Mopar1973Man

Between bio diesel and 2 cycle oil I've seen most VP44's make at least 250k miles.

One day I'll get smart and keep a jack on the truck but I need to buy just a bottle jack for the tool box. Floor jack is just too big and too easy to steal out of the bed of the truck.

I tend to avoid bio in the winter. Bio tends to gel quicker and tougher to un-gel.

My answer is NO. Being Cummins does not produce head gaskets. After seeing this failure I would absolutely say no. Cummins head gasket is produced by BLK (Not Cummins). Both gaskets are Cummins OE, but again not produced by Cummins. The defective gasket... Look the amount of de-lamination. This pic is where the coolant passage blew out. That whole corner gave up and the composite material lifted. Now my old head gasket before when the oil was blowing out the front. The one on the left as you can see did not seperate and still intact. Compared to the right which is also a Cummins OE gasket.

Well I made my trip down with The Beast and got my 17 wheels and center caps. I've got a appointment in Riggins, ID by 12 noon to have my new 265/70 R17 installed. I got the Hankook ATm's. At least Thor will be ready for this winter with fresh rubber.

I'll see about getting some time this weekend and get started building this database of vendors.

PPD (Pour Point Depressants). The snowmobile 2 cycle oil sold up here had more PPD added to keep the oil liquid till -50*F. So now take the local fuel of -20*F Pour Point and add more oil on top that has -50*F Pour Point it will inch the pour point of the diesel down (how much I'm not sure). The second part is I kept my stock fuel filter which absorbs heat from the manifold. My winter time fuel temp doesn't drop below +20*F ever. So I have ZERO need for any anti-gel products and in 19 years and 432k miles I've never use any anti-gel or had any gelling problems ever! Typical winter in New Meadows can range from -20*F to -40*F.

I'm glad I was driving slower and on a straight away when it blew out. Just a sudden BOOM! dropped to the ground drop the throttle and let it unwind to about 10 to 15 MPH limp the road side and whip into the storage units there in New Meadows, ID. But yeah that was my FIRST tire blow out in all the miles of driving trucks and cars.

Well I've been busy doing a side job with my crew. This property is owned by one of my crew. He's got a bunch of old cars we've been moving and clearing the land after his house fire. Well after long day I unhitched from my boss'es goose neck trailer (Big Tex dump bed) which we thought we would use for moving small material. When I left I had to travel over to the dirt track we were using and back out to the main road. In that little bit of time I must of picked up a roll of barbed wire. Windows were rolled up and A/C on. I never heard a single thing. BOOM! I'm made it about 40 miles before it blew the tire... Yup a massive hair ball of barbed wire. The only thing I didn't have on the truck was a jack. I had to call a buddy near home to come out and bring a jack out for me. After getting the tire off I was faced with this and got my dike's out and kept cutting the wire off. I was super lucky my brake line is not damaged at all. Once I got it all cut free I was able to kick the wad with my boot and it fell off. Yup... The bard wire ate the inside wall of the tire blowing it out. This is my FIRST explosive tire failure in my life. After driving 35 years! I'm forced now to go to Parma, ID today and go get my 17 wheels I made a deal with my buddy down there for the set of 4 steel wheels with center caps. Then later on this morning call my other buddy at Chevron have him order my Hankook ATm's for Thor. I'm going back to stock 265/70 R17.

Do a compression test would work too. I'm not a fan of blow by test being it is possible to have only one cylinder with issues and pass.

Yeah I know I've got the two gasket down in the shop yet for that reason. Just been super busy. I promise to post up some pics.

I change fuel filters every 60k miles. When I change at 30k it's still white media for the AirDog filter.

For every gallon pumped you add 1 ounce of oil. Never use anti-gel I just switch to snowmobile oil which has a pour point to -50F. I see -20 to -30 every winter

Yup. Not even 1,000 miles on it.

Ok... Since there is a few voicing this mod as good I'll get busy on in very soon when time permits. I've gotta get packed up and haul to Donnelly, ID for work. I'm going to build it like I did for Smarty Resource back in the day. Company name Owner name (if Possible) Physical address Phone number(s) Web Page URL Facebook URL Amazon URL eBay URL Dealer Rating (added to the database) Comment box What was amazing when I did it was to build a MAP pricing policy violations. The first one I nabbed was "Thoroughbred Diesel" (Wade) I did this about 9 days aftyer posting his violations. The Google search on it turn out just below their website URL and Thoroughbred Diesel was calling my boss (Rip Rook) and wanted it removed I did in about 24 hours AFTER Rip Rook made him comply in pricing. Problem was solved and I pulled the listing in less than 24 hours off of Google. This will react the same way so if vendors get a bad rating it will pop on search engines stopping bad vendors (like CPP).

