I'm now the proud owner of a Cummins Diesel...

[LateArrivalforLSU]

Well, the 6.0 PSD is now a thing of the past. I made it official today and bought an '06 Dodge Ram 2500 w/the CTD. It sure felt good driving it off the lot.

My 6.0 PSD left me stranded for the second time in two and a half months on the side of the road so I reached my boiling point with the truck.

It's also nice to know that I have an engine that won't shear the hades out of engine oil and I will be able to run extended OCI's with bypass filtration.

Just thought I would share with everyone how tickled I am.

 

[DieselPower]

Congrat's on buying a truck with a real diesel engine in it.

International engines went downhill after they caned the 7.3L's.

 

[acewiza]

Way to go. Powerstroke is not even in the same league. If you haven't already, head over to DTR and rub elbows with the Dodge Diesel folks. Lots of great info there too:

http://www.dieseltruckresource.com/dev/index.php

 

[md_lucky_13]

Great choice! you will love the new truck.

There are many great choices for forums that are just as packed full of information as here. diesel truck resource is a good one, and there are a lot of people from comp diesel in your neck of the woods:

http://www.competitiondiesel.com

 

[Jim 5]

Congrats!

I kind of wish I had the need for one of these or a duramax.

Can't justify it for going to work and back, but I'd still love to have one!

 

[Lightman]

Actually I have read several times that they recommend you do not use an oil bypass system on the 04.5+ '600' series cummins. Aside from that, congrats on a sweet ride!! I love my '04 to death and it has been rock solid.

 

[LateArrivalforLSU]

Quote:

---

Actually I have read several times that they recommend you do not use an oil bypass system on the 04.5+ '600' series cummins. Aside from that, congrats on a sweet ride!! I love my '04 to death and it has been rock solid.

---

You are thinking of the Amsoil dual remote bypass. A single bypass filtration setup is advantageous in any situation IMO.

 

[TooSlick]

Amsoil does recommend their single bypass filter mount for this engine and they make the Al billet adapters to make the install easier....

TS

 

[tsmay51]

Just use a good filter like fleetguard, wix, napa, or mobil one and change your oil regularly. My brother has a 89 model with 500k on it and a 96 model with almost 300k. Both trucks are worked hard on a ranch and never has seen nothing more than fleetguard filters and exxon conventional 15w40 oil. The reality is you will wear the truck out before you wear the ctd out.

 

[acewiza]

Quote:

---

... The reality is you will wear the truck out before you wear the ctd out.

---

Yeah, if you use it on a farm or ranch as a work truck. The REAL reality we're talking about here is that any engine will run better and last longer with clean oil in it. How well that works out for any particular vehicle in the long run depends on alot of other factors. I don't get the impression this particular CTD is going to be hauling 10 ton livestock trailers across a pasture any time soon.

 

[Strjock81]

Quote:

---

Quote:

---

... The reality is you will wear the truck out before you wear the ctd out.

---

Yeah, if you use it on a farm or ranch as a work truck. The REAL reality we're talking about here is that any engine will run better and last longer with clean oil in it. How well that works out for any particular vehicle in the long run depends on alot of other factors. I don't get the impression this particular CTD is going to be hauling 10 ton livestock trailers across a pasture any time soon.

---

I don't think he implied to use dirty or inferior oil in his CTD.

He is correct in stating that name brand, current spec oil, changed regularly, will keep his CTD running either longer than he keeps this particular truck, or longer than the body/chassis/rest of drivetrain will last, REGARDLESS of his intended usage. The Cummins is remarkably easy on oil and does not require super duper synthetic or boutique oils to live a long long life. If your intent is to talk him into spending $125 bucks an oil change to use Amsoil/Redline/Delvac1 because it makes YOU feel better, I think that is misguided and isn't really necessary. These engines run 350K between overhauls in UPS trucks that get flogged day in and day out, shut down as soon as it stops, etc. on bulk dino 15w-40 year round.

Also, what gave you the impression that he DOESN'T intend to haul 10 ton livestock trailers across a pasture? Or 10 ton flatbeds on the interstate?

 

[JavaMan]

"Actually I have read several times that they recommend you do not use an oil bypass system on the 04.5+ '600' series cummins."

IMHO I would look into why they don't recommend a bypass before I bought one.

 

[acewiza]

The point I intended to address was referring to the remark that the engine would outlast the rest of the truck. Lube oil maintenance aside, that is in fact most likely going to be true for a farm truck that gets beaten around unpaved roads and fields in dusty and/or wet conditions, without an abnormally high amount of maintenance on the rest of the truck. It doesn't take a rocket scientist or a certified tribologist to figure that one out.

An over-the road vehicle OTOH, will be be far more sensitive to it's oil quality over the miles as a factor in it's longevity, regardless of what it is used for. It will receive an order of magnitude less wear and tear on steering, suspension, driveline and other chassis components than the work truck bouncing around the ranch on a small fraction the miles driven. Again. no real mystic secrets here, just commonsense. Sorry for stating the obvious.

So, if a person who was intending to keep a vehicle on "the (paved) road" beyond the warranty period or some indefinite period of time, it most certaily stands the chance of running the engine beyond it's useable life while the rest of the vehicle soldiers right along, assuming reasonable normal maintenance. I personally have 16 year old CTD that is like new. The old statement "the Cummins will outlast the rest of the truck" is only true for those trucks that were beaten, abused and not well maintained until the cost of keeping the vehicle roadworthy made the platform no practically supportive of the engine.

patriot:

 

[1040 WreckerMan]

"Actually I have read several times that they recommend you do not use an oil bypass system on the 04.5+ '600' series cummins."

