flagmanruss

You are right as a subtile differance in driving speed or technique affects mpg. If I have time & play light foot, it is noticeably better than when I need to be somewhere. Any boost to mpg is appreciated... but not why I run 2 cycle oil. Ultra Low Fr*ggin Sulpher Diesel did not exist when my truck was built & it was not designed for it. Mr EPA will not buy me a new VP44 if the ULSD craps mine out. IMHO, and that's all it is, adding 2 cycle oil to ULSD makes the most sense to keep my engine alive. While not tested for off-lable use in diesels, 2 cycle is designed to burn clean in far more demanding application... the spark ignition engine where a fouled plug is a dead cylinder. Russ

My Tenant called last night with a partial blockage. Seens when they drain the bath tub, water backs out the washing machine drain in the basement. This is a one bath cottage, so the pipes are pretty short. ABS to cast iron through the wall to a recent tank 10' from the house. Since it's a distance from my home, the tenant (my niece & BF) are going to get the snake man in.Russ

Interesting concept. I've never understood fully going away from superbly reliable mechanical fuel pumps. I guess my question is where it's located so that it'll prime & hold a head. Russ

The handling a battery recieves can make a lot of differance. My brother went to pick up batteries from a distributor for a customer at our Marina. The fool dropped one off the hand truck. My bro really pissed them off when he made them leave the dropped battery on the counter & go get one that had not been dropped. (At least not in front of us.) Of course, dropping them off the dock into seawater kind off messes with them too!I agree distilled water only. I've had decent luck with Sears Diehards... very available & seem to last the warrentee pretty well. I replaced the OEM batteries in my 01 CTD last fall... so that was 7 years. They were pretty weak in the winter before, would start the truck easily if it had been plugged in but if when not. Not often below 32 degrees. I think they'd have been fine in a gasser. Russ

OK, I managed to get up under the hood (without falling, no longer to be taken for granted). I traced the tiny vacume lines from the pump to the check valve along the edge of the cowling, to the firewall, very high up. No sign of damage. No rodent damage (though plenty of acorns). What else runs on the vacume pump? The only thing I can think of is the engage/disengage on the front axle. I could not see the routing on that line. I seem to recall it going to the transmission first then to the axle. Crawling under will be another day.Russ

I bought a SS e-bay system... turbo back... the lesser grade of SS. The "muffler" is straight through with just some louvers cut in so no hassle with inspection. I am not sorry at all. Even though I do not intend to mod the truck, hopefully this will not rust out like the stock system. The truck was never quiet but is a bit louder under power. I picked up slightly on mpg. Russ

Just a couple of thoughts. Are you drawing intake air through the fender? If so maybe you could do a small modification to draw underhood air in cold weather. I don't know what your outside tempature range is but do you use a "Winter Front" to block some/all of the grill in cold weather. It makes a huge differance to warm up times. (About time to get mine out.) Here's the link to the Winter Front thread. http://forum.mopar1973man.com/showthread.php?t=29&highlight=cold+front Russ

I haven't been up to doing mechanic work lately & the Ciris has been getting the attention. Back to my heater / defrost problem. I think this is different that the other heater thread we have active, because I can control the amount of heat, just not where it goes. I gotta admit it is baffling why they used a vacume control for one & electric for the other!Russ

I believe that diesels use a vacume pump, not engine vacume to operate vacume accessories. Check me if I'm wrong...Old school gas engines create vacume beneath the throttle plate at less than WOT. At WOT the engine vacume goes to "zero". Engine speed is controled by the throttle plates which regulate the amount of flow of fuel air mix. Fuel air mix is created by airflow through a venturi. The low vacume at WOT is why the earlier text refers to a vacume check valve which holds some vacume for use when vacume is low & some vacume resevoir.A diesel on the other hand has no throttle plate, the intake is clear & the engine draws in the same amount of air on each stroke.. Engine speed is controled by fuel metering. My old gas engine kit from my mechanic days has a dual fuel pressure / vacume guage which would be tapped into the appropriate port for testing.Russ

This shop is very through & slightly aggressive about finding minor things to fix... which can get costly. I did not allow them to do the serpintine belt which has some cracking (I've never seen one that did not) or the timing belt. When that is done, the water pump will be replaced too. The "front" (right side) did not need to come off to do the work needed to get it back on the road. They stripped the top of the engine to get to the plugs, wires, distributor. The transmission oil looked contaminated after the previous transmission line failure so that was flushed & refilled. The rear brake lines were replaced. I'm not real happy with the feel of the brake pedal but am going to drive it & see if the auto adjusters take up some slack. As is it cost me $1700 on Ma Mastercard. I'm thinking of putting one old Chrysler under the tree.

