The 200 vs 190 thermostat expierment thread.

[pepsi71ocean]

i have to ask mike when the fan clutch engages, but thus far i have not seen any issues as such.

[Mopar1973Man]

Typically I hear mine lock up by 205-210*F. Once it locks it will pull the temp down to about 203*F then unlock.

[pepsi71ocean]

Ok fuel up time again. And i have a video for those non believers about my draw straw..Anyways last night i pushed the truck to see how far she would go, i made 510 miles on 29.5 gallons. which was 17.3 (according to fuelly).As before the previous fill up was 3-22, today is 3-30. 8 days, 510 miles...In reality i clocked 509.6 on the trip, and 29.515, which equates to 17.265. I am stunned that despite the crappy weather driving on Monday and the idling on Sunday that i even broke 500, i didn't think i was, i know that much.However i do know that my truck is on empty below empty.. So i know when i bent my sending unit i did it right.

[pepsi71ocean]

well i wound up completely screwing my mileage up after i towed this tractor, and then a huge boat. after talking to mike it seems i don't have my smarty tuned right since i had no balls and alot of smoke down low. i felt it towing the tractor but that boat made me go nuts.

i'll report back with tank numbers in a bit.

- - - Updated - - -

Some numbers, so i did a bit of driving before i towed that tractor around. So this fill up is based on towing the tractor from the repair shop to my house, then towing a enclosed trailer around down south because one of her family friends had a fire a few apartments down, and she was lucky, the apartment next to her friends looked like something out of a war movie...

anyways that tank of fuel yielded 16.6, which sucks because like i said i was doing good till that last 100 miles or so.

Now this tank of fuel lasted a meager 372 miles, and was horrible at 15.8. However i should point out that this was almost all towing miles. I drove to work Friday night, then picked up the tractor and trailer (about 4,500 lbs), and then took that back and fourth Saturday and Sunday to lbi, about 40 miles each way. while there i also wound up moving boats with my truck, and she did a fair amount of idling as well.

I also changed the smarty settings to try and control smoke, and this lack of low end grunt power, turns out my settings were all off, thanks to mike nealson we started messing with that.

the main reason was the lack of throttle response below 1,900 rpm's it was killing me because i had this 10,000 or 12,000 lbs boat i wound up towing to a different marina, and i picked up another boat and brought it elsewhere, so yes my mpg sucked.

It was super hot out today, about 70F and i still have the winter front on. While towing this heavy boat i noticed my coolant temps held right around 200-202 the whole time, IAT's were in the 110 range.

[2500ctd]

What were your smarty settings at? Might be good to write down ones that work during different operations then you can go back to them easily. REVO SW too right?

[Mopar1973Man]

It was super hot out today, about 70F and i still have the winter front on. While towing this heavy boat i noticed my coolant temps held right around 200-202 the whole time, IAT's were in the 110 range.

I did the same thing about a week ago. I had day time temps about 75*F and still had the winter fronts on towing my smaller utility trailer around. No issues with coolant or IAT temps. Coolant hovered at 195*F and IAT barely crossed the 120*F but was doing really good MPG wise. Then I got the call the SAR's so when I stopped at my buddies house to pick him up I yank out the winter fronts. I knew it was going to get hairy responding to a emergency call. But I would not suggest winter fronts above 80*F I notice the EGT's cool down for the turbo is extend considerably. Not that that there excessive hot on the highway or anything like that it just it takes much longer to cool down that typical. This is the weird season for me. I start out with 28-35*F weather in the morning and can hit 70-80*F for a daytime high. Then leave here in the morning and get to New Meadows, ID proper and still see 15-20*F for a morning starting temp. What to do what to do?

[pepsi71ocean]

What were your smarty settings at? Might be good to write down ones that work during different operations then you can go back to them easily. REVO SW too right?

they were all maxed out, i changed it to sw7, with 6TM, 2 for timing, and 2 for duration. i might change the timing to 1 and see if the smoke clears up, i know that the black smoke is alot less now then before.

I did the same thing about a week ago. I had day time temps about 75*F and still had the winter fronts on towing my smaller utility trailer around. No issues with coolant or IAT temps. Coolant hovered at 195*F and IAT barely crossed the 120*F but was doing really good MPG wise. Then I got the call the SAR's so when I stopped at my buddies house to pick him up I yank out the winter fronts. I knew it was going to get hairy responding to a emergency call.

But I would not suggest winter fronts above 80*F I notice the EGT's cool down for the turbo is extend considerably. Not that that there excessive hot on the highway or anything like that it just it takes much longer to cool down that typical. This is the weird season for me. I start out with 28-35*F weather in the morning and can hit 70-80*F for a daytime high. Then leave here in the morning and get to New Meadows, ID proper and still see 15-20*F for a morning starting temp. What to do what to do?

