first off i am new here from south ms. a friend of mine has had a 97 3500 ext. cab 2wd for about 2 years, and i have been tring to get him to sell it to me sence he bought it. well he called the other day and he said he would sell it. first off it has 60,000 original miles, and yes it is correct. he is the third owner and i know the other two guys that owned it. it is a little weathered(clear coat pealing), inside a lil nasty, cracked dash. but anyways the whole 2 years that my bubby has owned it, he has put less than 20 miles on it. he bought it to haul his 50' race car trailer, and hasn't done any racing. but it has been sitting this whole time with the same deisel in it, the only thing he has done is put some additive in it. i went to drive it today, it was pouring white smoke out the exhaust for about the first mile. when we pulled back up to his house it wasn't smoking a bit except when he just hit the petal pretty hard it would just blow a lil bit of white smoke out, them turned to a lil black. the truck also has 6 brand new tires, today was the first time they was on the black top. the truck drove good and shifted out fine(automatic). when i drove it we went to the store to get a little fuel in it, and i was just looking under it and noticed a drip of oil coming from the front of the motor. talked to another friend that uses dodges for work trucks and has for years. he said they have had to replace the balaner seal before but theres had around 300,000 miles. just wondering if this one is gonna be leak after leak from sitting so long. but for what i can get the truck, which is $4,500. just wanted some opinions on the white smoke, could it just be the old fuel? i know from the past deisels i have had and put programmers on them they would pure black smoke b/c of fuel. and i know they don't have programmers for these truck, so hard and about how much would it be to get a little more power. which all i would pull is my camper and race car. oh and one other thing, when i would back up then go to drive it would idle way down like almost die(it never did), just wondering if someone could help with that. also noticed it was idling @ 400-500 rpm. sorry to go on and on, but this is the best site i seen to ask any question about the cummins. i guess what i want to know is this a good deal? and might be able to get him down a lil more. the truck also sat up for about 1 1/2 before he bought it. thanks for any opinions.

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Anybody? My main concern is the white color smoke? But only did it for about a mile and cleared up

 

It's sounds like just old fuel. The oil leak could be a few things. The 12v engines were bad about a pin falling out an cracking the timing case. Better known as the KDP. Search it on any forum and it will bring up info on it. As far as adding power, u can gain quiet a lot from just removing the fuel plate. On my 160 hp motor I gained 130hp at the wheels by just pulling the fuel plate. Another mod that IMO is mandatory on the p-pump motors is a 3k governor spring kit. As far as price, I paid 4,000 for my 98 with 225,000 miles on it and a bad transmission. So IMO, 4,500 isn't a bad price

 

Thanks man! Think I am gonna go scoop it up today.

 

i agree with the green goblin my grandpas cummins did that once because it was sitting for like 9 months but he put some diesel additive in the tank and cleared up

 

Id say double dose the first couple of tanks with 2 stroke and stanadyne fuel cleaner, then regular doses of 2 stroke after that(ounce per gallon, TCW3 ashless). As for power, grind the fuel plate to a flat profile, loosen up the star wheel a couple turns, adjust in the pre-boost fuel screw a couple turns and mount the fuel plate and AFC housing all the way forward and she'll scoot pretty good after that. OF course gauges first! Hate to blow up such a low mile motor.

 

Thanks for the info. I got the truck and haven't had much time to drive it yet. I am not looking to get to much more power out of it. All I am gonna haul is my camper and race car, which mostly is on a 20' open trailer. But will be pulling a 35' with 2 cars. Thanks again, looks like it is gonna be a one though.

 

Good luck with the new truck! Sounds like a really good deal. Make sure the KDP has been addressed. If it falls out you could have some major issues. Get your valves adjusted. This is a 25,000 mile service item. Mine had 180,000 on it and the valves had never been touched. A lot quieter after the correct adjustments were made. Get the tranny serviced. I am unsure of all the tricks there as I am a manual guy but I have a lot of friends w/ autos that regularly service the trans and have well over 300k on original equipment. Look around this site for a lot of free mod tricks. The free stuff will add a little power and greatly improve performance and milage and are very easy to perform.

 

What is kpd? Found my oil leak, it is the vacuum pump. How hard is it to changed the seal and o ring in it? Thanks

 

It's not to hard to fix the vacuum pump leak.

KDP= killer dowl pin.

U can search KDP and find tons of news on it.

It is a pin used for aligning the timing case during manufacturing and to hold the timing case in place