Tbird9140

My truck is a 2000. Another question for you guys out there in never never land. Do you feel a diesel - air separation system is worth the expense? I am running a VP44 to which I added a Raptor frame rail lift pump some time back to insure adequate fuel pressure to the injection pump. I asked if I could retrofit my Raptor with an Air Dog separation system. Bit so far have got no answer back. Presuming an air - diesel separation is warranted, is there any reason to choose Fass or Air Dog? Not looking to spend $600+ unless there is some real benefit to my system. Any thoughts?

All your comments were spot on. The problem area was in fact the positive terminal on the driver's side battery and/or the cable to the starter itself. I only found this out after paying $650 for a new starter installation that the repair shop insisted was the source of my problems. As they had agreed to work on my truck on a Sunday to get me back on the road, and the fact that I had no alternatives available to me, I was reluctant to get into a argument with them.. I did suggest a voltage drop test and trying to jump start the starter before doing anything else. It was obvious that they did not appreciate "my interference" and suggested that I stay at the hotel while they completed their work. What is a guy to do when I had already had my truck and attached car trailer towed to their shop? I was afraid that they would say something like " Hey we're doing you a favor by working on Sunday. If you don't appreciate our leaning over backward to help you out, then get your truck and auto trailer off our property!" I only found out about the misdiagnosed repair some 300 miles down the road when the same "no start, no juice anywhere" reoccurred. I was able to get the truck started again after an hour of banging on every electrical connection on the truck at 1 in the morning, at 25 degrees, in an all night truck stop. Needless to say, for the next 800 miles, I never turned the truck off - for diesel, for oil, for food, for bathroom breaks, to walk the dog, for nothing! When I got home I turned the truck off and it would not start. Lucky me. I later tested the old starter (I had decided to pay the core fee) and found it to be OK. One thing I did learn about my truck on the way home. Because I could not turn the truck off to check the oil level, and because I knew I had a significant oil leak around the tappet cover, I kept a close watch on the oil pressure gauge. I made sure that the needle never got out of the "safe zone" even when the truck was idling. What I found out during the first 300 miles was that if I filled up oil up to the full mark, it would leak from the tappet cover very rapidly until the level was at the add mark. After that it would leak much more slowly from the tappet gasket. Even at the add mark the oil pressure gauge read clearly in the "safe zone" By watching the pressure gauge, I thereafter waited until the needle approached the lower line of the safe zone and then and only then added a gallon of oil. The needle immediately rose to above the mid point of the oil pressure gauge. I followed this procedure all the 1000 miles back home and ended up using about half the oil I leaked out on the way to Las Vegas. Maybe you more diesel-mechanically inclined can give me an explanation for this uneven leaking from my truck's tappet cover but it is not apparent to me. I assure you that this was real for my truck and I am glad I discovered this, for not only did it save me extra oil expense, but when I could not turn off the truck and read the oil gauge accurately, it allowed me to know when to add oil safely. To the best of my knowledge, I did in no way damage the engine as it ran fine all they way home, and even now back at the "corral." it runs good and no check engine lights, ever. Before you guys beat me up, yes I know that I should have corrected the leaking tappet cover gasket before I started out. I offer a couple of explanations in my defense. First, I was planning to correct the problem. I had ordered a new billet tappet cover thru Amazon but either the USPS, or UPS, or Amazon had lost it in transit. After waiting two weeks for delivery, Amazon finally cancelled the order and refunded my money. Second, my emergency trip to Las Vegas came up with about 12 hours notice. The guy storing two of my classic cars told me that he was going to put them out on the street and let the cops deal with them, if I did not get them by the upcoming weekend. (Long story here, not my fault.) Lastly, the tapper cover gasket was only seeping when I started out and it got worse by the mile. Responding to some of your earlier comments, I did ask three repair shops along the way to get the tappet gasket issue fixed. The first shop, Albuquerque, wanted $500 labor to do the job; the second shop, Las Vegas, wanted $600 labor to do the job, and the third shop, Kingman, AZ, wanted $450 labor to do the job, but I would have to wait 24 hrs as the gasket had to be ordered for next day delivery. You can buy a lot of leaking oil for $450-600!!! On more than one occasion I did buy Walmart out of its cheapest 15-40 oil. In the final analysis I used 22 gallons of oil for my trip (14 gallons out, and 8 gallons back) for a total of approximately $230. I only spent about $500 for diesel on my trip! And guess what, I now have the addled benefit of a completely rust proof truck under-body, car trailer and 1993 Allante, I was towing back from Las Vegas. Well til next time, thanks for all your help. Larry

