December 2012 Top Tech Questions

Welcome to Top Tech Questions. Oftentimes, readers contact us with questions about articles, or to praise us on what a good job we are doing. But our favorite form of reader communication is tech questions. Our Top Tech section is a place where you ask what’s on your mind, and we answer it. Got a trouble code? Wondering how to get your engine to make more power? Send us an email at jason.sands@sorc.com and we’ll do our best to answer it. Do Diesels Cause Death?
Question: I drive a Class A Freightliner Cascadia with a Cummins ISX with the Clean Idle Certification on it. It won’t rev above 2,000 rpm due to all the emissions restrictions on it, and the regeneration system disables the ability to drive the thing if it hasn’t been activated in a while. It won’t go more than 5 mph if the diesel exhaust fluid is empty! What more can people want? I recently read an article that stated the World Health Organization declared diesel smoke a carcinogen (cancer-causing) element. I fear that if more people read false articles like this, the public will rally together in Washington, and the trucks I drive to support myself will be stripped from me. Please continue to publish uplifting articles about how diesel is changing the way we live in a positive fashion. With your magazine and the support of all the diesel owners out there, we can combat the written tarnish that is making diesel into “a carcinogen.”
Brandon Wright
Windsor, Colorado   |   december 2012 Top Tech Questions sled Pulling Truck Answer: We hate to break it to you Brandon, but diesel smoke most likely is a carcinogen! That is, if you breathe diesel smoke all day every day like you would if you smoked cigarettes, in a few decades (or longer) you would probably get cancer. However, there’s a big “but” in that equation, because very few people breathe diesel smoke all day every day anymore. In fact, the main research for that finding was done on miners, who as a group are a worst-case scenario. Not only that, but the study was started with miners in 1947, when there were virtually no regulations on diesel emissions. Today’s mines have an insane level of emissions controls, including particulate matter traps, de-rated engines, and advanced cleaning machines. Virtually everything has the capacity to kill you in a mine, so cancer is even less of a concern now than it once was. The American Cancer Society (www.cancer.org) gives a fairly unbiased report on the matter. “Lung cancer is the major cancer thought to be linked to diesel exhaust. Men with the heaviest and most prolonged exposures, such as railroad workers, heavy equipment operators, miners, and truck drivers, have been found to have higher lung cancer death rates than unexposed workers.” Sounds bad, right? Well, the study also goes on to say: “Although most studies have found a link between diesel exhaust exposure and lung cancer, some have not… On top of this, changes in diesel technology in recent decades have resulted in lower levels of soot (particles) in diesel exhaust. Studying diesel exhaust exposure from decades ago may not be the same as studying current exposures.” The Internet has reached a new level of biased reporting with no fact checking, so the reputation of the source is something that most people should really consider when reading an article. As an example, the World Health Organization was thought to be purposely exaggerating the effects of the swine flu pandemic a few years back due to its connection with the drug companies profiting from the vaccines. For us, the chance of dying 80 years from now isn’t going to stop us from attending the occasional diesel sled pull, dyno contest, or drag race. Although more studies are needed, keep in mind that your body can repair itself, and without constant exposure, the occasional odd smoke cloud probably will do no long-term damage at all. Guess the HP
Question: My brother has a ’98 Dodge Cummins extra-cab 4x4 with a five-speed transmission. It has many add-ons, including a 5-inch exhaust from the downpipe back, a cold-air intake, Bosch 215 pump, 191 delivery valves, Bully Dog Stage 1 injectors, Bully Dog Stage 2 fuel plate, and 3,000-rpm governor springs. Do you guys have any idea what a close number for horsepower would be?
Jake Shields
Carthage, Missouri   |   december 2012 Top Tech Questions manual Shifter Answer: We get questions like this all the time, and unfortunately, they’re very tough to answer. So many factors go into power production, so unless you have the same exact parts as somebody else, it’s hard to tell. The fact that many companies give phrases like “Stage 1” or “Level 5,” really doesn’t mean much unless you have something to compare the info to. To get a close power number, you’d need to know where the timing was at, the injector hole count and size, turbo size, and more. Our guess would be somewhere between 300 and 450 hp, but our guess wouldn’t be much better than yours. A dyno or a dragstrip can tell you your horsepower story, but not everyone has access to those. For those who do want a good estimate, we’ve found that the Gtech Pro SS is pretty accurate on quarter-mile times and speed. It also calculates horsepower, but it seems to be a little off on our heavy diesel trucks. The best bet when using one of these units is to run a quarter-mile, and then plug the trap speed into an online horsepower calculator, such as the one found at www.competitiondiesel.com. We’ve found this method to be accurate to within about 20 hp of actual dyno numbers. Finally, if you have traction and a four-wheel-drive truck with an automatic transmission, a hard-launch 0-to-60-mph test will provide you with some reliable horsepower numbers. We’ve actually included a handy chart that estimates horsepower based on power-to-weight ratios. Horsepower Estimation Chart
WEIGHT/0-60 time 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5 7.0 5,000 lbs 555 474 426 371 334 301 276 258 225 5,500 lbs 611 521 468 408 367 332 301 283 247 6,000 lbs 667 569 511 446 400 362 331 309 270 6,500 lbs 721 616 553 483 434 392 359 335 293 7,000 lbs 778 663 595 520 467 422 386 361 315 7,500 lbs 834 711 638 557 501 452 414 386 338 8,000 lbs 887 758 681 594 534 482 442 412 360 8,500 lbs 945 805 723 631 567 512 469 438 383 9,000 lbs 999 853 766 669 601 542 497 464 405