russian rocket Posted February 12, 2014 Report Share Posted February 12, 2014 i am hoping you guys can help me track down a problem that i am having. first off i have an 03 ram 2500 qblb 4x4 laramie with 242k on the clock. bone stock, its an auto. i just bought the truck a month ago. sorry about the long write up, but i want to be as detailed as possible. quick background on the truck, the guy i bought it off has had it since 100k and used it for his masonry company to hull sand and such. the truck has always been maintained by certified shops, i called each shop to verify its history. he did tell me that he did have a strange issue where the truck would shut off on him at the light sometimes but always started right back up, so one of the shops replaced one injector and also converted the lift pump to intank. he still said he continued to have the problem from time to time. since i have bought it, it has not exhibited the problem. i did however replace the fca and fuel filter. the truck also suffered a minor head on collision, but doesnt seem to have broken anything except bumper, still need to do a boost leak test to make sure the intercooler is ok. here is whats going on, if the truck is not plugged in, it will have an extremely hard time starting in cold weather and if its too cold, it will not start at all no matter how much you crank. if the truck is warmed up or has been plugged in, it will start just fine in any temp. another issue is the truck feels like it should have more umph to it, this is my first cummins but it just doesnt feel like the power is there. when i punch it from low rpms, there is a tiny bit of black smoke for a split second and then it is clear. the truck doesnt really smoke any white, in the extreme cold it has white exhaust until its warmed up so i am assuming its just vapor. the other day the temp was in the low teens, possibly even single digits, i went out and after 30 seconds of cranking, it finally started, i backed the truck up a couple feet and shut it off. about 15 minutes later, it would not start at all, no matter how much i cranked. after reading hundreds of threads, it sounds like its probably injectors, or possibly transfer tubes, or compression or a couple smaller things. well initially i thought it might be compression because the bottom of the truck has a film of oil on it and you can see oil on the end of the blow by tube. this morning (-14f degrees) i decided to run a couple quick tests. i did the simple blow by test with the oil fill cap, with the engine cold absolutely no blow by at all, just a tiny bit of air which i am guessing is just windage. i also pulled both lines off the black box on top of the valve cover and there was no air coming out of the big one and just a tiny bit of oil from the smaller one. second simple test i did was to take off the line from the pressure relief valve. there was some fluid in the valve but with the truck started, there was no fluid coming out of it but there was a hell of a lot of fuel coming out of the metal line that connects to it. there was enough fuel coming out of the line to fill up a medium size arbys cup in 10-15 seconds. for the couple tests i did, is it safe to assume that the engine is in pretty healthy condition or should i do the manometer blow by test to? could it be that the box is clogged or the smaller black line is clogged and that is why there is oil covering the underside of my truck? second, with so much fuel coming out of the line, would you guys presume it would be the transfer tubes or does it sound more of an injector problem. my buddy has a snap on modis that he can bring over, are there any tests that you guys can recommend that i run with it besides the obvious one of checking the rail pressure. also i do not believe the rockers have ever been adjusted and i know its recommended to do it about every 100k, is it possible that that might play a small role? i will be adjusting them here soon, just have not had a chance. thank you in advance for any help you guys can provide me, i am very mechanically inclined for gas engines, but still learning about diesels so i can do just about all the work you guys tell me to do forgot to mention, before replacing the fca and gettting a good charge the the batteries, the truck did have some idle surging when cold and would stall out. also i did add some service kleen into the fuel and m gas milage is excellent, the overhead shows 23-24 while cruising on the freeway, but has dropped down to 18 since i have been doing a lot of in city driving and short drive to work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XChris1632X Posted March 1, 2014 Report Share Posted March 1, 2014 I just saw this is a bit old but hopefully can clear up some of your questions. I assume you got the issue worked out and the truck is running by now but I am sure nothing was wrong and your fuel was gelled or you air locked the engine. Either way welcome to cold weather and diesels. It's the nature of the beast. If you can get it parked inside you won't have those hard start issues. I haven't plugged my truck in since the first year I owned it in 06 and did away with my second battery long ago. Throw all the blow by stuff out the window. Not to say that it has never became an issue for people but 90% of the people blow that whole thing into something it isn't. Extend the hose down and never worry again. With a short hose my makes a mess as well and my engine is in great shape. And that is with 212k miles, many of those with an s400 charger and nitrous. Don't take everything you read on the forums for gold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russian rocket Posted March 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2014 well i somewhat have the problem fixed lol. i replaced all 6 injectors (fuck that hurts) and the trucks starts great now with out being plugged in. my problem now is that i have excessive black smoke when giving it some throttle. the more throttle the more black smoke. i put in stock remaned injectors from industrial injection and have a feeling that one of them may be bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPL_Josh Posted March 2, 2014 Report Share Posted March 2, 2014 well i somewhat have the problem fixed lol. i replaced all 6 injectors (fuck that hurts) and the trucks starts great now with out being plugged in. my problem now is that i have excessive black smoke when giving it some throttle. the more throttle the more black smoke. i put in stock remaned injectors from industrial injection and have a feeling that one of them may be bad. You order stock and receive higher hp injectors instead? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russian rocket Posted March 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2014 You order stock and receive higher hp injectors instead? im not sure if thats the case or not, the truck still feels kinda sluggish when nailing the throttle lol the other possible problems are either sticking injectors which i would think would cause issues at idle to and incorrect injectors, they switched to a different spray pattern in 2004.5 and thats why the injectors arent interchangeable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russian rocket Posted March 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2014 well, i think i figured out the problem. looked on the side of the box that the injectors came in and it says they are for 2004.5-2007. my truck is an 03. the 04.5+ injectors have only 5 holes vs 8 holes that the 03s have, the spray pattern is different because the piston bowl is different and the 04.5+ injectors are set up to fire 3 times per cycle while the 03-04s only fire twice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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