Higher the cetane the lower the BTU's. Summer fuel is dark green and light green is winter fuel. As stated by the ASTM Lab documents... There is no benefit to using a higher cetane number fuel than is specified by the engine's manufacturer. The ASTM Standard Specification for Diesel Fuel Oils (D-975) states, "The cetane number requirements depend on engine design, size, nature of speed and load variations, and on starting and atmospheric conditions. Increase in cetane number over values actually required does not materially improve engine performance. Accordingly, the cetane number specified should be as low as possible to insure maximum fuel availability." This quote underscores the importance of matching engine cetane requirements with fuel cetane number!!! This why in the summer time the MPG go up and during the winter the MPG's go down. Adding more cetane will just make the fuel faster or quicker to ignite but makes the BTU energy lower. Less push during the power stroke. Most peopel start using cetane because of weak injecotr or wore out injectors and always says its does better. This is because the injectors being wore out will produce large droplets at lower pop pressure. Now it takes more time to light the fuel off. Now the cetane will bring it back to burning easier but after the tank is done the problem returns. You would be better off having your injectors pop tested or replaced if there is over 100k miles on them. (This includes 12V, 24V and common rail). As for use I DO NOT use any cetane booster or anti-gel all year round. I DO use 2 cycle oil. It a natural BTU enhancer, injector cleaner and cetane reducer.

Well I got the head gasket install yesterday. Still got a bit of fuel system to put back yet. The gasket fell apart in a bout 4 different places. coolant jackets down the passenger side blistered up. Between cylinder the gasket came apart better cylinders. Then the big part of it around the bolt in the front. I even called back to DAP to verify the manufacture and was told its a Cummins OEM gasket. All them look exactly the same for material and design. While its still in my own shop I'm going to do the steering box later today after doing the rest of the fuel system.

Sounds like a massive vacuum leak if the vacuum pump was disconnected and capped and no oil.

How about we build a vendor list that people can rate and comment on. I can build a hybrid article database with these extra info.

Trying hard... I just got the head gasket changed today but got a few hours to finalize the job.

That was a fun call last night. I called @JAG1 but no answer so I called @dripley then shortly @JAG1 calls back so I merged the calls together and cross country chat with 2 members. Worse yet but in construction. LOL As for that wrap that is super cool color.

Beyond that. If you do everything @Dieselfuture mentions then... Valve seals failed, excessive valve guide clearance. Broken or wore out piston ring(s), piston damage or excessive piston clearance. Cracked head or bad head gasket.

Example... Dynamic drilled two oil jets in the body of trans to cool both clutch packs. Then he cut about 0.1 inch of both clutch baskets and upgrade that 46RE to more like 47RE. Added extra friction and steel plate. Then pull the valve body and drilled out few ports making 1st, 2nd and 3rd gear shift really firm. Upgraded bands and levers. I know other builders don't do some of these mods.

I normally don't rev to 3k. I'm typically shifting out by about 2,500 to 2,800 RPM. Depends on the tune and where your peek torque curve is. Freeze plugs blowing out I remember long ago a member on CF had hooked up a pressure gauge to the coolant jacket and the water pump could produce upwards of 40 PSI inside the coolant jacket and start pushing out the freeze plugs. Might look at large mouth thermostats. Like NAPA already upgraded and went away from the small mouth thermostats and upgrade to large mouth to reduce block pressures. Do NOT get the Cummins thermostat it is produced by Mr Gasket/Holley and it an old Robertshaw design and will split in half. NAPA THM PM1906245 Attributes # of Seals: 1 Brand: NAPA Flange Diameter: 2.272 in. Height from Flange: 1.102 in. Jiggle Pin: Yes Temperature Range: 190 Deg F NOT A QUALITY PRODUCT! -> Cummins 3946849 - Remember the body will split on these I've replaced now 5 of these thermostats for customers. Which results into this...

Harness needs replaced for sure. Ballast I've got lots of hours from the 5 years of driving back and forth to Ontario, OR. Ballast will be fine most likely. The only thing that will shorten a ballast life if you upgraded to a bigger ballast and make the bulbs brighter which is an option but it not only wears the ballast out faster but the bulbs too.