8 AM call from the mechanic. Yesterday, he tried to start the car with no brakes... he couldn't get it to start. I know intermittant things are a SOB to find, so was not surprised when the mechanic said he needed to see it in failure mode. The Gods of Friday the 13th heard him & obliged! LOL.Crank & cam sensors check out. Distributor has failed. All coroded inside. So, the "Mystery of No Start" is solved. The body is good. Interior is good. only 91,000 original miles. I know lots of folks would total this car. The issues are accumulated maintance. I'm going to fix it. Estimate $1500 total. The next big item is timing belt, water pump, probably in a year... 100,000. This is an interferance engine.Russ

This is going to set me back a grand anyhow... OUCH!! I asked for the mechanic to check the fuel pressure while the car was in the shop. That is an alturnative for No Start issues & if I'm going to have confidence in it, I need to know the lift pump is not playing games with me. Supposed to be working on it today... almost 6 so I guess it's not done. Russ

The garage says the No Start & brake issues are not related, just coincidence. They say the rear brake lines have failed. The computer had no codes. They think the wet weather may have caused the no start issue. Replacing cap, rotor, plugs & wires is a PITA. I'm having the shop do it all & let Ma Mastercard worry about it later. I hope they are right, so I don't incurr additional expense... but I do not believe in coincidences. Russ

I had AAA tow the Cirus... it'll be in the shop til it's fixed. Russ

I feel for ya buddy. I have had some luck setting the water level as high as possible & manipulating the handle as described. I even thought of splicing on to extend the overflow tube higher to increase water capacity but in my case it was not necessary so I did not bother. Best of Luck,Russ

Happened on Friday the 13th, What do yas think?

Well, pump is exactly what I'm afraid of. I got it running this morning.... eventually it caught. Dumb thing is it seems to run ok, once it catches... but then it's not under any load. I'm not about to drive it anywhere with out a chase vehicle. I'm not a believer in co-incidences... when I moved it into a less bothersome parking, the brakes just kind of mooshed to the floor before stopping it. It was not like that when I drove it into the yard. The brake fluid is indeed down quite a bit... more than half!? WTF??Russ

I agree most likely a fuel issue. I'm going to decide where I want it to go before I call AAA. I just filled the fuel tank & drove home, maybe bad fuel or filter needs changing. In the last month I replaced a rusted out transmission line, so maybe a fuel line failed too. Possibly a failed lift pump. "Alright gentlemen, place your bets!" I can just see the mag wheel sitting in the middle of a roulet table.Russ

Cirus would not start. I do suspect some type of a fuel issue. Still turns over fine. At some point I'm going to have it towed. I can't risk getting stranded. I got my CTD or wife's Subaru as she's out of town. (I have a very hard time getting into Subaru with my legs.)

I'm going to start the Cirrus up... assuming it will... & let it run a bit. Start & stop it a few times... see if it recurrs before taking it out of the driveway.It has a full fuel tank as I filled it on my way home. I don't see how it could be water with all the alcohol they add these days. My fear is that it might be the intank fuel pump.Russ

Waiting to see how you make out with ScanGuageII.Russ

Sounds like SGII is broke... Let us know how customer service is.Russ

What kind? Besides the 01 Dodge, 97 Cirus, Subaru Outback in the stable.Russ

Will the on/off kep work on 97. I don't have a code reader.

I was tight for an appointment. I always start whatever vehicle & let it idle while I set up GPS & fasten seatbelts... The Cirus just shut off. Refused to restart although it turned over fine. I grabbed my stuff, GPS, fired the CTD up & away I go. I was ON IT to make up time, so I'm sure I screwed up mpg. I hit WOT a few times & the low restriction exhaust definately is louder. I made it on time. I "old lady" drove the CTD on the way back to earn back some mpgs... I tried restarting the Cirus. It seemed like it wanted to start but really wasn't firing at all. About the third try, I got one cylinder to kick in & ran the rest of them into operating. I don't get it...Russ