switching over to the darkside

[GreatWhite]

yeah I planned on re-gearing it and switching to mag-hytec differential covers

 

[93Ranger4x4]

Yes, both strokers are auto(well, mine is, his is probably being parted out sicne he totalled it). He also had his tranny rebuilt and had some extras added to it, even tho he paid like 100-200 bucks more cuz he had a diesel shop do it(might i add, i dont like that place cuz they try to pull an 80s model with a stroker in it and it never leaves the line everytime they try to pull with it). They basically just pulled the tranny for him and sent it off to someone else, i had a shop do mine that does all the work in shop, added a triple disc billet torque converter and some HD bands, plus my BD shift enhancer i put in the valve body for more line pressure. If i had to do it all over again, i would have held out and found the ever so elusive 6 spd 7.3 stroker, dont get me wrong, i love my diesel, has plenty of power to do whatever i want(yanked a 150ft tree out through the woods once with it, that was fun heh)but i would rather have a standard truck, i like having control over my gears.

 

[Redjosh]

I have a 00 f250 with an auto and am lucky to get 16 mpg with it.

 

[rngrdngr]

i switch over to my 2000 dodge diesel for the fact that i get 18-21 mpg with a tuned up motor. first things first. get a set of gauges they will save your ass in the long run, go to ats and get the trans re-wire instructions to get ride of the hunt for converter lock up (gets really annoying when you drive around 37-45 mph) and while towing, it will also add converter life. as for power do the mod that allows the stock intake to breath threw the fire wall, sucks more air and cooler air than any $500 cold air intake, next a intake manifold from banks or bd would be a good investment, a lift block will build a good amount of hp. i would leave it with a stock turbo though, if you get into the twins your prolly gunu be running around 45 psi or more and gunu pop lots of head gaskets untill you get head studs and your head FIRE RINGED and thats about 2000 bones, last a strait 4in pipe will let it all breath perfect. with a set up like above you will have no prob spinning 35 12.5s i have those on mine. now when you tune your truck you can advance or retard the p7100 for hp or economy, so if you play ur cards right and have your pump timing correct cruising under 5psi you might be able to see 20mpg with 37s but its gunu have to be the perfect set up. also if you want shit loads of power look into the dana 80 rear end from manual trans 2500's the dana 70 is strong but wont last long with power and 37s. any other questions just shoot them my way

 

[Maverick]

My stroker can get a little over 400 miles per tank(i think last i checked i went 396 before i filled it back up and it was just a hair below 1/4 tank), runnin 33's and spoolin around 25lbs of boost(i can peg 20 no prob, but i rarely ever go over 15lbs with it just driving back and forth to work). I know it at LEAST has a 30 gallon tank, Reg cab long bed is what i have, im not 100% on what gallon my tank is as i dont let it go completely down to where the low fuel light comes on. A Buddy of mine had a 00 ext cab stroker rollin on 35s and i think he said he got maybe 15 if he was lucky on the highway.

Your truck has a 38 gallon tank, just like mine. The short bed trucks had right around a 30 gallon tank. On the freeway when my truck had stock tires I could do 600 miles to a tank. Had a best of 18.75 MPG. Now my truck is chipped (31lbs. boost), has a leveling kit, 305 Nitto's (right at 34" tall) and the best I've pulled down is 17.5 MPG. Normally I average 16-17 on the freeway and about 14 around town. For a 7000+ lb. truck, I'm happy with it.

 

[Will]

These trucks are all about the same weight and shape and unless you have something enormously different, they should all get about the same mileage. An auto that keeps unlocking the converter will be less, and a newer truck with weird aftertreatment might as well. But everyone else will have problems that show up at the tailpipe. Fuel that isn't burning well is coming out black. Fuel that isn't burning at all is coming out white.

If it's not smoking a diesel should burn about .061 gallons per horsepower hour. Assuming you get 18mpg @ 70mph (which is what I get), in one hour you should have burned 70/18=3.89 gallons and been using a constant 3.89/.061=64hp.

Now think about this. 1hp=33,0000lb*ft/min. So 64hp * 33,000= 2,112,000 lb*ft/min. Divide that by the feet you travelled in one minute--70*5280(1-mile worth of feet)/60minutes per hour and you come up with 342# of force.

So if you sat in the back of a pickup and held a rope tied to one of these diesel pickups that was in neutral, you would have to hold it with a force of 342# while going 70mph. The only way to get better mileage is to decrease that force. Weight doesn't do that much once it's rolling and level. You need to cut rolling resistance and air resistance.

This is all my opinion, of course, but if my old truck with indirect injection, a single wire running to the engine (fuel cut-off solenoid), no converter lockup and a perfectly square body--80" wide front end with zero tapering and not a nod to streamlining--gets the same mileage as a new truck, I feel pretty comfortably with my opinion.

