A long winded introduction

[Ed's5.9]

Hello to all from Miami FL.,

 

My name is Edwin Hernandez, I just registered here because it seems like I always end my research at Mopar1973man.com, so its time join the family. I look forward in contributing towards the community, I’m not a Cummins guru but I have learned a few things in that past 2 years. Here is some background info on me, I have been working on gas powered vehicles as a hobby since I was 13 with my dad which has been a professional mechanic since his Army days in the 70’s where he was a fleet mechanic. He is still at it and is currently a service tech at a local KIA dealer. With that said I have reasonable amount of experience when it comes to gas vehicles. I will state that I have never worked on cars as a profession so I only have experience and knowledge on the cars I have owned. This leads me to my latest purchase in 2013 which was my very first diesel truck, a 2004 Dodge Ram 2500 4x4 SBQC to be exact. I have always been fascinated by diesel power but never had my own to tinker with. I bought the truck with high miles (250k+) with existing issues so I got a good deal on it  " Mechanics special ". My theory was to get the truck at a price that if the worse case scenario happened and I have to replace the whole engine I could do so and still not have invested over market value in to the truck. The truck was burning oil big time (about 2 qts a week) and had fuel pressure issues as well. I had my suspicions but there was no way to really tell (that I knew of at the time) without cracking into the engine.

 

     I started taking it apart the week after I bought it, my hopes where that I would pull the head and some of the valve seals would be shot. Like that all I would have to do is have head rebuilt and resurfaced to solve the oil consumption issue. As for the fuel issue I had noticed that the previous owner had installed one of those "universal fit" Advanced Auto Parts inline fuel pumps which I knew would be part of the fuel issue. I figured I would have to invest in a new OEM in tank fuel pump and that would solve that issue. After spending the money to buy the truck I figured I would start with the least expensive of the issues based on parts expense while I replenish the bank account a little. 1st up would be the fuel issue, from the begining I had the intentions of upping the power between the 450-500hp range, so when I checked the price on an OEM fuel pump and the price on an Airdog150 I opted to go with the Airdog instead of the OEM pump to support future mods. Dropped it in and just as expected it solved the fuel pressure issue, to celebrate I picked up a Bullydog GT Tuner. Now let me be clear, at the time I had very little knowledge of diesel truck products so I went with the "Popular name" which I regret till this day I wish I would have gone with another tuner preferably a Smarty, oh well live and learn! 

 

    Now that the fuel issue is solved and I have tuner installed to give it a little more pep. I take the truck out for a test drive to see how things feel with the tuner and the Airdog. The difference was noticable even when cruising at low speeds. I then decide to really see what it can do. When I punched it, the truck downshifted and the engine made this crazy scream that almost sounded like a crossbreed between a Transformer and a jet turbine! Being a diesel noob I was not sure if that was normal or not so I ease off the pedal and cruise home. As I’m driving I start to hear a speratic screeching sound even at idle but that sound I HAD heard before and it was the sound of the turbine wheel grazing the housing. Got to the house, pulled the the intake tube, checked for turbo shaft play and sure nuff, I fried the turbo. Some said I over spun the turbo others said there might have been oil in the intercooler causing the truck to "run away" and over rev to unsafe revolutions. Either way the turbo was now added on to the replacement list. Did a little research and again went with the performance upgrade vs OEM. I picked up an Engineered Diesel BW 63/68/14, dropped it in and I was now back to only the oil consumption issue.

 

     Couple months later I get around to pulling the head off as soon as I pulled the head off It was clear that the oil consumption issue had just turned into the worst case scenario. With the head off I noticed that there were signs of some serious damage. It looked like some metal fragments had got into the combustion chamber and struck the piston and head surface, in addition the last 2 pistons where on the verge of melting which I noticed because the piston surfaces where already starting to deform. There was also a great deal of play between the pistons and the cylinder walls. After seeing all that I thought I found the oil issue... Shot pistons and rings. Just for good measure I still strip the head down and when I do I start to find rust particals in the fuel rail and lines. I drop off the head at the machine shop and start researching short block rebuild kits, rebuilt short blocks and complete used engines to see what my options are looking like. In the process I get a call from the machine shop and the head is cracked beyond repair, it had a crack between the valve walls on cyl 6 so it was now official, I needed a whole new engine! After pricing everything out it made more sense for me to spend a couple hundred bucks extra and just order a remanufactured long block with 1 yr limited warranty (which I got from Ashley over at Black's Diesel) then do the swap with my dad. As for the rust in the rail I remove all the lines, sensors then clean it thuroughly, re inspect and then I noticed corrosion pits inside the rail and lines…Yup! I then replace all the lines, fuel rail and sensors, shipped the CP3 over to wicked diesels for cleaning and contamination inspection then ship injectors to F1 Diesel for cleaning, inspection and bigger nozzles.

 

     All the parts arrive! Its now time to swap functional components from old engine to the new one, drop it in and finish assembly. All went well through out this process I also took advantage and removed a few things like all the heater grid components since I live in south FL. Also the OEM fuel filter components since an airdog was in place also added a Wilson Manifolds thrasher intake system and aFe Mega Canon filter set up. Once all was in it fired up on the first try !! I then had a buddy of mine that was more familiar with the engine come by adjust the valves and swap out the OEM studs for some ARP's. The truck was finally in proper operating condition, or at least I thought …

 

From that point up until the present day I have been fighting electrical gremlins that haunt the truck from grounded out transmission wiring to faulty APPS module which I just replaced 2 weeks ago with a Timbo unit and works flawlessly. I attached some images to show the truck when I bought it and how it looks now.

 

 

[Wild and Free]

Welcome to the family! Sounds like you got things going your way other than the bank account seeing what you have put into it   knowing you went in under full understanding it was a "Mechanic special".

[Ed's5.9]

Welcome to the family! Sounds like you got things going your way other than the bank account seeing what you have put into it   knowing you went in under full understanding it was a "Mechanic special".

Thank you and yes it has hit the bank pretty hard but the fact that I don't have a monthly car payment and I also have back up beater to get me to and from work it allows me to spend money when its available or the truck stays parked untill finances are up to par.