Tex_usa

@hdpwipmonkey Thank you for the visual! @YeaImDylan for the ball joints if you are keeping the offset wheels/tires and lift just get a brand that has a warranty and really look over them before installing. When I did my 1500 the ball joints lasted a few years even with 35s and offset jeep wheels and the poor thing really did get abused as a ranch truck. If you are going to be breaking everything down for ball joints though I would also recommend replacing the ujoints on the axle shafts. I made the mistake of not doing this and then about 6 months later I was pulling everything back off to do this.

@Mopar1973Man the adjustable control arms. Is that from the gear box to the passenger side knuckle and then to the driver side knuckle?

My truck has a 2 inch lift and I would like to keep it. I know on my 1500 with 3 inch lift it was constantly running through bearings and ball joints. From what I have found EMF has a rebiuldable ball joint kit so you will at least not have to press the joints in and out every time. Also for the track bar I am looking at the Thuren second gen track bar. Essentially it converts it to a 3rd gen style adjustable track bar. This leads me to my question. I had used several wheel hubs on my 1500 and some lasted a few years while others failed in less than a month lol. I had seen somewhere that you could convert to a rebiuldable locking wheel hub for the 2nd gen 2500. I was wondering if anyone had this or if there is a better brand over others on the stock wheel hubs?

When testing the back 3 cylinders we set the injectors then tightened the feeder tubes then tightened the injectors down. The first test showed the seating was off so the shop got a thicker washer for the injector and that still did not help. At that point I did not want to take the risk of putting the head back on it since it was out of warranty so I decided to just go with a new one that way if there is an issue we can warranty it and they pay for the extra labor. After all of this though it has made me more aware when doing anything with the injectors again.

Well finally drove the old goat home today. After testing the theory of the injector feeder tubes holes being off by a few degrees we were able to see that this was most likely the case. The same uneven scoring on the tips happened when using one of the tubes from the front on a cylinder on the back of the block. From here we ordered a new head and within 2 weeks the truck was up and running. So lesson learned, if you buy a new head not only check the vales and all of that fun stuff but also dry fit the injectors and feeder tubes before putting it on the truck. I want to thank everyone on here for your input and suggestions throughout this post.

@Tractorman I don't know if they have the exact order. @LorenS I appreciate it, yeah i am going to have them check it before putting the head back on the truck as that in another $1000 just in labor and parts that I'd rather not spend if the head is no good.

Ok got an update over this. I went ahead and had the shop pull the head and send it to a machine shop. The machine shop did not see anything drastically wrong with the head other than some crummy seats on it. The shop also checked the lower block and it is within spec flat wise and the cylinders look good. The shop did notice the crossover tubes though and sent me this picture. They said 3 of the tubes show the odd ware on them while 3 of them (the one on the right) look correct. After looking over your injector replacement process I cannot remember if I tightened down the injectors first or the connector tube so I am going to have the shop dry fit the back 3 while the head is still off the truck. My question is, since this is a Chinese new head could it be that the connector tube hole is messed up and not allowing the connector tube to seat properly with the injectors?

Sorry for the confusion. The cylinders working were 1, 2, and 3 😁 Confirming the hot wire test with the old vp44 meaning the same 3 cylinders firing when wired directly to the battery. So far I have not heard back from the shop but it's Christmas so I probably will not bug them till after.

I ran a compression test and the shop did as well to make sure I did not miss anything and both came back ok. I replaced all the crossover tubes and injectors. And it was only running on 1, 5, 3. I tested this by losening the fuel lines to the injectors while the truck was running and the back 3 did not matter or change the sound of the engine but as soon as I losened any one of the front 3 it would die. The only other thing that I can think of now that the vp44 has been replaced is that the fuel lines are clogged from the vp44 to the cross over tubes? Either this or there is an electrical issue. Before I pulled the head the truck ran fine. When it was off I checked for any visible issues in the pistons so unless something made it into the piston and then messed it up after I put the new head on AND cannot be detected by a pressure test. I do not see how it could be an internal engine issue. But..... crazier things have occurred in my lifetime I thought I'd never see 😂

Ok finally got an update on the truck. The shop went ahead and replaced the injection pump and says it is running 100% better but still has an issue. I'm not quite sure what that means lol but for anyone else out there it is very possible to have a bad vp44 and still starts and runs on only 3 injectors. As far as the other issue they are going to hot wire test the new vp44 since it is now running better it seems to point that something got shorted out when I pulled the head so it could have also messed up my ecm or programmer. Other than this the only other thing I can think of is the injection lines being clogged.

