LorenS

I just had a case delivered today, glad a dealer as knowledgeable as AH64ID has recommended this oil to so many folks. With a long trip to MN planned, I figured now would be a good time to try synthetic. However, it's getting Fleetguard stratapore filters for the next three filter changes! With 279,000 miles, should I change the filter at 3k miles and add a quart?

These are the terminals I bought. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01LLWKXV6?psc=1&ref=yo_pop_mb_pd_title And these ring terminals in various sizes. Even dear old dad gave approval to these terminals for the thick wall and general quality. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B073Y8443Y?psc=1&ref=yo_pop_mb_pd_title I used DoD's heavy duty, bolt cutter style crimper. AKA no hammer, and no removing cables from truck.

Silicone is resistant to sulfuric acid at a 10% concentration at 70 degrees. Clearly it's hotter under the hood than 70 degrees, but hopefully you don't have liquid sulfuric acid spewing out of your battery! So, my new terminal is coated in Gardner Denver dielectric grease, as I have done for a long while on other vehicles. I found this article a while back which reaffirmed my decision. https://www.w8ji.com/dielectric_grease_vs_conductive_grease.htm

...Well that's not what I want to hear! When I trimmed back the insulation on the ground cables, everything looked normal, hopefully the others are the same.

My battery cable ends are in bad shape, so I picked up some new ends and car lugs. Due to my kid taking a short nap today, I only got one done, along with cleaning a couple of grounds. These two pictures are obviously not a direct Before and After. I found out I didn't have a new 4 gauge lug, so did the ground wire first. Whoops. Oh, and the terminals did come with protective caps, it is now installed.

My truck gauge shows 140, 190 and something around 240. When comparing a 190 t-stat to a 200, I could use a few more gradations!

So far I like the 200 degree thermostat. I don't tow often or heavy, so it may not be for everyone. Before I covered my grill some it did seem the thermostat hunted some, but I only had my truck gauge to observe, no OBDLink at the time to show precise temp. I may never go back to a lower temp as I have seen no downside for my application.

Over a year I bought a new set of component speakers and finally tried to install them. The tweeter doesn't fit in the stock a-pillar location, and since I can't return them I decided to mount as shown in the photo. Should've just bought the normal speakers! Live and learn...

I have installed the radio and so far like it very much. I found it strange at first that there's no dimmer wire, then I remembered it's geared more towards those with tractor cabs, etc.! In town so far it has been fine. There is a way to manually adjust the brightness which I may do; I don't think I need bright settings during the day. One thing I don't like is that the "seek" button has to be pressed and held to seek vs. manually tune. I wish it was the other way! The FM reception is similar to the stock unit, which I found to be very good. I'll try to remember to add a photo later today.

Have you tried putting the truck in the air and spinning the tires to check for abnormal driveline resistance? Your 4.10 gearing with a 0.61 over drive is equivalent to my 3.55 gearing with 0.69 over drive. I run 265/70 tires, you are on 285/75s. Revs per mile for my tires are 638, yours 596, or 6.5% fewer revs/mile. I'm not if that explains your 10 MPG vs. my 19 if you have a big lift affecting aerodynamics. I may not have a 3rd row of seats, but I do have a camper shell on my long bed truck. I do not have a body or chassis lift of any kind. I also rarely go over 70 MPH unless tucked in behind some traffic. For comparison, 245/70/17s are listed at 661 revs/mile. Regearing is expensive, but if you have a pile of parts to grab from, a set of gears closer to 4.38 may be a real improvement, if they exist. 4.56 would put you right there with the 245/70/17s. If injector pop pressures drop too low, could this cause this, due to negative torque resulting from earlier injection? Another thing that comes to mind, is your transfer case engaged? That could suck some fuel. Also, if your steering toe is seriously out of whack that would cause lots of drag. If your tires look normal or aren't burning hot you can probably rule that out.

