cummins2k

Well sorry to cross link forums but here is a good write up on the APPS that will take you deep into the guts of it. http://www.cumminsforum.com/forum/98-5-02-powertrain/54322-anatomy-apps-last-post.html

Let's review the evidence.... Yep I would have to say it appears you are correct! LOL

I would recommend that if there is a flash available to get it. Its not much different than any computer. The updates are there to improve upon previous issues. Sometimes they create new ones but its not often.

Thinking about this a little further, wouldn't this cause somewhat of a distillation effect? Obviously it would seperate the heavier oils from the lighter ones based on the point at which they vaporize.

Picture still seems to be up, http://mopar.mopar1973man.com/personal/2002/frantz-filter/frantz-filter.htm :thumbsup:

Lol, I heard he was spotted in St. Louis ;)

You could do a setup like Mopar1973Man to condense the vapors and prevent the down hill problems. Moroso and the like make catch cans that are more convienent than factory setups.As far as it being honey colored, I can understand that. I have had gassers with plenty of miles to do that. Thats just changing the oil before it goes bad, and there is nothing wrong with that. Diesels will always blacken the oil to a degree because of the soot involved. However when I change the oil on the ram at 5k miles it doesn't look bad at all. I run a draft tube as my truck doesn't see any extreme angles.

I find my biggest mileage numbers holding it in 6th on the highway at 1600rpm. I have 3.55 gears though. However if the truck has to pull a decent amount of weight I would drop to 5th and raise the RPM's to 2000-2300rpm to keep the exhaust temps down.

Synthetics are superior to conventional oils, more so when it comes to service interval length. However sometimes the extra cost just can't be justified. A Cummins 5.9 could probably run lard in the crankcase for 400k miles lol, so picking a certain brand is not as important as some have said.

If you are running 1100-1300 pre-turbo WOT then you are fine. Cummins states the max sustained for this engine is 1250*F pre-turbo. You can exceed this for a few seconds at a time, but I would not exceed 1350*F for more than 15 seconds to be on the safe side. If you want to keep the injectors with a fuel/timing box you will most likely need yet another turbo upgrade. You may get away with simply a turbine housing upgrade though.

Well its my understanding they use a couple different diagnostic tools however anyone that has played with computers long enough knows that diagnostic software can be hit or miss depending on the problem. Certainly there are times when they are good to have but not always. Running a diagnostic tool does not make you a computer repair man though lol. Home users can run these also, and many are free and open source. I have also heard that they do like Dell computers and use a remote desktop link to your computer. Personally I don't like the idea of someone in India playing around on my computer that contains personal information. I doubt most of the "Geeks" know any more about computer repair than their customer. :mad

