Mopar1973Man

Fuel pressure (idle, cranking, and WOT at highway speed)?Error codes?I would consider re-doing the drawstraw right. That would help a bunch on your problems being it acts like its losing prime because of the bad drawstraw. Or other plumbing issues allowing air to leak back in. Being you have no fuel pressure at start up this points to a air leak more than a VP44 issue.

Synthetics are not required. I can get down to -25 to -30*F during the winter with standard petroleum Power steering fluid without a issue. Don't let the synthetic go to your head thinking it goes farther. Make sure you still change the power steering fluid ever 30K miles because the power steering system doesn't have a filter in it so if there is debris it will be pump through the system like it out not.

Start the truck and let idle for a minute or so and then shutdown and check. Check with it cold and hasn't moved its not a good way to check it. Even mine is solid like a brick if the engine has not ran. But after the engine has been ran the oil in the fan clutch is moved around a bit and should feel free then. In the dead of winter I get a locked fan for the first 30-60 seconds of run time and then the oil flows in the clutch and the fan unlocks.

Well I'm back from the jet boat races. I was manning a safety boat so if there was any wrecks, stalls, etc. We could get out on the river and save the boat crew and the boat if possible. So this year 1 boat wrecked on test and tune day (Friday). He broke his steering and launch right up the river bank and rolled it back into the water. Both driver and navigator were fished out of the boat. The navigator got a bit injured and is at Boise, ID in the hospital. Then on Saturday races started and where quite fun to watch happen from the river bank. We had two jet boats power by Jet Turbine from helicopters. Average speed of the course was about 120-125 MPH clearing 8 miles of river in about 3.9 to 4 minutes. Remember this is not straight river or flat water. Where I was stationed at. http://goo.gl/maps/VQrdr Facebook page of it. https://www.facebook.com/SalmonRiverJetBoatRaces The link provided give you a good view of the river course which started at Island Bar and went to Lucile, ID. Still on Saturday we had another boat sink to the bottom of the river. Driver was getting hosed by the leading boat roost coming off the lead boat. Sunk that at time zone bridge. Even after Sunday our crew went down to see if we can even spot the boat. No luck the hole is deep and the water is murky. Saturday night I got into fire turnouts and took a jet boat ride across the river and watch the fireworks. We where setup to chase fire if the stray spark or rocket created a problem. No problems so we just enjoyed the show. Sunday was a quick day with 2 up river runs and 2 down river runs. Rather uneventful and relaxing. Knowing that all this mess was going to pack up and bail out of town ASAP. I just stayed camped in town for the night in the RV. No since getting into the mess with the rest of the fools rushing home. It was nice to haul my RV down to Kelly's Grandma's house and park it there and it made it so easy to get back and forth to the safety boat which was a little more than a mile away. Then being able to just walk town and enjoy the sights. I've got some videos off Kelly's smart phone since I was forgetful and forgot all my camera all together. :banghead: So give me some time to get it compiled and posted. Oh some of you were asking about Kelly he's a member here. http://forum.mopar1973man.com/members/172-Taz

Could be a bunch of things going on. The coolant is leaking out of the heater core and running out the A/C drain and dribbling down the firewall back into the cab. Could be the A/C just draining back in and the coolant is leaking else where. But I'm going to bet it the heater core yet and just draining in the cab and you just can't see it from the driver view...

Also I never using thread sealants or thread tape on automotive plumbing it might of distorted the fitting causing the leak as well. Like Wild & free had said it might of been over tighten and distorted a fitting too.

Time to change fluid. Power steering fluid or ATF in your case will break down over time and require flushing the system now and then. As for the older 24V's its every 30K miles. As for getting it done check out AH64ID article. http://articles.mopar1973man.com/3rd-generation-dodge-cummins/53-engine-system/119-power-steering-flush

I'm not that good... As for stock fan clutches they are fine. If they perform as design they have very little if any impact on MPG's. Because once the engine is running and the fan clutch is fully unlock you should be able to stop the fan with a old radiator hose at idle. Electric fans typically have been reported to flow less air than the mechanical fan does. You might be taking the load off the belt at the OEM fan but you'll be putting load back on the belt again at the alternator. So a fan is a fan basically. As long as a the cooling system and the fan clutch is working properly there should be no load on the engine as long as the coolant temps are below 205*F typically by 205-208*F I hear mine going into full lock up and now you drawing HP from the engine.

