My 4d55 performance build

[vanderchevy18]

Please don't take this personally. I understand that's what you've heard.....But... That is the most retarded thing I have ever heard. Nitrous is like nitrous for diesels. Propane is the short cut to a pretty window in your block. Sure its nice to be able to check your oil at a glance, but it makes it hard to run the engine. Unfortunately you're not the first person to say that. I've heard it many times before. Allow me to explain.

Nitrous is basically turbo in a bottle. You're adding oxygen to aid in complete combustion. Just like a turbo, you can only get power from it if there is fuel that isn't being burned.

Propane is entirely different. Propane is a fuel. Just like diesel. Propane systems work by sending propane through a constant flow regulator into the intake. This fogs the air being brought in with vaporized propane/fuel. The more sophisticated systems us an electric solenoid to add more as the rpms and boost increase.

As stated, propane is a fuel. A fuel which has a much higher flash point than diesel and a higher expansion rate. Now fuel is injected into an engine at an exact moment. That's what we all know is timing. Inject too early and you have un atomized fuel being compressed and going off at or before top dead center. Resulting in a windowed block. Same goes for too much timing. Now. Why on Gods green earth would you inject a fuel that spikes cylinder pressures to an unsafe level without controlling when the fuel is injected? People do it. Some get lucky and it lasts a little while longer than others. Eventually though it'll bite em.


Sorry for the rant. Lol!

[camoit]

Ya it was all the rage for some time in the late 90s. I never saw one on a truck or weather they lowered compression IDK. Water makes for a nice expansion. Expands 27 times it's size when turned to steam. I have finally seen up close the water injection systems on the brakes of the semi race trucks to cool the brake shoes. It's pretty basic. a sprayer on the end of a tube with a relay valve and a tank charged by the air system. Now nitrous drops the intake air temperature to make for as dense of a molecule as possible. We ran nitrous on the UTI diesel drag car for some time. If I remember correctly it was running something like -143 degrees air temperature into the heads after the turbo. But that was 20 years ago and there has been so many advances in engines. I wish that Cat never stopped the development of the cam less engine. It would have made for a leap forward in adjustably on smaller engines when it trickled down. The problem they had was to keep the valves opening the same amount through the change of temperatures. Made for stability problems. I have a phone interview meeting with Cat, Cummings, and Detroit coming up on the 14th. They are looking for input on up coming engine designs. They pay us for the time we spend on the phone with them. It's on Medium to heavy truck and off road equipment engines. They want feed back on the new engines. They could be good engines but the emission restriction burn them out and over heat them in 5 years. I have seen so many of my competitors trucks sitting in the shop for warranty repair. That costs money, so no thank you on the newest stuff. I'll stick with the 500 HP Cat 3406 B & E series engines. They just keep on pulling.

[vanderchevy18]

The water injection on my Powerstroke is used to cool the intake temps but not to the degree that nitrous does. Its also injected directly into the intake just like nitrous. I get about 50* drop in egts.


Yeah that's no different than light duty diesels. The 6.4 for example has incredible egt issues. Pull the emissions junk and the run cool and run forever.

[vanderchevy18]

Hey does anybody have egt and engine temp limits? Most are 1200* egt and 210* engine temp. Are the 4d55s any different?

[joey_crandall]

what about using propane and nitrous, wouldnt that be like adding more boost/fuel. or is that asking for even worse.

[vanderchevy18]

Yeah that's really asking for trouble. See Nitrous' main job aside from cooling intake temps is to enrich the atmosphere inside the engine with oxygen. More oxygen to burn more fuel. The side effect ti an oxygen enriched atmosphere is hydrocarbon has a higher flash point. Essentially advancing timing. That's why after a certain point you have to start pulling timing to run nitrous safely. Also you need to watch your torque because cylinder pressures spike from the more violent ignition. Now the good thing about nitrous is its controllable. Unlike propane. You don't have to control the exact moment the nitrous is injected because there isn't any fuel for it to burn. Now you add propane into the mix (again, constantly flowing into the intake) and you have a fuel that already detonates prematurely and a catalyst that speeds up the detonation and makes it even more violent. Oh it'll work. It'll give you gobs of power too. But for how long? Once? Twice?

[camoit]

Yeah that's no different than light duty diesels. The 6.4 for example has incredible egt issues. Pull the emissions junk and the run cool and run forever.

Not in California.. They are smog test every year now. F--rikn ass holes. 97 and up. There are a couple places around the state you don't need to smog. I have a UPS PO. box for that cars in one of those places. Guys that spent the bucks to trick them out are putting back ALL the stock stuff. Even the exhaust systems. Next comes a computer check. They will get rid of the dyno test and just plug in. Any codes or sign of tamper and your out.
I think the car and truck manufactures should just stop building engines for California. No new cars no new engines. Then watch the people scream at the state for a change.
Right now they have a man hunt for a guy in Humbolt. He took out 2 of the county big wigs government people. He is a survivalist. It's going to be a blood bath trying to bring him in. He knows the woods like the back of his hands and he has lots of ammo. He has been living and eating off the land for years.

