Hello everyone, I'm currently the new owner of a 96 CTD dually. I had purchased this truck w/ the intent of fixing the head gasket after buying it ....cheap! Well whoever looked at the truck for this guy told him the head gasket was bad and thats why it's pumping motor oil in the radiator. I'm a mechanic for a living and have had alot of experience w/ heat exchangers(oil coolers)leaking on europeans so I checked to see if the dodge had an oil cooler that was bad and did! So I now have the truck running and driving. The history on the truck is unknown so I can't help w/ much info except that the truck is heavilly modified and is VERY fast. The truck is NV4500 manual trans and the tires spin in 1,2,3,and alittle bit in 4th. It really think it would outrun my 95 vette. The turbo is not original, the exhaust is 4" all the way, the injection pump has been molested, the head has been replaced, and the oil pan is red like the truck, which tells me that someone has been in there as well. The truck is equipped w/ all the gauges on the pillar and thats what I have questions about. The amount of boost is what worries me. I've read where they say not to run more than 45lbs of boost on stock head bolts or they'll stretch and blow. Well I'm at 52lbs.... The temp gauge for the exhaust is at 300F at idle and jumps to 1050F under hard throttle which on a gas motor is fine but don't know on diesel. I'm trying to decide whether to detune for reliability or drive it like I stole it. Info would be appreciated.

 

What kind of info are you looking for specifally.

Personally, I would try to figure out what has/hasn't been done. Or, if you don't like it modified at all, take it back to stock.

We'll try to help all we can, but this is gonna be tough without seeing the truck/engine
Chris

 

Trying to figure out if the exhaust temps are going to burn pistons, uh, is this much boost going to prematurely wear the bottom end out. Can I pull my race car trailer(8,000lbs)w/ this much power??? Stuff like that. I'm now understanding thers a dowel pin in the timing gear housing that can fall out. Which is strange because my family is in the hay business and we have always had Dodge diesels and never had any problems. But, none of them were modified ether. My father in laws 91 is still going strong at 430,000 miles and still fires on the first try. I just overhauled the torqueflite at 300,000 miles and did a major reseal on the differential as well. anyway, just trying to understand this modified one that I have now. Over the next few days I'll try to figure out the turbo because it's not the stock "garret" you normally see.
The exhaust temp probe on my truck is mounted pre turbo and like I said before it reaches 1050 under hard boost and wonder if this is good....
thanks....

 

1050 degrees is low. Not a problem kind of low, but you're safe to at LEAST 1250 degrees sustained. You might want to ease the boost down a few pounds if the truck does not have head studs. That'll bring the egt's up a bit, still in the safe range, while taking some of the pressure off the headgasket. It sounds like you have a VERY well done truck-I would not take stuff off of it to reduce power. After destroying my second stock dana 80 limited slip unit, I'm installing the 3.54 gears tomorrow (replacing the stock 4.10's) and the detroit locker along with the gears. I'll finally be able to drive it on the street again and see how it does with the nitrous. I broke it at the track the day I put the bottle on it, so no real street driving with it yet. From the sound of it, my truck on the bottle is probably roughly as fast as yours or a little slower than yours. I can tell you one thing-a good shot of nitrous will spool that stock turbo right the hell on up-no lag whatsoever! Lowers egt's something fierce, too.

 

Where is your pyro probe ? Post or pre turbo, I would think pre turbos to cool for that kind of boost and a single and if its post and your seeing 1050 @ 52lbs your pushing the envelope. The stock charger should be a Holset HX35

 

It's preturbo. He said that, but it's kinda buried in one of the previous posts.

 

I would pull one of the valve covers and look for studs..

 

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Shouldnt have to pull a cover to see them.
I would suspect either a faulty gauge or?????
To me something dosent add up to be that low of temps at those boost levels with a single, even a good single. No chance of searching out the prior owner to find out whats done? I think if you could he would probably be happy to tell you what all he did.

 

Sorry it took so long to reply to the post's you all have put in. I've been out of town and the computer picked up a virus so I had to reload windows to get it online again. Ok, the truck is still having problems. I thought I had the oil going in the radiator problem fixed but it's still doing it. I found that if I let it idle w/ 40lbs oil pressure it doesn't contaminate the cooling system. Now, if I go drive it and hit boost a few times then the oil level drops fast and it's in the radiator. I'm talking a gallon of oil in 2 miles! I think that maybe the boost is lifting the head and letting oil pressure bleed of into the coolant jackets?? I'm convinced on pulling the motor at this point and going through it just for grins so I'll know what's been done to the motor. I think w/ the power it's making I'll probably leave the mods, put studs in for the head, check for dowel pins coming loose in the front, and who knows what else. All in all, being an ex-powerstroke owner,this is all worth it.

 

You just came up with the plans i was gonna suggest... Studs, and fxing the KDP. Although I don't think you need to pull the engine. These engines will hold 600+ hp with a stock bottom end. I would guess some serious pump work accounts for most of what has been done.

The TST kit for the KDP is great, it comes with everything you need to fix the pin, and a new seal. You should be able to do it in a few hours. I am not a mechanic and did my first one in under 4 hours while drinking beer.

 

The reason I decided to pull the motor is to check the bottom end because I've got mysterious noise that all the years I've been a mechanic, my experience tells me I've got a piston(I think it's #3,or#4)that is touching the head at top dead center. Somebody just did the head gasket on it before I bought it and I wonder how much cc's I have left. Oh, and the head was replaced w/ a used one that got a resurface so if they used a stock head gasket plus a machined head.....This kind of stuff is what bothers me. I plan on keeping the truck so I'm going to go through it so that I know whats in it. Plus I'll sleep better at night. I'm just **** like that. I was looking today and noticed the #6 injector is leaking externally so I need to find injectors as well. I've got it on my list to pull motor the weekend of the 8th, or 9th. Will keep you all posted....

 

Good luck with your truck. And you're not being ****, you're taking care of your equipment. I respect that alot.