Installed MOPAR cruise control actuator part number 1673355, and for the first time ever, my cruise (kind of) works! Of note: 1. This part number rotates the unit about 90 degrees due to the stud locations. It was still very easy to install, but I don't know if it will affect the solenoid operation (and may be why my cruise still doesn't act 100% correct). 2. My old unit was stuck in the closed position. No matter where I applied my 12V power, it never released vacuum. The little foam filter was crumbly, so perhaps this stuck position was due to it eating part of the foam. 3. Just the opposite, this new unit wouldn't hold a vacuum no matter where I applied 12V, though I heard the solenoids clicking. FSM page 8W-33-2 shows that pin number 4 is the ground wire (black). However, I was the vacuum pump, connected via a piece of tubing - perhaps I just don't have what it takes to be a working girl, if you will. 4. While I installing this new unit, I noticed my ground wire to the G100 connection is in very poor condition. The insulation on the wire is missing for about 3"! Alas, the sun was setting Sunday evening so it all went back together. Will address that problem next weekend at the latest (I hope). Factory service manual page 8W-90-20 shows where this ground connection is located, basically behind the windshield washer fluid. 5. Yes, the wiring is the same as a 2005, per 2005 FSM page 8W-33-4 (gas only - all diesels this model year use the ECM for speed control, like the manual transmission versions of 2nd Gen trucks). 6. I think my ACCEL/COAST/CANCEL button is bad, but have no idea how to test it. A trip to the junk yard this past weekend yielded zero trucks with my style of buttons to try out or compare electrical resistance. I hope this helps anyone in the future, even if it is rather incomplete.

Has anyone heard anything good, bad, or indifferent about these stereos from Jensen Heavy Duty? https://www.crutchfield.com/p_522JHD36A/Jensen-Heavy-Duty-JHD36A.html?cc=07 I drive around the midwest a lot, especially on Friday and Sunday evenings. Since I don't care about every little town's high school football or basketball team - and I don't speak Spanish - having lots of options for tuning is important to me, especially a CD player! Not sure how much I'll use the Weather Band, but I also ordered the XM Radio gizmo since I have a subscription that's good another 9 months or so. I ordered the scratch and dent model, so if you know something bad, please pipe up quickly so I can cancel the order!

Things are a little different on my 01.5, I believe. The red and black wires go to the speaker (passenger side is all I've checked so far) before continuing to...? The tweeter, I assume. Strike all of the above! I see now what was being communicated.

I have removed my cruise servo and before I throw $100 at a new one, I want to make sure this one is actually bad. Ohm meter reads 4.5 between ground pin and one of the others, 8.5 ohms to the other two. I can apply vacuum and apply power to check solenoid operation if needed, does anyone know if it takes a 5 volt signal, or does PCM send 12 volts? The idea of hooking volt meter leads to the truck-side plug and driving over 30 MPH to see if the PCM sends a signal just seems like a last resort. EDITS: I can confirm it takes more than 5V to operate the solenoids. Also, I believe mine is bad because when I applied vacuum and energized either coil, it behaved the same as when the "vent" solenoid was energized. I'll buy a new one and report back.

Well watching that video just dumbfounds me. It sure seems like once you hit over 14 pounds of boost, the MAP would read twice as high as when you were at idle, but it went from 28.3 to 37. ?!?!?!? I need to buy/make a boost bolt for my mechanical gauge so I can compare to the OBDLink's readout. If the Link thinks a change in voltage is linearly related to MAP, but it's really exponential or logarithmic, I could see that making some weird readings. But if the [PCM?] output is supposed to meet some OBDII protocol, it would be even more weird that it didn't meet that standard. Actually, I take that back. I have little faith that Dodge would have got all that right on the first generation of computer controls on a diesel engine! Thanks for sharing, @Mopar1973Man.