I even thought the same thing, so I put a new clamp on the ground terminal of the driver's side battery (+ side looked good with no movement). Did not change the truck symptoms at all. How do I do a voltage drop test accurately to diagnose the source of my problem? Step by step please so I can make sure shop does it right and what would various readings specifically tell me about the source of my problem(s)? Back to leaking tappet cover. Could oil soaked wires to starter or starter result in my symptoms?? Thanks for your thoughts guys. With the leaking tappet gasket, earlier bad diesel fuel and now this, it really as been a trip through hell. I just had another thought that I would like to run by you. As my ECM is mounted to the side of the tappet cover, could an oil soaked ECM in any way cause my problems? Heaven forbid as this is around a $1000 bill! The leaks on the tappet cover appear along the bottom of the gasket, and while the ECM is a bit oily, most of it is above the bad leaks. Is the ECM not normally sealed against water, debris, diesel and oil?

Help!!!! Traveling cross country with truck and car on trailer. Trying to limp home 1500 miles with a badly leaking tappet cover (1 gallon oil leaks out per 200 miles!) Pulled in to get fuel. Went to start truck, heard click then nothing! All lights, dash lights, windows, cabin lights, etc. DEAD! Checked batteries, terminal connections, grounds, fuses, etc. all seemed good. Removed terminals from batteries and reinstalled them. Heard door open alarm so turned key to run. and had dash lights, windows etc. Tried to start, heard click again then nothing. Lost all dash and interior lights, windows, etc. again. Waited a few minutes and dash, interior lights reappeared. Put booster packs on both batteries and tried to start again. Same result, click then nothing. This time however thought I saw small puff of smoke coming from positive terminal of the battery near fuse box. Got under neath truck with key in run position to see if I was getting power to starter solenoid. Could not detect any 12 v at starter. Area under truck quite wet from leaking tappet cover. Could this in some way cause my problem? Towed truck to local diesel repair shop. This being the weekend they can't get to it until Monday. They didn't know what is the problem. They want to pull starter on Monday and replace it. As I noticed that several wires underneath were wet with oil and missing some insulation (?) I want to suggest replacing these wires first and second run a jumper wire from the positive battery terminal directly to the positive terminal on the starter, this way to check if starter is indeed bad before they pull it. Has anybody out there experienced these same problems or have any ideas on what might be my problem. Would you perform the first two procedures I want to have the shop do before pulling the starter? I really need some help. I really, really need some help/ideas!!!

To Mopar1973man. I just spent some time reviewing your article on removing the tappet cover, Really fine article and I intend to use it step by step to remove my leaking tappet cover. If I read correctly you took off the old cover, newly gasket-ed it and replaced it. If I saw correctly, the tappet cover did not have a vent. You had the opportunity to replace the old cover with a vented cover but chose not to do so. As I don't plan to remove my timing cover breather, how do I decide to replace my old cover with a vented or non vented cover (i.e. add a second vent)? Is there any advantage to a second vent on a basically stock engine? Thanks again. To Haggar. Thanks for the clarification. I am curious though, why didn't you simply route the discharge from the timing cover breather back to the location you now have with the tappet cover breather, or perform the Mopar1973man PVC routing mod. Seems like one of these would be easier to do and would address your oily front of engine problem. Thanks you two for having patience with this cummins-challanged newbie. One additional issue which I haven't mentioned before: My truck has about 325K. It runs good but I feel like it doesn't have the power it had when I got the truck at about 225K . As I don't know the history of the truck before I got it, I am thinking that maybe I have worn out original injectors. I am therefore thinking of replacing the existing injectors with +75-90 HP new injectors. Hopefully this will give me a little more power when pulling my heavy 5th wheel up long grades. (Don't do this but maybe once a year) I don't plan to change my turbo or trans as they seem OK. Does this sound like a reasonable plan? Or do any of you have thoughts on what I should do first?

Thanks Moparman, Dieselfuture, and Haggar for your quick replies. I am a bit confused however or maybe I didn't give sufficient information or ask the question right. Let me try again. I do not have a puke bottle on my timing cover breather. The hose is routed down and back to behind the transmission. I am not getting oil on my radiator or anywhere up front. I do however intend to do the Mopar1973Man vent mod when I have the truck apart. To date the basically stock truck has run 325K miles with no breather on the tappet cover. When I replace the leaking tappet cover should I buy a new one with or without a breather? If with a breather, why? Any advantage to now having two breathers on the stock truck? Thanks again for your time. Hagger you said you replaced the old tappet cover with a vented cover but you didn't say why vented, If your truck already had a timing cover breather and the original tappet cover had no vent, why now add another breather and go to through the hassle of routing its discharge? Did you feel that a second vent/breather was some advantage to your motor's operation or performance? Also please tell me where and how you collected/sent discharge from the second (tappet cover) breather. To Mopar1973man. I just spent some time reviewing your article on removing the tappet cover, Really fine article and I intend to use it step by step to remove my leaking tappet cover. If I read correctly you took off the old cover, newly gasket-ed it and replaced it. If I saw correctly, the tappet cover did not have a vent. You had the opportunity to replace the old cover with a vented cover but chose not to do so. Haggar on the other hand, if I read correctly, chose to replace his non vented cover with a vented cover. As I don't plan to remove my timing cover breather, how do I decide to replace my old cover with a vented or non vented cover (i.e. add a second vent)? Is there any advantage to a second vent on a basically stock engine? Thanks again.

