What is a pyrometer gauge?

Are you crazy at 1400 deg the bearings on the turbo will melt and then you have big big problems! 900-1200 is ok to run anything higher than that is trouble! When climbing a hill and it starts to get hot down a gear and back off the throttle and make sure the fan is on !

 

We have an older B model Cat with the pyrometer mounted behind the turbo, and we start to back out of it @ 950*.

 

It's the temperature of your exhaust manifold back in the day. If I remember mine, it was around 1250 max and you were to downshift and ease off the rpm and cool the outflow exhaust should it get too close to that temperature during upgrade pulling. That was back when engines were doing something like 1300 to 1800 range for torque and horsepower before maxing out at 2300. Some engines were unlimited and turned 3200 with one problem and that would be the main bearing surfaces at your crank shaft, if they were to go back that high up, you would lose the entire engine pretty quick. Fortunately I never had that happen. Yet. and that was a long time ago.

In it's day the pyro was a very important part of your driving. And it was part of what you were taught by a trainer back in the day when there was no computers around and everything had a gauge on it. YOU were the computer that decided how to run the thing.

 

It all depends on the pistons as to when to back out of the go go juice. Aluminum pistons dont sustain MANIFOLD temps ovee 1300 for to long. Steel pistons like the accert cats 1500+ in the MANIFOLD is no sweet. I would never trust after turbo temps. Never quite understood why they put them there. Ive seen 500 degrees difference in temps from the manifold to the down pipe when engines are running full tilt.

 

Yup. All depends on piston type.
My old b model with alum pistons i would never let go over 1000.
My E model never over 1200.

My 575 14 L. ddec 4 series 60 can get up to 1200 and that was fresh out of the factory. But that also has steel top pistons.
Diffrent turbo and a better tune and cant break 900 and more power.

 

I understand your point, but I think that conventional wisdom at the time was to put the pyrometer probe downstream from the turbo, so that any piece of the probe that might break off wouldn't go through the turbo.