Well, the airdog, once again..

[LiveOak]

Two things, one, i think we should try and track down what if any of the industrial cummins uses a vp44, and if so, did they have a lift pump, and what?

Two, measuring amp load probably would only tell half the story. Imagine the amp load on cold fuel?

 

Maybe this has already been discussed and I missed it.  This thread is getting long.  Have you called Air Dog and asked them if they warrantied your AD150, would they allow you to pay an upgrade fee to upgrade to the Air Dog II 4G and upgrade your lifetime warranty to the AD II 4G?  IF this new pump is what they claim and has fixed the problems.........the old saying may apply "in for a penny.......in for a pound".   It may be worth it to work with Air Dog and see if they will upgrade your pump and warranty.  Hopefully that will be the end of for a long time but nothing is guaranteed in this world anymore.  Just a thought that occurred to me and figured I would throw it out there. 

[Yankneck696]

All VP44 powered 6BT Cummins came with the same lift pump. If you do some searching, you will find class action suits from the school bus groups.

Ed

[hex0rz]

Alright,got the air dog yesterday in the mail. Took me a little while to swap it out. Everything was rusted and seized up. Not impressed with their bracket that the motor and block mounts to.

Needless to say the truck is up and running again. Didn't have time to bother taking both pumps apart to compare the two.

I'm not entirely interested in bothering with the system anyways. My interest for it has flatlined.

Pressures fluctuate 5psi from 20 at idle to 15psi at wot..

Need to budget for the fuel boss in the meantime before this pump dies on me.

Now, as for the vp44, mileage has steadily dropped since i got the truck from 20mpg to 12 on a bad day. Could the problem be from the piston problem mentioned above?

I've done allot of work to the truck to keep it in working order and even my tire size was the same.

Confused why mileage is dropping.at the same time i would hate to drop some of my beans on a new vp44 floor it to not bee the problem.

Who even does the new housing and computer anyways?

[diesel4life]

Who even does the new housing and computer anyways?

 

 

 

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.

Edited February 21, 2015 by diesel4life

[rancherman]

BC  is  the  only one  I've  run across  that  even  mentions    the housing..    and  what they do  to  for them.     'sleeve'  or   a new replacement  bore housing?   They  talk about the very first  run of 44's   having a  poor  housing,  and  replace/.upgrade  them  right off the bat.

   Then they   offer the computer in 3 flavors.   Used,  Rebuilt,  New.     

Honestly,   I don't  know  about  any others.  

Basically  double the price.

Double the  life and  long lived   fuel economy?   I dunno!!!

[diesel4life]

The option for the new upgraded computer and new housing runs $1850, your run of the mill reman pump runs 1100 to 1200 or more if I'm not mistaken. These pumps are typically (not always, but usually) the ones you hear people complaining about failing within a few years. Sometimes you get lucky and the pump fails under warranty but usually its within a year or two of the warranty expiring. Either way its a bad situation if/when it strands you away from home. BC typically does not advertise like a lot of the other vendors do, but I've read plenty of hot shotters that run them (that's what Chip did before he got into researching the pumps and eventually developing his patents and where he made a name for himself) and getting 300k out of his pumps seem to be the rule rather than the exception. My former 00 had one put on it by the previous owner, as of the time I sold it (the vp) was pushing 300k miles. Not sure if its been replaced since but I still see it running around here and there, and I sold it 4 years ago in March.

Yes they are more expensive by around $600 bucks, but considering the average lifespan is much longer than a typical pump its money well spent IMO. Do some searches on failed VP44s and you'll find them from every manufacture. Then do a search of failed VPs from BC. They're few and far between.

Any part ever made costs more with new components than its reman counterpart. This has been true since the birth of aftermarket automotive parts. It all comes down to what your comfortable with. Considering the quality and reliability of anything reman, particularly in the last 5 years, I know I will pony up for the new part and buy the peace of mind that comes with it, but that's just me.

Edited February 21, 2015 by diesel4life

[Dieselfuture]

Alright,got the air dog yesterday in the mail. Took me a little while to swap it out. Everything was rusted and seized up. Not impressed with their bracket that the motor and block mounts to.

Needless to say the truck is up and running again. Didn't have time to bother taking both pumps apart to compare the two.

I'm not entirely interested in bothering with the system anyways. My interest for it has flatlined.

Pressures fluctuate 5psi from 20 at idle to 15psi at wot..

Need to budget for the fuel boss in the meantime before this pump dies on me.

Now, as for the vp44, mileage has steadily dropped since i got the truck from 20mpg to 12 on a bad day. Could the problem be from the piston problem mentioned above?

I've done allot of work to the truck to keep it in working order and even my tire size was the same.

Confused why mileage is dropping.at the same time i would hate to drop some of my beans on a new vp44 floor it to not bee the problem.

Who even does the new housing and computer anyways?

On pressure fluctuation it can be ball and spring or return line from AD to tank is restrictive.

On losing mpg I'd have to agree with you, probably vp is wearing out.

[hex0rz]

Wow,strange thing happened to me on the way to work yesterday. Got about a mile down the road from home and didn't realize i started spraying fuel all over until about a half mile or so. About a block before i figured it out, i hit a 4way stop and it was like i was on ice. Had no traction. Wtf?

So i look in the mirror and i see this trail behind me. Little did i know it was diesel fuel spraying!

Pulled over,shut the truck off and proceeded to diagnose what happened.

Thought i burst a line! The pressurized supply from the lift pump was not fully connected and was starting to come out from the base.

Apparently when i replaced the pump Motor, i did not capture the line with the circlip!

It was an easy fix,but also probably lost atleast 4 gallons of fuel. My fuel gauge moved on this one.

What really gets me is that since i replaced the motor on the pump,i drove it many times before this happened. Strange how it did not pop out even in the beginning with as much that was behind it.

The pressure gauge even said i had good pressure and there was obviously enough feeding the vp44 to keep it going down the road that long!

Nonetheless, had to go home wash up and wash the truck from all the diesel and was 45 min late to work. Priority just changed too. When i was washing the truck, i peeled some paint! Looks like it's been a problem for while now and the paint had finally revealed whats underneath.

Als liner, here i come!

[Mopar1973Man]

Another reason I'm not fond of the NEW AirDog plumbing sets. All this quick connect stuff is junk and should of be left with the original JIC and PushLoc fittings. At least JIC fittings are self-sealing and have no o-rings or clips. Just standard hand tools. Not to mention the Push-Loc fittings are re-usable.

[Ironforger]

Another reason I'm not fond of the NEW AirDog plumbing sets. All this quick connect stuff is junk and should of be left with the original JIC and PushLoc fittings. At least JIC fittings are self-sealing and have no o-rings or clips. Just standard hand tools. Not to mention the Push-Loc fittings are re-usable.

I second this. The push lock hose / jic fittings that come with the fuel boss are a breeze to work with. Occasionally a hose may be hard to push on the fittings but all you have to do is heat it slightly with a heat gun or dip it in hot water for a few min.

[Mopar1973Man]

You bring up another subject of the AirDog system I don't like... The fact that every thing is cut and created to mount only in one spot. What happens if you want to custom mount the pump in the box skin? Or maybe move it to behind the transfer case like mine? Can't be done because of the "Quick Connect System" Not every one want a AirDog pump mounted is their location.