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Good lookin' truck ya got there. 406,000 on my 2002, 4WD 6 spd (bought it new in October, 2001) John

See ya there lol! I guess now that it runs right I have to actually care about it, so i gave it it's first bath in a LONG time lol.

Come join me at 504k miles on Beast.

Thank you! Yes I am definitely feeling the high! With as much time, energy and money I've put into this thing, it better be problem free for a while 🤣. I will say, I was doing a quick inspection while I had the pan off and the crank, rods and cam look brand new still at 200k miles! No oil buildup, etc! The cam lobes looked perfect too!

Congratulations!!! Are you feeling euphoric? I have been waiting for you post. Now that your truck has thoroughly tested you and you won, the truck should behave itself for the rest of its life under your ownership. John

PROBLEM SOLVED: LINK TO VIDEO Well guys, I did some digging in the oil pan today and found the missing bolt. I pulled all of the tone ring bolts out, threw some blue loctite on them and buttoned everything back up. Sure enough the knock is gone! It sounds like a normal 24v again! FINALLY! I've been chasing this issue since 2021! Thank you to everyone who offered advice or suggestions! I'm so thrilled I get to close this chapter. I hope if anyone else has similar symptoms in the future that they find this post and can solve their issue and not spend near as much time and money as I have going through this truck.

TM, I agree that it should prime for 1/4 second. I am saying that my faulty ECM ran the lift pump for probably 20 seconds once the WTS light kicked off, which is NOT normal behavior. But yeah i found it strange so i figured i would post here, as this is a phenomenal research and knowledge repository for vp44 knowledge!

Good to have another source for ECM repairs. Also, glad to hear that your truck is running well. Just for clarification, the ECM does run the lift pump for about 1/4 second when the ignition switch is turned on. If the starter is bumped and then the key is released, the lift pump will run for approx 25 seconds. From the FSM (2002): The transfer pump is self-priming: When the key is first turned on (without cranking engine), the pump will operate for approximately 1/4 second and then shut off. The pump will also operate for up to 25 seconds after the starter is engaged, and then disengaged and the engine is not running. The pump shuts off immediately if the key is on and the engine stops running. John

Howdy folks, TLDR: Faulty ecm runs lift pump without starter bump. also DieselACS out of Hileah FL is a super good company to deal with for ECM issue. I am here to report an interesting finding of a failing ECM that I had not seen here or anywhere before. First and foremost, I was dealing with the dreaded WTS delay, and it finally got to about 8 seconds or more before it kicked on, so I bit the bullet and ordered a exchange ECM from DieselACS out of Hileah FL https://www.dieselacs.com The service was friendly, and the shipping was extremely fast. Ordered Friday, and at my door tuesday morning. I replaced the ECM, and this is where I realized my old ECM failed in 2 seperate ways! My old ECM would have a 8-10 sec WTS delay, and after the WTS light would extinguish, the lift pump would prime. It did this every time, and I realized this isn't normal behavior when I tried to refill the fuel bowl after my ECM replacement, and the new ECM didn't run the lift pump after the WTS turned off. I have to admit, this is when I learned that I it isn't supposed to run the lift pump until the starter bump. Bumped the starter a couple times, calibrated the apps, and the truck runs MINT! hooked up a OBD scanner, and all was well there too. Hope this will help someone in the future. Phil

I've seen another post back in time here where someone lost the entire tone ring into the oil pan and crushed it up. I think you found the problem.

I think you have found the issue. I also strongly think that the noise that you have been hearing is mechanical. I think the noise faded away when you disabled one cylinder and when you ran the engine with the ECM out of the loop because you changed the cadence or resonance of the engine in motion, thus changing the movement behavior of the loose tone ring piece. This would also explain why no code was set for the crankshaft sensor and why the engine performed as it should - not a timing issue. I think your perseverance has paid off. Great job on your part! Post a photo the tone ring. John

