Being a 2nd gen owner and living in Northwest Ohio I have some rust on my truck. Most do around here. I have been reading, searching and reading some more about rust prevention. I have some rust on my '01 3500 that will get repaired/replaced with new metal but I am curious to see what everyone on the site here is doing to prevent this vehicle eating monster from getting their truck.

 I have read that an oil based undercoating that is applied annually seems to work pretty well. It would have to be included in your maintenance program in the fall for winter preparation but has been pretty effective. There is also a DIY variant that could be done at home with used motor oil and diesel fuel mixed 50/50 and a hand pump sprayer.

 I have not tried this yet but I am giving it a lot of thought. 

 I'd like to hear from others on the site to see what their rust preventative measures are. Not looking to start a debate about EPA approved this or that, just what works for you and no judgement on your regiment. 

 Thanks

lol,  can't wait for others with real solutions to chime in, but let me send you my lifter gallery cover gasket.  If you stay moving pretty fast, it will coat everything from the bellhousing back.  Including the front of the trailer.  If you are stopped, it just puddles under the oil pan.  you gotta stay moving.   I am sort of a rolling superfund site though at the moment.....

 

Hag

I would have to add that a leaky rear main will do about the same except when stopped the puddle is more contained than with a leaky tappet cover. Had one of those once and it was like driving the Exxon Valdese, what a mess. 

 

I also squirt a little motor oil in the opens at the bottoms of the doors to help with them. It is working to a degree.

So far other than the breather can in front of the engine I believe mine is leak free. Very little oil under the truck from that. From there back she is dry as a bone.

Mine is far from dry except at the front. I ditched the breather bottle a while back. That breather will also plug your radiator with oil and dirt. You cant see it either without pulling the radiator or the engine starts overheating.

This is very mild compared to what it can do.

 Mine radiator is already like that. I have plans once it warms up to flush the cooling system, pull the radiator and flush it out separately, then degrease it. Going to replace the thermostat and maybe the water pump as well just as a precaution.

 My engine temp doesn't stay where it should and the heat from the vents could be better.

 Driving down the road she will be a hair over 190° on the gauge but when I stop even for just a red light it will start to drop and level off about 170° at idle.

 I have plenty of maintenance to do simply because I'd didn't know the previous owners and their maintenance habits.

I drink more beer

 

I have sprayed what I could with oil and some places I smeared grease on. When I had door panels off I also sprayed oil in there, it seemed to slow down if not stop the corrosion on the door bottoms. 

6 hours ago, Doubletrouble said:

Going to replace the thermostat and maybe the water pump as well just as a precaution.

I changed my water pump when I did my head gasket around 150k, to find out later that these water pumps go well over 300k. I put a gates in and kept the original one, thermostats do go bad occasionally.

Best thing you can do is to keep the salt off of it, mud too, but that would mean it needs to be washed everyday at least around here. Not sure if washing it everyday is any better, having all that wet water on the unfinished parts.

Everytime I'm under mine I spray it with a maintenance spray we use at work, it's a bit thicker than WD40 but could do with being thicker still. Also use a copperslip spray 

 I saw a video and did some reading on a product called fluid film, never used it myself or known anyone that has. It's a thicker oil in an arosol can. Also saw one of those truck shows on TV highlighting another product, the name escapes me though. I like the look of that much better since it has a black color to it but that stuff has to be applied at one of their certified vendors. It didn't give a price on the application.

 A lot of DIY receipes out there as well. I'm not a big fan traditional undercoatings because I've seen in the past on my own vehicle how they get scratched then moisture gets in and compounds the problem your trying to avoid.

Actually there is something you can do.

 

You need to gather everyone up in your state and contact you state transportation board and complain about the salt usage and you want the state to stop using salt. Don't just talk about your vehicle but also make sure to bring up how its damaging the highways, bridges, and vegetation along the highway. If there is a enough complaints then they must stop the salt usage. 

 

I'm working on do this right now in my own area because Idaho never used salt till about 5 years ago. The biggest impact out here is the salt is messing with salmon and steelhead population in the rivers, the highways are not making it a year without major damage. This is because the salt keeps the dirt under the asphalt liquid hence big potholes can form. Then there is the rusting of vehicles now you might get bids for repair of your vehicles and submit them to the state. This should wake them up if you have hundreds of people doing it.

Edited January 28, 20205 yr by Mopar1973Man

28 minutes ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Actually there is something you can do.

 

You need to gather everyone up in your state and contact you state transportation board and complain about the salt usage and you want the state to stop using salt. Don't just talk about your vehicle but also make sure to bring up how its damaging the highways, bridges, and vegetation along the highway. If there is a enough complaints then they must stop the salt usage. 