 

[RangerRock]

Just adding my 2 cents here, but in my opion a cummins powered dodge is the only recent dodge worth owning.
Also for the Cummins Dodge haters, keep in mind good ol' Ford was on the design team of the Cummins for use in their F-series, until Cummins decided to "sell out" to Dodge. Leaveing every Ford owner thinking in the back of their mind, "Yeah its powered by a Ford designed diesel" when they hear a Cummins owner bragging

Never owned a Cummins but drove one to college for about a week, and averaged 18 MPG on 33's or 35's can't remember which in a 95' Ram 2500

 

[GreatWhite]

thank you all I really appreciate the imput

 

[Will]

Just adding my 2 cents here, but in my opion a cummins powered dodge is the only recent dodge worth owning.
Also for the Cummins Dodge haters, keep in mind good ol' Ford was on the design team of the Cummins for use in their F-series, until Cummins decided to "sell out" to Dodge. Leaveing every Ford owner thinking in the back of their mind, "Yeah its powered by a Ford designed diesel" when they hear a Cummins owner bragging

That's a load of shit. A complete load of goddam garbage. Ford designed Cummins' engines?

Cummins is the only independent diesel engine manufacturer in the world. They don't sell out. They try to sell. At all.

Ford has a bad habit of showing interest in buying Cummins engines, showing up with their own engineers to see what Cummins is doing--getting Cummins' hopes up that they will buy some engines while Ford is actually just spying. It's disgusting. But when all you do is make engines, you have to show people what you are going to sell them. Most of Cummins' customers also make their own engines, which is a really odd relationship. Cummins can't afford to risk pissing their customers off by calling them out.

Ford did put a lot of 5.9L Cummins engines in the medium duty trucks.

 

[RangerRock]

Stands corrected, big enough to admit when I'm wrong. Funny how rummors and half truths can survive for so long. Like i said I never owned a Cummins, only goin on things I've heard.

Though Ford did own roughy 10% or so of Cummins for a while, though if I'm not mistaken Dodge owned 10% too.

As for the comment on Ford spying n such I'd Imagine at Cummins you'd find a few Powerstroke's and Duramax's striped and gone over too. Id' imagine they all doit just to see what the competition is doing not just Ford. Who knows, I don't work for any of them so i cant prove it or otherwise.

Needless to say the Cummins is a good engine, no matter who was on the design team. Just have to come up with a new reason now, to keep calm when hearing a Dodge CUmmins owner bragging, other than useing a low blow like "How many times has Chrysler been bankrupt now?"

 

[GreatWhite]

Gentlemen,

I finally switched to the darkside, even after a long period of searching for cummins and super duties I finally found this diamond in the rough.

2001 Dodge 24V 4x4 Quad Cab SLT Laramie, with 122k on the clock. I got it for $3500 after the construction company ran the back diff out of oil and seized it up. Its now sitting at the repair shop waiting to get a whole new axle put into it and then it will be on the road.

Is there any specific flaws that this vehicle came with from the factory that I should pay any immediate attention too?

 

[Redjosh]

Thats a good price for it when I traded my 01 in they gave me 7500 for it at a stealership.

things to watch for are injector pump, lift pump( one takes out the other one normally) there is a transmission sensor that likes to mess up. These are the things that went bad on mine between 116000 and 123000 when I traded it in.

change your fuel filter with every oil change unless you buy a really expensive filter

 

[MakerOfBeast]

Ive got the first gen 12v with a 5 speed and 3.08s in it and average about 22 highway running at 80 mph but my dad managed to plug out 27 towing a ramcharger in the valley. also have a friend that put one in a f-350 and is getting 22 with 3.54s and 33 12.5 tires. as for the b series engines they were designed in conjunction with case tractors for use in equipment and were released in '86 but didn't make their way into dodge trucks until '89 ford did use a lot of them in their f-600 and up trucks along with the 3208 cat engine. for your 37's you wont get that great of mileage even with a re-gear because you are increasing the rotating weight. rotating weight takes about twice the power to move as static weight which will drop your mileage down. i haven't played with the '94 up trucks but with a 4" lift my 90 will clear 38s but i wouldn't do it for trailing. any flex and you will hit the body somewhere.

 

[GreatWhite]

since I don't like the other forums I figured I would ask another cummins question on here...

Does anybody know of a manufacture who makes a 10" lift for this truck?

 

[jaymegriffiths]

since I don't like the other forums I figured I would ask another cummins question on here...

Does anybody know of a manufacture who makes a 10" lift for this truck?

only place i can think of is FTS (Full throttle suspensions)
and they are quite pricey.
your new truck is a vp44 cummins 24 valve.
the easiest way to get power? programmer/chip.
you can run 2 chips at the same time, as long as only one controls timing.
Smarty + edge juice is popular)
trany should be watched, converter will fail with ANY add ons,
stock, it should last. (mines got 50,000 km of relatively HARD driving, with no issues)
and the most important issue, get a fuel pressure guage, and watch it closely. poor fuel pumps are major problems with vp44 trucks, and when they fail they eventually kill the injection pump (1500-2000)
buy a chip, drive it nice, buy a fuel lift pump, and then a aftermarket torque converter. best way to go