K5.9 engine temps

[joshman1204]

So I finally have my 5.9 broken in and have a little over a half gallon threw it and I have a question about my temps. I consider myself to be a better than average tuner thanks to this site and many hours of practice but this 5.9 has me a little concerned.

Since reading all the flowcharts and stickys here and also the tuning guide over at ERCM I find myself mostly tuning by sight and listening for the hanging idle and then going to a little richer until it goes away. On my 3.3 this always kept the engine right at about 260 and ran perfect.

Now the 5.9 I had running perfect with this method and decided to hit it with a temp gun just for fun and it was running about 320. If I richen it up and get it to run about 270-280 it is just a dog and has no power at all.

Is it ok to run it at this temp as long as I have good smoke and it performs just like the ERCM guide says?

 

[avelciario]

Bro, check your temp gun if its accurate. Cause 320F is too much. If your gun is accurate I think there's something wrong with it, that's only what I had experience.

 

[joshman1204]

Well most of the savage forums I checked all said 300-310 was normal for the 5.9 but i just wasn't comfortable with it and it was also still a little rich at those temps. So I went and bought a gallon of 30% and stepped down to a McCoys MC-8 and it made a world of difference. I can now get a great tune on this thing and keep temps in the 280 range even under heavy bashing. The 5.9 is still a little under powered for its size and can be a little touchy to tune but it gets the XL moving pretty well from a dead stop but it isnt going to set any speed records anytime soon

 

[bifft it]

eh, thats ok, though speed records only break stuff more and keep you in the shop all the time :