So a buddy of mine was having computer problems and decided since he bought the computer at Best Buy he would take it back there for warranty. He had the computer 25 days when he took it in and he claimed it had been locking up like crazy from about day 10 but due to work couldn't get into Best Buy. The Geek Squad agent at the counter took the computer and told him they would give him a call when they figured out what was wrong with it. Finally on day 41 since his purchase they send it back with a note saying that he needs to re-install the operating system (Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit). Some how in the process of this he got soaked for a little over $60. Why is beyond me because he purchased it there and had it for under 30 days at this point. At this point in time he was upset because the computer, like most brand name systems, did not come with a disk. So he was clueless as to what he should do. Since I had a few people coming over anyway I invited him over and told him to bring it along and I would have a peek at it and see if it needed to be redone and also if there was a recovery partition.I was outside when he turned the computer on and came inside to find it idling on the desktop. It seemed fine until you tried to load a program or copy a file then it would hang for a long amount of time, finally resulting in a blue screen error. Since it was set to reboot on blue screen errors it went too fast for me to record any information so I waited for it to restart with the intention of turning the reboot on error setting off. Sure enough on reboot a message came up on the screen telling me that there was an imminent smart failure on the main hard drive and it was advised to back up all data. I pointed that out to my friend and told him I would run a diagnostic utility on the hard drive but it looked like the drive may just be toast. What does he say next except "The Geek Squad people told me thats why Windows needed to be reinstalled, I wrote it down and gave it too them already." I shook my head and grabbed a live disk to run a test on the drive. Sure enough the console was just flooded with errors, so I shut it down and told him that I would go with him in the morning to Best Buy.We went into Best Buy and went back to the counter where a young girl came up and I showed her the work order they had given him. She asked what the problem was and I told her first off why was he charged over $60 when he purchased the system here and it was under 30 days old, and second why did their tech recommend reinstalling Windows? She went on about viruses, spyware, malware, drivers and anything she could try to muster for a bit. I told her there was a Smart Failure being reported on the hard drive and she proceeds to tell me that reinstalling Windows will fix it. Really I wasn't even mad at this point I found it comical. I told her I was not happy with the diagnosis and I was positive as I am sure Gateway would be that the hard drive was defective and that I would like to talk to a manager. I explained the problem to the manager who was quite rude and after awhile of him blabbing I finally just told him look its a new computer. He said it was out of the grace period for in store exchange. So I proceeded to tell him that his "techs" mis-diagnosed it. He said he wouldn't deny it computers where complicated and it sometimes happens. I told him then they need to at bare minimum refund the $60 and after awhile he did. After he fixed that he asked somewhat sarcastically if there was anything else he could do and I asked if I could speak with his manager lol. Sure enough a guy in a business suit came out to the sales floor, shook my hand and asked me what he could help me with. I explained to him that they mis-diagnosed the problem with it, made up a fictitious work order, and charged for services that they shouldn't have. He asked if there was anyway he could help and I told him sure. Go out to the sales floor, grab another brand new laptop, exchange it, and we would be on our way. Sure enough he did no questions asked. Its not that the problem didn't get solved, but it took almost an hour of arguing with people that were clueless, on top of the 16 days they where in possession of the computer. What makes it more frustrating is its not like they had to use any brains. You turn it on and right there in your face the computer is actually telling you, hey look this hard drive is failing. :mad I could understand a mis-diagnosis if the problem didn't present itself so obviously, heck I have done it myself. But I really just don't see any excuse for this one. :rolleyes Funny thing is I was thinking about purchasing a laptop here in the near future, but Best Buy is certainly not getting my hard earned cash. :moon

I have heard complaints about ATS transmissions on the Cummins Forum. I would stick with Goerend like Mopar1973Man suggested.

Clutches despite being frustrating at times, are actually quite simple to understand. Noise when the clutch pedal is depressed is typically due to a bad throw-out bearing or damaged fingers on the pressure plate. In most but not all clutch systems the throw-out bearing is typically only held in contact with the pressure plate fingers when the clutch is depressed. Its this force against the fingers of the pressure plate that causes the plate to release, removing the clamping force that holds the clutch disk to the flywheel. When this bearing goes bad it will cause a noise that only appears when the clutch is depressed. In either case you would need to pull the transmission. While the transmission is out inspect the clutch fingers for damage and/or excessive wear, and replace the throw-out bearing. The FSM manual and guide you through the rest. Also here is a technical write up on various transmission and drive train designs including the clutch. http://www.carbibles.com/transmission_bible.html

I would take a bug sprayer and mix the bleach with water. Spray down practically everything that won't be damaged by the bleach. Then give it a couple days to air out with the a/c running and see if the smell goes away.

This guy must have put a lot of time into making these animations and some of them are quite interesting. You never really see most of these engines in action. http://www.animatedengines.com/index.shtml

Just thinking outside the box here. But a malfunction of the hydroboost unit will cause a characteristic thunk in the braking system also. It will also cause a decrease in braking power. Often times this is caused by a malfunction of the spool valve in the hydroboost unit and flushing the power steering system well can resolve the problem. If that doesn't work a replacement unit runs about $200-$250 depending on where you buy it. However this is a shot in the dark because it could very well be something else in the braking system.

