diesel4life

The problem with using the 3500 GVWR numbers is there is no SRW option for 3500s. Depending on MY and gearing/trans options, the GVWR of an 01 3500 DRW is 11000 lbs with a RAWR of 7500lbs. This would put virtually every SRW truck over their tire/wheel ratings unless they had 19.5s or some 18" wheels, depending on tire/wheel configuration.

VERY few...whoever you decide to go with whenever the time comes, I would suggest calling them up and requesting to speak with someone in the know and ask are their fpcm's really NEW or are they REMAN. Hopefully they will be honest in their answer. I would also ask about their failure rate on warrantied pumps...you can bet the house they know the numbers, whether or not they choose to share that information would tell me how confident they are with the pumps they are selling.

The city of Ashtsbula (the closest city to me, 30 miles from here,) has had some roofs collapsing on warehouses lately. Too much snow load.

Hey stranger!!

This info is from BC website and is dated so there have been some changes in the rebuild process since this was posted but the FPCM info is still valid (at least as of 2-3 years ago when I bought my pump. "Over the last two years we have developed the most cost effective way to deal with the problem fuel systems on trucks with the VP44 injection pump. We have made for us a superior VP44 injection pump that admittedly costs more up front but works much better and lasts much longer. This is the result of a lot of research and keeping our ear to the ground in this industry to stay on top of our game and offer the best upgraded pump available. All of our rebuilt pumps come with a NEW upgraded housing and a NEW upgraded computer as these components have been the cause of the most problems. The housings on the VP44 wear out due to low fuel pressure from bad lift pumps causing the diaphragm in the front of the pump to rupture. This causes the steel timing piston to vibrate in the aluminum bore of the housing and the result in a short time is the housing wears to the point that fuel bypasses the piston and full advance cannot be accomplished which causes the code 216. This makes perfect sense to me as it explains why as 24 valve trucks get older the fuel mileage goes down steadily, and when we replace the injection pump with one that has a new case we get the mileage back! In a typical competitor's rebuild, if the case isn't worn out completely and the timing can be reached on the test stand then it passes the test and a partly worn out case gets to the customer, just to fail sooner. It should also be pointed out that the replacement housings we use, have a brass/bronze insert for the timing piston, which the original housings did not have. The code 216 only tells you that the housing is worn out, but does NOT cause any drivabilty issues, other than lost power and fuel mileage. As these symptoms come on slowly the driver isn't aware of the change until they drive one of our replacement units and get back the power and mileage. The other component that causes morel of the drivability issues is the computer on the top of the injection pump. The computer gets intermittent and eventually dies because of too many heat cycles. When you shut the truck off the latent heat in the engine heats up the computer and after many heat cycles the solder that holds the electrical components to the circuit board becomes crystalline and no longer makes a good electrical connection causing intermittent drivability issues, such as "dead pedal" which dissapears if you shut off the truck and restart it, intermittent hard cold start, intermittent hard hot start and white smoke occasionally.These drivability issues usually get so bad that the customer finally takes the truck in for diagnosis, only to find none of these issues create a diagnostic code or a so called DTC. This makes it hard for the inexperienced mechanic to advise the customer honestly or accurately. Federal Express experienced so many computer failures that they convinced Bosch to make them a special computer to deal with this issue, because the so called improved computer that most rebuilders use, doesn't work or last much better than the old ones. Well as you might have guessed by now, ALL of our pumps come with a new Fedex style computer. This computer is the one used on Fedex's Freightliner chassis used in so many of their delivery trucks. One of the problems we had to overcome to be able to use this computer was the difference in the software in the Freightliner computer. The maximum RPM is limited to 2500, which won't do in a Dodge application, and the rest of the software makes the Dodge run badly. WE figured out how to get Dodge software into the Fedex computer and it works great. It is exactly the same software Dodge uses so it works fine with all aftermarket devices. Our competitors don't often replace the computer as it is expensive and if it works on the test stand then it must be okay! It isn't tested in prolonged heat and or cool in the typical rebuild process so it may act differently when in the field in your truck."

Fed Ex had so many problems with the early VPs they threatened to drop their contracts with FL. After some negotiation, Bosch developed a better FPCM (read more expensive) for the VP. I don't know for sure why Dodge didn't end up with the better FPCMs but I'm guessing price was a big factor. The FL chassis with the VP experienced far fewer failures with the upgraded FPCM. These are the same units Blue Chip uses on their pumps, hence one of the reasons the higher cost (NEW upgraded vs REMAN like 95% + of builders use on their pumps.)

Ya, don't know where my mind was when I typed that.

The biggest failure on reman pumps is in the electronics. Most manufacturers are putting used or reman fpcm and calling it "new". This is misleading marketing hype. There's very few builders that truly put a new fpcm on their pumps, and are more expensive and as a result not very popular. To me the proof is in warranty claims. A good competent builder should have no problem disclosing their number of returned pumps under warranty, again very few do this (only one that I know of)

I don't disagree that the P pumps are more reliable, but I don't think its worth the money and time to convert a 24 valve over for a daily driver. There's just too much involved to make it happen and be reliable and efficient. Besides, there have been enough upgraded parts in the VP over the original pumps that make them much more reliable and resistant to ULSD. Better bushings that won't burr, better solder connections. The early years of the VP were rather dismal but newer updated pumps are an improvement. My former 2000 had the injection pump replaced by the PO at a tick over 75,000 miles. It was still on the truck when I sold it at 340k+, and 3 years later I still see it on the road once in a while. Neither the P.O. nor I ever used any additives either. Oops, typo on mileage

Every ISB I've ever seen in a piece of equipment up until the mid 2000s had a P7100 pump and 12 valve head. And they all have mechanical lift pumps mounted on the engine block. I've seen them in about a half dozen mid sized excavators, large manlifts (130ft+), and 4 or 5 small hydraulic telescoping boom cranes (usually 35 ton and under). Ive never seen a 24 valve head on anything that wasn't CR injection.

Welcome Jay!

What did you find in your fuel canister Mike? I changed my canister filter out at roughly the same mileage, it was darkish in color but I'm not sure that's out of the norm.

Doesn't FASS carry a lifetime warranty with their pumps? 17k hours is actually quite a bit of run time. Some of the cranes I run are upwards of 10+ years old and aren't at 17k hours yet. The one downer on the Fuelabs is the filtration that comes with it. Only one w/s and no final filtration. This is not such a big deal for the 3rd gen and up trucks because they can put a good filter in the OEM canister but the best I can do that I've found is 10um absolute. Who knows, it may be OK for our injectors but I've always been on the anal side of things so if I went with a fuelab I'd have to buy another filter head that accepted a good spin on filter like the Donaldson I run on my AD. To put 17k hours of run time into perspective. Let's say you average 20 hours a week on your truck. (Some will be higher than this and others will be lower, but seems like a good average if you think about it). That's 80 hours a month, 960 hours a year. That's 17 years of run time. Now like I said some will put more hours than this on their trucks myself included some weeks, but there are weeks where I might only run it one day a week so the average for me is probably pretty realistic.

We've still got over 24" on the ground here. Had a lot more but had two days of mid 30s and RAIN of all things. Makes for quite the mess when it rains on top of 30" of snow. We got another 4-6" overnight, then the skies cleared up and temps dropped from low 20s to -13 with 35mph winds. Had some yayhoo knocking on my door at 5am asking for some help getting his truck out of the ditch. I'm not real personable when I first get up, especially when a stranger is banging on my door. I'm always suspicious of such things as this, its how people get robbed all the time so when I opened the door I MADE SURE the first thing he saw was my .45. I would hate to ever be in the situation to use it, but when it comes to him or my family, guess whose gonna have a bad day. Turned out he was a fairly helpless youngish kid and was nearly frozen. He walked almost a mile to my house with nothing but a heavy sweatshirt (what is it with kids not wearing coats?) said he didn't bother stopping at the other houses because they didn't have a truck. So because I left mine out overnightI won the lottery. Lucky me! Truck wasn't plugged in (wasn't planning on going anywhere) but she lit right off even at -13 and NO ANTIGEL (Just throwing that out there from another thread!) Didn't think to take a picture of his truck but thought the sky was pretty neat coming home with the sun just coming up. Clear and cold.

Time for a carb rebuild kit Russ? Sometimes the boots get hard and brittle and suck air in places that mess with the mixture and makes it a real PITA to tune. Went through this on my oldest boys Honda last fall. Nothing a rebuild kit, a pipe and a couple of bumps up in jets couldn't solve.

Well the issues I was having totally went by the way side. Been running like a champ, even at 5 o'clock this morning when I lit the ol girl off at -13 wihout being plugged in to go pull some yayhoo in a Ford out of the ditch just up the road from me. Pump is back to running EVERYTIME I hit the key (was having to tap on the motor to get it going about 50% of the time) and pressure is steady again (was having issues with fuel pressure creeping up to about 25psi). Just plain weird.

Does this drop coincide with the new tighter trans you just installed?

I think ive mentioned it here before, I spent a good part of my life in Wyoming and spent much of the winters snowmobiling so I'm quite familiar with 2 cycle engines and their "hardiness" in cold weather. My parents have had a cabin in the Snowies as long as I can remember, where they are are over 9500 feet in elevation and where we would ride would be well over 10k feet bjt we could end up as low as 7k feet. Learned lots about tuning carbs at various altitudes and proper mixing, if you didn't and got it wrong you were in big trouble! Like I mentioned above, I don't believe there are long term effects of running 2 cycle oil in diesel fuel. The point I was trying to make was there is an EXTREME phobia on this site of running an antigel treatment, and its based off of some big misconceptions. There are some good quality additives on the market that do as good a job or better at increasing the lubricity of fuel as 2 cycle oil AND will drastically lower the pour point of diesel fuel. It is a strong belief here that any antigel needs a dose of 2 cycle oil dumped to add lubricity, and that is simply not the case. This was my whole point when things got "blown off course", why waste your money double dosing when you can simply use a good additive that does both? I don't understand the logic being used by so many here.... 2 cycle oil will not lower the pour point of diesel, no way no how. For that to happen you would have to mix such a strong ratio it would be detrimental to the engines fuel system not to mention probably smoke like a freight train. I agree with your statement that most people that are plugging up are getting bad fuel. This is another advantage of running a quality additive over 2 cycle oil. They have additives that disperse any water that may be present in diesel fuel in order to prevent fuel icing and other problems associated with water. Last year we saw many days and nights -15 to -20 below zero and our equipment started every morning without any treatment at all. We get our fuel from a reliable supplier with a good reputation with the local farmers. I use Schaeffers 2000 year around which is their "summer blend" and never have issues either, but if its forecasted to get as cold as I mentioned I have a bottle of winter blend I will use as a precaution.

The whole focus of this topic has gone way off course. I don't believe there are any long term negatives to running the stuff, I was simply offering a better and cheaper solution to adding 2 cycle oil and anti gel together when you countered with the misconception that no antigels are capable of providing acceptable lubrication and that's where things got sidetracked. Personally, Im more than comfortable running something that's been tested extensively by Bosch and Cummins standards, and like to keep things simple (and cheap when possible). So for me the logical choice is to use something that's capable of providing both.

I understand what you said, and I was simply relaying to others who may have this misconception that a true additive costs more is not the case. Just because others have ran it doesn't validate one way or the other the benefits or draw backs. Mikes on what, his third set of injectors? Again, not a good baseline to go by. There really aren't that many people that run 2 stroke oil other than the members on this site. Ask any John Doe diesel owner you meet on the street about using 2 cycle oil in diesel fuel and be ready for a "wtf" look.

And to the comment of 2 stroke doesn't hurt anything, it is designed to be mixed into gasoline and ran through carburated engines at very low to no fuel pressure. Quite a different scenario than being mixed into diesel fuel and pushed through injector nozzles at thousands of psi, so while it SEEMS likely it doesn't hurt anything, I've yet to see any long term studies that support that statement.

Schaeffers 2000 costs almost the exact same to treat a gallons of diesel as 2 stroke oil.

All the additives I mentioned above improved the HFRR score better than 2 stroke oil. Were talking about comparing formulas that have been designed and tested for a specific use compared to using an oil for something other than what it was designed for. There have never been any studies other than for lubricity to determine any long term effects good or bad of 2 stroke oil. While I concede there are likely no negatives, it hard for me to understand how people have no issue taking something that was never designed or tested for diesel fuel and dumping it in their tank and yet have misconceptions about using something that has been extensively tested and approved by OEMs.

That's where any of the above additives come into play. The phobia of fuel treatMent on this site baffles me.

That's because you and I are not chemists. Any reputable fuel treatment will have met the performance criteria of the OEMs (Mack, Cummins, etc). Thousands of hours are spent on developing and testing these formulas to ensure they do what is required with no ill side effects.