aren't the pistons aluminum? Aluminum melts at 1200 degrees.

i

 

I have no idea.... But didn't the factory regen crap heat up so much that it was 1400 deg to clean the DPF? And obviously that caused problems....but still.

I towed a few times with the truck on 210. While the power was outstanding, I was noticing a huge problem when I was heavy into the throttle. When it would shift into second gear, it would buck like nothing I had ever seen before. So much that I would have to completely take my foot off the petal and then get back into it easily. The next time out I went down to the 150. Truck still ran amazing, but the same problem was still happening. Yesterday I towed my mini excavator to a job and decided to turn it down to 75. The job was only about 3 miles from the house, but I did get out on the main road and got on her pretty hard. It ran perfect that time. And it still runs great at 75HP, so I think for my needs, towing at 75 will be great.

I also have it mounted to watch the temps. Our last trip out with the 5th wheel was about an hour drive and I was on the 150 tune and the temps were perfect.

 

I've had my 6.4 over 1600 degrees several times but not for long. No problem.

just because the exhaust is 1200 doesn't mean the Pistons are. First of all the combustion temperatures are way higher, but also the Pistons are only exposed to it part of their cycle, and they are also being cooled from the backside.

 

The spartan tuner was great, but I remained curious to the end why all their tunes seemed to have trouble controlling the boost level. It tended to keep the turbo vanes tighter than needed, I'm guessing maybe egr programming wasnt' totally removed from program maybe? I remember easing into the throttle moderate and see 30 psi then hit the throttle harder and you could hear the vanes open more and keep the boost around 30 psi. Dumb stuff like that seemed to be for egr operation that was never totally removed.
once I removed the turbo actuator wire, the truck ran more like other trucks and the boost matched the fuel better, egts fine, slow spool up though.

the larger tunes like 310 or 350 have way less safety built in, like half your sensors could be missing and it won' trigger a check engine light lol.

​​​​​​as said, you can set alarms on the monitor for all kinds of parameters so that makes it easy.

 

Finally...Someone else mentions the turbo/boost issues with Spartan tuning. I posted threads on this subject, posted Youtube videos wandering what the hell the problem was...I replaced both the EBP(and cleaned tube(top and bottom)) sensor and MAP sensor because of this issue thinking they were related.

I switched back to my Torque Tech "Mild - Lever 1 - Stock" tune and love it. Boost is back to normal and the truck pulls like it should.

Perhaps I need to check into the updates Patriot has released for the nDash. Depending on when they were released, I may have them already...and if so...I think I'll use my Spartan (Patriot) to monitor only...and use my T1 for tunes.

Didn't like the way the turbo/boost acted at all. Way too much boost with no pull to show for it. My Torque Tech tune, which is pretty mild, gets better response than the 150 tune from Spartan. I checked with their support and they said I'd "really feel the difference with the 210 and up tunes." All the while I'm wondering why the hell I have to run around with a 210+hp tune before I "feel the difference". What is the purpose of all those lower tune levels if you can't differentiate between them? I have a pretty light foot 99+% of the time.

 

The different tunes are good so that you can find the right one for your truck and what it's towing ect. A 40 hp difference might not be too noticeble but people like the choice. One person might want another 40 and the egts that come with it, another person not so much.

and yes the boost is not right with the spartan tuNed 6.4. I even asked spartan at one point a long time ago and if I remember right they said something like "it's a 600 hp motor now the boost will be higher".
ya I understand that but not alllllll the damn time. I remember driving empty down the highway and seeing the boost hit 20 psi up a slight grade. My 7.3 made it up the same grade under 5 psi.

I eventually disconnected the turbo actuator like I said, and found that the truck was pretty drivable, and Id rather have lag than high boost all the time. Highway boost on flat ground went to a few psi, and it still made plenty of boost once it got spooled. It didn't like spooling under about 1800 rpm. A spring and air actuator to keep the vanes tight and open them at about 5 psi could replace the actuator and drive great I think.
mileage did go up with the actuator disabled. Egts were a little warmer but not much. Drove it like that for a couple years and plugged in the controller when I got rid of it and turbo vanes were perfect not sticky at all.

 

Above in red. ^^^

 

Good reads. I haven't noticed anything wild with my turbo readings and I've ran the 40, 75, 150 and 210 tunes. I will say that the 150 and 210 tunes had a delay and then all the sudden it was like the nintrous kicked in and I was GONE. The 40 and 75 don't do that. I prefer it on the lower tunes honestly.

 

Yes the turbo actuator controller unplugged set the check engine light off on any tune other than the 350+ tune if I remember right.
If you accelerated slowly but just enough the egts could hit 1000 but if you drove harder to get the rpms up it would build boost aND be fine. I drove it like that for over a year and even towed and it was fine. Like I said before even just an air actuator and spring to keep the vanes tight until 5psi would probably be perfect.

​​​​​​long story short if I drove for over a year with it off you can definitely experiment a bit without worrying. Just keep an eye on egts while experimenting.
​​​

 

Oh yeah.
the plug is on the side of the actuator controller. UnderNeath I think. I remember it being hard to take off without a screw driver.

 

Since March 23rd I have not pulled our 5th wheel.
Driving around town and through the countryside "empty" I am seeing a 2 mpg fuel increase with the heavy duty towing tune. That puts us at 460 hp and 960 ft. lbs. of torque.
Where I notice it most is getting on the freeway. Before merging into traffic, I now have to slow down. Very noticeable power increase.

I am happy with this setup.