Well I've made it home for the summer and it's time to start tearing this thing apart. I will begin tomorrow, but yesterday I took it to the dyno. Laid down 503 / 1215. I was very pleased with the numbers, but the knocking is getting worse to it's time to take it apart.

 

soemthing like this maybe. Has it all it seems.http://www.ebay.com/itm/99-Dodge-Ram-cummins-turbo-diesel-FUEL-INJECTOR-LINES-24v-VP44-98-02-set-/361936285792

Teardown was pretty fast and easy. I got some POS dowels and #1 intake tappet fell into the pan later, but I was able to fish it out. 

Then I pulled the cam and that's where things got ugly. Only a couple of the lobes weren't worn down bad. I checked the tappet on the worst lobe and it was just fine, so that tells me the cam is a POS. I did hamilton's break in procedure, always ran their zink additive and what not so I put the stock cam back in it. 

My dad built an ECM mount since I have a 12v tappet cover and the ECM couldn't just be spaced out like people normally do. 

I put the case in, stuffed the cam in, and realized I forgot to file out the cam sensor adapter hold. So I pulled the cam back out, filed the hole out, put the sensor in, and stuffed the cam back in. I then put the pump in, timed it (pin timed to 14* then moved pump 3 holes on the adjustable gear to get 20*)
I put the rest of the front together, pump lines, etc so I could start it. 

Then the pump was leaking around the O ring hole. So I pulled the pump out, went to Cummins, got a new O ring and put it back together. It leaked again after that, so after talking to Seth and Jacob I RTV'd it in the hole and it quit leaking. 

I made new studs for the intake horn until my tunnel ram shows up (@turbolvr you guys must be swamped with orders to be backordered that far!!!)

I ran the AFC live hoses, wired in the shutoff solenoid, hooked up the APPs stuff and probably a bunch of crap I'm forgetting. 

I then took it out to drive and for some reason the shutoff solenoid keeps dropping anytime the truck builds boost or gets to higher rpm. It dropps at about 3800rpm or 40psi of boost. Whichever comes first. I even tried hotwiring the solenoid open with no luck. If anyone can give advice on this I'd love to hear it!!

So I wired the solenoid up to drive it a bit. I had one small leak on the front cover where a bolt goes in, but I think I can RTV that to fix it. I got it on the highway and made about 60psi of boost with stock HO injectors :hehe: 
Took it back into the shop to find it puked over a gallon and a half of engine oil. I think it was the tappet cover, but I didn't have time to tear it all back apart and put it back together. So I left it at home and headed back to school. I'm going to pick up a billet cover, run a breather out of the oil fill, and possibly put another in the valve cover. Maybe @turbolvr has some advice on this??

So at the end of the day it's still a cursed pain in my a$$ that doesn't want to be reliable with a Ppump....yet.

Might not be reliable yet but at least it looks good!

 

What's the purpose of the dowels?

At least you got to drive the Frankenstein 

3 hours ago, notlimah said:

Might not be reliable yet but at least it looks good!

 

What's the purpose of the dowels?

The dowels get shoved into the tappets to hold them up. Otherwise you can't get the cam out  

3 hours ago, Dieselfuture said:

At least you got to drive the Frankenstein 

Oh it's very nice to drive. I was FAR from having it dialed in correctly and the engine sounded 10x better than a healthy VP. Also made a ton more power with those stock injectors than I could have imagined. 

@TFaoro

 

Tried to PM you this weekend but got an error stating you weren’t accepting any messages.  Anyway, I was wondering if you would be willing to part with the TST now that your PPumped (if you still have it) as I would like to try it stacked with my TS MVP.

Thanks

Edited April 3, 20178 yr by NightHawk

On 3/31/2017 at 8:42 PM, TFaoro said:

I was FAR from having it dialed in correctly and the engine sounded 10x better than a healthy VP. Also made a ton more power with those stock injectors than I could have imagined. 

 

No one ever believes me when I tell them this. 

6 hours ago, NightHawk said:

@TFaoro

 

Tried to PM you this weekend but got an error stating you weren’t accepting any messages.  Anyway, I was wondering if you would be willing to part with the TST now that your PPumped (if you still have it) as I would like to try it stacked with my TS MVP.

Thanks

I'm not sure what's going on with my PM's right now. I think I need to delete some....

I apologize, but I have already sold the TST. 

5 hours ago, jlbayes said:

 

No one ever believes me when I tell them this. 

It really is hard to believe until you do it yourself. Other than the cam, everything in my motor is healthy as can be but always idled stupid. Now it idles so smooth it's weird!

Were you doing UOA on the motor?

10 minutes ago, AH64ID said:

Were you doing UOA on the motor?

No.... This oil change was going to be my first. However, I will definitely be doing them at every oil change now. 

Yeah, I'd be curious if the cam failure was showing up.... especially since I have a Hamilton cam. 

 

My UOA shows far less wear metals than I ever had on the stock motor. 

 

Did you call Hamilton? 

4 minutes ago, AH64ID said:

Yeah, I'd be curious if the cam failure was showing up.... especially since I have a Hamilton cam. 

 

My UOA shows far less wear metals than I ever had on the stock motor. 

 

Did you call Hamilton? 

I could send a sample in now, but it'll have assembly lube, probably a bit of fuel, and some other garbage in it from the swap. 

 

I called Hamilton and they were less than helpful. I told them how I installed it, how I had ensured clearances were good etc. etc. All he had to say was "well this doesn't happen often. I can get you a new one for $450" - Like hell I'm going to pay another $450 after ruining one in 25k miles.

Wow, that sucks! I expected more out of them... but then again it's your word vs theirs and they don't know you. 

5 minutes ago, AH64ID said:

Wow, that sucks! I expected more out of them... but then again it's your word vs theirs and they don't know you. 

It's not like they tried to deny it was their fault or say I did something wrong. They fully accepted responsibility when they said it doesn't happen "often." I was at least expecting them to ask for pictures so they could figure out what went wrong, or ask for the cam back so they could know where one of their processes went wrong. They just didn't seem to care.... didn't seem surprised in the least bit that it happened. I will be recommending against their products from now on. 

Happens often enough I do not recommend them to people lol

Who else makes cams?

 

Stock is king. Trying to get @TFaoro to understand this too. 

1 hour ago, jlbayes said:

Stock is king. Trying to get @TFaoro to understand this too. 

If mine didn't show any signs of wear I would be content.... Being this isn't the case and I'm using it with used tappets I can only assume it'll start to wear faster. If the guys at Infinite recommend on I think they can be trusted.