6.7L Cummins Forum

Being an x truck driver I like to know what is expected of an engine and what I can do to extend the life of the engine. I purchased an 09 3500 Laramie and put in a EGT guage to monitor the turbo. I contacted Cummins direct and got this answer from them concerning the EGTs.

Read the following from the botton up as it shows the questions and answers in order.

READ FROM BOTTOM UP

Cummins:
Doyle, you are correct, running the engine full throttle up an incline,
will not damage the engine. There are safeguards in place to prevent
damaging the engine, such as coolant temp. and air intake temp, these will
both give off a warning and also reduce power to the engine. RPM's should
stay above 1600 when pulling a hill.

Doyle
Thank you for your response. It sounds like according to your answer that
if I were to "put my foot into it" climbing a hill pulling my 18K fifth
wheel, that the warranty is good and the engine is designed and protected
internally from overheating the turbo and engine. Is this correct or
should I be backing out of the throttle a little? I have not made any
modifications to the engine and don't plan to but I have a pyrometer
installed to monitor temps.


Cummins
Doyle, we are not able to provide the EGT's for our engines. If the engine
is, as built by Cummins, there is no concern to monitor the EGT. If the
engine has had modifications, then neither Cummins nor Dodge are
responsible if a failure occurs, due to high EGT's.



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Doyle
D and P Truck Repair : I service the Dodge 6.7 L pickups and am asked all
the time the proper operating EGTs temps of the turbo. There appears to be
a lot of confusion and bad concernng EGTs.

What is the Maximum EGTs (preturbo) that the engine can achieve? My
experience shows around 1350 F.
How much should a driver back off the fuel to not burn the engine down? I
am suggesting 200 F to my customers. Please give me guidance and your
thoughts concerning EGTs. Thank You

Talk about a slippery slope. I have not heard of any real turbo 'melting' in forums in a long while. With the 6.7l it seems that they do not like soot, hot (I mean real hot) seems to be the mode that they enjoy. I have noticed that mine will run 1300* at light throttle, light load conditions pretty regular. I have seen the pyro go to 1500* for a short period on a long heavy pull this summer though. Around town just cruising surface streets it will maintain 800* to 1100*, cool down?? In my OLD School of thought 300* before shut down, now you don't want to idle them very long and it seems the temp stays way up for a real long time, mine gets shut off at 400* to 500* usually. I have heard of temps with these up to 1600* under 'normal operating conditions'. The turbo must be made with 'NON-soot compatible, heat resistant Unobtainium' or something.

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07.5 3500 Quad, SRW, 4X4, Laramie, Leathered, Dark Metallic Gray, 6.7, 68RFE, 20K Reese, Ride Rite's, 2 Viair air compressors, Bully steps, Kleinn Locomotive air horns (there was 2 and now there are 5), Billet polished locking fuel door, 'A' pillar mount Auto Meter Pryo, PML X-deep trans pan (Yet to be installed)
06 Durango 285 RL 5'er Lifted by KZ
96 2500, Ext, 4X4, V-10 Gasser @ 400 HP, Gibson 3" single Exhaust, Ride Rite's, 285 Bridgestones, 170,000 miles, Faded Green, Carr steps, Brush Guard, 2 - 385K CP KC Daylighters, Dual Batteries, On board Air system

Mine runs about the same as yours for temps but now after getting the reply from Cummins, I won't worry about it as much but I think I will back out of it when I see water temps and turbo getting hot.