Ok guys I figured I would follow up on this in case anyone else like me hates when an answer is left out on a thread 😂. It has been 4 months and I took the truck to a cummins rebiuld shop as I was stumped. They went over everything that that I did troubleshooting wise and have confirmed that there is compression in all 6 cylinders, checked the cylinders with a scope and nothing was left in them, Checked timing and rocker arms, checked the injectors, and confirmed the hot wire test on the vp44. Right now they are as stumped as I am on it and said that there is only 2 other things to check and that is make sure the cam shaft is lined up correctly (I do not see how this could get moved though with only replacing the head) and if that is correct then it HAS to be the vp44. Let me know what yall think about this but I'm my mind there is nothing else that could be causing this at this point. Edit: there is one other thing and that is the injector lines. I have never heard of them getting clogged before but still allowing some fuel through but I guess there is a first for everything.

@Tractorman @wil440 This makes so much sense! Thank you so much! I will try and run this test this weekend. I knew I needed another head to think outside the box I've been banging mine into lol 😆 On another note is there any better type of ether to get? (I know it's really bad for the engine) Or is it all just generally bad for it so just go and get whatever auto zone has in stock?

@IBMobile I am getting fuel to the injectors on 4,5, and 6 but I do not know how much as I am having to crank the engine. @Tractorman From what I can tell it was turning over evenly. I compared it to other trucks starting on a cold day to see if I heard a difference. I will try the ether again. @wil440When I replaceed the injectors I also got new feeder tubes as well. I have not checked to see if the injection lines have anything in them so this may also be a good thing to do. When I did the head swap I did have the vp44 open for 3 days while I was working on the truck. This goes for the injection lines as well. Maybe somehow something got lodged in the lines or port of the vp44? I'm really struggling with this and am close to just taking it somewhere as I am at a loss of what to do. I appreciate all the help yall have given! @Royal Squire I'm getting a sinking feeling that it is something to do with the head. There were some things that were not exactly the same as the stock head. Like the space to be able to get the rear push rods in without drilling into the cab of the truck. The good news is there is a shop that will rebiuld for around $7k including removing the engine. @Royal Squire let me know if this is about right? I've been saving all this time as I was afraid it would come down to this.

@Tractorman I did do an isolated test on the injectors. 1, 2, and 3 are the only ones that are working. 4, 5, and 6 do not change anything when I losen them while the truck is running. I do have a snake camrea that i could run in all the intake and exhaust to see if I left something. I was worried that maybe I left one in one of the cylinders as it was really late when i put the head back on but i did not think about the air intake. @Mopar1973Man I did run a compression test on each cylinder. All of them came back right around 450 psi. But I did not do a leak down test. Is this what you are talking about?

Ok guys finally got back out and installed new injectors, recharged the batteries, and ran some tests on the vp44. After installing the new injectors I was having difficulty getting the engine to start again. (Before is was running but just on 3 cylinders) After going through the blue diesel guide on electrical issues with a vp44 I got to the hot wire step. (So far everything else was coming back as it should) Once I ran the wires directly to the battery I was finally able to get it to start but it would only stay running for a little while and only on the first 3 cylinders. I ended up disconnecting then hot wires and plugging the harness back in and it would still start and stay running but still on only the first 3 cylinders. My question is, does this sound like the vp44 is needing to be replaced? I have checked compression and all 6 are good. I just replaced all 6 injectors as well. And then I just verified that there are not shorts or ground issues with the hot wire test. I'm some what running out of options in my mind but I want to make sure I am not missing something. Any thoughts would be appreciated!

@wil440 that is what I was afraid of. I appreciate the thoughts on this. It ended up raining this past weekend so i didnt make it out to the truck. I did end up just buying a new set of injectors as it was only $525 for a full set from DAP including the core charge. I also picked up some new cummins crossover tubes from a reseller on ebay. If they are in before the weekend I will try swapping all the injectors and see what happens. After that if it still doesn't work I guess my next best option is to try the injection pump.

