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The sky is falling - everybody remember the story of Chicken Little, where an acorn fell on the idiot's head, whereupon he proceeded stirring up the local population with eyewitness accounts of disaster commencing with a falling sky?
Let's talk rail pressures and the ever-terrifying 'increased rail pressures' syndrome. Each time a power box is mentioned, it is always accompanied by some misgivings concerning raised rail pressures, with the implied thread of disastrous consequences, not limited to but including curdled cow's milk and stunted crops - this harks back to an era when men huddled in their caves as the gods railed at the earth with thunder and lightning - now, of course, we know that thunder results from lightning discharge, and even how there can be lightning with no thunder, as when heat-lightning plays amongst the clouds
Education makes all the difference in the world in man's reaction to the unknown
To those who would bar the door, lock up the women and children, and huddle fearfully in their cupboards and under the bedsteads, this: increased rail pressure is not a bad thing, nor a thing to fear.
To wit: Long ago, prolly B4 most of you were even born, engineers determined that increased injection pressure resulted in ease of combustion, cleaner burn, increased efficiency and increased power - unfortunately, then-technology was not suitable for those higher pressures, as compression is work, work is load, load is wear: work requires power, higher compression requires increased power, results in increased pump wear, not suitable for engines designed for million-mile service.
Today, high rail pressures based on new pump design are prevalent amongst common-rail Diesel engines, with 23000psi being common-place, and the new series engines running up to 30000psi - having looked for myself, I see no resultant great holes in the sky.
The problem with way high pressures is the loading on the injection pump and the increased power drain - for many years, auto transmissions had one big pump, draining specific power levels from the engine - cruising requires less overhead than loaded running, but that big pump did not allow for that - your 545RFE has two pumps, one for cruising, both for power loading, a setup promoting fuel economy - same concept on your injection pump: lower injection pressures at low rpm = less overhead loading equals more power to move the vehicle, thus less fuel required to move the vehicle = improved economy
Bosch, oem mfr of our CRD injection system, designed the CP3 injection pump with a maximum pressure limit of 23200psi, same as in the DMax, and the Cummins systems - system pressure up to that limit is variable per system demand, low rpm low power, low rpm high power, and high rpm low power to high rpm high power: ~4500psi is absolutely suitable for idle rpm, and 30mph, but unsuitable for 30mph at high load, even more unsuitable at 4000rpm under high loading - this is because Diesel fuel burns slowly resulting in a 'window of opportunity' with finite limits for the injection event, which varies within those limits according to rpm: wide at low rpm, narrow at high rpm - the higher the pressure, the quicker the injection event can occur, important at high rpm, when the piston doesn't stay in any one place for very long, rendering the window for the injection event and combustion cycle very short, indeed.
Thus, at low rpm high power events and high rpm power events, the fuel has a finite time to get in the cylinder, get combusting and make push - the higher the pressure, the quicker that can happen
Also, at greater power levels, the injected fuel rate can be so high that rail volume becomes unstable, even dropping below expected, resulted starvation felt as skipping, missing, hesitation - greater rail pressure will heal that, so increasing 2000rpm rail pressure levels to 4000rpm rail pressure levels can ensure adequate fuel for the increased power demand at lower rpm and quicker injection event at higher rpm - something DCJ didn't plan on, but is adequately addressed by the better power boxes, having both RP and MAP input.
Fuel economy? Yer asking me about economy, when you've got the go pedal nailed to the floor everytime you take off?
Ha!
So - next time you hear that a power box increases rail pressure, there is simply no need to bar the door, lock up the women and children, and cower shamelessly under your bedstead - you could series\parallel wire-in a thousand power boxes, and they will not increase rail pressure to any level greater than Robert Bosch authorized you to have - and nowhere even close to an order of magnitude less than a thousand-fold - you're stuck with 23.2Kpsi max outta the CP3, written in stone - the boxes simply allow for greater than oem programmed pressure at any demand event = more power, no problemo.
Word up, dudes....................
_________________ '05 CRD Limited Pricol EGT, Boost GDE Hot '11; EDGE Trail switched SEGR; Provent; Magnaflow; Suncoast T\C, Transgo Tow'n'Go switch; Cummins LP module, Fleetguard filter, Filterminder 2.5" Daystar f, OME r; Ranchos; K80767's, Al's lifted uppers Rubicons, 2.55 Goodyears Four in a row really makes it go
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