Brandon Cooper

So, picked up a 1983 Suburban 3/4ton 2wd, only 47k original miles, but been sitting for 25 years. Has a little surface rust on the top of one fender, and only other rust is in the rockers. My neighbor sold it to me, and also has a great running 1992 first gen 5 speed 4wd dodge that is about to get a p pump 24v swap, so he said I can have the engine/trans/radiator, ect... I guess the fun is about to start, I'm sure I'll have some questions along the way, but I'm excited about this project. Don't mind the tire on the front, had to pull it here and she doesn't have brakes....

haven't been here for a while, so the truck is slowly getting better. I have been driving it randomly, probably put close to 2k miles on it. Now the truck stops defueling at 123F or so, but no issues other than that.

That's what I'm thinking, if it gets better, great, if it get worse, at least I'll know the issue for sure then, lol. I live on an entranceway to a private neighborhood, so only been driving it from my house to my neighbors shop where we do all the work on it. It's for sure been a "fun" project. First time doing a swap with a diesel, and I will say, these engines go not like coming out or going into the truck, lol. Tight fit. Thank yall, I'll update back here once I get some driving time on it.

So.. if it were yall, would you go ahead and tag/insure the truck and start driving it and see if the problem worsens or gets better. I know I have some other small issues to work on, but I replaced all the common stuff while the engine was out like ground leads, power steering gearbox, and fuel lines/filters. Or, would you go ahead and order a VP44 and hope that fixes the problem? I really don't mind letting the truck warm up, I can go ahead and make up a quick high idle switch to help her to warm up faster for the time being. I only have about $9k in the truck now and that's with the all aluminum flatbed, brand new nv4500, and all the small parts, so If i have to buy a new VP44, its still not that much money in the truck.

I checked the keyway last week. You can see the key using an automotive bore scope, I read the same thing and was so hoping that was the issue. I installed the pump while the engine was on the stand, so I didn’t think I could have messed that up, but I really hoped that I did, lol. As far as the number matching, I haven’t checked that, the keyway was glued into the pump, but the arrow was facing the pump.

Yeah, I’m sorry, the engine that I put in was a 1999. My neighbor has a shop and quite a few Cummins trucks. The pump was a new pump that he bought because he was having dead pedal, we put the new pump on his truck but it didn’t solve the dead pedal issue so we took it off and put another pump off of a running truck on his truck that still did the same thing, turned out it was a bad map sensor the whole time on his truck. But the pump was brand new, it just sat on a shelf in his garage because we were saving it for this truck, just took me a year to finally do the engine swap on the truck. I do not know if my ECM that matches my 5 speed truck has been tuned, but I do know the ECM that I tried on it yesterday has not been tuned and when installed it did the same exact thing. I was really hoping that the ECM was the issue, lol, I have a couple that I can use if that would have been the issue.

Yeah, the other ECM that I tried came off of a 1999 automatic truck that is stock. I literally pulled it off the truck and put it on mine. the only facts that i know for sure is that as soon as the 0216 code pops up, I have half power, and as soon as the engine gets above 132, i have full power. Thank yall again for all the help.

I have been watching the PID values every time I start the truck, the only thing that is constant is the temp of 132. Today I played with the resistors to get the engine temp to display 143 on the live scan, or anything over 132 really, 2.2kohm worked out great. It still defueled same as normal when I drove it down the street and still threw the P0216 code. I pulled the resistor out and plugged the sending unit back in and it was showing 116F. I waited a few minutes and drove it down the road. Watching the temp with the scanner, it was at 131F when the power came back and within a half second it jumped to 132.something. I'm out of ideas now. Do I drive it like it is for a while and see what happens or go ahead and order a VP44. This isn't a daily driver or anything. I was wanting to get everything perfect before putting a tag on it, but should I go ahead and tag/insure it and drive it around for a while before ordering a pump? Sorry for all the questions, it's a new build for me, so there's always a chance I missed something on the wiring. I have another ECM and PCM. I installed a bone stock ECM yesterday and it did the exact same thing.

So for anyone wondering, 2.2kohm resistor sets the Engine temp at 143F so I guess it ohms out about the same as the IAT sensor. This trick didn't work, lol. So the actual engine temp getting to 132 is causing the defueling to go away. 132F temp reading has nothing to do with it I guess. This leads me to believe that it is something mechanical and nothing to do with the electronics, so I guess I'll drive it for a while using a little extra 2 stroke and lucas fuel treatment and see if it clears up some, if not, I'll just have to order a VP44 and pray thats the problem, lol.

My wife drives pretty good, unless you have nice rims, she will destroy a set of wheels the second you look away. She did drive my Silverado 1500 a few hours away and called me to tell me the fastest it would go was 60mph. I told her to drive it back home, and just let it stay below 60. I didn’t realize that what was happening was the transmission went out and she drove all the way home running 60 in second gear. Didn’t kill anything, but I bet it sounded great running down I20 running about 6500rpm the whole way home.

Thanks for the reply though, this Cummins is a whole new learning experience for me. Any help or suggestion is a good suggestion for me!

I thought for sure the same thing, I put a stock ECM on it yesterday and tried it out, but it had the same issue.

I believe the problem is the VP44. It was a brand new pump that was put on another truck that ended up having way bigger issues. I know for sure it worked fine a year or so ago, but it sat on a shelf in the garage for a year. I’m pretty sure it’s the timing piston, but I don’t know. I don’t know what fooling the engine coolant temp will prove, but I’d like to see if it works, cause the truck has plenty of power and runs perfect when it first cranks and when it’s above that temp. Pretty much, this is a brand new build for me, new transmission, clutch, half the electronics. I want to drive it a little and get a list of all parts I need to make it a reliable truck for some road trips with my camper. If I can fool the truck into running right as far as the pump goes, that’s just another part I need to order.

Lol, can’t cost that much, my last truck was a 6.0 ford, how much more could it cost after making that dependable … sold it cause I didn’t need a diesel anymore, then she went and bought a 37’ 5th wheel as a surprise. She didn’t realize that her gmc 1500 wasn’t gonna pull it. So here I am now, building a Cummins

Seems like ya'll have a fun time! There's a ton of good info on here. I'm sure I'll be around for a while. I traded the twin disk clutch that came off my truck for another cab and chassis roller the other day just to have spare parts. Once I get mine running right I can see where this could be an addiction. My wife even said the other day that she wouldn't mind having one of her own.