ISX

Figured AH64 or someone else might know. This thing flys over our house at least once a week.

I think it's safe to say a gasser can and always has been able to beat a diesel on parts cost. Before all this computerized stuff came out, there wasn't much that went bad. There were hardly any sensors at all on the truck to even go bad. But at the same time, the gassers didn't have much to go bad either. But if something major happened on either thing, the gasser would have been cheaper to fix. I would say the ratio between cost of diesel parts and gasser parts is still the same today. Gassers have injectors now too so their cost of maintenance went up because of that. They also added a ton of sensors. Just like the fuel management system, it is complex so there is more to go wrong, but the same holds true as diesels are becoming more and more complex to meet emissions. You can keep gassers and diesels going without ever having to do anything major. You just have to accommodate for their needs. CR trucks need better fuel filters. VP44 trucks need better lift pumps. If you figure out what the truck needs to keep it reliable, it will be just as reliable as anything else. I will work on a fancy MPG chart that you were wanting later on.

What do you want to use for new gasser mileages?

Hmm, sorry about making this a separate thread. It is a really neat subject though. I started noticing something so I made a chart to show it. It shows that you start to level off on cents per mile as you get up into the high numbers. 20mpg is basically the magic number and after that you are not really gaining much on cost. Like if I go 1000 miles at $2.80/gallon, it is only a $18.67 difference between 25 and 30mpg. It is a $28 difference between 20 and 25. So it would add up over time but in the short term it doesn't make too much of a difference. You can skip eating out and make up the difference The issue arises with towing mileage, when you are lingering in the teens and single digits. That same 1000 mile trip would cost $26 more just going from 12 to 11.. That is the main reason for a diesel, every mile counts when you are towing and getting towards the single digit mpg. The only thing that is not exponential about it is range. Which getting more MPG means getting a lot more miles out of a tank, no matter what the mpg might be, it goes up at the same rate.

Did some more calculating. I just did everything stock for what new trucks are doing stock. I know all the estimates are rough but close enough. So unloaded with gasser getting an unheard of 19mpg (I will play your game though lol) and diesels getting 20mpg (probably what the average diesel world gets during the same circumstances as a gasser getting 19mpg) this is what I get. A gasser would have to drop down to 16.431 to equalize with costs of a diesel at 20mpg. Towing we see the tables turned, even with 10mpg gasser and 12mpg diesel, which if a diesel is getting 12 pulling something then a gasser would surely be around 8 but I will play it off as 10. Thing is, to get this 19mpg we have to have fuel management cylinder deactivation stuff, to get that we have to have a brand new truck... 1st gen cummins' get 20-25mpg and we can get a good one for ~$4-5000, which is much cheaper than a new $30,000+ truck. Here is something to really make you jump. Back then a comparable power gasser got 12mpg when the 1st gen was getting 20 and the fuel cost tables were reversed. Not sure what oil and all that was but I will make fuel costs what I imagine they were in 1990.

Copycat

Of course it does!I just noticed his clear heater core hoses.. Now I gotta get some

