I'm about to buy another CTD and I need some advice when looking it over to check for any signs of mechanical problems. How do you check for blow by and what other things like that should I be looking for. The truck is 2001 ext. cab, long bed, ctd, 4x4, 5 spd with 180K on the engine. It has a new clutch and a new injection pump. Any help would be appreciated.

 

can anybody tell me how to check for blow by and what is prone to go out on the 2001 ctd?

 

with the engine running, take off the oil filler cap and look inside the valve cover.

 

what am i looking for?

 

yes, please explain

 

The correct way to measure blowby gases is with a manometer. For those that dont know you can read about it here. http://www.dwyer-inst.com/htdocs/pre...troduction.cfm

While most will never use one all i would do is remove the vent hose from the puke bottle and get the motor good and hot and see what comes out of it at an idle. If it has a lot of pressure and is huffing out smoke you can bet she is tired. Remember that it has to have some because thats the only place that it vents from.

Pulling the cap off will tell you very little unless you plugged the vent.

 

when you say the vent hose are you talking about the hose that points straight down underneath the engine? if thats the one then I need to pull it off where its mounted and check for excessive smoke puffing out right?

 

I am not sure what years started using the puke bottle but you can look and see if the hose comes out of the timing cover and goes down to the bottle or if its the old style the hose just drops off the side of the block if front of the starter.

 

yes check the puke bottle hose, put your thumb over it for a couple seconds and then release. If it has a fair amount of pressure built up you can bet it's time to rebuild. Mine has had that problem for about a year and with the misterious miss i had Dodge do a leak down test and the results weren't good. They say the vacumm pump can cause some excessive blow by but now I know for sure the cause of mine.

 

Is there anything else I should check for that would make me wanna stir away from buying it? Does anybody know a CTD professional in the new braunfuls/san marcos area? Thanks for all the help.

 

Go to a cummings shop for an opinion.

 

If you do have excessive blow-by would the truck be using/ burning more oil. Lets say a quart every 2000 miles or so.