This is primarily a question meant for DuluthDiesel but what is the primary advantage over other oil premium synthetic oils? Typically I do not run a synthetic at all rather just off the shelf Valvoline Premium Blue, Delo, or Rotella. I typically run 15W40 but it seems the recommendation for synthetic oil is 5w40. I would actually prefer an oil with a higher ZDDP content, more so to keep the lifters and cam happy for the long haul (not necessary but I know older cars had a rash of cam/lifter failures as oil manufactures started removing this so it must help.) My truck was never equipped with a catalytic converter so I don't have to worry about poisoning it. The biggest problem I have with Amsoil, Redline (which I am using in normal intervals in my transmission), and most other extended change oils is they cost a fortune and I am not so sure I am willing to go with an extended drain interval. I do a lot of short distance driving and I doubt that the oil gets sufficient heat hence the reason why I always change the oil between 4-5k. Soon within the next year or so I plan on moving farther from the city so I am sure extended drains may come in handy then.

Also found this write up that includes instructions on how to degree the camshaft for performance if anyone else ever pro-sues this: http://www.dodgedakotas.com/articles/timingchain/

Well I decided to take a video of it before it gets fixed.[ame] [/ame]I have really maintained this truck and would hate for the chain to break damaging anything else. Seriously this little truck runs circles around full-size trucks in the snow.

Wow thanks Mopar1973Man that is pretty detailed. I am almost positive that the rattle is caused by a loose timing chain as it goes away if you give it a little throttle. Let it idle and it will rattle all day.

Certainly I think all of us that have lived long enough have learned a lesson a time or two. I had a 1993 Ford Mustang that I took out and beat on. One day it started making a rattle when it neutral, but since I was working extra shifts I decided to let it go till my day off. Well my day off came and I decided to let it go one more night to go hang out with some friends when it decided to let go. Turns out the entire time the pilot bearing was bad and the deflection of the input shaft over the course of that week took out the input bearing in the transmission. The result? A bunch of chewed up gears, a cracked case, and a transmission that didn't have a single gear left to select. Had I looked at it when it started making noise I could have easily have fixed it without having to replace the transmission.Now when it comes to the Ram the engine and driveline cost too much to be replacing like I did with the Mustang. So I try to keep a much better eye on things. If a strange noise shows up I diagnosis it, when I change the oil I inspect everything. Its amazing how much longer vehicles last when you get older lol.

I have a 3.9l Magnum in my 1994 Dakota Sport that has always sounded somewhat like a diesel. It has a characteristic pop from the exhaust here and there at random but only during shifting. The rattling up front really had me worried since it sounds low in the chassis and I was afraid the bottom end was going, not to mention the truck began losing power like crazy over the last year (can't hold highway speed.) Using a piece of wood as a stethoscope I narrowed it down to the timing chain. So armed with that information I went to trusty google to look for cheaper sources for parts only to find service bulletins about the timing set. It turns out there is too much slack in the factory timing set so Dodge came out with a tensioner to fix the problem. I have a part number here somewhere I will have to find it. Has anyone done one of these it looks somewhat involved, I am not finding much in terms of a how-to with pictures or anything.

Assuming that you have a manual transmission, the wastegate should close during shifting. The reason being that when you release the throttle and push in the clutch the load is taken off the engine. Therefore the exhaust gas temperature plummets causing lower drive pressure for the turbine. If the wastegate was sticking closed during driving it would cause an overboost condition most likely.Just a thought, have you checked the crankshaft position sensor and camshaft position sensor?

So I was sitting at a turn light the other day and I see an older Ford Ranger in the opposing turn lane with its hazards on. Suddenly he pulls a U-turn and you can tell the truck is really trying to make it across to the gas station. All the sudden I see smoke pour out the bottom of the truck and you can see connecting rod fragments bounce off the asphalt. I turned my hazards on and drove over there to give him a hand pushing it. The guy was probably in his 70's and he looked at me and said "I don't know what's with this darn thing today, maybe it needs oil?" Unfortunately the block was completely windowed, so I pushed it into the gas station parking lot and called a tow truck for him. It really sucks that he lost his engine, but I can't help but laugh every time I think about what he said. LOL