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New build in service, a little dissapointed...

1063 Views 7 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  D2'd, 
Rob66
Hi everyone, this is a little long winded but I just dropped a good amount of $$ on this setup and have some questions and am looking for some explanations of what I might have going on with a few things.

So the story starts about two weeks ago. I had just gotten a Pacbrake installed and this led me to finding a blown exhaust manifold gasket. I tried fixing it out in the yard and ended up snapping a bolt off in the head, the bolt for the cylinder with the blown gasket. I called the guy that does my work and built my tranny and he said to bring it up. I figured while the head was off, everything that I wanted to upgrade would also be off so it was a good time to get this done quick.

-The head was shaved, some exhaust valves/springs done and everything put into spec.
-ARP Studs
-50 over Nozzles-Not sure on company, will check tomorrow
-Banks Intercooler/high ram intake kit
-BD Pulse manifold
-BD Killer B

I picked the truck up yesterday morning, the shop is 2 hours from my house so had a good ways to give her a test. Right when I left I could hear a slight tick down low but didn't think anything of it because I was told she was good to go and my guy put her through the paces already. It's mostly highway back home so no issues there...when I get off the ramp in my town I could really hear a tick a lot louder now. To me it sounds like a fuel knock. It will start around 1200rpm, sometimes you can hear it a little bit at idle but barely. Once you hit about 1400-1700rpm it's gets pretty loud, after that it seems to clear up and go away.

So, I was kinda pissed, this thing is my bread winner and I just paid a good chunk of change for what I expected to be a completed tow pig. I called my guy up and he was kinda shocked, said he's never had this happen before but to bring it back up. He test drove it, heard what I was talkin about and said he's a little baffled because he hasn't heard this before. So they start looking into it, first they find one of the solenoids on the first injector was shot. They ran the the valve train and everything was good there. So he changes the solenoid and calls me this morning to come get it.

This is where I start getting skeptical of how much this guy might be BSing me or not. He tells me there's still noise down low but he's confident it's nothing to worry about and I'm good to go. He says sometimes with the bigger knozzles you'll be able to hear them in the lower rpms. I thought it was going to be a little better but it's just as loud as when I brought it back up there. I just feel like this is BS because I know it should run smooth. It reminds me of when I had a pilot valve, or whatever they are, stick open in an injector in my Dmax. This sound is similar but the Dmax was puking smoke all over the place and knocked really bad. This isn't smoking at an idle and will have just a slight haze when you're givin it to her.

I left him my Smarty to throw on thinking it might help him out and he said he would like to set it up for what I'm going to be towing. He didn't want me to add any timing, not sure what HP setting he used but I'm going to check that tomorrow too. The truck pulls really hard and I feel like once it gets the trailer behind it she's going to be a beast.

So the next issue is onto the turbo. It will bark in between the 3-4 shift, sometimes it will have a multiple stage bark and is usually when you're over 40% throttle. If you put it right to the floor it wont do it but around here 55 is speeding and that comes pretty quick so I'm not driving around with my foot to the floor all the time. It will also bark very easily if I ease into it in 4th and barely let off, it really doesn't take much for this to happen and I'm not sure if having the trailer behind me will help or make it worse.

I asked my guy about this and he explained to me what's happening and that it won't hurt the turbo but I don't believe it should be barking as much or as easily as it does.

So...I'm curious if there's any tuning adjustment that might help with my noise...or what I'm dealing with there...and what's causing the frequent barking.

Thanks a lot for reading...
-Rob
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Jim 5150
With the fuel knock sound vfrom what i been reading i would say loose connecting tubeOr bad fca. Turbo bark i have know idea could be waste gate possibly not functioning properly or out of adjustment. Just a guess.
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1997chevy454
Bark has nothing to do with a wastegate,
Bark will hurt a turbo eventually. Bark send air boost back into the compressor housing in the opposite direction and completely stops the wheel instantly. It can break shafts.