HUGE MEGA ULTRA UPDATE: LINK TO VIDEO I have finally found the issue, I think! I had time today to pull the pan off (btw, this can be done on a 2WD without removing the engine, maybe I'll do a write up on it). After removing the pan, I turned the engine over by hand to visually inspect the crankshaft tone ring. Now, I should say that I inspected this ring before but only with an inspection camera through the sensor hole and did not see any issues. The sensor also is not damaged or nicked in anyway to indicate any issues with the ring. The tone ring is a 2 piece ring. There are 5 bolts that hold the ring in place. 3 bolts on the large piece and 2 on the smaller piece of the ring. Well, one of the bolts on the smaller ring has backed out completely and is missing. The other remaining bolt on the smaller ring is bent. I can literally move more than half of the tone ring by hand! You would think that a ring this loose would cause a CEL for CAM/CRANK correlation codes or something, but I guess not. It must be just off enough to cause a wild timing scatter but just on enough to be within "spec" of the CEL condition. I ordered a new (used but in good shape) tone ring and all 5 bolts. I'm going to remove my ring this weekend and install the new one and LOCTITE THE CRAP out of the new bolts. I will post a follow up update the moment I get the truck running! FINGERS CROSSED THIS FIXES MY ISSUE!

SO... for a 2000 2nd Gen, ATF is NOT supposed to be used? is that why my hydroboost is leaking now? I had a line come loose after the engine replacement and on a quick google search specific to a 2000 doge ram, came up with ATF+4 so that is what I've been running since fixing the line.

Weird part... Polling is turned on already for the Cummins swap area. Let me dig a bit on this. Should be available during the first post as a switch for polls.

CANBus was left for the "Cummins Insite" tool for the diagnostic connector. 2003 The CANBus was introduced to the 3rd Gens. We are just in the testing stage of this with the VP44 communications.

Could you post this in the article section with more detail on how you made the trays and hold downs. I'll bonus you $10 for the article. 🤑

@Mopar1973Man is there anyway/option to add a poll to this or should I just make a quick new thread for a poll(s)? I'm still curious to think what everyone thinks on keep the NV5600 or trying to find someone to buy a full manual swap so I can afford to buy a nice 47RE... I guess thats another question, do I have to stick with the 47RE in auto? Prolly for simplicity's sake for oem brackets and bolt-n-go scenario Id stay 47RE in my thought process. If anyone is to ask for the trucks purpose, this will literally only be a grocery getter, play toy, go fast wanna be show truck. If I swap id have to send in my computers for flashing to auto and the only issue would be to hopefully sell a full NV5600 swap with t-case ready to roll which is the biggest kicker and would halt finishing everything till it sold...

It's standard practice for me to isolate user personal data - pictures, videos, music, documents, downloads, and specialty software installs onto a separate partition or secondary SSD drive, to minimize or negate any loss of personal data. I have (2) AAAS computer degrees, and I was taught to protect personal data as priority #1.

Good to hear back from you. I am hoping that you are on the right path and that you have finally found a solution to your forever lasting symptoms. Of course, you know that when this is fixed, you will constantly be hearing random phantom ticking noises for at least six months - then you can finally relax. John

Thanks for sharing. Great write up

UPDATE: I found, in the depths of another forum, someone with the same exact issue as me. Here is a LINK to their video they posted 16 years ago! They went down the same exact rabbit hole I did and ultimately ended up pulling the oil pan to find a damaged tone ring. I inspected my tone ring through the CKP sensor hole but its a very small area and I wasn't able to really good a good look at it. I'm going to pull the oil pan tomorrow and give it a real inspection. I HOPE I find an issue with the tone ring so that I can finally put this to rest!

The150 AMP alternator fuse holder is mounted on the outside lip of the right battery tray. I had to drill a hole through the fuse holder to mount it.

Thanks. So is that just a wire connector that's not plugged into anything then? Allowing a tuner to connect directly to the ECM vs the OBDII port?

I mounted mine on the lower part of the factory air filter housing right next to the battery. My guess is that you probably don't have a factory air filter housing. John

Im using a reset able 150 amp breaker on my setup and working great. Protects the electrical from a dead short. Yes alternator diodes can and will short out at times it just best to have a way to keep it from melting the wiring and starting a fire.