Seem you follow my 5 MPG loss rule for every 10 MPH. But there is no way I can touch your numbers...55 MPH - 22-23 MPG AVG65 MPH - 16-18 MPG AVG75 MPH - 13-15 MPG AVGNearly 200K worth of fuel mileage data.Video

When I change coolants I do a full flush of the system for over a good 10-15 minutes allowing the water to flow through the block, radiator, and heater core. I make sure the old coolant is completely flushed out water is clear then drain and fill. What good is it to just drain and reload with fresh if the old coolant is going to taint the new coolant pH level? Because in nearly 11 years now I've not had a single lime/scale build up in the engine/radiator at all. But I have seen where the pH level on MoparMom's truck had ate the thermostat housing quite well. Which was because the previous owners didn't care. Like everyone always says, " As long as its still green its still good." Not true at all by the time you see a color change in the coolant its way too late.

Still check for codes. Lots of codes are store WITHOUT a check engine light.. Like the famous P0216 code will not trip a CEL. What your fuel pressure like? Idle, WOT at highway speed and cranking?

I'm not a 5th wheel man either but I know that it doesn't take much to add weight to a trailer fast. I typically weight my truck and trailer out once a year to see where I sit with weights. Since most of my camping is dry camping or boondocking I'm typically loaded with water as well add even more weight. (56 gallons worth). http://articles.mopar1973man.com/members-rides/17-mopar1973man/27-2000-jayco-eagle-296-fbs Time to update my weights...

Very upsetting...

Heater core replacements are pretty easy really. Dodge was fairly smart with the modular dash design. So this allow the owner to move or remove the dash as a unit with little to do as in disconnecting wire and devices. But once you swing the dash as side on the passenger side then the HVAC box is very visible and very easy to handle.

With close to 1/4 of a million miles I just don't see a reason for spendy HOAT coolants or special coolants. But its your truck and your money...

That old bed looks heavy as hell no wonder your MPG sucked. The stock bed looks better...

I'm home... Bit tried and drained out from 4 days of working the Jet Boat races... I've got video from my buddy Kelly Smart phone since dummy me forgot my camera bag before leaving.Oh... As for jet boats the fastest one on the river had a helicopter turbine engine with a little over 1,400 HP and traveling 8 mile course in about 3.9 minutes he was averaging about 120-125 MPH past us on the safety boat and has a top speed of about 140-145 MPH. Now that's haulin' the mail.More to come in a new thread...

My speed / odometer on ScanGauge II is right on the money. Then the GPH or gallons used is typically +/- 0.2 at the most. So the data on the SGII is more accurate than my hand math is. As for storing data its stored in non-volatile RAM just like a thumb drive so when its unplugged or powered off the data is stored. Same thing is true for error codes in the PCM & ECM also stored in non-volatile RAM. This why when you disconnect the batteries the error codes still exist.

Hold on a sec.You need the rest of the wiring for it. There should be a full wiring harness, relay, fuse, connector for the stock lift pump and 2 ring terminals. (battery power). As for the other device that's not a regulator its a low pressure switch or a gauge sensor most likely. Because there is no electrical control regulation its all done with hardware internally.Whitelightning is right just hook it up to the power leads of the truck and bucket test it from bucket to bucket to see if it works. But this is open line testing and the only way to see if its up to the challenge is hooking it fully up and seeing if it will hold pressure under full load on the highway at 55-70 MPH with you foot planted to the floor. Now your testing a pump! So many times I hear about the bucket test and this is meaningless just like the volume test Dodge did with the Carter stock lift pumps. Still a junk test. The only try way to test a pump is put it under full load. Even fire truck volume testing is done under full load. We never do we test a fire pump will a open port its just meaningless...

Like this article. http://articles.mopar1973man.com/2nd-generation-24v-dodge-cummins/23-brake-system/55-drum-brake-wheel-cylinder-upgrade I'm not sure if the push pins are included with the wheel cylinders.

Maybe because of the miles you put down. But even mine lasted till 185K miles and 10 years. (20K a year roughly)

Heck... You'll have no problems reaching 200K in no time. Some weeks I can push out 1k miles. Dripley I told you once before you need to keep the greasy side of the truck down...

Comes back to the fact the cetane level is lower and the fuel is burning slower. Less hammer explosions and more of a slow pushing burn. Now it will take some figuring on your part to find the mixture that is optimal to you setup. Too much oil can degrade the performance of the fuel too. So make sure to figure it out.

MoparMom wanted me to post this up for ya. http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=274199

That might be tough. Very few people here have both boost and drive pressure gauges.