First tow with blanketed turbo

[KATOOM]

I recently purchased a blanket for my stock HX35.  FYI, the only place that makes one for the wastegated HX35 is https://thermalzero.com

 

The family decided to take a trip to the coast to get out of the smoke so this was my chance to see how it worked.  Because most of the western side of America is up in flames, the only way we could get to the ocean was up into Oregon and down hwy 199, as everything else was closed...  Not a big deal but this meant that I was forced to drive up the long summit I-5 grade by Mt Ashland.  I'm not sure how high this pull is...but its certainly a long pull and feel like you're driving uphill forever.  Thankfully though, we drove there at night when the weather temperatures were in the 80's - 90's.  But we drove home in the middle of the afternoon when weather was really hot and very smokey.  Some portions of the roadway were even hard to navigate at night due to the thick smokey air.

 

Anyways, what I was really curious to find was how the EGT's worked out with the new turbo blanket, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.  I would guesstimate a 100* - 150* drop in EGT's under normal conditions.  Matter of fact, at first I was almost second guessing my pyro since my towing EGT's have never been 700* - 750* with a 14k house behind me.  Of flat ground, but yes that was accurate numbers.  Overall EGT's were cooler too but when I was hammer down on the hills the EGT's would eventually climb and max out at 1250* if I held the peddle long enough, but that would be expected.

 

And in talking about EGT's and towing capacity, I'm not in denial in knowing that my overall gearing and lack of available gears is always going to be the biggest problem for me and towing heavy.  If this truck had one more gear between 3rd and 4th (I.e, the 5600) it would be much better.....but if it had two more gears it would absolutely be unstoppable.  With 285 tires, 3:54 gears, and the limitations of available gears in the 4500 transmission means running hills and hoping for the best.  Although, if the grade is not to outrageously steep and I can stay on top of the turbo then I'm safe to hold the throttle hard as long as the engine temp stays in check.  Sometimes if the weather is hot enough and the hill is long enough then dropping to 3rd is needed which means crawling along at 40 mph until I get to a point where I can shift again and the road is flat enough that I dont wrap the pyro needle trying to speed up.  This 5th wheel is frigging heavy and sometimes feels like I'm dragging it along instead of rolling on tires.  If I was sensible and had a trailer about 5k pounds lighter then this truck could probably pull vertically...

 

That said, here's a situation I was puzzled by...  Coming home, the drive between Medford to the beginning of the Ashland grade is all slightly uphill.  Therefore the 30 miles prior to the long pull up the mountain gets everything hot and toasty before even getting to the steep part.

So coming up on the grade I was hammering down at about 65 mph getting a good run at it so I can pull steady at about 55 mph.  But there was this unaware driver in a Tahoe who was cluelessly in the slow lane and got in my way.  Forcing me to go around him, I was busy paying attention to other traffic so I didnt cause a problem... I looked down and saw that my EGT's were 1250* and my engine temp was close to far right normal on the dash gauge (225*).  I let up but strangely the engine temps didnt want to come back down more than a needles width and held there instead of cooling down to the normal 210* range while pulling hills in 3rd gear.  EGT's were maintaining about 1000* too so definitely engine temps should have dropped back down.  Everything is so loud at that point but I swear I wasnt hearing the engine fan roar as loud as it normally does under those situations which makes me wonder if it hadnt locked up like it should have.  Instead of letting up on the throttle anymore for fear of blocking traffic, I watched the engine temps closely and held it in 3rd gear pulling all the way to the summit with temperatures hotter than I like.  I thought was even starting to smell what I thought was hot oil from under the hood, but not sure if it was me or other vehicles...

 

Eventually making it to the summit, I came down hill and pulled off at the nearest rest stop to see how everything was.  Looking around all seemed fine, and even checking with a laser temp gun, everything was strangely doing well.  Even the oil temp was around 190* in the pan and filter, which surprised me the most.

 

But here's where I thought I was loosing my mind.  From that point on I felt that my engine temperatures would climb faster than normal on short hill climbs on the way home.  Nothing terrible either so I was probably more paranoid than anything, but it still bothered me.  If its ever does anything like this again then I know its the clutch fan and will be replacing it...

 

Sorry, I kinda got off track there but nonetheless the turbo blanket was a success and I would consider it worth the money.

 

[015point9]

Totally stock with 9k rv, and been over that stretch quite a few times...I keep pedal down till 1200 or 1250 egt's and chug along about same speed as large trucks... 35 to 40 mph.  Auto with 4:10's

 

Glad blanket works for you.  

[dripley]

That is good to hear and thats a quite good temp drop. Good luck on the fan clutch.