How effective is an exhaust brake (butterfly valve in the exhaust pipe)? I am installing stacks on my T300 (3126 Cat - 250 hp) and have access to the seized exhaust brake and am wondering if its worth fixing / replacing. I can't see it being as effective as an engine brake but it has never worked since I got the truck so I have no idea if they help much or not. Is it worth fixing or not? Any opinions?
I had a Blue Ox exhaust brake on one of my trucks with a 335hp Cummins years ago and it worked fairly well. Was it as effective as a Jake? Not on a Cummins,but it was sure as hell better than no engine brake at all. As a comparison,at the time I also ran a couple of 318 Detroit blow jobs with Jakes and the exhaust brake definately worked better than them.On a 318 a Jake was "kinda like kickin' a dead rabbit" as we used to say. Of course then I also had a truck with a CAT 1693 TA/425hp with one of CAT's hydraulic engine retarders also.............ya wanna talk about a can of worms? Great engine very bad engine retarder if you needed to use it often. The whole subject makes me wonder how we hauled in excess of 120,000# of asphalt sand all day everyday for years before we even had such a thing?
We have exhaust brakes on our Volvo trucks, the European version with Volvo engines, not the American version and they are better than nothing, but no comparison to an engine brake. They do give some retardation at high engine revs, but useless at low engine revs. RnR.
I don't know about cat but the cummins ISC 330 in my peterbilt 335 is useless. It bearly is noticable that it is on unless the rpm is over 2000 and then it will only hold your speed not realy slow you down. I don't see spending money to fix one it is probably frozen because of lack of use. Also you can't speed shift with one on not like jake brake where you can hold the throttle so it does not engage. Just my experence.
I had a Freightliner FL80 with a 3126 and 7 speed spicer driving on the steep logging roads in coastal BC. After using it for a few years, I don't think that I could go without one now. When you got the right gear that sucker would hold you back pretty good. If it is hooked up properly the throttle and the clutch will disconnect the exhaust brake when you slightly depress the pedal. It's not a Jake, but it does work and it will save your brakes to a point.
I have one on my 04 GM 8500, It also has a 3126 250hp, I like it, as said before works better at higher rpms, I dont think it is a must have, but would be worth fixing. What I like is in the winter I can turn it on when idling or warming up. It warms the motor a lot faster in cold temp. What does the truck have for a trans??
I've got the same setup and mine works pretty well for what it is. No, it's not as good as a Jake but it saves on my brakes a good bit. When it starts to seem like it's not doing anything I flip the switch to off for a little while and realize just how much it really is helping.
The exhaust brake on the 3126's are not very effective. The most common failure is the actuator seizing. If this is the case i would go a head and free it up to get it working, but I would not spend any money on parts.
It does do something just not much. I am used to a real jake noise and speed drop right now. The exhaust brake does hold your speed on a mild grade but does very little to slow it down on my truck. That is how it was when I got it at 15000 mi and was told the same thing from the dealer. I would also fix it if it could be done cheeply but would not spend much. Can anyone else speed shift with theres on? My 335 ISC cummins does not have a spot on the throttle where the exaust brake is off and the throttle is not off idle. My 378 with a cat C11 has the same throttle but is easy to shift with. Just wondering if something is wrong with mine.
Since I have access to it now, I am going to remove it and have a look to see if I can free it up. If it helps a little, its better than nothing. The truck has a six speed fuller trans. and 4 to 5 and 5 to 4 is a big jump so I do see 2000 rpm sometimes while down shifting. Thanks for everyone's input.
i have a 95 t300 with a cummins the exhaust brake didnt work when i got it that was the first thing i fixed. i have a kubota 121-3 i tow behinded it and it come in handy. on some of the mountains ive had to come down.
I installed a Blue Ox exhaust brake on a 3406B 7FB motor. Back pressure is set at 50 psi and while any exhaust brake will never be as good as an engine brake, for around $1000.00 a Blue Ox is a darned good option. http://www.brakesystemsinc.com/blueox.html Now there are those who have an exhaust brake and claim that they dont work or only work at high rpm's :crying:crying They aren't that complicated to understand and fix. When they work, they work well.:duh
I guess mine is not working as it should. How do I go about checking it to see if it is working properly? It does come on and sound like it is working. I have noticed no leaks but do get a smell of exhust if on for very long I just ussumed it was it slowing the exhust down and it being cought by the body and not shooting past. I hope something is wrong with it because I was severly disapointed with it even more so as I passed up a few trucks without one eventhough the local Peterbilt dealer said I would not get much out of it ( I just thought he was saying it to sell his truck ) Any ideas on how to go about checking it would be apreciated. I only see the $ advantage of a blue ox on a 3406 over a jake . It would sound much better with a jake and with my experince stop much shorter with one as well.
Another type of retarder that is simple as pie is a Telma electro magnetic retarder. It has a stator that mounts on the tail piece of the trans and uses electro magnetic force to slow the truck. All of the fire trucks in my dept have them. Dunno how they would work on a manual trans but the EVS4000 allisons we run have no problem on bringing 76,000 lbs to a stop.