Cowboy

BUY THEM!!! Worst case you can quadruple your money. 265/70R17's are about the same as 265/75R16's which are about the same size as 235/85R16's. So yeah, decent size to tow with.

Oh, it always starts small... 1/4 turn of the smoke screw here, slide the plate 1/16" forward there... Though I should talk, I've got "120hp injectors" and am STILL running the stock turbo. haha

Yep, sounds like a HX35/40 hybrid with a 8 blade compressor. Me thinks Mopar1973Man has caught the the power bug...

Like Mike said, 285's while looking super hot on a stock height dodge, don't go well with towing, I've towed with 245's 265's and 285's and the 285's were kinda miserable. By the sounds of it you have an automatic so you may even consider a 245 as that's what came stock on the older truck. This all assumes you have a 3.54 gear ratio, if you've got 4.10's, then 285's aren't a bad match. If you look under the hoot by the hood latch, it should say what gear ratio that axles are. Now for the elephant in the room... 65mph down to 45mph while staying at 2800RPM screams that your Torque Converter was unlocked. When towing that's a big no no, the TC is only about 65% efficient so only 65% of your power was going to the ground, and the other 35% was going into heat, which can fry a automatic transmission pretty quick if you're not careful. A gentleman a while back who was in similar shoes asked how to get the most out of his rig, and got some pretty decent answers, you may consider checking his thread out here. As far as EGT's. I wouldn't worry about them to much on a stock truck, we know Cummins tuned the engine so that it's basically indestructible in stock form. And their '1250°F Maximum' was a catch all rating, as long as there are no crazy flatbill mods, and RPM's are above ~2200RPM, that '1250°F' rating goes out the window. As long as it's not smoking, I could care less what EGT's are. I had my truck up past 1600°F on multiple occasions in the 2500-3400RPM range, when I pulled the head everything looked spotless. On your brakes, try applying only the trailer brakes using the controller, if the truck tries to pull to the side, then it's the trailer brakes that are causing the pull, so it's likely one side isn't applying. If it doesn't then it's likely the truck. For us 4x4 guys, on the front brake lines there's a steel bracket that holds the brake line to the frame, these brackets can rust and pinch the brake line off causing a lack of braking, and the brakes to drag. Typically though, if the brakes are making the truck pull to one side or the other, it's the rear brakes. So get yourself some Chevy wheel cylinders, and while installing, double check everything looks good, then adjust both rear brakes correctly. Sometimes you can adjust the brakes by simple going reverse at about 15-20mph and then apply the parking brake. Do this forwards and backwards a couple times and your problem may be fixed. Regardless, the Chevy wheel cylinders are a decent upgrade that help considerably. If you're wanting to up the performance, a shift kit goes a long ways in helping your auto hold the power, it raises the hydraulic line pressure which holds the clutches tighter preventing them from slipping. Here's a good auto tranny upgrade list. http://www.cumminsforum.com/forum/94-98-drivetrain-except-engine/452157-proper-upgrade-list-transmission.html If you play around with the 'OD Off' button, and practice trying to keep the TC locked, then you should be able to get a bit more out of your truck. For reference, with my 97 auto, full engine power was achieved by 60% throttle, so any more than that was pointless, however, if I went past 90% throttle, it would unlock the TC. So when towing up hills, I would make sure to keep it between 60% and 90% throttle to get full power without unlocking the TC. Best of luck!

They put a weaker spring in so it doesn't make as much pressure. as the pump actually 'pumps' on the return stroke.

I never liked the diaphragm pumps design a whole lot, I've had multiples fail (non-Cummins). One the linkage broke, fell apart, and because it was mounted to the injector pump, the whole governor housing was full of metal for it to chew on. Had to take the injection pump off and get it rebuilt. I would agree with Texas CTD, the piston pump is a viable option, you should be able to get a good 300k miles out of it like the P-Pump 12 valve guys do. The low pressure piston pump is a cummins variant to the one on P-pump engines, just with smaller bore, and weaker spring, otherwise they're basically identical, so you should be able to expect the same life span. Jolsen Electric pumps are great upgrade and all, but their 5 times the cost, and have half the expected life cycle. So unless you need the extra fuel the electric pumps are capable of, then there isn't much point in it. The Fuel Boss is a fix for reliability issues of electric fuel pumps, so if you're using a block mounted mechanical, there isn't much point in it either.

I've never personally had this issue, but I've talked with a couple guys that have. After installing a cam, the turbo would bark while cruising with some boost. IIRC, Hamilton suggested trying to loosen up the exhaust valve lash slightly and tighten up the intake valve lash slightly. May not be your issue, but thought I'd mention it.