I thought all the stars had to be aligned and it had to be a full moon for it to do that fuel management stuff. Don't you have to be on the highway and driving it nicely for it to start dropping cylinders? So you drive 55mph to keep the power low enough that it can drop cylinders so you can get 19, which at that speed I get 27. In the city I assume it drops like a rock with that 5.3, whereas I still can't drop below 21, never have since I owned the truck (unless pulling trailer). Now hook a trailer up to that 5.3 or 6.0... The trailer I tow gets a dmax 12.5 and my dads truck gets more like 5-7 with it. I figure a 5.3 or 6.0 would be lucky to get 10. I get 17. I know having to replace a VP and get a airdog 150 and all of that other stuff just to keep it reliable will offset the savings but having a ppump I haven't had to touch anything like that. But even with changing out stuff with the 24V, I still think you would come out on top if you used the truck for it's intended purpose.. I will be drastic here and compare it to having a semi truck and pulling a trailer maybe 5 times a year and going to walmart every week all the rest of the time and then expecting to come out ahead of a toyota camry. It isn't going to happen and if you bought the truck for a one time a year hauler and full time grocery getter then you are just asking for an emptier wallet. A lot of people buy a car for their daily routine and drive the truck once every few weeks. Flagmanruss has a prius, flman has a diesel jeep liberty, W&F has a diesel jetta.. They get those so they can save the truck for the real load and since all of those get incredible mileage they end up paying for the whole car in savings over driving your truck. Now I get great mileage unloaded so I don't really need a car but lets face it, they can beat the crap out of it and still get over 30mpg whereas I have to be nice to it. I can beat the crap out of mine and get around 21 but getting anything over 23 requires some effort. As for maintenance, if the gasser and the diesel ended up costing the same amount every year on fuel, you still have to change the oil, and diesels take enough oil for 2.5 gasser changes. A guy I used to work with pointed this out to me over and over. BUT, I use amsoil for 25k and I can beat the cost of his oil changes by doing that. Now Dorkweed has it even cheaper, he uses toilet paper filters (literally) and keeps the oil so clean that he never even has to change it. So there you have it. My reasoning and logic behind owning my truck

I moved the gasser vs. diesel part to the general diesel section to keep this thread from completely going off topic http://forum.mopar1973man.com/showthread.php/2699-Gasser-vs.-Diesel

Heres what I get if I compare my dads 5.7 chevy to mine. I have never had to change anything other than wear items either. I changed the clutch since I turned it up, other than that, nothing. When pulling our trailer, it costs him 108% more to go 400 miles (distance for the trip we take a lot) which of course is 8% over twice as much.

Well it was more just trying to keep to more meaningful threads If we let it get too far along it might end up being talking about dust particles or something.. You get the idea haha

Well I had a deep cycle laying around which triggered the idea.. I can kill it and not care whereas the other batteries won't be as tolerant. If I didn't have the deep cycle I never would have done it.

Less wear on the alternator mainly. I don't think it really wears out very fast but I have lots of batteries laying around so I just figured I would make it so the alternator didn't have to kill itself every morning.

I never even knew about the embed part. Not sure what it's used on. Doesn't work here I guess

Not sure which short/long links you mean. I just find the video on youtube and copy whatever link is in the address bar.

I kinda wondered about that :banghead:, another site showed 2 models. Sorry about that. Start from the bottom of the page and go up (its near the bottom) there are 2 different models. I assume you must need the more expensive one. http://quad4x4.com/Dodge%20Frt%20Axle&Steering.htm Let me know if there is something I can do for you, I should have posted that other one. zbag.com looks good too.

Don't complain here.. We are trying to keep it a good forum with good info. Some threads are getting questionable so we need to try and steer it back to where it once was before this starts getting out of hand. Not trying to be mean just trying to keep this forum the same great forum it has always been Plus some newbies might say it then read this post and think your making fun of them. Try to keep an open mind about who reads all of these threads so we can keep everyone happy :thumb1:If it were a complaint about a product or something then it would be different.

When you reply click the film strip then paste the link then hit ok.

Well I am getting the same results past 400 pretty much, but under 400 it just kinda stopped dropping and when I compare now, the autometer was 50-100F hotter when under that 400, it seemed the colder it was (like when I let off in 5th down that hill and got under 200F) the farther the autometer was off (I think it would have got down to 300-350 on that same hill). Anyhow I got it remounted in an absolutely killer spot. There is just enough room between the black part and the clear gauges thing to get the wires through. You can hardly see the wires since they go straight back. I didn't have to drill out anything.

