Hello all. I pulled with my 2000 F250 7.3 for the first time yesterday pulling a 12,500 5th wheel and then again today with an 18 ft ski boat weighting around 3500 for both the trailer and boat. I had this same issue pulling both.

Today when pulling the boat/trailer i was behind a slow moving truck and when we hit a hill with a passing lane i merged over and wanted to start passing him. We started off at around 45 mph up the hill and as I started pushing the pedal I wasn't gaining any speed and my rpm's didn't even get over 1500. It felt like a stall and continued that at around 45-50 mph up the hill (about a 65 degree slope). When I'm not towing the truck runs great, plenty of power and averaging around 16 1/2 mpg.

Only mods i have is a 6647 Napa filter, muffler delete and it's running the same 4 position TS tuner from the original owner. During normal operation I run it at the 75hp gain and when towing i use the 50hp gain.

In both instances i could see black smoke coming from exhaust when pushing the pedal but my rpm's wouldn't go up and truck maintained the slow speed going up the hill. Once at the top it drove normal and picked up speed without any problems.

Any advice would be great.

 

Sounds like you're not building any boost! Do you have anything to monitor all of that while driving? Also I bet your EGT's were through the roof!

I had my intercooler tubing pop loose one night and couldn't figure out why I had no power even while on my hottest tune. I finally noticed from my scan gauges that I wasn't building any boost at all. Could barely break over 50-55MPH on a flat. My EGT's would jump through the roof as well as there wasn't much air pressure to clear the heat from the cylinders... Be careful if you don't have a pyrometer. You can cook your turbo, valves (Primarily exhaust valves) pistons, and turbo seals (causing a dieseling situation...) if too much heat is sustained for very long (I prefer to stay below 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit in all cases)

 

Like Otto said check for leaks at all intercooler boots ( tighten or replace boots) & check up pipes behind turbo for soot.

 

About 3 weeks ago I had the ford dealer replace my up pipe with the international ones. Would it be possible they didn't get it seated right?

 

Either that or the "donut" seals weren't replaced or aren't sealing correctly. If by "international" up-pipes you mean the bellowed ones then they don't require seals and very well could be leaking. Like was posted above check the inside of the firewall for soot. It will leave black marks when you have an exhaust leak.

 

Does any of this sound like turbo surging?

 

No that's more of a sound that you hear. It's harmful to the turbo but shouldn't cause power loss

 

First and foremost, if your RPM's never reached over 1500, you should consider downshifting and getting the RPM's up to at least 2500. Horsepower peaks at around 2600-2800 iirc where there are approximately 125 more available than at 1500 RPM's at stock tuning. HP is what causes you to gain speed. Additionally, if you are only at 1500 RPM's you aren't going to build much boost even if there are no leaks at the up-pipes or CAC's.
The black smoke is a relatively good sign of high EGT's....higher RPM's will build horsepower, boost, lower EGT's, and save your engine.

 

Thanks for the info. If i am reading it correctly i guess i should have turned off over-drive to let it downshift and built up rpms. Is that what you're saying?

As soon as as i saw the black smoke i let off the throttle and just cruised to the top at around 45-50 mpgs before accelerating. once at the top it picked up speed and pulled normal.

 

Yes, downshift and get the RPM's up, that is precisely what I am saying. At 1500 RPM's you probably only have 120-140 horsepower on tap, even with the chip. At 2500-2800 RPM's you probably have between 250-280 HP available with your chip depending upon how aggressive the tuning is. It takes a large volume of hot exhaust to build high boost. The volume increases with higher RPM's.

I try not to lug the engine even when I am empty. For me, 1500 RPM's constitutes lugging the engine when towing anything.

When towing heavy up hills, like your 12,500 lb reference above, I will find the gear in which the engine is able to maintain 2500-2800 RPM's easily, as in 1/2 throttle "EASY" for climbing hills/mountains. Once I have found that sweet spot, I don't care if I am driving 35 mph or 60 mph. Others can pass if that is too slow. Flat and level you'll want to maintain approximately 2000 rpms, at least until you have an EGT gauge.

 

Quick question about monitoring EGT's. I know there are a ton of opinions on what I should use or a brand that is better than others but is there one you would recommend? I know the autometer is probably going to be the more expensive ones and the glowshift is another brand that is priced fairly reasonable. Is there one better than the other or does it matter that much which brand I get? Any suggestions?

 

I run d/s and p/s pyros with glowshift.... Since it was your first time towing, and not knowing the truck towing wise, I wonder if the hpop can't keep up with the demand that the chip is producing... May want to get the torque pro app and elm327 obd adaptor to monitor the sensors...

 

thanks for the response and please overlook my stupidity here. I know what the torque pro app and elm327 is. But I can't decipher the other stuff. HOOP? did you mean the HPOP? Also I'm not sure what d/s and p/s pyros means.

 

Corrected the above..damn auto spell....d/s= driver side, p/s= passenger side

 

That means he has two pyros, one in each side. I have autometers, they came with the truck. The pyro was not working when I got the truck and it was unserviceable. They gave me a very good price on a new one and I am/was happy with that.