Kevin Rutherfrauds $200000 Signature glider truck has complete engine failure!!!

You win the award for rhetorical question of the year, and we're only 3 months into it!

Seriously tho, I think you have something there. Not everyone grows up with technical knowledge, or even an ability to understand how stuff works. So they tend to associate with and believe people they trust who seem to understand those things they don't. I'd say they would have been better off had they stumbled upon an actual expert instead of a guy that managed to exploit a void in the trucking media world and another guy that managed to grow a hack performance business who decided to partner with guy number one and try exploiting the mpg market. Maybe the right guy for them will be the shop owner in Iowa that's done the most recent work. One can only hope that he stuck a q-tip in their ears and cleaned out all the bs and hype they've been living on and replaced it with some good advice on how to make this truck perform.

I follow the signature truck owners' FB group and the latest announcement is that they're back on the road. With no details about what exactly was done or what it cost. More interestingly nothing about whether or not the high profile people that encouraged them on this fool's errand did much to bring a solution. They do mention that they'll be lurking at mats with the Microblue guys. Which kind of suggests to me that Microblue likely stepped up and did something to take the sting out of paying for all the engine work a second time. They will probably never publicly announce the details, which makes sense. I'm guessing a combination of shame along with fear of alienating potential good partners by becoming someone known for airing their dirty laundry. Eventually it will come out second-hand. Enough people who are credible and know better will come in contact with them and be able to condense the real facts from the triple latte bullpoop they've been feeding on for the past year.

To me, the fun fact is that all HD road diesel engine charts probably look the same, with the precise location of that sweet spot varying by a few rpm. Regardless of what color the block is painted, they were all designed separately to do the exact same job, for the most part. The problem is that someone who cannot put this together in their head with a simple presentation of data (Scangauge) probably isn't going to seek out a chart like this, or even understand what they're looking at. The signs of low rpm/high load operation that hammer and a few others point out suggest that the owners of the signature truck did not get it. As i already said, I hope the latest shop they've employed gives them better advice. Failing that, maybe they'll get to meet a few people at mats who actually know what they're doing.

Maybe, maybe not. When I worked in the automotive shops, I could count on at least one or two customers a week either asking me to install some kind of magic add-on, or at least my opinion. I've used that logic a time or two, mainly like, "What makes you think you or the maker of this product are smarter than the building full of engineers employed by the automaker?"

That wasn't entirely accurate. There's smart engineers everywhere. The ones that work for the manufacturers have a different set of priories than the rest:

1. Profit
2. Don't get sued
3. Make it last beyond the warranty, but not too much (parts and service sales)
4. Build it cheap
5. Profit

Add to that, I'm sure they have to work around numerous corporate alliances and whatnot. For that matter, look at the customers they have to satisfy, mostly mega fleets. Absolutely not the same priorities that a single truck or small fleet owner would have.

1. Low cost to acquire
2. Has to last until the lease is complete
3. Will survive the lease with a driver that was making french fries last week
4. Low cost to repair
5. Low cost
6. Has a refrigerator and apu to keep the cab more comfortable than a fry cook kitchen

On the other side, the aftermarket priority is to convince you of the benefit of their product so you will believe it and buy it. They're not all bad guys and fraudsters, but unfortunately too many are overhyped and don't deliver to the inflated expectations that are set. I agree there's plenty of snake oil out there too. As in, products that are actually fraudulent that will never deliver anything but a receipt. The market will bear them out. There's some hangers on out there, I agree. The dedicated additive product aisle in every truck stop and parts house is evidence of that. I'm glad it's there. The one thing I've learned to count on in my short time with trucking is that my competition is not hard to beat.

My point is that even apparently credible engineering advice is often bent to support an agenda that may not agree with yours. You've chosen to follow the ones that you agree with. Nothing wrong with that. It tells me you aren't a risk taker. But it doesn't mean all the rest are frauds.

When I think about what I've read in the FB thread for the signature truck owners, I see them as risk takers that are ignorant but I'd stop short of stupid. What they are missing is the mechanical aptitude to recognize value in this stuff, or even be able to exploit it if they stumbled upon something that did have some incremental value. What good is something proven to add even a fraction of a tenth mpg going to do for you if you're out there climbing hills at 55 mph at 1,000 rpm in top gear with your foot against the floorboard? That would be a number less than zero.

 

I'd forgotten just how wide of sweet spot those early 12.7's had. You could more or less run them from 1300-1800 with minimal difference in economy. These DEF motors and the narrow slot of sweet spot they have is insane in comparison.

 

I don't know about PP's newer boxes, but all the original one did was widen the injector pulses. No timing change or anything, just popped a bit more fuel in at the end of the injection cycle. It was a piggyback to the ECM and not an a replacement for it.

 

Sorry for the misquote. Seems the shoe fit nonetheless.

I do listen to KR's show when I can catch it. It's entertaining. He's promoted a number of products that are at least interesting to hear about. I'm always looking for ways to improve the bottom line. It doesn't mean I blindly follow his direction. I enjoy listening to a mostly clueless audience sharing their experience and getting almost as clueless advice on what to do next. However, sometimes even a blind squirrel gets a nut. A few winners call in and that catches my attention to learn more and decide if it's something I can use.

I'm not sure where you got "duped" from, you being all about honesty in reporting stuff. In fact the only KR promoted products I've actually purchased are low RR tires and a scan gauge.

