The_Hammer

The previous owner of my truck ran straight tap water for who knows how long before I bought it which caused the cooling system to be contaminated with rust. I've been dealing with the issue off and on since buying the truck in 2011 and finally got around to taking care of it I was doing some research on eliminating rust from the cooling system when I came across a product called Thermocure by Evapo-Rust. It has some really good reviews on Summit Racing and looked promising so I ordered up a quart $26 shipped. I removed the thermostat and flushed the cooling system everyday for a couple days using tap water until the Thermocure arrived. I drained the water, added the Thermocure, then refilled the system. I drove the truck for three days before draining and flushing the system a few times with tap water. Below are the results. From left to right: Initial draining after three days, second flush, third flush, and fourth flush. After the fourth time I stuck a water hose in the radiator, opened the drain, started the motor, and let it run for about 20 minutes until there wasn't so much as a trace of rust showing in the bottom of a clear one gallon jug. I'm about to flush the system one last time with distilled water to remove as much of the tap water as I can, install a new thermostat, then fill with 3 gallons of concentrate and 1 gallon distilled water for a 50/50 mix.

In this day and age, where just about any knowledge you may seek is literally available at your fingertips, there really is no excuse for not knowing something as simple as what grease to use where. If you want to see some knock down drag out purse swinging over lubricants head over to ar15. com, I swear some of those guys take lubing AR's more seriously than anything else on the planet

I've also modded the AFC as per this thread http://www.dieselram.com/showthread.php?t=184064

It's easy to get all the fluid out if you take it apart

I don't go over half throttle right now and go easy on it to keep the smoke down, I do plan on moving the plate back some this weekend though. It's good to see that these injectors can be tamed without the need for a larger turbo. Here's what all has been done to the truck. Contagious Diesel 5x.012 VCO 280 bar injectors, stock HX35 with boost elbow set @ 32 psi, 4 1/2" down pipe to 5" stacks, 100 plate, timing set to 16°, Mighty Diesel head bolts. There's actually quite a bit of tuning that can be done, it's just time consuming since all the adjustments are mechanical. Timing is already bumped to 16°. Don't have a boost gauge at the moment but will soon. Exactly, it's just wasted fuel and a piston cooker. Don't have a working EGT gauge right now but will soon.

I don't have working boost or egt gauges at the moment, the glowshift junk that was in the truck when I bought it took crap on me awhile back. I'll be ordering some Autometer gauges shortly so I can see what's going on. Before the gauges broke I set my wastegate to open at ~32 psi and haven't touched it since. Once I get my gauges in I'll start adjusting the starwheel, plate, and pre boost screw.

I had my truck tuned pretty good with the stock injectors and would only lightly haze at WOT. Now that I've added 5x.012 injectors I smoke like a freight train from 1/2 throttle on up with the stock HX35. My question is how much smoke can I expect to tune out without loosing too much performance? Is it just going to be smokey until I upgrade the turbo or should I be able to clean it up pretty good?

I'm still very impressed with my 315/75R16 Duratracs.

My starter isn't liking the extra compression, guess it's time to rebuild it

Finally got her back together today. I was losing a LOT of compression from the leaking exhaust valves, my turbo sounds completely different now, like a normal HX35. It's never sounded like other 12v trucks until now. The power has increased quite a bit as well, it's VERY noticeable to say the least. It idles smoother and just sounds better too. I'm also happy to finally have a 4k GSK, now the truck pulls hard all the way to 3800 rpm or so. I'm running without a thermostat for now while I flush the rust out of everything. I'm going to order some Evaporust Thermocure to try and flush it all out. Once I'm done I'll be filling with 50/50 premix, which brand I'm not sure yet

I wish these trucks used regular wheel bearings.

@TFaoro I only posted two pics, don't know what the third one that's not showing up is about . I got the majority of the carbon off before installing the valves. Finally got all the valves to seal, only took most of the day to do it lol.

@Dieselfuture The head has been cleaned, pressure tested, and resurfaced. In a perfect world I'd have a valve job done but I'm running out of funds for this, especially since I'm still working on my house.

Yay or nay on the exhaust valves? ETA: Answered my own question, they leak ETA #2: After 20 minutes lapping the leaking valve I just about have it sealed up. It would be a lot easier if I had something stouter than fine lapping compound I'll be picking up some medium and corse compound tomorrow.

@Me78569 Thanks! We'll the two manifold bolts that broke off would not come out after applying heat and using an easy out. So, I'm drilling it out and using longer bolts with nuts. The valve guides don't have any play whatsoever, awesome. I'm about to do a light lapping with some fine clover compound.

@Mopar1973Man If this was your truck how would you go about flushing the rust out of the cooling system? Have yet another issue. Like a dummy I forgot to unplug the coolant temp sensor when removing the head and broke the sensor and the flipping plug Where would a person find another plug at?

@Dieselfuture I can't remember what I had in it other than it was green @Mopar1973Man Would this happen to be the stuff your thinking of? https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-tc001?seid=srese1&cm_mmc=pla-google-_-shopping-_-srese1-_-summit-racing&gclid=CPDrgNbT_s0CFcKGaQodUH8Fag&ibanner=MobileSwitchNo

If I do go that route I will flush the system several times before filling it with coolant.

Head is good, no cracks. It's resurfaced and ready to go, will pick it up in the morning.

Personally I don't believe that I'm removing all of the rust. Once the head is back on I'm going to do a flush with something like citric acid.

I don't doubt it. I've been fighting rust in the coolant system since owning the truck. I've flused the system until the water comes our crystal clear, fill with premix and a month or so later it's brown again

So Cummins changed the design somewhere along the line?

Got the head off today with the only issue being two broken manifold bolts. It appears that the head gasket has been replaced somewhere along the line with the crappy Fel-Pro gasket. It's easy to see why I was leaking water so bad. The cylinders all looked great, especially for 300k miles. I forgot to get pics of the valves and valve seats but they looked really good as well. I'm dropping the head off at the machine shop in the morning and should have it back Tuesday or Wednesday.

The wife and I would love to do something like that.