 

I'm working on do this right now in my own area because Idaho never used salt till about 5 years ago. The biggest impact out here is the salt is messing with salmon and steelhead population in the rivers, the highways are not making it a year without major damage. This is because the salt keeps the dirt under the asphalt liquid hence big potholes can form. Then there is the rusting of vehicles now you might get bids for repair of your vehicles and submit them to the state. This should wake them up if you have hundreds of people doing it.

If the USA gets onto this zero emission stuff like the uk has then more salt will get used as its a really cheap way of removing older vehicles from use, way cheaper than paying people £2k to scrap a perfectly good vehicle and pull the trigger on a new pos from china ?

 Not only is the salt bad but now they are using the liquid calcium chloride garbage as well. That stuff will eat through an aluminum fuel tank (like a semi truck) in a matter of a couple years if left unchecked. 

3 hours ago, wil440 said:

If the USA gets onto this zero emission stuff like the uk has then more salt will get used as its a really cheap way of removing older vehicles from use, way cheaper than paying people £2k to scrap a perfectly good vehicle and pull the trigger on a new pos from china ?

So are you going to be forced to get rid of your truck or are they just going to quit selling diesel fuel and you won't have much choice. I mean there is always vegetable oil but who's going to go through all that just to keep their Cummins going, even though it may be a 0 emission vehicle if it ran on vegetable oil. I'm sure few will do it but most will get garbage from china

52 minutes ago, Dieselfuture said:

So are you going to be forced to get rid of your truck or are they just going to quit selling diesel fuel and you won't have much choice. I mean there is always vegetable oil but who's going to go through all that just to keep their Cummins going, even though it may be a 0 emission vehicle if it ran on vegetable oil. I'm sure few will do it but most will get garbage from china

Been a government funded scheme here for ages to entice people to strap themselves up with a new car, lots of nice older cars just squashed and owners get 2k off new.

Here the enviro police are really getting onto diesel for air quality, neither of my trucks are allowed into London without paying a fee, don't know what the amount is as I wouldn't go anyway, cities are banning diesel vehicles in the daytime, large goods vehicles are not yet included in this just the normal working mans car as usual, and just this week a report on the newer DPF rubbish that states when they are in regen they emit 150% more soot than an older diesel, this is one reason I'm not parting with my gas 3500, luckily I work in a quarry...... everything is diesel but the wrong colour   I doubt this will change for a good while......

Any body remeber the cash for clunkers program a good many years back?

30 minutes ago, dripley said:

Any body remeber the cash for clunkers program a good many years back?

Yes, what big colossal waste of taxpayer money!

57 minutes ago, dripley said:

Any body remeber the cash for clunkers program a good many years back?

Yes, friend worked for a yard at that time we had some fun there doing stupid stuff along with playing with the car crasher they had. 

3 hours ago, wil440 said:

and just this week a report on the newer DPF rubbish that states when they are in regen they emit 150% more soot than an older diesel

I could never understand that stink and smoke behind one of them truck how that was good for me. What a joke, but go try to talk sense in some of these educated people that make some of these decisions. 

 I would think that a truck in Regen would emit more in that amount of time than a healthy no emissions diesel would if it was turned correctly.

 I remember the cash for clunkers as well. A lot of decent older vehicles got smashed because of that. 

 They try to blame all the emissions and global warming on the common working person and we pay for it and yet the military runs all over the world with their diesel vehicles and no def or dpf systems in place.  (Last I heard at least)

 We are having a very mild winter here in North West Ohio, if this is a result of global warming I'm all for it! Lol

Have you got the nutters called extintion rebellion yet ??  These idiots caused chaos here last year, bought London to a standstill times. One time last year there was about 10 to 15 on top of a train stopping it moving, loads of other people stood there trying to get on to go to work... was pointed out on the news that it was a totally electric train ?

 

Anyway back to rust... my truck has arch extensions and rust behind

7 hours ago, wil440 said:

Anyway back to rust... my truck has arch extensions and rust behind

You would think by now there'll be a product cheap and readily available in a spray can or something, that neutralizes rust and keeps it from spreading. I know there are few products out there, but they must all suck or we would all know and use them. 

 

 I've used a couple different brands of the so called rust conversion products in spray cans and so far I have not been overly impressed with them.

 Recently I did the bottom of the passenger door, it had some surface rust so I took a wire wheel to it on a drill to remove any loose stuff, the 2 coats of the "rust converter" and primer. The rust is showing through the primer already after about a month. Might be my fault since I didn't seal it with paint or clear over the primer though. Not sure.