I have always heard that 1250 is high but I recently put gauges on a friends truck and we took it out for a drive to see how hot he was letting it get.

He mashed the pedal until it got up to 1400 and he wasn't worried at all. He has never had problems with anything and has always driven the truck that way.

The chip he had was a superchip on the first level and the 10k mod. The 10k mod is when it really got hot fast.

What do you think is hot? How hot do you let yours go?

 

I can easily hit 1400* with mine but I rarely do that. Aluminum melts at around 1220* and those pistons are aluminum. That's not to say that a quick burst at 1400 is going to cause a meltdown but who knows. It cannot be a good thing to do over and over or for sustained periods.

 

That is exactly what I thought also. I am always afraid to let mine go over 1200.

 

I feel fine with 1250. I have pulled hills with 8k in tow for roughly 5 min at 1200*. This is the hottest I would run for extended periods. Besides, unless you have huge injectors (b codes etc) and insufficient turbo the only time MOST people will have to worry about extended periods of high heat is when under load like with towing. I have seen some idiots drive every second of there commute like they stole it, that's why I say MOST.

 

I wouldn't HOLD anything over 1300, you can creep up into 1400-1500+ safely for only a few seconds (drag race, sled pull) and then let out of it to cool down. It takes an awful long time to heat sink the piston to get it to melt at a 1300* EGT.

 

I've run mine for extended periods on long grades at 1200°-1250° (pre turbo) and so far all is well. I've hit 1400°+ plenty for short romps, but never for more than a brief moment. I always let her cool down before shut down, and I'm always on top of oil changes. There are a lot of factors to consider in addition to the EGT's.

Austin

 

Remember that these pistons aren't pure aluminum, but an alloy that can withstand more heat than pure aluminum. Like Kris said, brief periods of high EGT's are fine, it takes a while for the heat to actually sink into the pistons.

 

What if a group of 8 mountain climbers who weighed 150 lb each went climbing up a 1000 ft mountain using a rope that was rated to hold 1200 lbs without breaking. Would you want to be in that group? I'd rather be in a group of 7 (if I was stupid enough to do this in the first place) that was only placing a 1050 lb load on the rope rated for 1200 lbs! I don't even care if the rope is rated for 1250 or 1300 lbs, I still wouldn't allow more than 7 climbers to use it. And this conclusion doesn't even consider the accuracy of the scale was that was used to weigh the climbers in the first place! I've been involved with engineering specifications for over 40 years, and I know how iffy and down right flakey some of them are.

 

But isnt the rating usually about 50-75% of the breaking strength Mr. Opposing Viewpoint?

 

Now that is a pebble level explanation I even understand.

 

I would not climb a mt. with a rope or anything else. I live in flat land. Can't fall here. Kris, and Gene, toooooo cooooolllllll

 

Of course it's no concern of mine how high anyone wants to run their EGT's, but I do advise some caution when giving advice to others. Case in point is lacustoms, who I advised to exercise caution when towing with his chip, and gave him a link to my EGT thread. Then he goes an cooks his engine, and inquires about how badly damaged it might be, and I gave some boiling point at altitude info and again cautioned about EGT, and his response was that everyone else here had told him that it's just fine to tow at 1200F all day long, so he had to learn the hard way that it's not. Then poor lacustoms himself boils over, probably in part due to his following bad EGT advice given on this forum!

 

i let out when it hit 1200*-1250* i don't care if i'm going up a hill or not i don't want to melt anything i do tow with my chip and it normally stays at 800-900cruising and 1100* getting to speed

 

A buddy of mine ran 1350* for 8hrs+ towing without issue.

I prefer not to run over 1300* for extended periods......but I've never gotten above 1200* so it's not really an issue for me.

 

As I stated in my post and as others mentioned, there are a lot more factors in what is safe for EGTs.
There are so many variables and differences such as miles, kind of miles
oil pump condition, maintenance history.....the list is endless.
It is important to understand that everybody is going to have different opinions and experiences and that the final decision is, as always the owner of the truck.

Austin