@Mopar1973Man I did have another question. I'm gearing up to go mess with it again this weekend and was wondering how much of a spray should I be getting when cracking the injectors? I'm trying to rule out the possibility of the vp44 being bad. I am also going to try running a constant hot to the vp to make sure it's not the ecm.

@Mopar1973Man so I have to have 3 for the engine to be running? Since I know #1 and #3 if loosened kill the engine then it must be the first 3 that are working. Will a vp44 only let the first 3 work if it is failing? I'm sorry I didn't get out there today but I will try some time this week or weekend and test the other 3 lines.

@Tractorman no I was not able to get to the other 3 as I ran out of time (3 hr just to do what I did). I will losen #4 and #5 but I didnt think it was worth it since they were cold anyway even after running. #2 I don't know how to get to that one without taking the air horn off? The wrench I have is not small enough to fit with the air horn in place. I could take everything off losen it then put the air horn back and see if it will start? @Mopar1973Man would the best swap be #3 to #6? To try and keep it running and then see if it is the injectors? #1 and #3 are for sure working so I am trying to figure out the firing order to keep the engine running if it is only those 2 injectors that are working.

Ok back at it again after a long month of changing jobs again I started it back up and it would run but still sounded like it was only using 2 cylinders (I went and looked up some that were running in 3 cylinder high idle and it was more choppy then those) I started with cylinder #1 and losend the fuel line and it shut off right away. After that I did the same thing with cylinder #3 and #4. #3 the truck would die but #4 nothing changed. I did note that even when loosening #4 there was fuel coming out when I got it lose enough but it didn't seem to be spraying as hard as I would have imagined. (If you have a video or know one so I could compare let me know) After that I tried swapping injector #1 with injector #4 to see if I could see a heat difference in the exhaust but the truck would never start so swapped them back and was able to get it running again but sounding like it was just 2 cylinders working. When I had it running I did check the exhaust manifold and the first 3 were getting warm but the last 3 were still cold. I don't know if any of yall have seen this before but I figured I would post what I found. I'm thinking about getting a set of injectors just to rule it out as they are not as expensive as they used to be. My other thought is that the injection pump is failing. If you have any thoughts let me know! I appreciate all the advice you have been throwing at me! All of that said I did get a video of it running but I'm pretty sure it would be to big to upload so I am looking at how to do that. I think this may be the best way to share the video. Sorry if the quality is bad I only really wanted the sound.

Thank you all so much! I was going to try and get to it this weekend but they have me working again. I will update as soon as I can.

@Tractorman Thank you! I saw in another post someone said to crack while running to see the difference or use a laser thermometer to tell which cylinders are not working. It is a new head that I put on it so it very well could be something wrong with it that I assumed would be working just fine. Is there a good way to tell if the vales are traveling correctly? I will go ahead and look this up as well. After a quick look online I basically just need to make sure they are moving up and down for the most part. One post said that they received a new head with the exhaust and intake valve that were not in the right spot? But from what I could see on the 2002 cummins it is only a difference of .3mm between the two valves. Should I be worried at all about this?

I don't know the exact mileage but I do know they are only about a year old. The only reason for thinking injectors is that they got put in a bag with other parts and it had a bunch of oil in it. I don't know if that could have clogged them or messed them up even more. Also it's pretty evident that there is cylinders not firing. I looked up videos on 2nd gens in 3 cylinder mode for warming up and it sounds very similar but my truck is shaking quite a bit. I'm going to triple check the timing when I am out next just I'm case I missed something. My question for you @Mopar1973Man is with a compression test could it still be bad cylinders even though the compression test gave 450psi? I didnt do a leak down test as I didnt have the equipment for it. But i would think that if I'm getting 450 on all cylinders they should be fine.

I know it has been quite awhile but I finally got back out to my truck to take another look. I've been saving dreading the worst (complete rebuild) I brought 2 new batteries and it finally turned over and started but you could tell it was not firing on all 6. It sounded like an old Kubota. I double checked that all 6 fuel lines where getting fuel and then after that did not change anything I ran a compression test on all 6 cylinders and got 450psi or pretty close for all 6. So now I am almost sure that there is something wrong with my fuel side of things. If anyone has any tips I'd greatly appreciate it. I was thinking of just getting another set of injectors since that is the next cheapest thing to replace.

@Mopar1973Man so that was one thing that I was wondering. I had read that the battery's need to be fully charged and the starter running full speed. The only thing that would puzzle me is why would it start with ether then?