The stars at night are big and bright...

The stars at night are big and bright...
The stars at night are big and bright...

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

I Need to Stop Making Things "Better"

Spent part of yesterday afternoon installing a new pyrometer on my F350 so I can monitor the EGT (Exhaust Gas Temperature) of my Powerstroke. Since I tweaked the programming and do a lot of towing it's important to make sure I'm not melting things under the hood. Plus I'm in the "more is better" group. I like having lots of gauges instead of "idiot lights" and the stock gauges on Fords are nothing more than fancy idiot lights. They don't give accurate readings. Not even close.

Installing the probe in the cast iron exhaust manifold was a breeze. I drove over to Brother In-Law's shop and let him do it! Hey, he's the expert on all things metal and I'd hate to crack a manifold. When in doubt, see a professional. He did a perfect job as usual.

Next was installing the 1 x 2 digital gauge in the dash. I ran into 1 slight hiccup when my Dremmel caught traction and dug an extra 1/8th of an inch farther than I wanted to go. Now I have a visible gouge in the dash that I'm not too pleased with, but at least it's tiny.

4 quick wires and Viola! new pyro. Now I have something new to worry about while I'm driving down the Interstate. The peak EGT listed by Ford is 900°. I hit 1350° just by flooring the pedal for 5 seconds. Back to the internets to do more research and I find several different opinions on Powerstroke peak EGT.

Where Ford came up with 900F is a  mystery since there is no EGT sensor anywhere on the engine. Then there is the placement of the probe. Manifold, pre-turbo or post-turbo. I chose manifold after asking and getting an almost unanimous response on Ford message boards. Manifold gives you the highest reading. So after more questions and answers I've come to the conclusion 1300° is where you should start thinking about taking your fat foot off the throttle and let the engine breathe or prepare for some serious repairs.

Now all I can do is sit and wait until I tow a load and see what things look like. But at least I'm reasonably happy with the installation. It's out of the way and easy to read without being distracting. It also has built in alarm for max temp, which I've set for 1300° and a max temp recall so you can see how hot things got.
Yes, my truck is filthy. But it's a work truck, deal with it.

4 comments:

el chupacabra said...

Ha- he said, "Powerstroke."

an Donalbane said...


R is going to have so many gauges on the dash of that truck - it's going to look like a cockpit (not a gay bar).

KC started it...

an Donalbane said...

Oops, that was dyslexic - I meant CK.

RPM said...

Ha! Don I guess it's from years of staring at one of these.