Quote: From CumminsForum

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[TD=class: alt2] Originally Posted by swtjames23

Hey, thanks for the info bud. I found that I lost about 1 mpg when I had my winter front on and temps were above freezing. The fan clutch was engaging more because of the lack of air flow into the engine compartment, I could hear it howling especially after I had been driving for a while. Not saying it's for sure your problem but something to consider

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I was thinking of what you were saying so i pulled mine off as well, and holy crap was it hot under there.

i lost about 15F out of my IAT's and my trans temp dropped about 40F thus far, and i have no clue about the mpg, but i hope it goes up.

[Mopar1973Man]

No problems with fan lock up. My fan doesn't lock till 205*F worth of coolant.

[rancherman]

Pepsi is up in the frozen north like myself and what is occuring is the extra 10*F is aiding in heat the intake a bit more because he's showing a roughly +60*F offset on IAT roughly now between the winter front and the 200*F thermostat. Which tends to follow the same rules of effect with the MPG fooler as well. Except he's using actual IAT temps and no fooler. Also he's crossing the 100*F IAT mark which is the starting edge of MPG climb typicallly all the way to 140*F roughly. Which still means that cold air is not a friend of MPG's...

Oh, geez, there THAT is again!^^^^^

[ram350002]

Have you noticed any improvement in performance, i.e. slightly smoother idle, quieter engine, quicker response/torque or is the only noticeable improvement on the heater output and maybe a touch better mpg? Thx

[2500ctd]

they were all maxed out, i changed it to sw7, with 6TM, 2 for timing, and 2 for duration. i might change the timing to 1 and see if the smoke clears up, i know that the black smoke is alot less now then before.

I just changed mine from timing of 1 to 4. The smoke clears up faster and the spool is little quicker. I forgot I towed last summer and always back the timing off when I do tow. The TM was 3 and iirc the duration was 3 as well. All this on SW#2 I still have my winter frotns on but havent noticed any difference. Temps all seem normal. Not sure about mpg's as I live in a small town and all the speeds are 35mph:banghead:

[pepsi71ocean]

well guys and update. Since changing the smarty settings im not seeing much difference, the last fuel ups from 4/8 are 4/13 17.6 mpg 5 day cycle 4/18 16.9mpg 5 day cycle 4/21 17.3 mpg 3 day 4/23 18.8 mpg 2 day <- this was a separate tank just for a trip to long island and back (and work the next day or so) roughly 428 miles round trip. Im about 1/2 a tank now and im interested to see what this next tank yields.

Have you noticed any improvement in performance, i.e. slightly smoother idle, quieter engine, quicker response/torque or is the only noticeable improvement on the heater output and maybe a touch better mpg? Thx

the only noticable difference i see is that my truck is way quieter now at idle when warm. while not as quiet as a 6.7 ide say from the cab it is. Outside it sounds like the 6.7 when the eb is on when cold. i do know that when i pull up my stree at 7am no one hears me anymore unlike when i leave.

I just changed mine from timing of 1 to 4. The smoke clears up faster and the spool is little quicker. I forgot I towed last summer and always back the timing off when I do tow. The TM was 3 and iirc the duration was 3 as well. All this on SW#2 I still have my winter frotns on but havent noticed any difference. Temps all seem normal. Not sure about mpg's as I live in a small town and all the speeds are 35mph:banghead:

im going to have to start messing around with my timing and duration to see what i get. i started a thread on cf and am hoping to hear an answer.

[pepsi71ocean]

Hey Guys,I have been playing with the smarty settings for the last tank and a half, since i realized that my mpg went several up on the way to long island. So today i spent the better part of 3 hours adjusting settings.i stayed on sw7, and changed tm, timing, and duration to stock, and one to maximum at a time. I ran a circuit on the roads here at several speeds, 55, 60, 65, 70, and 75 mph. along with Mike Nealson we tri9ed to figure this guy out.when the tm was on 6, the truck ran low boost and low pyro's at all 3 major speed levels. boost was uncontrollable at times, spiking from 8-10 psi to a violent 15-20 sometimes 25, it seemed that the hills and bumps in the road affect throttle throw and would cause sever surging.when timing was maxed out, the truck ran good, accelerated very fast, especially on a pull from 55-90mph. smoke was non existent.running duration on max also gave us good solid boost, even though it was somewhat high for the speeds tested at. the raised duration however did affect spool up, and had less coal then tm maxed out. overall right now i have tm on 2, timing on 2(or 3, idr), and duration on 2. This set up i keep hitting a consistent 27-35mph on the sgII, so well have to fill the truck up tonight or tomorrow and see where its going.