I haven't seen any literature from Cummins Engineering or service divisions that prohibit the use of a bypass filter on any ISB engines. In fact, ISB's have provisions for accessory oil supply and return ports for use at the industry's discretion. I just saw two trucks go through a local shop (2006 ISB's in small Frieghtliners. These ISB's are identical to Dodge ISB's aside form a few plumbing changes and software differences) that had accessory oil filters plumbed on them. When they were having warranty work Cummins didn't have any problem with them.

I am not saying that these statements do not exist, however until I see some thing from Cummins I would have no worries with a quality bypass system as long as it is installed correctly.

 

[Strjock81]

Quote:

---

An over-the road vehicle OTOH, will be be far more sensitive to it's oil quality over the miles as a factor in it's longevity, regardless of what it is used for. It will receive an order of magnitude less wear and tear on steering, suspension, driveline and other chassis components than the work truck bouncing around the ranch on a small fraction the miles driven. Again. no real mystic secrets here, just commonsense. Sorry for stating the obvious.

So, if a person who was intending to keep a vehicle on "the (paved) road" beyond the warranty period or some indefinite period of time, it most certaily stands the chance of running the engine beyond it's useable life while the rest of the vehicle soldiers right along, assuming reasonable normal maintenance. I personally have 16 year old CTD that is like new. The old statement "the Cummins will outlast the rest of the truck" is only true for those trucks that were beaten, abused and not well maintained until the cost of keeping the vehicle roadworthy made the platform no practically supportive of the engine.

patriot:

---

I understand the point you are trying to make, and to some degree, I think it is accurate. Again it goes back to intended usage and subsequent degree of wear on tear on non-engine components relative to the engine wear and tear. I think that even in OTR usage, on current spec, dino Rotella/Delo/Delvac, the Dodge platform will probably rust away, the trans be rebuild 3-4+ times, axles rebuilt, new seats, electrics, etc. long before the Cummins calls it quits. Granted it could be patched up as needed for 20+ years to get it over a million miles, but who is going to keep it that long anyways?

As mentioned above, regular oil changes with decent oil and oil changes will get that engine beyond the point where anyone would probably be keeping the truck anyways. If someone is going to keep it 25 years and attempt to put 1 million miles on it, or Hot Shot it 4-5 years then maybe spending extra money it worth it. I run Schaeffer's 7000 in mine year round, as I have it in bulk for farm machinery and it provides good winter startup protection, and I feel better running it closer to the 15K interval they recommend. If I were in a warmer climate, it would be Delo 15w-40 all the way!

 

[Strjock81]

Okay how does one edit a post?

 

[1sttruck]

5w40 synthetic might make sense for situations with lots of cold starts, which I suspect is a lot of non-commercial / non-work use. Even with lots of idling and stop and go in a medium duty application, like UPS delivery, one commonly just shortens the oil change interval. With 'city slicker use' as a commuter one commonly sees a cold start twice a day, which is where most (?) of the wear will occur in these engines, so empty loads and 'city slicker use' will probably be harder on the engine than hauling trailers all over the country every day.

I find 3 gallons of Delvac 1 / M1 T&S to be kind of expensive, so I currently blend it 50% with Delvac 1300.

 

[rpn453]

Quote:

---

My 6.0 PSD left me stranded for the second time in two and a half months on the side of the road so I reached my boiling point with the truck.

---

Not trying to rain on your parade, but your post sounded funny to me because my buddy recently lost his patience with Dodge and traded in his 2003 Dodge 2500 Cummins for a new Duramax! It left him stranded once (fuel pump), and then the Dodge dealership tried to screw him when his transmission housing developed a crack (5spd), claiming it was a rock that did it, despite the crack being on the top of the housing and having no evidence of any impact with anything. The engine itself gave him no problems though.

 

[1sttruck]

"Not trying to rain on your parade, but your post sounded funny to me because my buddy recently lost his patience with Dodge and traded in his 2003 Dodge 2500 Cummins for a new Duramax! It left him stranded once (fuel pump), and then the Dodge dealership tried to screw him when his transmission housing developed a crack (5spd), claiming it was a rock that did it, despite the crack being on the top of the housing and having no evidence of any impact with anything."

The lift pump has always been a low level problem on the Cummins, and they replaced it with one mounted in the fuel tank. Above that level of problems Cummins owners in Canada had a rash of fuel pump failures, evdiently traced to some 'dry' fuel. In one forum I asked if any that had a failure had been using a fuel additive, and none replied.

Cracks in the case are evidently kind of rare though; was he using a fueling box ?

 

[rpn453]

Quote:

---

The lift pump has always been a low level problem on the Cummins, and they replaced it with one mounted in the fuel tank. Above that level of problems Cummins owners in Canada had a rash of fuel pump failures, evdiently traced to some 'dry' fuel. In one forum I asked if any that had a failure had been using a fuel additive, and none replied.

Cracks in the case are evidently kind of rare though; was he using a fueling box ?

---

It was the lift pump I was referring to. Are those dry fuel problems you mentioned applicable to the lift pump or the injector pump? My other buddy uses a lubricity/cetane additive religiously and I believe he still had lift pump problems.

He did have a fueling box for a little while, but it didn't add a lot of power and he was very easy on it anyway: he drove it mildly, didn't tow anything, and didn't haul any significant weight. I've heard those trannies have a good reputation for durability, so it must have been defective. It was simply ridiculous that the dealership blamed him for it. They didn't know about the fueling box, so they didn't even have that poor excuse.

The Ford 6.0 was never even a consideration for him when he bought that Cummins or more recently when he bought his Duramax. They just don't have a good reputation right now. Everyone seems to want the 7.3 back!