I common cause to a truck that is missing is a bad injector. Tracking a bad injector is very simple. There are a few precautions you need to take first. The injectors do spray at high pressure. It tends to atomize instead of shoot at you but it still should not be taken for granted. A bad injector may have one of these problems: [*]Low pop pressure [*]Bad spray pattern [*]Clogged nozzle [*]Improper assembly (if you cleaned them and put them back together) There are a few people wondering what a miss even sounds like so this video should clear that up. By cracking each injector one at a time, the engine should miss worse since 2 injectors should now be not working. When you get to the injector that makes no difference when you crack the line, that is the bad injector (since it should have made the engine miss more). It is always good practice to check them all as there may be 2 bad injectors, or more. One thing to remember is that cracking the lines still pops the injectors, but not much. I cracked all of my injectors but one and it ran rough, but ran. When I took the nuts on the 5 injectors completely off (rather than having them just cracked) and left just one injector tight, it would not run. Cracking them makes the injectors not flow as much fuel as needed to run the engine and can be heard as a slight miss, taking the nut completely off will create a more solid miss since that injector is not firing at all. It is also safer to take the nut completely off as the fuel will mainly just drain down the side rather than shoot out of the top of the nut like it does when you crack it. The only problem with that is that you need to turn the engine off to completely loosen the nut, otherwise it is pretty dangerous. The video shows me cracking a line to check if the injector is working, if it starts missing when you loosen the nut, then you know its doing it's job. The rest of the video is after taking the nuts of 4 injectors completely off and then tightening them to show how it changes. http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0ZZowFzTzA

I think you all know how I keep saying my EGT's are high at idle, never dropping down to 300, like yesterday I sat there for 15 min idling and the lowest I saw was 340. Well I got my digital EGT gauge and hooked it up and ran it and the ONLY time the other gauge was right is anytime over 400F. Below that it was way off. It is 73F outside and I got the EGT up to 700F taking off then got to a 1/4 mile downhill and at the bottom I had just got into the high 100's. My other gauge is disconnected and says 200 with no power or anything.. Now when I idle, it is just slightly slower rate than a 24V. I flew into the driveway and went the 100ft up it going about 10mph then parked it and it was already at 340F. In less than a minute it was down to 300F.I had found the CFM of a stock 12V and stock 24V head and they weren't that much different so I never could figure out the idle EGT thing, so now it makes sense that the temp drop rate is only a little lower than a 24V, rather than the crap I was seeing before. So if anyone wants my autometer gauge that doesn't work worth anything down low let me know. I am keeping the probe though lol.

I wouldn't worry about anything under 1050-1100. The fact that you see 1100 for 2 hours is a little bit weary though. I would try changing to level 5 first. It changes the timing and might drop them a little worth a shot anyways. Just play with all the levels and see what happens.

Just as I figured, they say to stay on 2 as a safety precaution. Otherwise people would put it on 5 and try to do 90mph up the hills and wonder why everything started melting. You got limits on that thing anyways so your pretty well bulletproof. It defuels when it hits the limits I assume. What are your EGT's anyways?

Mike says he gets the best mileage with everything maxed out (5x5). I know you didn't want to do that because it is hard on the trans but your right foot is really the factor in that. The timing and everything is more aggressive on level 5(which makes the engine more efficient) so that would be the setting you should be on for mileage. If you do 60mph up a hill, the transmission is going to need the same power input no matter what, if it takes 100hp to go up the hill then the trans needs 100hp. The levels make the engine *capable* of having more power but that doesn't mean you will use it, it will still only take 100hp. So you lay back on the pedal a little more on level 5. If you are on level 5 or level 2 and are determined to hold 60mph, the trans will see the same power either way, the engine will produce it differently but the trans won't care. So I say you stick it on level 5 but drive it the same "seat of pants" feeling that level 2 produced. Do not try and take advantage of level 5 and do 80mph up a hill, if it couldn't do it on level 2, then let off so you save your trans. You should also drive smoothly since the power will come on more aggressively. You can control everything with your right foot. You saw how my fuel plate and AFC was in my door panel.. my foot can do the same thing. I let off when the EGT gets too high and I don't floor it from a stop because I know it will smoke. I have driven it for months like that without ever puffing a cloud because I know its characteristics. You can do the same thing on level 5, just use your right foot and be smooth with it but also be smart with it by not trying to get more out of the engine than you know the trans can take.

Check this one out. http://www.midwestdieselconnection.com/forum/album.php?albumid=8&pictureid=26 Chrome.. Think I might have to redo mine, that looks way tooo good lol Hmm, guess the pic don't work if your not a member.