Hi Guys,

I had been looking around for a diesel for a while, and had driven about 7 or 8 trucks (both ford and dodge). I had initially liked the 7.3 best out of the trucks I drove, but I ended up getting a 99 ram 2500 with 5.9 24 valve cummins 5 speed. I drove it last friday and it literally felt like driving a brand new truck and has tons of power compared to the other trucks I have driven. I told the guy I'd be right back with the cash and purchased it on the spot. What is weird is that it has almost 170,000 miles ... I am stunned that it runs and drives as well as it does with that many miles. The previous owner was the 2nd owner and had it since 2003 when it had 99,000 miles.

The only problems I had was that the A/C was stuck in defrost and on my way home that night I could see what looked like smoke coming from around the front of the truck when idling at redlights. Scared me at first, but after looking around on here, I found out that the whole problem could be a vacuum leak, turns out a vacuum hose was hanging near the PS pump. I plugged it in and now the air works and no more blow by smoke when idling. It is also a "53" block which I didn't know to look for until after I had made the purchase, but luckily no cracks at this time (knock on wood).

After driving it for a bit, I filled up and decided to try draining the water out of the fuel filter housing using the yellow flip switch. I ended up draining it too low, because it would not start. I ended up having to bump the starter multiple (like 12 times) to initiate the lift pump cycles and give it a little throttle when trying to crank before it finally started. I drove it, and do not think there is any damage but I have a few questions for more experienced users:

1. Due to the VP-44 system being kinda iffy, could I have damaged anything doing the above procedure? Anything I should look out for?

2. I've read about a fuel pressure gauge being nice to keep an eye on the psi of the fuel pressure system, but have not found any easy to read installation instructions. If I wanted to install a fuel gauge, does it connect to a fitting somewhere, or do I have to cut into any fuel lines or do any major work?

3. This is a completely stock truck, is it recommended to put any fuel injector cleaner in the tank, if so, at what interval and what brand of cleaner is best for these engines?

Thanks in advance,

Joseph

 

1. It sounds like you caught the issue before it could take out your ip pump. I would recomend you get a draw straw for your fuel tank,( basicaly a draw straw is a tube that goes all the way to the bottom of the tank so you could literaly use all the fuel in the tank, And i would also recomend you upgrade the main fuel line from the tank to the ip pump with a 1/2" size line. So that way you have enough fuel going to your fuel pump and dont starve it of fuel.)
2. A fuel gauge is highly recomended for your truck There is a thread somewhere on this site to tell you where to plumb the gauge. Yes the gauge has to be installed in a certain spot on the pump, and don't cut into a fuel line.
3. Yes you can put injector cleaner in the tank. One of the good ones is called stanadyne. But you can go to a parts store a pick up something there, just make sure it says it's for diesels. I usually put in my tank once a month.

 

Thanks for the info!

Can someone recommend the easiest to install fuel pressure gauge with high accuracy?

Also, is this so critical that the truck does not to be driven until a gauge is put on?

 

It is not critical at all, as long as your lift pump doesn't burn out and kill the vp you'll be fine. I would search the best way, there is a lot of tutorials out there.