I'm thinking of putting in a bid on a 98 Ram 2500 CTD that rolled. I went to look at it this last weekend and the guy at the compound where it sits told me that the truck was on its side and the engine ran till it stalled. I boosted the truck and the engine cranks over fine but I didn't get it to fire up - didn't seem to get fuel. I'm not sure now if there could be other damage to the engine from running on its side. The oil level was still full. What do you guys think?

 

12v or 24v?

How much fuel is in it? Probably ran until it ran out of fuel. The lift pumps move a decent amount of fuel, wouldn't take long for it to clear the lines if the pickup is exposed to air.

 

It's the 24v. The tank was still almost 3/4 full.

 

What were you thinking of bidding?

If the price was cheap, I wouldn't worry, parting out would make you money.

If I was going to try and fix it though, I would see if they would let me run it on WD40 or flammable brake cleaner for at least long enough to hear it build oil pressure.

 

It's a pretty light roll so if I get it I would like to put it back on the road again, but I'll just have to keep the bid low enough to allow for a bad engine. I won't get another chance to try and start the truck though - it's a bit a drive.

 

My bet is it got a shot of air and died. I've never had much luck getting the VP's to fire up easily after it drained of fuel. Lots of cranking to get it fuel to the injectors.

 

As long as you know the pump works just crack all of the injector lines and start cranking. When fuel starts to come out close them up and it should eventually fire.

 

The batteries were totally dead-ignition left on, so even with boosting there was no reserve to crank very long. I could definitely hear the pump though. Anybody have an idea what the odds are that there will be damage done if the engine runs on its side for any length time? Bids are due by 5pm tomorrow.

 

not the same thing, but i rolled a 2004 and it ran for a good minute atleast upside down, rebuilt the truck and its still going good 60k later, not huge but i dont think it hurt it much,