Sad power out of 1990 7.3 F350 with ATS 093 Turbo

[ninjai]

Hey all!

I've been doing a lot of reading today in forums and it sounds like my truck should be getting way more power than I'm getting. With an 8' camper I'm crawling in 3rd gear up big hills. My truck has a pyrometer and the highest it ever got was to 600F. The air filter is cleanish, and I believe the turbo has a 3" downpipe off the back to 3" exhaust.

Should I increase the boost? (not sure how to do it, or what these "flats" things are that I keep hearing about)

Should I get a 4" downpipe w/ 4" exhaust?

My buddy's 1997 powerstroke has noticeably more power.

Perhaps the fact that my truck has 35" and a 4" lift makes the difference?

Sounds like quite the group of smart people here... hoping I can get some more power out of this old girl.

 

[Ididriver]

well if your only getting 600 on your pyro it sounds like your still at the stock fuel settings
on the side of your fuel pump theres a little triangle peice with two bolts holding it on
take it off and inside theres a slot for a 5/32 allan wrench turn the crank over by hand till the hole lines up to get your allan wrench in then turn it clockwise 2-3 flats to start off with
rember you want your egts to stay under 1200
a flat is one side of an allan wrench so a complete turn is 6 flats

 

[GRU]

when i first got my truck done and on the road the firt thing i did was hook up approx 7500 lbs worth of trailer and went for a ride. i was sooo unhappy. down right mad in fact that i put so much work into this truck and it was such a dog. turned out whoever put the turbo on never turned up the pump! let me tell you, it makes a HUGE difference! if youre getting no smoke and only 600 degrees egt at max you my friend have no fuel! i turned mine up at least 3 flats, if not a bit more and wow. shes a tug boat now. i tow a 35' 10,000 lb 5th wheel with it now. definately watch your egt though, i can peg mine with no trouble. do a search on here for turning up your pump. theres a good article with pictures, its what i used. possibly in the tech section. and yes youre correct in thinking theres alot of smart people on here. these guys know this motor inide and out, front to back. this is the place to be for info!

 

[ninjai]

a flat is one side of an allan wrench so a complete turn is 6 flats

Thank you SO much for explaining that lol.

when i first got my truck done and on the road the firt thing i did was hook up approx 7500 lbs worth of trailer and went for a ride. i was sooo unhappy. down right mad in fact that i put so much work into this truck and it was such a dog. turned out whoever put the turbo on never turned up the pump! let me tell you, it makes a HUGE difference! if youre getting no smoke and only 600 degrees egt at max you my friend have no fuel! i turned mine up at least 3 flats, if not a bit more and wow. shes a tug boat now. i tow a 35' 10,000 lb 5th wheel with it now. definately watch your egt though, i can peg mine with no trouble. do a search on here for turning up your pump. theres a good article with pictures, its what i used. possibly in the tech section. and yes youre correct in thinking theres alot of smart people on here. these guys know this motor inide and out, front to back. this is the place to be for info!

I think you just won an award for making me feel much much better.

I don't suppose there' a picture anywhere pointing out where this allan key hole is for turning up the boost is there? Would this be considered a 5 minute job?

Is 3 flats dangerous? I guess as long as I'm not hitting over 1000 I'm in safe water... right?

Did your mileage take a nose dive when you turned it up a bit, or was it more or less the same?

 

[gatorman21218]

check to make sure your throttle pedal is getting full travel. It happened to me that pedal to the metal only meant about 75% throttle. I would top out at 70mph

 

[ninjai]

check to make sure your throttle pedal is getting full travel. It happened to me that pedal to the metal only meant about 75% throttle. I would top out at 70mph

How would I check this?

 

[gatorman21218]

well I would grab a buddy and have him stomp on the pedal while you watch the Injection Pump and making sure that that lever is making its full travel. A cinder block would probably work as well

 

[Ididriver]

Thank you SO much for explaining that lol.



Did your mileage take a nose dive when you turned it up a bit, or was it more or less the same?

only if you cant keep your foot out of the throttle
i can get 22-24 but when i first got my my turbo on i avearged like 12

and yes there is pictures of it in the tech articles

first time i did it it took me 30 mins second time took me 3 hours nothing wanted to line up the 2nd time...

 

[ninjai]

only if you cant keep your foot out of the throttle
i can get 22-24 but when i first got my my turbo on i avearged like 12

and yes there is pictures of it in the tech articles

first time i did it it took me 30 mins second time took me 3 hours nothing wanted to line up the 2nd time...

Thanks, looking for the tech section now.

Wow that high of mileage? Unloaded I get about 17MPG. With the camper on I get around 12-13mpg.

 

[Ididriver]

Thanks, looking for the tech section now.

Wow that high of mileage? Unloaded I get about 17MPG. With the camper on I get around 12-13mpg.

yeah ive always wondered why my mileage is so great even gps checked my spedo its spot on long as im easy on the throttle and cruse around 1900 200 rpms im good and thats with 4.10 gears
not like im complaing about it

 

[turbodiesel94]

Where is your pyro probe located?

 

[ninjai]

I'm impressed! Sounds like what my buddy with his '97 stroker gets. Am I just blind or is the article no longer in the tech section for adjusting boost on the ATS turbo?? I went to the wiki too.

Where is your pyro probe located?

Is the probe the part that connects the pyro to the exhaust or whatever? Sorry, I'm not the best mechanic around... lol.

 

[Diesel JD]

Where is your pyro probe located?

This is an important question. If it's somewhere after the turbo then you really are at about 850-900 pre turbo. If you're in the stock ATS location I think about 1000-1100 degrees F is max. At least that is true on the older 088 turbo, which is hot side. You could probably go higher as my friend who works on CAT engines for a living and knows a lot about turbos says that location is supposedly about the hottest place in the system. Either way you still have room to play. No one setting is right or wrong on these trucks and turning up the fuel doesn't necessarily mean you'll actually burn more, as Mel says it just opens the door wider for your foot to go through. In some cases you'll even gain mileage if you turn up the fuel but drive the same as before or more conservatively. You will have to watch the pyrometer more closely and you should probably not completely max out the fuel screw as we've seen a few IP failures, ostensibly from this practice. You could max out the screw and back off just a hair from that to keep near max fuel but also keep everything together. It is probably not a 5 minute job, and you do not want to be in a hurry or use a cheap or worn allen wrench for this.

 

[ninjai]

When you say "IP Failures", what is an IP? Injection Pump?

Anyways, if you look here this is the turbo I have... I would assume it's in the stock location, but I'm not entirely sure.

 

[turbodiesel94]

The pyro probe would be the lead coming out somewhere from your exhaust that goes to your gauge. Generally the closer to the manifold it is the more accurate it should be.