I bought the OBDLink, as stated above. Do second generation MAP sensors max out at 75 inches of Mercury? That's around 8 pounds of boost here in Missouri/Kansas. I know for the 'analog' gauge, you can set the limits of the sweep, but don't see any way of changing that for the Digital gauge. Driving through the Flint Hills, the gauge was maxed out long before the steep part of each hill, and when I rolled into the throttle the turbo would whine a little more, the truck would accelerate, but the gauge stayed at 75 inches of Mercury. I just want to make sure the previous owner didn't put in the wrong MAP sensor. As a side note, I maintained 65-67 MPH for the vast majority of the 450 mile round trip and averaged 18 MPG, running empty but with camper shell. Wind yesterday was negligible. Intake air temp was a fairly steady 86 degrees.

The blue and silver one sure is pretty, but with only 2 photos it makes a guy wonder why the price is only $6,200. I would certainly drive out of my way to check out that green truck. The short bed black one in listing #2 sure has some shiny wheels in the 3rd photo!

I'm an engineer; I can confirm that engineers can do great things and usually design things right. However, the bean counters at some point always start squeezing the budget. Doing the best you can within a too-small budget can lead to undesirable consequences. Of all my engineering friends, the only one I know who doesn't have to make less-than-optimal design choices works for Space-X. Like a house, you need to figure out what's "builder grade" and what's of lasting quality!

Not much of a picture, but yesterday I copied a grille insert idea I think I found on this site. Used a rubber stair tread from Home Depot cut to size. Hopefully will help get IAT over 100 degrees while actually driving in 40 degree weather. Update: Not sure if it helped the IAT, but the coolant temp came up faster. Without a transmission temp gauge, I can't bring myself to block off the bumper holes 'til we have lower temperatures on a regular basis. Was 11 degrees last week, and will be close to 60 later this week.

I drove home with it hooked up, love it! Forgot to set fueling to "direct", or whatever it is. 1. Is there an easy way to offset "boost"? As is, in my head I subtract 15 psi. 2. It's 33 degrees outside and my IAT finally got to the 90s after a run down the interstate followed by stop and go traffic; should my planned grille inserts help get that over 100 degrees and into better MPG? I recently installed a 200 degree Stant super-stat since I don't tow heavy. Takes a long drive to get it that high.

I received my OBDLink LX today and downloaded the app to my phone and laptop. I'll try this thing out on the way home from work; I can hardly wait to see what information is available for me to over analyze and fret over!

This is a really good thread for those of us with similar vehicular ailments, listing possible causes and diagnostic approaches. Was there ever a resolution to this particular problem?

I'm afraid my willingness to spend 4-figures on this type of tool is somewhat lacking considering it's not my vocation! Thank you, gentlemen, for the recommendations. I'll pick up the OBDlink LX. I hope my old 7" tablet has the correct operating system version so I can put it back to use for more than streaming Pandora to my boombox...

Is there a list of Live Data a guy should be able to read IF he has the correct reader? I have an Innova 3160d (circa 2013), and hooked it to my truck. I only had 6-7 pieces of data to view. Reading the 100 page manual and visiting their website didn't help. A code was set last night and I checked it this morning. There was more data on the "snapshot" screen from when the code was set than I get when I push the Live Data button on my scan tool. I'm willing to plunk down more money for a good gauge/tool/whatever, but first want to know what I'll actually be able to see. No, a genuine DRBIII is not in the budget. What can be viewed with a Scangauge II, etc.? I seem to remember Mopar1973Man writing that he's gone away from recommending Scangauge, but I don't remember what the new preference is. As a side note, should my TPS reading be at 11% when idling in the driveway, or is that an indicator I failed to calibrate the APPS after disconnecting the batteries at some point? Since my signature is too long to be allowed: 2001.5 Quad Cab Long Bed, 4WD, Auto, ~275,000 miles Almost "stock". 4" exhaust, ISSPRO fuel pressure gauge (5-12 PSIG), 200F Thermostat, 3rd 17" Gen wheels with stock-type tires. Lucky to get 16.5 MPG, and I drive conservatively.