I have a 2008 6.4L with 6500 miles on it. I have an AutoMeter pyrometer installed pre-turbo, and the temperatures I'm seeing are much higher than for the 1999 7.3L I traded in.

At idle from a cold start, the engine idles at about 360-380 degrees F. The 7.3L idled at less than 300 degrees. I seem to run about 200 degrees hotter just driving around town. I've seen 1400 degrees several times when towing, and the engine seems to run just fine at that temperature. I needed that much power towing up hill, if I didn't want to get run over on the freeway. I always kept the EGT below 1250 on my old truck, and it was easy to keep it low while towing uphill.

My truck is an F350 SRW, automatic, crew cab, long bed, 20 inch wheels. Stock except for an EGT and tranny temp guage, and an in bed fuel tank.

What should I use as the EGT to shut down the engine? What is the max EGT I should run?

 

If your truck is stock somthing is wrong, you should never see over about 1275 degrees on a EGT. The factory PCM will defuel over that. Yous should not run over 1200 degrees pulling a long grade or a substantial amount of time. The engine can handel 1800+ in short burst such as the quarter mile but not towing for any substantial amount of time.

When running High EGT'S I would worrie about the oil temp since the pistons are also oil cooled, beyond 238 degrees oil temp your asking for problems beyond 1200 degrees EGT's due to heat saturation of the oil.

 

your post sounds normal for the 6.4l/. My guage is set to alarm at 1175 and I do agree that temps higher than that should not be sustained for any long period of time. I have seen 1250 even 1300 without defueling before I could back off. I have never seen 1400 even on 9% grades but of course I back off.When in high country I do monitor the pre EGT and the oil temp and keep both within limits. IMO if you saw 1400 Pre EGT you were pushing to hard..

 

Your temp range sounds about right. I have a stock truck with a pre-turbo egt monitor and and I can hit low 1200s at times not pulling a thing driving up grades

 

I was told that 1500 degrees on a stock 6.4 is normal. Ford techs have been retrained due to everyone freaking out when we see 1500. With that said I have my alerts set at 1650 and the second the light come on I get off the throttle for a few secs. My EGTs run cooler on the Extreme tune than they do on the 120 HP no DPF tune. Does anyone know what the H.P. is suppost to be on the extreme setting. I am running SCT livewire.

 

Those are normal temps. I was using the DashDaq in stock trim and had 1200 degrees showing during a regen on the highway (flat road 1800 RPM's). With a tune you could easily see 1400-1700 degrees. These engines are built to handle the higher temps.

 

There are 2 reasons why the EGT levels are higher on the 6.4 compared to the 7.3

1) The 2008 model trucks are heavier then previous years.

2) The emissions equipment adds restrictions to the exhaust system, which increases EGT's. I have the entire DPF & Cat replaced with a 5" pipe and my EGT's are much lower.