That was CLOSE! I got my truck running three days ago and I've been driving it to work and back (12 miles). Today, I drove to a friend's house (40 miles) in 90* temp and when I got off the freeway, I notice some smoke from the hood. I pulled over and pop the hood to find that the hood's insulator smoking. It appears the EGR pipe was the cause because the center of the 1.5ft burned hole is right above the high point of the EGR pipe. I must of mount it slightly higher after installing it (the holes were sloted) or it because my engine is running hotter (see other thread) or both. Has this happened to anyone else? Also, does the non-EGR equiped CTD come with block-off plates for the turbo manifold and intake pipe?

 

the non-egr trucks have a different intake and exhaust manifold, no block off plates needed.

Rick

 

I will pass on a story so that others may be on the lookout for the same problem. I have a friend that bought 97 3500 4x4, new from the dealer. About 3 yrs ago they decided to take the family camping in the mountains of North Ga. As they were topping a long hill, they noticed smoke and then fire coming up from the shifter in the floor. They were lucky enough to find a place to pull off the side of the road and were able to put out the fire with water from the cooler and a small fire ext. but the wiring on the engine and firewall were toast.

He found out later that even though a recall had been done on his truck, it was still a problem of the elbow leaving the turbo getting hot enough to light off the blanket and set the truck ablaze.

So, for all you 97 owners ( the blanket on my 96 and 98.5 are different) keep a watch out for the firewall blanket coming loose and getting too close to the turbo elbow and pipe.

Dieseltim

 

Been there... done that. Mine initiated the service bulletin because of a fire at under 6000 miles and less than 6mo. old. DC stated that the insulation is not flamable...bull! When they did a test on the stuff they found it to be flamable. They did an analysis of the material and found several things in the material that did not meet their specs. It seems that the manufacturer originally given the contract could not manufacture enough of the material and they went with another manufacturer that sold them a material that did not meet specs. I know of several trucks that went to the scrap heap prematurely due to this small oversight!!!!!