bismic - thank you for your thorough and specific comments! I really appreciate your guidance. I'll see if I can work my way down the list and hit on something that makes a difference.
I'm not sure how to return to a stock tuning position, but I'm willing to give it a try if you coach me through it. There's all sorts of things that have been done to this truck, and to get it back to square one would likely be time well spent. That way I'd know exactly what was done.
To be honest, the nature of this diesel beast intimidates the crap outta me. I feel like I'm in over my head. That may just be the fear talking there....but this engine seems so crazy complicated in comparison to what I'm used to working with. I'm trying to monitor so many things when I'm driving it/working on it, that I'm not sure if it's the right truck for me. Crazy thing looks incredible, sounds super incredible, and runs like a flat-out MONSTER....as long as things are dialed in. Currently, as you can tell, they're NOT dialed in. The more I learn, the more they (diesel engines) intimidate me! How do they fit that much into such a tight engine bay!
Working on someone else's mods is always so frustrating as well. I have no idea what's been done, what hasn't been done, what was done correctly, what still needs done....the cycle just goes on and on for me. It can be a money-sucking vortex of diesel smoke - that I know little about.
I can check the coolant overflow bottle. I think I can chase down the EGR valve details (I was told it's all set up with EGR ******), and I can clean the condenser fins. All that is probably quite manageable by a hack such as myself. I'm guessing that the thermostat is right on top of the engine (as it might be on other gasoline V8 engines), and that if I can dig down to it, I can get that swapped out as well. The water pump may be more than I can handle - I've never done it on an engine like this, but hey - this could be my first time! Haha
Quickly, as this post is turning into a book, the EGT's are always hot/high. Always. They're so high that I didn't even think of the 820 in the photo as a discussion point. Why is that? Is that a result of the Sinister turbo? Is that why you don't like them? What should I be expecting to see?
What would normal coolant and oil temps be as well? What do most of you all see in your rigs? Am I completely off the charts with this thing?