The tires are backed by plenty of real evidence, and I've enjoyed a real benefit myself since buying them. Interestingly I did not just line up at the Michelin dealer, which would be Kevin's favorite. My choice was with a product that (in my opinion) may not be at the limits of low-RR tech, but offers a robust package that includes a level of dealer support that I've managed to experience and prove out on several occasions.

The scanguage I would have bought even if there wasn't a version available with the "master's" special displays programmed into it. The factory gauge package in my KW is hard to see. I wanted something in my line of sight to make it easier to monitor. To me the smoother instant mpg logic KR's version has was something I was willing to pay $30 more for on a product I'd have bought anyway. Sorry to disappoint you, but that's all that's there. No interesting kool-aid story for you.

To be clear, I think Microblue is interesting and I have and continue to seek out more credible accounts on the product. I have not bought any of that product, as what I've read over the past few years isn't enough to establish a positive case for it for me. You must have missed that when I mentioned going with plain, grease pack bearings during a service opportunity, along with why I did that. My posts are getting a mile long, so maybe that's it.

And damage? Really? I still like you even when you often think like a victim and put yourself out there as an advocate. Nobody is holding a gun to anyone's head forcing them to buy stuff. Maybe people that rush to spend their money on unproven stuff need to just go ahead and do it. Then they become the light house that steers everyone else away from harm.

What's funny about this is it made me recall a story. Everyone likes stories and I'm already wasting my life away posting epic comments on here, so here goes. I was about 15 or so and hanging out with my best friend one summer. We were out by the back deck and there happened to be an old umbrella laying on the ground near by. Of course, you know flight experiments and how they might be done immediately became the topic of conversation.

Anyway, getting to the point, my friend Scotty goes in the house and persuades his little sister to be the test pilot. She comes out and goes off the patio with the umbrella and breaks her arm when the thing flips inside out and she drops like a stone.

So you probably see where I'm going with this. Who's really a victim or, in the end, responsible for the damage? Your first thought would be the sister as a victim. She was young and naïve, and pretty much willing to do anything to be included in anything the older kids were up to. So it seems easy to paint the brother who encouraged her, or maybe me as a neutral observer that did nothing to stop it, as the responsible parties.

Only there's a little problem with that. She trusted her brother as a credible leader, even though I'm sure she knew jumping off the deck holding an umbrella never even works in cartoons. So I don't buy into the whole victim mentality. I believe she would break her arm doing some other ill-advised thing if this hadn't happened. Likewise, my buddy didn't shove her off the deck. She jumped willingly. I know this because he was on the ground where I was, waiting for it, not even up there with her putting the umbrella in her hand and helping her step over the rail.

People are gonna do dumb things no matter what. I just don't get excited about it because I'm neither a victim or someone that entices victims to do their thing. So maybe I'm the guy that benefits from everyone else's misery. Or maybe I'm the guy that learns from other people's experimentation. Both are true. What I am a firm believer of is this: if it weren't for people like my buddy and his sister, nobody would try anything risky enough to discover something that actually has merit. In other words, without it there would be no innovation.

 

Huh ? so when did you install the airtab's ? you know what, never mind. I'm such a jerk, I actually expect people to say what they mean and mean what they say. I'm such a jerk that I even expect when someone puts their signature on something like a truck that they would stand behind it.

 

In one of their comments, they said they (Jeff & Kathy) paid the entire bill. New heads, rebuilt engine, and microblued bearings...


Pittsburgh Power's customer service reminds me of this:

 

Hate to pick on you 40 cuz I know you're pretty sharp but gotta disagree with that quote. Boost adds even more atmospheric gas to the cylinder making more to compress which generates more heat. More RPM is what gets the hot gasses out of the cylinder quicker.

Prove by using full boost at min. rpm then drop a gear use full boost and watch pyro drop.

 

I think I should refrain from posting at 1am. Let me clarify, low rpm low boost is the name of the game for fuel mileage. The lack of boost, or more specifically air flow, can heat up the engine. Adding boost or air flow will coll the engine down. When my impeller had little nubs for vanes, low RPM's and low boost built up heat. With a normal impeller, that heat never build up as the air is being pushed through the engine. The ATA, CAC, intercooler, whatever you want to call it, does a pretty good job of taking the heat out of the boost due to compression.

 

This isn't what causes lower EGT's at higher rpm. If you notice with a newer variable-geometry turbo (VGT), the EGT doesn't climb as much at lower rpm as it does with a fixed turbo. This is because the VGT can operate at full efficiency over a broader rpm range than a fixed turbo, allowing the VGT to push more air at lower rpm. The EGT rise you speak of is related to turbo efficiency, and not time in cylinder. Think about it for a second, the exhaust gases are the hottest thing in the engine, the more time they spend in the cylinder, the more of their heat is transferred to engine components. (This is one of the reasons downshifting in a pull lowers water temps, less time the gases sit in the cylinder transferring heat.) The rise in EGT isn't neccesarily only because the turbine inlet temp has climbed, but also because the turbo isn't converting that heat to work at the lower turbine speeds. The VGT's keep the turbine speed up over a much broader range of rpm. (This is why the VGT's are so beneficial to Jake HP, a fixed turbo won't spin up as much hanging on the jake as a VGT, resulting in lower cylinder pressures and less jake HP.)

 

Low boost, but not zero boost. You want to extract as much heat as possible without increasing exhaust back pressure, and to make sure the cylinder filling is adequate to get complete combustion. Zero boost is wasting energy just like the overboosting of the EGR engines does, just at opposite ends of the curve.