I have a 95 ram with297k on it I love the truck but lately it has been making strange noises kind of like tapping on glass when I am standing by the drivers door. It has been getting louder and it is to the point now where I can hear it while doing 60 on the road. I am also now starting to notice a slight power loss as well. When it is idiling is sounds kind of rough out of the exhaust almost like one hole isnt hittin as hard as the other 5. I was told to replace the fuel filter and I did today. Unfortunatly it did not fix the problem. I started to notice the noise a few weeks after I changed the lift pump. I am kind of suspicious of the lift pump because I bought the cheapest one from NAPA. I cant afford to just keep throwing new parts at it all the time. I love the truck and I love the Cummins even more. I am to the point where I am thinking about dropping in a complete engine just to get rid of the noise. It is so loud now that it is embarrising to pull into a fuel station. The truck is bone stock. I would like to keep it that way. Help me please.

 

if it's doing it at an idle, you can use a stethoscope. it does work to pinpoint where the noise is comming from.

 

I have tried that already and being new to diesels i cant tell the sound that I hear from the normal rattle of the motor. The closest that I have been to hearing it with a stethoscope is from the IP. Is it possible that the IP makes this arythmic ting when it is starting to go?

 

Injection pump no. Outside of rack & governor problems a stuck plunger is a common failure. A stuck plunger will take a cylinder completly out (no fuel).
Did you replace the overflow valve?
A little timing advance will help with combustion noise.

BTW, welcome to DTR.

 

This would be my guess as well. I replaced the lift pump and started getting a ticking noise. I also had my afc loosened and the smoke screw turned way in. I turned them back a bit and the ticking went away.

I wonder if the new lift pump is just putting more fuel through your overflow valve and causing the ticking? With that many miles you are probably due for one anyway, and since it is on the side of the injector pump, it may explain your stethoscope tries.

I got mine from Marty Tompkins. Probably the most affordable around.

 

I have heard a lot about these overflow valves but I have no idea where they are or really what they do.

 

There is the pic. Basically it is a pressure regulator for the return line. It opens at a set pressure to release fuel back to the return line.

 

that looks pretty straight forward how much does something like that run at my local parts store? Would this attribute to my overall loss of power?

 

It's not an autoparts store item.
You won't find a better price on a OF valve
Precision Diesel Injection and Turbo Inc.
Marty Tompkins
888-734-7349
$35 + $7 shipping and handling.

 

Cool I will call tomorrow. thanks for help I will be back to let know if it fixes the noise

 

this may be totally out of the ball park, but i had a noise that sounded similar to what you described and i couldn't figure it out for a long time but it turned out just to be a squeaking belt. the thing that really threw me off was that for the first month or so, it would only happen b/t about 1900-2100 rpms and under load. really weird...