Highest HP without out meltdown?

[serpa4]

I have a Edge attitude and Juice. With stock intake (heard was very good) and stock exhaust. I was running my Edge on the tow tune, level 2, at 40 Horsepower - 80 Foot Pounds of Torque and am getting 1300 and have to let off when only hauling 5,000 in the bed, up a steep grade. Hard to believe I can't put down 40 more horse and not melt. Is efi any better? If I have to drop to level 1, 30 hp/60tq, seems useless to upgrade for more towing power. I will be getting an exhaust later, but still... turbo too hot at 40hp?

[GMPX]

Actually, for the most part the engine will run out of fuel supply before the internals are ready to give up, Diesels are pretty tough from the factory.
Speak to some of the Diesel companies who sell / tune with EFILive for some advice. It's not a simple 'flash in a 500Hp' tune. There is some mechanical mods that must be done to the fuel system and trans before you can use that sort of power.

Cheers,
Ross

[serpa4]

Thanks. Strictly talking about the turbo temps though. I.e. can I get a 50-100+ hp EFI tune with stock exhaust and intake? Currently, with Edge, I can only go 30 hp since exhaust temps get to 1300 on a long uphill tow. I'm looking for the most "towing usable" hp. My 40 hp setting on Edge is useless for towing since the turbo will melt at 1300+ temps.

[LBZ]

I noticed that when I dropped my stock exhaust and went 4" turbo back stainless, my EGT's dropped by almost 250 degrees. It blew my mind that the stock exhaust was so restrictive.:Eyecrazy: I noticed a faster spool up with the turbo as well. You may want to try changing exhaust( if you haven't already by now )! I have ran upwards of 1500 for about 5 min and even higher but for a shorter period of time with no turbo problems on my old lly. When I sold my LLY I was running about a 100hp tune with the 4" exh and stock intake and pulling my holiday trailer through the mountains and had yet to peak 1500. Just gotta build the right tune!! Sometimes I think it's all magic!:nixweiss:

[IdahoRob]

The LBZ's run hotter from the factory than the LB7 or LLY. Smaller exhaust housing helps in the great spool up, but hurts the egts.

These water cooled duramax turbos will handle high egt's. I've heard of guys hitting 2000* for short(1/4 mile) runs. I don't think 1300* is that high. Of course you don't want to have it there for a half hour.

I'd also look at the exhaust/cat and EGR blocker to help with egt's.

Great thing about EFI is the fine tuning you can do to get the power and egt's where you are comfortable.

[LBZ]

Yes I did notice that my egt's are higher on my LBZ then my LLY was. I didn't know they changed the turbo size that much to affect it. Are you running a real twin turbo setup or feeding the stock turbo with an aftermarket wastegated one? How has that affected your egt's (up or down) on the average?

[serpa4]

The McRat tune runs a lot cooler with stock exhaust. It may happen next month. The tune has run very well towing 5,000 lbs, but haven't hit serious mountains with it yet. Layed down 496 RWHP with tune only!

[killerbee]

your exhaust must go. The early gen cats are absolute garbage, frequently not getting hot enough, and loading up. Look to hardware changes to reduce egt, then software to up the annual rubber cost.

[SS2win]

1300 is not bad at all. 1500 is where things start to get hairy. 2000 is plain crazy.