Here's what Cummins told me back when I first got my truck. Turbo Timer/ EGT Response from Cummins

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2007.5 Dodge Ram 3500 HD,QC, 6.7L Cummins, 6speed Auto, 4X4, Bighorn Edition.
Click for installs: Carr Steps PML Diff Cover Edge Juice with Attitude Volant Intake Hankook ATM RF10

I believe cool down is still one of those 'old' school or habits that people get used to. I am not advocating that letting it rest (cool down, stabilize) for a period of time is bad, I think they should. I have replaced very few turbos suspected of failing because of not letting them cool down before shutting the engine down, I figure probably 1 in 100 may have been caused hot a hot shut down, but not likely, mechanical problems have killed more (over speeding, oil quality, poor air filters). I however do watch mine closely and attempt not to shut the engine down when the temps are over 800*. The wife however really does not care much, drive it, park it, kill it (just like the family sedan). For instance say you are toting the barge, EGT temps are over 1200* and you coast off the freeway, come to a stop sign, wait for traffic to clear, proceed to cross the road and about 3 or 4 blocks later you find the McD's and pull in. Slowly you come around the corner and find a place to put the rig, gather your thoughts and what-nots (some have more of these than others) then you shut the engine off. This all transpires to cool down, I have noticed that the EGT's are about as low as they are going to get with out making your bladder burst. 6.7l's have an advantage though, a water cooled turbo, they will remove a bunch of heat evenly from the unit real fast. If I do not have to bail fast, I will allow things to stabilize more, Esp the coolant temps. I have seen 225*+ and 600* EGT at shut down, restart the engine after a hot soak like this the rpm will rise to a high idle and the fan comes on. I feel uneasy about allowing the truck to run (even with the doors locked) unattended for any period of time. Bottom line (IMHO) Hot shut downs are not good for any engine component (Even Gassers should stabilize first), allow the system to come to the average operating temp then shut it down. Restart should be treated the same way, start, stabilize and go easy until the temp (coolant) starts to rise. Sorry for the rambling, just my $0.02 worth. A timer is a good "set it and forget it" feature, if you have that function, use it, my target would be 450* to 500* (pre-turbo). I have a hard pull I will make this weekend and will watch the temps to see exactly where they go, esp for getting off the freeway and going into a rest stop.

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07.5 3500 Quad, SRW, 4X4, Laramie, Leathered, Dark Metallic Gray, 6.7, 68RFE, 20K Reese, Ride Rite's, 2 Viair air compressors, Bully steps, Kleinn Locomotive air horns (there was 2 and now there are 5), Billet polished locking fuel door, 'A' pillar mount Auto Meter Pryo, PML X-deep trans pan (Yet to be installed)
06 Durango 285 RL 5'er Lifted by KZ
96 2500, Ext, 4X4, V-10 Gasser @ 400 HP, Gibson 3" single Exhaust, Ride Rite's, 285 Bridgestones, 170,000 miles, Faded Green, Carr steps, Brush Guard, 2 - 385K CP KC Daylighters, Dual Batteries, On board Air system

Here's the official 6.7L Turbocharger cool down times from Dodge TURBOCHARGER cooldown.doc

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2007.5 Dodge Ram 3500 HD,QC, 6.7L Cummins, 6speed Auto, 4X4, Bighorn Edition.
Click for installs: Carr Steps PML Diff Cover Edge Juice with Attitude Volant Intake Hankook ATM RF10

That is just about exactly what I saw this weekend. Final temps were about 400* to 450*. Thanks.

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07.5 3500 Quad, SRW, 4X4, Laramie, Leathered, Dark Metallic Gray, 6.7, 68RFE, 20K Reese, Ride Rite's, 2 Viair air compressors, Bully steps, Kleinn Locomotive air horns (there was 2 and now there are 5), Billet polished locking fuel door, 'A' pillar mount Auto Meter Pryo, PML X-deep trans pan (Yet to be installed)
06 Durango 285 RL 5'er Lifted by KZ
96 2500, Ext, 4X4, V-10 Gasser @ 400 HP, Gibson 3" single Exhaust, Ride Rite's, 285 Bridgestones, 170,000 miles, Faded Green, Carr steps, Brush Guard, 2 - 385K CP KC Daylighters, Dual Batteries, On board Air system

The owners manual that comes with the trucks has a page in it with reccommendations for how long to let the engine run to cool the turbo cool down. Anywhere from one minute to five minutes depending on what type of driving was being done.

Mark