What's the deal about all the lift pump etc. failures? I have about 110k on my 99 and it's seems fine. I have a buddy with over 700,000 miles on his and all he's had to change was a water pump. Is it just most people here are hot rodding thiers?

 

I don't hot rod mine. It's a bad designed fuel pump. I was dropping pumps even before I turn the truck up. As many as I have been replaced, I figure you have a 40% chance of gitting a good new one. Out of the 40% of good new ones, 50% of those will fail in the first 6 months. I have been though 5 this year, most not even lasting 2 weeks.

Rodney

 

charliez,

Do you have a FP gauge? If not, how do you know yours is not bad. The stock one on my truck went 119,000 miles, then died, the second one died 2 weeks after the warranty was up. My truck ran fine, never had a hickup. I just had a gauge that I would hook up every once in a while to test the pressue. When the second one went out, it died completely and I didn't catch it right away, so now I'm replacing the VP44 about a year later because of it.

The problems started with the 24V trucks if your buddy has a 12V the IP and mechanical and didn't have near the problems.

the LP, VP44, and Auto Tranny on these trucks are the major week link, they will die, it is just when. And of course the gauges are to hopefully make them last just a little bit longer.

 

Isn't the lift pump what brings the fuel to the VP? How could it run if it were bad?

 

Oh, he has the EXACT truck that I do, only a diffrent color.

 

charliez,

fill out your User CP with your truck info so everyone knows what truck you have.

Yes the lift pump is what sucks the fuel from the tank to the VP, My first one had fuel pressure of 3 to 4 psi, since the VP needs a minimum of 5 or 7 psi depending on who you talk to , it was considered bad. My second one had 0 psi.

The situation that happends is that these fuel systems are always primed so to speak, that the diesel stay in the line all the way to the VP44. The VP44 is capable of pulling the fuel it needs from the tank to run, but it wasn't designed to do this. With out gauges, lack of power is one of the first symtoms that there are problems.

Most of the problems these trucks have are because of Dodge, if you go look at a Case tractor that has the exact same engine in them you won't even find a lift pump, the tank sits above the motor and is gravity fed through a 1/2" fuel line straight to the VP44. My question for Dodge is that if a Cummins suggests a 1/2" fuel line for a tractor then why did Dodge put a 3/16" in fuel line on these trucks. Something also as a note, the Case tractors also have the same style fuel filter as the FASS system does, so why didn't Dodge follow suit.

Sorry just blowing off some steam.

 

calm down there! it will be allright.. i`ll slap the next dodge tech i see. just for you!

i have asked myself the same question a few times

 

There is no way DOT would approve a gravity feed fuel tank.

 

I don't see how you could have a gravity feed tank on a vehicle in motion, with the tank behind the engine.

With all the LP info above, why not just install an electric inline pump? There are plenty of reliable pumps with more than enough capacity to do the job. Also, I have a FP gauge, but to use it, it looks like I woill need to remove a plug from the filter housing and add a valved port to it. Does this sound right?

 

That's it.

Use the search button and you will find hours of reading on LP's.

 

Where can I get those fittings Auto Zone, dealer?

 

Be nice to the Dodge tech's they are in the same boat we are, they have to work on these trucks and try to figure them out, although some of them could benifit reading these forums. Although if you find a DC Engineer

The fittings you can get at any auto parts or hardware store, the port coming out of the top is 1/8" pipe threads.

 

So when i get these two fittings, one, do i leave them in forever, and two, what is normal for a good pump?

When I changed my filter not too long ago, I had a bit of a time getting a prime on it again, and when I did, fuel hit the roof, amybe 25 feet up, so from that, I'm guessing i have good pressure.

 

Make sure you get a needle valve to control the pulsing of the pump, pulsing will kill gauges. Just crack the valve enough to get a reading on the gauge.

yes you can leave them in until either the truck rotts out from under you or you sell it

pressures need to be in these ranges

idle 12 - 19
cruise 8-11
WOT 5 - 7

Depending on who you ask these numbers can change.

I would be looking for issues anything less than 7 psi

Trucks running big line kits report nothing below 12 psi.

With my FASS I don't get anything below 17 psi, but the only mod I have is the EZ.