[diesel4life]

I've always wondered what kind of long term effects holding the duration cycle open longer would have on the VP. Seems like longer duration would make the pump run hotter, but I could very well be wrong. I've always left it on stock setting, while advancing timing to 3 and tm maxed out. Since I installed my rv275's I backed down to sw5 and have been getting pretty good results. I just got back from a 1000 mile round trip from West Virginia with my 22 foot tilt trailer with 4 quads and the bed loaded with tools, tires, spare parts, and camping gear. We ran between 70 and 75 mph the whole way and as of my last fill up I was Averaging 15.4 Mpg. I have not driven the truck since I got home and am going to go fill up to see what my over all is, but I suspect it will be a little higher because when I filled up last we were still in West Virginia and I tend to get better mileage in the flat lands. Over all I was pretty impressed with the mileage considering my speed, the terrain we were driving, and my lightish load (around 6k total). There was 4 of us that went, 1 guy rode with me and my friend drove his 2012 Chevy 2500 gasser with the 6.0. Other than their camping gear and coolers, the truck was empty and he barely cracked 16 mpg hand calculated. We compared numbers everyevery time we stopped for fuel and I was always within 1 to 2 gallons of him . He was not as impressed as I was

[pepsi71ocean]

So some numbers to compare

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/4561/fuelup.bmp

while to be judgmental i changed the t-stat on the 13th, and filled up the morning of the 14. so the first tank of fuel with the new t-stat was indeed a solid 1mpg. and i have minus the towing, and other screwing around with the smarty clocked a consistent 17mpg, in 45-50F weather at night same time same trips every time.

[Col_Psoas]

Pepsi is up in the frozen north like myself and what is occuring is the extra 10*F is aiding in heat the intake a bit more because he's showing a roughly +60*F offset on IAT roughly now between the winter front and the 200*F thermostat. Which tends to follow the same rules of effect with the MPG fooler as well. Except he's using actual IAT temps and no fooler. Also he's crossing the 100*F IAT mark which is the starting edge of MPG climb typicallly all the way to 140*F roughly. Which still means that cold air is not a friend of MPG's...

I have a question about your testing for that which I can't seem to figure out on my own. I have my mpg fooler set so that when I flip the switch it reads 143 IAT. but when I run the truck with no artificial interference on a warm day and its reading in the 110 to 130 range I get at least as good of mileage but I can't get consistent enough outdoor temps around here to get any real data. **Is there any chance that 140 is too warm and the truck is slowing the timing down or anything like that?** I feel like the throttle is less responsive with it reading 143 but that could also just be the truck using less fuel because it thinks there is more air...

[Mopar1973Man]

That's where the owner has to experiment a bit and find out what works the best for there truck. That's why I listed all the common resistor values and there temperature numbers in the IAT temp table so a owner can change a resistor to fit the tune that works the best. I typically can reach 130-140*F on hot summers days climbing mountains of Idaho which is the best temp for mileage so I used that resistor value for the fooler.

[Col_Psoas]

That's where the owner has to experiment a bit and find out what works the best for there truck. That's why I listed all the common resistor values and there temperature numbers in the IAT temp table so a owner can change a resistor to fit the tune that works the best. I typically can reach 130-140*F on hot summers days climbing mountains of Idaho which is the best temp for mileage so I used that resistor value for the fooler.

I think that's fair enough. And that you for that fantastic write up on the articles page, I was able to build one without any real trouble and just took your specs as gospel and went from there. So far the 143 has worked really well but I"m thinking about putting in a different resistor a little lower just to play with it, there really is no downside after all. Mostly I was curious if it started to retard the timing or something silly at the warmer temps and if you knew that would potentially save me some searching, its just so hard to get really good objective data over consistent enough terrain that I can draw a fair conclusion. looks like a trip to wendover may be in order, that should give me some smooth flat ground:whistle: thanks again for your great replies to every thread. You've been a fantastic resource getting to make this truck perform at its very best

[pepsi71ocean]

Well the cummins has some engine issues, bad enough that i am not sure what caused the failure, but i'll keep you all posted.So far its isolated to injector failure, but im not ruling out anything else until i can run some tests to verify the integrity of the cylinders.darn injectors only got 40,000 on them at the most.She cranks, and runs but knocks obnouxly loud, and this included intermittent oil pressure loss, as well as what im not sure is yet either diesel or maybe power steering fluid in the oil. Not sure.

[War Eagle]

Wow, this is not good!Hope it is nothing that is major. :pray: