diesel4life

Have you ever checked Quad 4x4 out? I honestly have no idea if they would have everything you've needed up to this point, but they do have a pretty solid collection of Dana/Spicer stuff. I was going to mention it your last go round, but it seemed like you found everything you needed at the time. http://quad4x4.com/#Dodge

All Dodge Ram pick ups up to 2002 recquire PS fluid. Some choose to run ATF and say there is no difference, but ATF has friction modifiers that can cause leaky seals in certain pumps. I believe the pumps in our trucks may be susceptible to this because Chrysler released a TSB years ago with a list of vehicles that was acceptable to change over from PSF to ATF and our trucks were NOT on that list. It may be ok, but PSF is so cheap and you use so little of it why not just use the specified fluid.

Now I gotcha. This is the part I was missing, makes sense now. The thing you guys gotta remember about PS is it is still a mild improvement in HFRR over straight #2. (61 micron improvement). Not optimal, but not the end all of the world by any means. A mild bump in cetane in COLD weather never hurts either. ALL winterized fuel has cetane improvers to aid in cold weather starting and combustion. Not gonna get away from that no matter where you buy your fuel from. If your filling with a bio blend, 2 stroke is a waste of money as it is. Even B2 has 2.5 times the lubricity of 2 stroke. Being 2 stroke does nothing to keep your fuel above its cloud point or for the dispersion of water, there are better options out there as a fuel treatment (with better HFRR improvement too.) I know, I know, that's hardly popular or accepted on this forum! Sorry!

Rancherman, Im guessing they must blend #1 and #2 at your local stations? That really is the only blending that takes place "at the pump" so to speak. True winterized #2 has the additives blended at the terminal before they are ever picked up by the tanker trucks. Failure to do this would not only cause a slew of problems before the fuel ever hit the customer (untreated #2 has a cloud point of around 20*F), there would also be a huge inconsistency in the amount added by the truck driver/ station owner. Its a little more complicated than just a "dump and pray" method at each delivery.

Then that bottle wouldn't even treat a partial tank unless this is a very small gas station. That and it would be VERY cost prohibitive to treat fuel in that method. Makes me wonder if he wasn't using the PS jug to store some type of biocide or fuel stabilizer (more likely if it is a low volume station).

Are you positive it was an anti gel product and not some kind of a biocide? Fuel station owners should not be playing chemist with cold weather additives. This should be done by the supplier at the rack. Per ASTM: "In the United States there is no legislation on a fixed time frame when winter diesel must meet a specific temperature characteristic. The ASTM D 975 standard does not specify the cold flow requirements of diesel fuel. Instead, it suggests that the cloud point be no more than 6°C higher than the 10th percentile minimum ambient temperature for the month the fuel will be used. The 10th percentile temperature corresponds to the minimum temperature that would be reached no more than 3 days out of 30 for the month (decile). The ASTM D 975 contains overview maps that show the expected tenth percentile temperature for every month for each state.[34] Using these guidelines gas stations offer "winter ready diesel" for sale to the Motorist - there are two ways to achieve this: winter blend - the gas station has blended the No.2 diesel with No.1(kerosene) by some percentage. winterized diesel - the No.2 diesel has been treated with additives by the diesel supplier. As the treatment with additives (1:40000[35]) is a cheaper way to enhance No.2 fuel in winter, most stations offer winterized diesel in cold weather conditions. In regions with colder weather, most gas stations offer No.1 fuel at the same pump allowing drivers to decide for themselves on a winter blend."

It certainly doesn't hurt to run synthetic PS fluid. If your going to flush this system youll need at least 2 quarts. I bought a gallon jug and had about a quart and half left over.

If its a bad universal you should be able to get in there with a pry bar and find the culprit. Also keep in mind the univerals in the front axle are always turning, so while it is possible its only detectable in 4wheel drive its not likely.

That's good to hear. That's my main concern with upgrading turbos, I've rode in enough trucks with what I consider unacceptable lag and its kept me with my stocker to this point,but not for long. I'd really like to do compounds, like a 472 under my HX or an HE351, but I really don't want to have to relocate my trans heat ecxhanger and bypass systems. What kind of weight do you tow? How are egt's with a load on grades?

I believe that is the maximum allowed by any state? Its interesting that they (Minnesota) jump back and forth between B5 minimum in the winter and B10 minimum in the summer. Seems like they're walking a fine line.

Many states are not even required to disclose to the public if they are selling biodiesel. Same goes with ethanol blended gas. If your fuel is cloudy at that temp you might want to think about finding a different station. B5 has the same pour point as properly winterized #2, so there should be no issues running it in cold temps. Minnesota laws require a minimum of either B2 or B5 and they run it year around, and they are one of the coldest states in the lower 48.

There's no chance this was an old military vehicle is it? Not trying to discourage you in any way, but that was my first thought when I read "white stars" Lots of military gear heads that loved to tinker and build in their spare time... It sure would be neat if you could go back to the junkyard guy you got your truck from and dig into his memory some more! There was a show on last year called Americarna, and Ray Evernham hosted the show. He scored on some neat old rides, talked to some old time hot rodders who were heavily involved in bootlegging and building fast cars with hidden compartments. One of the neater shows I saw was when he found Smokey Yunicks old car hauler he used in his NASCAR days. It was a neat old truck and Smokey had the ol' girl cranked up, true to his style.

According to their website their 15w40 Fleet Supreme EC contains 0.121% Zn. This is pretty much the norm with all CJ4 spec'd oils. Not a whole lot of info on their site but pretty good levels of TBN. Zinc was widely used for 2 reasons, it was very good at what it did and was also very cost effective. Lube engineers have been forced to find other additives less intrusive to DPFs,and judging on the fact that virtually all pre emission engines are running the CJ4 spec and you don't hear of any oil related failures in the hundreds of millions of miles collectively run every year, I think its safe to say they have found a pretty good formula. Albeit it is more expensive, but definitely not the end of the world as some make it out to be.http://www.shoppsc.com/pdf/COP%20Fleet%20Supreme%20EC%20PDS.pdf The people that are uncomfortable with CJ4 oils are really going to be freaked out over the proposed PC11 spec coming up.

Stainless panels?

I have been chasing a similar issue with my Raptor/Air Dog conversion. Almost the same exact symptoms as you describe, but when mine doesn't run its dead silent. I've pretty much narrowed it down to either brushes in the motor or the motor itself going bad, because I'll give it a good tap on the end of the motor and away it goes. Next time it acts up, be ready to give the motor a lite tap or two with a small hammer or breaker bar or something similar and see if it takes off. You will have to do it in the time frame the lift pump should still be seeing voltage, IE within 15-20 seconds of bumping the starter. I realize your on your spare pump and are dealing with the same problem, but its worth a shot especially if your "spare" has had some use on it. These motors are not good quality motors at all. I'm really torn what to do with mine, either put a new motor on it or shell out $600+ on something totally different and be done with it. I keep hearing Air Dog supposedly cleaned their acts up on their low quality parts but at this point I don't have much faith.

I've got some better shots somewhere I'll have to try and dig up but here's a few.

Dang! It really sucks when your fully committed to a project with parts scattered everywhere, only to realize you don't have everything you need to put her back together!

Are you positive the small vacuum lines in the engine compartment along the firewall are all connected? Small hard plastic vac line comes up from vac pump to firewall on driverside of engine and tees into a manifold of sorts, one line goes down back side of engine and along top of trans to supply vac for CAD system on 4wheel drive and the other lines go through the firewall and are what supplies the selector vents with vacuum

Yep, PS makes some good products that will get you back on the road in a situation like this. It seems as though they aren't very popular here because of their minimal HFRR improvement, but when ya gotta get it back on the road the 911 stuff absolutely works. I'm going to be the devils advocate and say this is exactly why I choose to run a fuel conditioner instead of 2 stroke oil. Aside from the benefit of fuel system and upper cylinder lubrication, a good conditioner has the necessary detergents to prevent the insolubles and varnish from low quality fuels from "clotting" up and plugging filters and injectors and disperses water to prevent fuel icing. It's not always just one bad tank of fuel that plugs filters. ULSD is hygroscopic and there is very small amounts of water in ALL diesel, especially in storage tanks or vehicles that don't see a high turn over rate of fuel. 2 stroke oil does nothing for any of these scenarios

LOL, you really had me scratching my head for a minute. Then I started looking at your pictures closer and realized you are dealing with a 00-02 front axle. On the 98-99 axles, the ball joints are pressed into the steering knuckle not the axle like on your truck. I have no idea why Dodge chose to steer away from this design when they changed up to the slip on rotors but they are not as durable. On the 98-99 axles, both upper and lower ball joints are load bearing. On 00-02 axles, only the lower ball joint is load bearing. The upper more or less retains the alignment of the knuckle but does not carry any of the weight of the front end.

I did the same thing with my truck but I sprayed Monstaliner instead. It is the best bed liner material on the market that's available to the public that Im aware of. Like Line-X, it is a true epoxy material and the texture is acquired either through spraying with a shutz gun or using the special rollers available through them. Every other DIY bed liner I have seen has some kind of crap you add to the paint for the textured look like ground up rubber or something similar. While using the rollers makes for good results, spraying with the shutz gun yields a flatter more consistent texture and looks very similar to Line-X if done properly. I did the bottom 4-5" of my truck and the bed rails 2 years ago and it has held up excellent. I do have a couple of scratches on the top of the bed rail where a 6" I beam got drug across it (friend got a little lazy and decided it was easier to set his end down) but they did not go all the way through and are not noticeable unless you are standing right on top of it. I'm so happy with it I am planning on spraying my fender flares and my truck cap this summer to match. I have a few pictures on my phone, I will get them posted up here in a bit if you are interested.

When I did mine I took a grinder with a 6" deli wheel and cut the ball joints off below the knuckles (through the boot). Once both were cut and the spindle off, a couple of hearty swings with a 3 lb hammer popped the studs right out. Then I was able to take the whole assembly and press the old ones out and the new joints in on a hydraulic press. Much easier than trying to deal with a ball joint press IMO. So far I've got about 20-25k miles on my MOOG ball joints and they seem to be holding up well. I run a 34" tire which isn't helping them out any. Are your joints the "problem solvers"? They are the upper end stuff that MOOG carries.

Wow! I have been looking pretty hard at the same turbo! Did you end up going with a 12cm or 14cm housing? Edit: Just re read your post and answered my own question. What was your reasoning for choosing the 12?

Bump!!! How are these doing for you? Would you recommend them as an upgrade? Any noticeable difference in handling or ride quality? I came across a set of take offs from a 14 Long Horn. If I can get the guy to come down a little, I may end up with a set. Where did you buy your spacers from? Depending on how this all goes, I may have a set of 17" take offs from a 12 Laramie and low mileage Nitto Tera Grappler 285/75/17s for sale.

Thank you sir! Im ready to order, but not in a big hurry. Haven't been driving the truck much unless I need the 4wheel drive. The wife just took a work from home job, so I inherited a 45+ mpg TDI to commute back and forth in.