banks monster muffler didn't get rid of the drone. When I added the smaller FTE resonator between the cat and muffler about 8" behind the cat, no more drone...period. The test--hauling 22,000 pounds up hundreds of 6 to 10% grades along the Rockies in Alaska and British Columbia.

Yeah, the welder and I both looked around under the truck. The truck side of the hitch looked fine but the 2" solid steel draw bar for the trailer hitch bent down right where it comes out of the receiver. That's the part I had to order from the manufacturer because I don't have a standard weight distributing hitch. Only one place makes it.

Forgot...tongue weight was 1150.

Thanks for the prayers guys. Now it's a waiting game. Waiting on a hitch part and for the welding shop to get to it. They are busy and we have to wait in line. The welding shop owner is good people and said he was going to use beefier materials to make the new tongue. Lots to do around Whitehorse so not so bad after all. Thanks again,Stew

Just thought I would share our misadventures as yesterday was a rough day in more ways than one. My family and I are moving from Alaska to Utah and began our journey on Monday weighing in at around 22,000 pounds. On day 2 we ran into about 200 miles of frost heaves. For those that don't know, a frost heave is a huge dip or bump in the road resulting from thawing and freezing of the permafrost under the road. Some of them are bad enough to catch air in your vehicle. Anyway, The frost heaves were so bad that our trailer tongue folded about halfway between Tok, Alaska, and Whitehorse, Yukon Territory...truly the middle of nowhere. Once we put the important stuff in the truck we had to abandon the trailer and drive an hour just to get to a pay phone to call the insurance company. They couldn't do anything that late in the day so we drove another 3.5 hours to Whitehorse, which has the nearest repair facility and a decent place to stay. Today we are in a hotel while the towing company retrieves the trailer. Looks like we will be around here until at least Tuesday waiting on parts. The good news is nobody was hurt since I never was out of control or anything. On the money side, we have a disappearing deductible which is currently reduced to $0. Everything except for a couple nights lodging is covered with no out of pocket expenses or deductibles. I have to say, for nothing out of pocket for towing, the $25 roadside assistance annual premium is money well spent. The trailer is 30' plus the tongue, weighs around 10,000 pounds, and the driver will have to drive 4.5 hours each way to get it. I'm not sure I even want to see the bill for that! Nothing is cheap up here. Well, if any of you are inclined, please pray for speedy, effective repairs and a safe remainder of the trip. Also that my family can maintain a positive attitude. The wife and kids have been great so far, but boredom will soon set in, if you know what I mean. ? Thanks for sharing in my misadventure. Stew

My MiniMaxx monitors tranny temps. Normal is around 160* and pulling the trailer is 170-180*. I also have an aux tranny cooler. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Driving to work the other day and the CEL came on. Turned out to be P1740 which means the computer didn't see the expected drop in rpm when the TC locked up. I was in third gear under light throttle and everything felt normal at the time. I was unloaded as well. I just turned over 69,000 miles. I've never had a hint of trouble from this tranny except for the 2-3 shuttle, so I cleared the code and it hasn't come back. That was 48 hours ago with two days of normal daily driving since then. I'm not the original owner. Tranny mods I can see are a Mag-Hytec double deep pan and a blue torque converter of unknown brand or specs. The fluid is about 10,000 miles old and looks and smells new. This puts me in a real pickle. I'm leaving in a week to drive 3400 miles (moving from Alaska to Utah) and will weigh just over 21,000 pounds. We've shipped our other vehicle and are living in our travel trailer at the moment. I cant really afford (time wise) to put the truck in the shop or to be without it at this point. I'm in the military and can't delay the trip either. I've read many threads about this. It looks like there are so many things that could cause this that I can't begin to guess which parts to throw at it on my own. I do have the upgraded governor pressure solenoid waiting to be installed at the next pan drop, but I don't think it is related and likely wouldn't solve the problem. I'm inclined to risk it. First code, hasn't come back, and drives normal. What would you guys recommend?Thanks,StewSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Several have said this and I would agree except that I was also putting in a cat. I had to make a decision whether to maximize the effectiveness of the cat or the resonator. I chose the cat because it takes heat for it to be effective and I felt putting the resonator ahead of it would dissipate too much heat. I probably wasn't clear about it, but my first priority is to pass a smog test even if it means the resonator performance is slightly diminished. Additionally, because of what AH64ID said, I don't think the resonator's performance will be affected much. Stew Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well, to answer my original question, adding the Magnaflow cat in the stock position with an existing Banks Monster muffler doesn't kill drone completely. It somewhat deadens the overall loudness under heavy throttle with a 13500 pound load, and it makes the drone more tolerable. At idle it sounds pretty much the same outside but much quieter inside. Tomorrow I am going to add the smaller FTE resonator about 6" behind the cat, which will put it directly under the right rear floor board. Will report soon with more info. StewSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Check out Pacific Dualies (1 L is correct). They make valve stem extenders. They can be found on Amazon. StewSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've decided since I already have the cat and the resonator coming I will go ahead and install both. I would like to do the cat first and see what happens but time is running short before I move and I need to just get it done so I can work on other things. I see no compelling reason not to put the cat first so I am going with that. If it doesn't work properly there's no point in putting it in at all. I'll place the resonator directly behind it where it will still be under the back seat. Though the resonator might not be at peak efficiency, I think it will be more than adequate when paired with the cat. I'll report the results when i have something meaningful. Once again, thanks for helping me think through this. StewSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have someone in another forum telling me cat in front because it needs the heat to operate. Thoughts? And I thought this would be a no-brainer... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think the general consensus is it's ok to leave them turned on all the time; however I think I will leave mine on when towing and off for daily driving. I'm afraid the noise on every deceleration will get annoying to the wife (wifey no like loud truck) and kids, which would only annoy me in the long run. :)Once again you guys have helped me find a good solution. Thanks,StewSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Now that I have the FTE short resonator and Magnaflow cat coming, in what order do I put them? Wally can't help me since it involves a cat. I will be leaving the Monster muffler in place as well.Do I put the cat or the resonator nearest the downpipe? Everything I've read says the resonator is supposed to go as far forward as possible but I've yet to find someone with a cat AND a resonator. If the cat is just behind the resonator, will it get hot enough to make it work as it should?Thanks,Stew

Yes. Mine is automatic.

Great videos gents! Like the scenery as well.Stew

Thanks. Yep, it's an auto. I was thinking I could leave it on but would rather ask than break something. I use it to warm up on cold mornings as well but after a long winter my injectors are pretty dirty. If it begins to idle roughly I have to make good hard run or run cleaner through it.