A co-worker of mine has a 2004 Cummins and just installed a PacBrake exhaust brake on his truck. He says he loves it. It got me thinking more serious about the option.

I was wondering who here runs an exhaust brake? What kit do you have? How do you like it? Are there any negatives / risks to running the exhaust brake?

I think Jeff is running or in the process of building a custom brake. I will have to find out more about that.....

I was thinking of this PacBrake kit C40019... https://pacbrake.com/product/c40019-...ust-brake-kit/

Seems the nice part about it is it wouldn't interfere with any of the turbo upgrades I've already done to my truck (KC Turbo, EBPV delete, etc.). Bad thing is the cost, but it would have to be a later project since I'm already tapped out on expenses with my recent upgrades.... Just seeing if this is a worthy upgrade to start saving for.

 

I installed a pac break on my neighbors 01 F350 dually several years ago, he has never been impressed with it. anytime you touch the breaks the pcm unlocks the torque converter and you loose what little exhaust break you had. you can wire a tc lock up switch to prevent that but my neighbor isn't someone I want to be responsible for having the tc locked up and forgetting it. the same reason a lot of tune writers quit writing a de-cell tune using the ebpv and tc lockup.

 

I got the impression this PRXB version was a newer style, but I could be totally wrong. I would hope in order for it to potentially not run into the same issues you mentioned. But again I could be wrong...

 

I'm still doing research on the topic, but curious on the Banks system as well. Curious on all systems.... https://bankspower.com/products/exha...caAl6MEALw_wcB

 

I just did a quick read through the installation instructions from the link you provided in your first post, steps 26, 31, 32, and 33 were NOT part of the install I did, so you are probably right, I didn't research what the splice in the pcm was for but might assume it is for tc lockup. but there still need to be something that unlocks the tc when you are coming to a complete stop but keep it locked when descending a long grade and need the breaks to further assist the exhaust break.
in short I would call them.
I see you are in Idaho and know what mountain driving as is my neighbor is mostly AZ northern CA, OR and WA. so only mountains.

 

Does the truck still have the EBPV? That makes a decent exhaust brake.

 

I second this. I ran my EBPV as an exhaust brake until I went T4/SXE. It worked great.

 

I removed my EBPV when I switched to the KC Turbo. But I'm not against going back to it if it can be used as a brake. What do you have to do to it to get it to work as a brake?

 

I can't recall who I sent my EBPV Exhaust Brake doohickey to. Either @BWST or @F350towing will be able to tell you.

 

Aside from the hardware (EBPV and correct pedestal) you will need a tune. AFAIK only DP Tuner has that, called a decel tune. The decel tune is just another tune selected from the switcher. The tune closes the EBPV as an exhaust brake and firms up the transmission so the engine drag is transmitted to the wheels. You switch decel on and off as needed. The truck will not accelerate with decel activated. It's pretty fab on a long descent, saves the brakes.

Some folks have rigged up home brew exhaust brake systems with switches etc, but this is one of those cases where buying a fully engineered bolt on package makes a lot of sense to me. Especially regarding the trans tuning.

 

I thought I've read a lot of negative of tunes for exhaust brake. Well I guess maybe the only one that I've heard has one is DP Tuner. No experience with them, but I know I've read a lot of bad. And I thought I read bad stuff on the transmission if the decel is not setup correctly for converter lockup. Not sure. I've only started dipping my tows into this subject. So trying to figure it all out. If there is an economical way (but good) way to achieve having the brake then I'm all ears. However, I'm not opposed to paying the money for a one n' done proper setup. Just won't be right away until I save some money.

 

The only "commercially available" decel or exhaust brake tune is available through DP Tuner.

Jeff (BWST tagged above) has been messing around with a way to use the EBPV as an exhaust brake with mixed results due to the transmission manipulation portion of the doohickey (FTN terminology). He will likely be along shortly to explain in great detail as if I recall correctly, he has charts, graphs, numbers and examples of how the transmission was behaving.

Just about 3 years ago I created the thread linked below. It has some on topic information if you feel you have the interest and time to take a look.

Link: 4R100 when descending a grade?

I don't and haven't seen the need for an exhaust brake in all of my heavy towing, even out in your neck of the woods and in the Rocky mountains. But, perhaps that is simply because I don't know what the other side of the fence looks like. Perhaps the grass is lush and there are 34° IPA's being served at no charge. So, until then, I stay on my side of the fence where my experience has lead me right thus far. I crest a grade at an appropriate speed and use the ZF6 to maintain speed (as I understand it the 4R100 can do this too) and quick stabs on the service brakes if/when needed.

A bit further down the rabbit hole on the point of using an exhaust brake on a truck that no longer has an EBPV pedestal is in the link below.

Link: T4 with exhaust brake?

Good luck to you Shane and I hope you find a solution that you and your truck are happy with.

 

Thanks for the information Sous. I will take a look. I would imagine with your ZF6 that you have much better control of a decent than we do with our automatics. I've downshifted my transmission into lower gears on slow dirt roads and it has worked okay, but this is at very slow speeds. At highway speeds I fear it would just be too much for it and the rpm's, but I'm far from any expert.

After listening to my co-worker rave about his new PacBrake on his '04 Cummins, it got the wheels a spinning.....

 

I have the doohickey - but have not taken the time to reverse-engineer it to see what it does. FTN looked for the schematics once, but we could not find them.




I will say it works pretty well between 2500 and 3000 rpm, providing nice holding power coming down grades, as a supplement to choosing the right speed and gear at the top of said grade for the load.

It has a separate circuit to keep the TC locked during exhaust brake use, for maximum effect. My PHP tow tunes normally keep the TC locked when needed, but because this particular exhaust brake circuit uses the service brake switch to trigger it, the PCM would command TC unlock after 17 seconds of light brake application, due to it's programming. The separate TC lock module takes care of that, and, so far so good.

Here's a decent with my 9K TT in tow, coming down the west side of Stevens Pass, WA, in 2nd gear, 40-45mph:



https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post20027649

Sorry I can't be of more help for your application, sir.

 

Yep lots of tuners will not touch a decel tune with a 10' pole. Liability I guess. On paper it looks like a scenario to float the exhaust valves. Did that ever happen to me? No.

IMO the trans tuning is critical, and more complex than simple TC lockup. I would suggest asking Jody at DP about that to get real details.

Comparison to ZF6 is kinda pointless.

But given the EBPV and pedestal are gone maybe a bolt on like the Banks kit is the simplest answer?