So, I've got a 2010 Dodge 2500 with the 6.7 Cummins engine and manual trans. It's about to go out of warranty, and I'm wondering what mods I might want to do in order to extend the lifetime of the engine. I've got about 50k on it now.
The primary use is towing a two-car trailer cross-country. It doesn't get used for daily driving, I figured a while back that it spends 80% of its time with a load. It never sits idling, pretending to be a big rig. It just loads up and heads for the on-ramp, with occasional trips to Home Depot.
My goal is lifespan. I don't want to roll coal - I really like the fact that it's not a stinky, sooty thing - and I'm in no big hurry to crank up the power. It would be nice to defeat the torque management but not if I'm going to put my trans at risk.
The truck forums are all full of guys with flat billed caps who swear that DPF and EGR are the worst possible thing for an engine. Anybody here with real experience from a non-brodozer viewpoint?
Not the same engine but the DPF and DOC recently vanished from my 6.4 Powerstroke. Night and day difference. The engine runs so effortlessly now, and is so smooth and quiet you'd think you were driving a gasser. This will also help keep the roughly gallon of diesel fuel out of my oil pan over the course of an oil change interval.
DPF and EGRs don't benefit the lifespan. Since you have the manual I wouldn't be screaming for a trans cooler. I'd honestly go upgraded intercooler and radiator, though the stock 6.7 units are impressive. Maybe a water separator? Meth injection could be considered if you see high EGTs when towing under load.
I have an 08 6.7 that has 240000km on it now. I really resisted the deletes because I loved the clean exhaust. But I did have intermittent issues with a sticky turbo and driveability problems. I would hook up to 14000 pounds and pull the 13 per cent grade behind my house a few times and all would be good again for a while. But over time it got worse and finally Dodge told me I needed a new turbo among other things. So at 220000km I spent the money on the deletes, new stainless exhaust and the programmer needed to turn off the check engine lights. Despite recommendations I did not up the power level. The turbo magically cleaned itself up and my mileage in a dually 4x4 jumped from 12 up to around 17 o the highway. It does run much nicer as well and still no smoke but the tail pipe is now sooty.
i would probably do the deletes as the parts fail. and there may be just a basic tune out there that deals with the torque management somewhere between the stock tune and full blown coal roller tune.
The deletes can open up a lot of power, the intercooler is lousy once you free up more power and there are plenty of plug in programmers that will assist you. I'd leave it stock until crap starts failing though since it is made to last as built.
It's the EGR I'm most worried about, as the "soot injection" can really clog up the intake manifold, grid heater and elsewhere. There's a scheduled service at 67.5k to remove the EGR system and clean everything out.