[vanderchevy18]

Wow that sucks. Here in Kansas we don't even have an inspection. Not even on new vehicles. A guy can buy a 2011, strip it down, run open headers, whatever and be just fine.

[4D55 Performance]

Hey does anybody have egt and engine temp limits? Most are 1200* egt and 210* engine temp. Are the 4d55s any different?

I have my pyro located post turbo, due to space issues with my coilovers, and I try to keep it under 900F on long sustained climbs. That should be about the equivalent 1200F if the pyro were located pre turbo.

[camoit]

You don't need a pyro gage. Just lots of heat shielding out of gold.
This thing is hotter than a double pecker Billy Goat. Now thats hot.

See Video.

[vanderchevy18]

Ok so I'll take 1200* as the answer. No offense, but I would make every effort possible to move it to the exhaust manifold. Not trying to be a dick. Just sayin. There's really no way to put it in the manifold?

[vanderchevy18]

That video is awesome!! Lol!

[camoit]

You can drill and tap the manifold can't you? Or is there no room for it? Normally it's right after the turbo unless you are building race engines with data feed back. Then you install 1 in every port like the video. That shit gets me hard.......

[vanderchevy18]

No normally its preturbo. You really shouldn't ever have it after the turbo.

[camoit]

Thats where they are on all the big trucks. They run about 1200- 1400 after the turbo. Some times 18 on a hill.
Oh here check out this vid in the link. This is cool.
http://www.mightyram50.net/vbulletin...-used-in-build

[cdalejef]

Hey VanderChevy18, looks like we think alike!

Here is my 89 B2600i with a 4D56...

[vanderchevy18]

That is super nice!!! Yours looks to be in way better condition than mine. Newer engine and truck too. How's your first gear though? My 1st gear is waaay too high. It feels like I'm starting in second. I need to swap gears to some 3:73's or something along those lines, but I would have to swap axles and don't want to lose the independent front suspension. Any ideas? You also did the exact same thing I did with the gauges. 2 gauge pillar for a f-250 cut down.

Looks great!

[camoit]

NICE.....

[4D55 Performance]

The gearing is very tricky on these little engines. They make maximum torque at 2900 rpm which is very high for a diesel. You will want to keep the RPM's around 2500-3000rpm for around town driving. Lugging these engines will cause them to overheat. I have 33" tires and I run 5.29 gears which is just about right. The lower gear ratio is also much easier on clutch and transmission. Here are some numbers to think about:


Tire Size = Ratio
33-35" = 5.29
31-33" = 4.88
30-31" = 4.56
29-30" = 4.11
28-29" = 3.90
27-28" = 3.73
26-27" = 3.55

The numbers are bases off of a 3.7-3.967 first gear ratio and a .80-.865 overdrive ratio.

[vanderchevy18]

From your chart I think I should go with 4:88 gears. The problem is though that I don't know where to get them for my Mazda. You can't find hardly anything at all for these trucks! If I would have known that I would have gone with a toyota. Thanks for the chart!

[4D55 Performance]

I would try to give you a recommendation but I am not familiar with Mazda's. There may be some more gearing options available through Mazda overseas. I know lower Mitsubishi gears can be had overseas through the dealer. THey are a little pricey, but they are well worth it. I tried running 4.11 gears with 31" tires and I burned up a brand new clutch in 500 miles because I thought I could get away with running higher gearing with oversized tires.

[cdalejef]

I'm turning 3000 RPM at 70mph with 4.30 gears and 29" tires. 1st gear is like a tractor.

[4D55 Performance]

I'm turning 3000 RPM at 70mph with 4.30 gears and 29" tires. 1st gear is like a tractor.

It sounds like you could benefit by going with 30" tires. I think 30" tires would be perfect for your 4.30 gears. It would give you a little more top end and the clutch should still grab just fine.

[vanderchevy18]

Mine are either 31's or 33's. I can't remember.

[4D55 Performance]

Mine are either 31's or 33's. I can't remember.

You need to see where Cdalejef got his 4.30 gears and upgrade. If you upgrade to 4.30 gears you could probably get away with running 31" tires but 30" tires would be more ideal. Trying to running 33" tires with 4.30 gears is going to make for a very miserable drive. My buddy has 4.56 gears in his 2.3 Turbo Diesel pickup and it feels under powered. To run 33" tires you will need to run a much lower gear ratio like 4.88 or 5.29. If you plan to run 33's, I would recommend running 5.29 gears over 4.88's because it will be easier on your clutch and tranny.