2021 Ram 3500 H.O.

ShinerBock wrote:

And again, you are making an assumption based on cooling capacities without knowing the cooling requirements of each engine which will not be the same. Why do you keep posting this passive aggressive BS in a thread about a Cummins engine? You already stated that you would never buy one and think they are not a good engine so why continue to dog on other people's engine choices? What is your agenda here?

I have said I would buy a Cummins equipped Ram .... I priced one out very recently. I currently own Cummins equipped trucks and equipment. I pointed out that the Cummins 6.7 is a good engine.

If one engine is shown to be more fuel efficient at max power than the other it means that more of the fuel's energy is going to do work and less is being wasted out the tail pipe and into the cooling system. I am only pointing out that, on the Ike run, by using more fuel to do less work, the Cummins demonstrated that it is less efficient than the Powerstroke. It is wasting more heat energy out its exhaust and into its cooling system than the Ford is. It's possible that steel pistons on the Ford allow it to operate at hotter temperatures than the Cummins which might be some of how it is gaining efficiency. Regardless, the Cummins needs more overall cooling than the Powerstroke to sustain an equal level of power and I am not aware of any reason to believe the Ram would be capable of cooling to the same degree as the Ford.

You talk about the heat soaking issue of an intercooler and mentioned using an intercooler in short burst applications such as tractor pulls. You're absolutely right. For something like a tractor pull I see why someone would choose an intercooler over an air to air. Rather than waste power running a fan to draw air through the air to air they can put the heat energy into water... they are only pulling for seconds so they don't have to cool that water. What I am pointing out comparing the charge air systems of Ford vs Ram is that the air to water cooler (secondary radiator) on the Ford is significantly larger than the air to air on the Ram. I believe the Ram aftercooler is unobstructed which allows it to be more efficient where as the Ford has a massive primary radiator that the secondary radiator is positioned in front of. This positioning of the radiators will limit the air flow through the secondary rad which may require more use of the cooling fan on the Ford vs the Ram. They are different designs and so it is not an apples to apples comparison, but, it just seems reasonable to look at the cooling systems of the two trucks and come away thinking the Ford might have a significant edge over the Ram.