Quote Originally Posted by thewildkarrd@doublerdiesel View Post
Ahhh timing rattle. If it is what that is, just about all of our trucks have it. It's just matter of how bad. If your just barely hearing it and it goes away really quick then your fine. Mine only does it if I barely lug it. But still does it.
Quote Originally Posted by Killer223 View Post
i always ran the most timing i could for the MPG's. might be higher cylinder temps but also lower egt's. i would go from 18-19 without smarty to 20-22 mpg highway with it.
My stubbornness got the best of me on this one. @Canadiandiesel Shut up Spencer

The truck is doing much better with MPG already! I don't know for sure just yet. This time of year I run 13.5 to 14. I installed the Smarty at the settings Killer suggested initially late last week with some miles on the tank. But the mileage doubled between the gauge notches. This tank I ended up at 14.75 with the warm up times in there.

Killer, I'll go up one more timing notch. Driving it today I realized that is not a timing rattle I was hearing, just the typical Cummins sound. The tune seems to have made the engine maybe 10% louder. It's starting to sound like a real diesel now. LOL A sound I haven't heard for many years on my trucks.

I'll leave everything else alone and go up to 5 on the timing. I'll listen to it again. Higher cylinder temps aren't so bad as long as it's not burning pistons up. But to do that, I would think I would hear it before hand. I would love to see the curves on how they ramp the timing

Looks like the Smarty is the right answer for the early third gens.