More Diesel Tuning Info

I completed the diesel tuning course, but I was kinda taken back when Nick mention in the Practical Tuning that some areas of tuning are "more advanced". Where is this advanced course? When do we get to see more about diesel tuning? The course was great and I have a decent understanding. But having a truck of my own and having been in the world before I got this course, where's the info on how to tune a tow rig different from weekend warrior rig? What parameters are safer for one towing heavy all the time vs getting the most out of the truck? Or are we expected to road tune those with a heavy trailer up hill?

For your specific question regarding something towing, it's the time spent under load which you need to consider.

The key things you would need to monitor would be exhaust lambda and exhaust temperature because these will both give you an idea of what the combustion temperatures are.

A diesel being used for drag racing might have a short dip below 1.1 lambda or a spike towards 1000°C and live but if this was sustained because you're overfuelling something pulling a trailer uphill you could pretty quickly melt a piston.

Thank you for your insight Scott.

However, I guess I should expand on my question/concern a little more.

As an example, say a customer wants a few separate tunes. After this course I know how I could get more power, and I could do an economy tune. But if they were also towing regularly, do I need to mimic that load while tuning?

I have an LLY Duramax that I tow with regularly, and know what to watch out for when driving to make sure my EGTs don't get too high.

I was expecting a little more clarity and info on how to build a good tune under heavy load, get some extra power without blowing the motor.

I only came away from the course knowing how to build more power, with a slight mention of having a more conservative tune for a towing rig.

The second part to my post is; in the Practical Diesel Tuning Worked Examples, in the first video of the 2005 LLY Duramax he mentions this being a "beginners course".

I understand the course is designed to educate beginners from a zero knowledge base, but is there more to this then?

This Diesel Tuning course pales in comparison to the EFI tuning course.

I can understand what you're saying as far as content availability. I'd guess that it's because diesel has a much smaller audience.

I was wondering the same thing, I really hope they come out with an advanced course as id also like to know all of the “advanced” topics and get more detail on separate tune files.