Needing advice on keeping an engine good

Ok.

Get a blank peice of paper.

Draw a line a short one horizonal That's your 600 RPM at idle.

Add fuel, your RPM goes up past around 1250 or so. That is the most force your engine can generate and not be stalled. that's your most Torque. The TURNING strength. BEEFY. Goes around and round. Draw a tick mark there.

Add more speed you are still going up to about... 1750. Make a tick mark there. That is your HIGHEST horsepower, ability to do work quickly, example 3000 pound dragster with John Force to 350 mph in 9 seconds. Follow me?

Now here is where it's tricky. Your paper has a straight line then a steady line going up. until that tick mark at 1750 rpm.

NOW. Make a small hilltop at 1800 then draw downgrade until zero rpm below your 600 RPM idle.

Now here i's important.

Around 1950 or so, assuming this is a newer engine that is your redline. You wont go any faster. You are over the top of the hill at 1950 and anything beyond that going down the mountain too fast is no power at all. Down you go on paper.

You follow me?

Here is the example of a engine torque horse power chart.

YOUR SWEET SPOT will be BETWEEN TORQUE and MAX HORSE POWER. If you are run across Ohio at 70 mph at say 1500 RPM sweet spot, and this annoying little hill shows up, you floor it and the engine takes the hill in the sweet spot or a little more without fuss or trouble. (And even better without annoying downshift to climb hill

This page is comprehensible without any BS or frivilous problems. Settle in with a drink and absorb the wonderful torque and horsepower. When you learn what a sweet spot is, literally just like enjoying a female to a male so to speak. It's alot of fun for the engine.

Power vs. Torque – x-engineer.org

 

Take it to 1750 and see. Then do a upshift. You will discover that the engine will drop probably quickly to around 1350, you should already be in the next gear up and adding power. At that point you are in the sweet spot and not fighting the bounce house of a engine not running strong or fast enough to hold the load much less gain speed.

IF you are anxiety about a big engine like that Deiel. Get in there, make sure no one is around you rrig, brakes on put it into nuetrual, disengage any PTO's etc. Then floor it.

She will go straight to REDLINE. Which I think is either 1950, 2100, 2150 or even 2300.

You can stay there all day until your foot hurt. But your are burning alot of fuel very quickly doing this. So don't get into the habit of doing that.

ESPECIALLY NEVER DO THAT until the engine is warmed to at least 180 degrees F by the coolant temperature combined with the Engine pressure oil around where it wants to be and ready to work at a engine oil temperature of around 190 or so. Your turbo needs a little boost thta's all I have for now.

NEVER SHUT OFF a working engine to idle then engine off right away. NEVER NEVER NEVER. LET THAT that engine idle 10 minutes to cool that turbo.

 

You are apparently working in the field. There is no point in floating gears between ruts.

You can try it. but the rewards will not gratify you in a field. On road maybe but not field.

 

@Unidewking if I had another truck I would hire you in a heartbeat. You have the right stuff when it comes to taking care of the equipment. I assume that also means you are approaching driving with the same attitude, making sure everyone around you gets home safely today.

@x1Heavy has it right and you have figured out the numbers regarding rpm's. Maximum horsepower is generally around 2000 rpm, in your unit 2100. Maximum torque seems to be around 500 rpm below that. You want to stay in maximum torque.

CDL schools and mega carriers drill into your skull that if you want to upshift you do it at 1500 rpm's and get the next gear at 1100 rpm's. BUT this means you are starting the next gear well below maximum torque.

My eyes were opened when I started doing drive away for oil field companies. They aren't set up like a mega carrier truck. For one thing they have around a 3.25-3.55 rear end. For another they program the ECM so you can't exceed 1600 rpm. Therefore the window licking mouth breather can't get close to maximum horsepower and gets ansty if he hears the engine wind up over 1500 rpm's.

Oil field trucks are typically set up with rear end ratios over 4. Top end governed speed is typically around 1800 rpm's. Why so high? Because mouth breathing pencil necked accountants figured newbies behind the wheel pulling 110K gross weight in mud and north of 20% grades on dirt roads would destroy a drive train. So they drop in a whopping 350 hp engine and dial up the rear end to 4.55 and hope the newbie doesn't snap the drive shaft.

After doing drive away in trucks specced like that I started to drive my own truck differently. I am no longer afraid of getting well north of 1500 rpm's. Many drive away trucks governed at 65 mph are there at 1800 rpm's, much closer to peak horsepower and slightly ahead of the torque curve.

That's how you drive an underpowered engine with a heavy load. Stay at or above 1500 rpm's on uphill pulls, stay as light on the throttle as you can.

 

When I said be patient on pulls, I mean don't feel like you have to be at the maximum speed possible up the hill. Always pay attention to your exhaust temperature (pyrometer) and make sure your are treating your "Kitty CAT" with respect. If you are flooring it uphill for more than a couple minutes, if you don't have a pyrometer installed, then downshift and find the gear where you don't QUITE have to floor it at 1500 rpm's.

Do all that and kitty will show you love.

Kudos to your employer for finding a gem like you.

 

I double clutch, "tap out" (single clutch to disengage), or float when I am in mud, bottemless sand or gravel, etc. Usually I float...

...BUT...

...if you float gears in situations that can stall you to a standstill quick you need to make those shifts MUCH higher that normal. In my truck I will downshift at around 1600-1700 rpm's and try to catch the lower gear at about 1500 rpm's, for example. That's in a case of say about 5-6" of vasiline mud in central Oklahoma.

Gawd help you if you miss that shift. It's hard not to bury your drives from a standing start in Vaseline.