In Nov 03 I had a Banks brake, and the Monster Exhause put on at the Banks factory. Two weeks ago I made a trip with a 12K 5th wh trailer to Idaho from the SF Bay area in CA (1000 miles). Trip up was fine, trip back was fine till I got to Bend, OR. At that point the Dmax ran like it had a potato up its XXX. Parked the 5th and restarted the truck and all ran fine. Left the next day and all was well till we got to Redding, CA. The proverbial potato again.


Symtoms were the potato feel, high (900-1000deg) on small hills, 700-800 on the flat generally ran like crap. In Bend I only got 5-7lbs of boost at most, in Redding I got "0".


Nursed it to the local Chev dealer (Lithia). The service writer and the mechanic (Master GM Mechanic in Diesels) came out and started on it immediately.


Turn out the the flipping actuator on the Exh Brake was locking the butterfly seriously closed. The mechanic wired the brake open and the dmax ran fine.


Finally the question!!! Did I hurt anything by continuing to drive the truck for a number of miles in trying to get to a rest stop???? Can you burn the valves?? Damage the turbo??? Muck up anything else??


My paranoia says the engine has a slight miss now.


Thanks in advance.

Have you called Banks? if so what was there response? i'd call them for sure.

Upon finding out the cause, I called and talked to Banks. To give them credit, the tech called the dealer to resolve the issue.


The tech, after some game/word playing, admitted that they had turned out some defective/bad actuators. Something about the "heat rating" of the materials they used.


Bottom line, in 3 days had the new actuator cylinder, had it on, and truck runs fine. But then it ran ok with the butterfly wired open also. I am disappointed in a quality company that did not issue a recall on the product. Why should I have to call and tell them it finally failed, especially when they knew it would.


My only concern is "did any damage get done" while running relatively hot and rich??????


Thanks Nick.

Since you were so careful with your EGT, I doubt you did any harm. Might be worth an oil and filter change to get rid of what got by the rings. It is nice to know that even with it hung shut, there was not enough back pressure to lift the exhaust valves off their seats.

How would I know if I "lifted the valves"??????


What would that do, and how would the engine run.


I did notice when I put the new cylinder on that the "cat" and the exhaust pipe near the brake was "heat colored".

All I can say is now you know about Banks. A few years ago there were all kinds of horror stories about Banks turbos & exhaust brakes, & there cavalier attude about the problems. http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Angry.gif