OK guys lots of help, ideas. Let keep it simple for the next question. As my 5.9 VP44 does not have a breather on the stock tappet cover, only the breather in front of the timing cover, plumbed down and back along the frame, IS THERE ANY REASON/ADVANTAGE FOR ME TO BUY A TAPPET COVER WITH A VENT WHEN I REPLACE THE LEAKING STOCK COVER?

I was advised in this forum not to reuse the collected oil from the breather/crankcase ventilation in the engine. However after posting my last note, I came across a Cummin's Crankcase Ventilation Kit (#CV50115) made by Fleetwood which provides the hardware and instructions on how to route collected oil from the 5.9 timing cover breather back to what looks like the oil pan. Is this a bad idea? If so, why is Cummins selling it? Has anyone performed this mod?

At present I do not have anything else wrong requiring repair in the vicinity of the tappet cover. As the truck is leaking about a quart of oil every 200 miles and I plan a 2500 mile trip to the West Coast, as soon as I get my vaccinations, I really must get it fixed. About 50K miles ago (2 years) I replaced the dead VP44. At that time I rebuilt both the oil seeping vacuum and power steering pumps. Once I get this tappet cover issue fixed, I hope that I don't have to tear apart that side of the 5.9 for another 200K miles. That is probably 5 years for me. Is there no one here who has installed these billet covers? When I go on Ebay, I see ads (there are several manufacturers) where reportedly over 700 have been sold for the one brand which I intend to purchase. In other cases, different vendors, more than 200 have been sold. When I call the vendor/manufacturers (3 times), I am told the grinding mod is easy, but no one can direct me to a video which shows the process. I know- vendors. With reportedly over 1000 sold, heck they have become so popular that in the last year the Chinese have started making billet knock-offs, there ought to be someone out there who can walk me through the process or at least share their experiences.

Grinding is supposed to be on VP44 bracket and anchor bolt head, not pump itself, to allow clearance of new billet cover. O ring seal in billet cover is supposed to be a vast improvement over stock gasket which gets hard , cracks and leaks. Better than RTV also, I hear. Certainly not as messy. Not doing for bling. Would like a leak prof solution to what I hear is a common problem with 5.9's. As it is so much work removing things to get to tappet cover, don't want to ever have to do this again. Has anyone here actually done the VP44 bracket mod to install the billet cover?

Greetings. New to Forum. New to Cummin's Mods. Would appreciate any help/advice I can get. Patient: Mostly stock 2000, 3500, 4wd, Auto, Raptor f.p, VP44 i.p. Stock breather on timing cover, no breather on tappet cover. 325K but seams to run good, no appreciable smoke. Used 99% highway driving with lots of 5th wheel and trailer hauling. Illness: Massive oil leak from bottom of factory tappet cover. Engine and sub frame coated with so much oil from leaking tappet cover, it is hard to tell if hose from stock breather is dripping much oil or if anything else is leaking. Proposed Treatment: Replacement of tappet cover with billet tappet cover which has two breather ports and O ring seal. Plan to install Mopar1973 routing modification of front breather and then "T" in hoses from tappet cover breather ports. Also considering putting a catch can on high point of new breather routing and find place to send collected oil back to oil pan or crankcase or valve cover, etc. Questions: Does proposed treatment make sense? Any obvious problems? Should I try to return collected oil to engine? If so, where would be best and relatively easy to accomplish? Has anyone done grinding on VP44 bracket and bolt head to accommodate new billet cover? (Can't seem to find video on this modification) How big a job and how to accomplish? (Yes I know you can buy new billet covers machined to accommodate VP44 but they are uniformly about twice the price of ones requiring some grinding) Should control module be moved off new tappet cover to firewall? Should working cam sensor be replaced? (Risking installing new sensor which might be lower quality-foreign made, which doesn't last long.) Any real reason to remove old fuel pump, not bracket, as now using Raptor? Consultants Appreciated: For any of you who have faced similar problems, and worked out different treatments, your experience, recommendations, or cautions would be appreciated.