What’s up new guy here, just bought my truck a couple months ago and stumbled onto the site, lots of cool info. Look forward to sharing my truck and learning from everyone. 
 

Like the title says it’s an 01 dodge 3500 4x4 5 speed, it has 301k miles and was a work truck for all but a couple years of its life. Start up construction company bought it in 2005 from an old man that bought it new, they put a flatbed on it and towed equipment trailers. I bought it for what I consider a good deal considering current economic times and plan on making into the weekend truck for the family, tow my boat and looking to buy a truck camper. 
 

The guy I bought it from took pretty good care of it considering, it’s very dirty all around and a little rusty on the underside. Has a new clutch and everything works other than a/c. Crazy thing is he claims he’s never had to do a lift pump injection pump or injectors, always put 2 stroke oil in with each tank of fuel but said the shop mechanic would just fix stuff time to time and might not have told him. All I done so far is deep clean interior, change oil flush coolant and add a bhaf. 
 

Long winded for an intro but excited for it all, thanks 

Welcome to the site. Lots of good folks and good info here.  Don’t let @Mopar1973Mansee those battery terminals 😂

Yeah the terminals are oxidized and should be replaced.

 

Nice truck. You'll enjoy the flatbed kind of like me and the 2006 with a flatbed. 

Will add to the growing list, what do you guys think? Is it possible that’s it’s the original pump and lift pump? 

Look for the VOID sticker on the VP44 electric connector if the stick is still there and not torn then yes its the OEM pump from the factory. 

 

Grid heat has been sticking on. Hence the burnt appearance of the coating on the intake.

 

Lift pump is a factory location but hard to tell if its been changed or not. But still in all you need to test the fuel pressure. 14 to 20 PSI is optimal. Stock is 10 to 14 PSI. Marginal... But I seriously doubt that pump is still going strong. 

 

Need to to the crankcase vent mod... Then do the W-T ground wire mod... 

Edited May 17, 20213 yr by Mopar1973Man

 In the first set of pics I noticed disk brakes in the rear? Mine is an '01 3500 4x4 but has rear drums. Was that an option? I would prefer disks. Just curious.

 Welcome to the forum, there is alot here to learn and gain from reading. Check out all the tech articles that apply to your your truck. Lots of stuff there.

 Nice truck! You'll love it the more you drive it. 

2001.5 was the start of rear disc brakes.

Truck looks good!
 

Also, As someone else with a disc brake dually truck, keep an eye on the fluid level. They are expensive to replace. I now grease the bearings yearly. Passenger side is usually the problem child with the oiling issues.

431k on The Beast, then 226k on Thor never seen any bearing issues on the rear axle.

Good to know I’ll check out the sticker and see what I can find out. I’m getting a list going of all the things I need to do to get it reliable I’ll add the grid heater to it, thanks. Yea this is my first truck with rear disks and trying to diagnose the parking brake has been interesting. Can’t tell by the pictures but, the rotors are cracked in a few spots and are badly warped. Looks to be a fun job pulling the hub off to replace them. 

I could be wrong but in some research I’ve done, I thought I saw that a fix from dodge for a warranty lift pump was to install a pump in the fuel tank, curious if anyone can shed some light on that?

Edited May 18, 20213 yr by Concreter

In tank pumps are junk unless you can get 4th gen or 5th gen pump. Then the headache of retrofit that pump in a 2nd gen tank.

 

Parking brakes make sure the shoes are in good condition then set the slack on the starwheels to make the shoe lightly drag. Now set you cable slack to pull the shoes tight. Also the two rear cables are prone to rusting and binding.

I see it’s just seems crazy to me because the po was pretty confident that they never did a lift pump. Hopefully it’s not a ticking time bomb to go with the vp44. 

The lift pumps are a concern and you should think about changing over to an electric or mechanical.  You get to make the choice. Pros and cons on both. In tank pumps suck in my opinion. Had one on mine and it did not last. About $1k for mine from Dodge 380k miles ago. If the truck is 100% stock maybe not a ticking time bomb, your guess is as good as mine.

 Mine has a fass ddrp, it's in the factory location but a better pump. Probably one of the least expensive upgrades from a factory lift pump. I plan on moving it to the frame to get it closer to the tank to make it more of a pusher pump rather than pulling fuel so far. Those pumps, factory or aftermarket, aren't meant to draw fuel so far away from the tank. 

 Larger lines wouldn't hurt either. That's also in my plan. Factory lines are small. I plan on going to 3/8" line. My truck will remain mostly stock with so slight upgrades along the way but nothing to crazy. Just want reliable and long life out if her.

My DDRP is on the frame with a spin on screen ahead of it. Works very well for my stock injectors and some Quadzilla Adrenaline CANbus fueling. Now if I would just take Mike's advice to move my fuel return out of the fuel module basket, I'd really be doing well in that department. Pressure is good, but fuel temp gets hot.

Edited May 19, 20213 yr by LorenS

Yeah I've never been over 140°F typically for fuel temp.

I was looking at that pump, price point is good. I didn’t think about mounting on the frame rail that would be nice. Just need to get some time from work to work on it before summer gets full swing so I can use it 

6 minutes ago, Concreter said:

Just need to get some time

I hear you on that!

Here's a link to where I list some part numbers, and one basic photo of my install on the frame.

https://mopar1973man.com/topic/18093-donaldson-upstream-spin-on-screen/?tab=comments#comment-234399

Edited May 19, 20213 yr by LorenS

Time? What's that? 

Don't feel bad I've been wait for time for getting my head, then waiting for the lube for head studs, then now wait for time ot put it back together. Trust me I get it. 

Still slowly getting to put some time in on the truck, named him Moose. Pulled the radiator and it was pretty bad got it all cleaned and flushed with fresh coolant a tstat. Got my order in for the back brakes $600 at rock auto vs $900 at Napa just have to wait a couple weeks for shipping. 

crankcase vent mod also on the list

I did however pick up a camper, was gonna wait until I got the truck all squared away but couldn’t pass up on a deal the wife found. It’s a 1991 and it’s massive  

 

Kind of makes the truck look small 

Edited May 29, 20213 yr by Concreter