Op you mentioned multiple stages of bark, are you familiar with surging? Sounds like wat it may be doing at part throttle. A turbo with close side compressor and turbine wheels have a tendency to surge
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Rob66
1997chevy454 said:
Bark has nothing to do with a wastegate,
Bark will hurt a turbo eventually. Bark send air boost back into the compressor housing in the opposite direction and completely stops the wheel instantly. It can break shafts.

Op you mentioned multiple stages of bark, are you familiar with surging? Sounds like wat it may be doing at part throttle. A turbo with close side compressor and turbine wheels have a tendency to surge
Click to expand...
I haven't experienced surging but I would assume you would be able to feel the truck doing it? It seems to pull smooth and consistent. It's usually when accelerating around half throttle, the 3-4 shift will make an initial bark then instantly do a 2-3 second drawn out one while it's still pulling.
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Dodge05CR
Seems to me like your having injector rattle of some sort which is weird with that small of nozzles but check your timing on the smarty, make sure its on 2. What setting sw are you running? Or what do you run when u tow? The turbo barking is just because its an auto and the converter might be to tight.. or something, im not an auto guy at all sorry. DO NOT let off the throttle hard, when u get a new turbo sometimes to have to relearn how to drive the truck to its new needs. Same thing happened when we went from stock to a s366 on my buddys with a stock trans, bd VB and deep pan. It will bark when your into it halfway or more thru 3-4 or even OD. But it wont when u ease into it slowly or if ur WOT. So to me it sounds like you need to just learn to drive around the bark, u dont want it lol. Or spend the money and buy a blow off valve :)
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Rob66
Dodge05CR said:
Seems to me like your having injector rattle of some sort which is weird with that small of nozzles but check your timing on the smarty, make sure its on 2. What setting sw are you running? Or what do you run when u tow? The turbo barking is just because its an auto and the converter might be to tight.. or something, im not an auto guy at all sorry. DO NOT let off the throttle hard, when u get a new turbo sometimes to have to relearn how to drive the truck to its new needs. Same thing happened when we went from stock to a s366 on my buddys with a stock trans, bd VB and deep pan. It will bark when your into it halfway or more thru 3-4 or even OD. But it wont when u ease into it slowly or if ur WOT. So to me it sounds like you need to just learn to drive around the bark, u dont want it lol. Or spend the money and buy a blow off valve :)
Click to expand...
I think you're right with the barking, with my 3.73 gears it starts pulling away pretty quick when the 3-4 hits so it's time to let off soon after the shift. So just need to learn to be easy lol.

I just got my Smarty recently and have never towed with it prior to this build. I looked today to see what he set it on and it was on SW2 with everything else default. I tried timing on 2 but it did nothing for the rattle. My setup is 18k empty and I expect it to be able to handle 15k of cargo. Should I be ok with the timing on 2 or just leave it stock like my shop wanted to?

It's not really something I want to live with, going slow through town I can clearly hear it with the windows open and it's a bit embarrassing. I've got this beast under the hood but instead it sounds like an old 6.5 about to drop oil all over the street.

I've done a little reading on the FCA issue but I'm not really convinced this could be the problem. Tomorrow I'll try getting it warm where I can hear it a bit at an idle then pull the FCA plug to see if it clears up. I could prolly pull it off quick and give it a shake but from what I've read this isn't an absolute test.
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Rob66
Yesterday I got my trailer hooked up to give her a dry run around town. The truck did Ok but I think it could use some tuning. I'm only building around 20 pounds of boost while towing but can hit 40 empty, I assume because of how much more volume this new system has it runs lower pressure. Running 55-60 on secondary roads it will fog pretty bad if I lay into it. Running 70 down the highway it pulls itself right along with cruise control no problem. I wanted to see lower temps with this setup than I'm seeing EGT wise. I'm thinking the 3.73s are tough with keeping rpms up but I'll just have stay in 3rd longer if necessary.

When you change options for a tune, timing/RP/TM, do you have to reflash the whole tune again with the Smarty? I thought these worked like my Bully dog did where it loads all of the tunes on the computer then you can simply chose one without reflashing the whole thing.
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D2'd
Yes, adjust options then reload the sw#.
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