Super Bowl?

I should add, as far as the programmer (edge ez), I'm not much of a 24 valve guy, so the guys here will fill you in on the best one to run.

He's already got one, unless you're referring to the VP.

Here's a good upgrade list for the automatics. http://www.cumminsforum.com/forum/94-98-drivetrain-except-engine/452157-proper-upgrade-list-transmission.html Auto Upgrade list $700 for the TC $160 for the billet parts $100 for the Shift kit. Total = $960 24 Valve upgrade list. $500 for gauges $430 for the edge EZ $420 for RV275's $20 for boost controller Total - $1370 Grand Total of just $2330!

They should.

As far as I know.

Could be they forgot to remove the washer from the pivot ball.

In stock form, you really don't have to worry about EGT's a whole lot on a healthy system. Cummins gave out the 1250°F number, first we know that there is padding there, second, that's only a problem at low RPM's when there isn't much swirl. At high RPM, not a whole lot of heat actually gets to the pistons. If you're smoke free, I wouldn't be worried about 1300°F EGT's if RPM's are above 1800-2000 RPM. Smoke means prolonged burn, which is more heat on the pistons. If you're wanting to run cooler for that warm fuzzy feeling, upping the boost a little, maybe 30 psi should help. Secondly, the 47RE has stupid high OD which is a PITA to tow with, luckily you have 4.10's otherwise it would be miserable. When you're towing with an auto, make sure the TC stays locked. If you're wanting to put as much power down as possible to maintain speed, gear down to get the engine up to peak HP (~2500 RPM), if this isn't enough power, it will then lug down into peak torque, without having to down shift which causes you to loose speed. If you can't make it up the hill in 3rd locked, then things get iffy. The TC unlocks which makes copious amounts of heat, and is super inefficient. You can change your gearing slightly by changing your tire size. If you've got 2nd gens flying past you with similar weight, it's likely they're not stock, and quite possible that they've got a manual transmission. Automatic transmissions have a considerable amount of parasitic drain from hydraulic pumping losses. What is really ugly is when you're in a 6-speed manual, and can't maintain speed in 2nd... lol Pictures! 47RE with 4.10 gearing vs NV4500 with 3.54 gearing. Hualing!

Speaking of which Dripley, I ended up installing those 2 single disk valair clutches identical to your old one and so far nothing to complain about what so ever, feels and sounds like stock, minus the slippage. The one's currently got about 330 rwhp going through it, and that will go up again here at some point.

So THIS is the setup you've been alluding to all these years! I'm really glad you posted, I find the P-pump vs VP dyno graphs interesting. Am I reading that right, that on the 654hp VP run you started at 1200 RPM, but on the P-pump run you started at 2000RPM and still made peak torque sooner? If so, I find that very interesting! It's also cool to see how the VP does seem to hold the Power up into the higher RPM's better. Do you remember what you're timing was on the P-pump? What would you say were the limiting factors on both setups? Super cool. I was also very glad to see you ditch the hood stack.

In high I believe both bulbs come on.

If you run SRW's on a DRW axle the rear tires will be 1.5" wider. Or you can swap in a SRW Dana 80 and it will be a direct swap. If you use a Dana 70 you'll need different U-bolt hangers and to lengthen the rear driveshaft some. I do have a set of hangers if you end up needing some.

Are you reffering to this bracket? Yes, it should be just a place holder, though there may be a little horizontal force as the suspension cycles. I've got two 2wd brackets laying here, if you need one just give the word.

I know mine's a 12 valve, but just for the record. I held mine at 1300°F for a couple minutes multiple times, and it's seen 1600°F in 20-80 MPH runs in 4th. This was with stock timing, stock head, basically stock everything. Well I pulled the head off and everything was in picture perfect condition. Like AH64ID said, keep the RPM's up and it will live. With increased RPM, the swirl built into the head prevents the pistons from seeing to much of the heat. Me personally, if it's burning clean, I don't worry about temps. Smoke is un-burnt fuel, but it also indicates longer burn times. The tune I had a while back was to me the perfect towing tune (or my clutch-saver tune). It maxed out at 34 psi with my HX35 W/spring gate, made 300 hp, and I could hold it to the floor anywhere from 1800 to 2500 and never crest 1200°. Here's the dyno run of sorts. The hump at 1700 is a little clutch slippage.

I would agree with KATOOM, looks like permanent marker not locktite. Also, you need to use RTV under the O-ring as well, and you don't want to go to crazy tight as that can cause them to leak, meaning you'd be stuck with the problem...