Attention: TDR Forum Junkies JeepBuilder
TDR MEMBER
It started about a month ago. A short power loss while passing someone just long enough to say what was that? Then about a week ago another short blip of no power followed by another. So needing to haul a jeep to Seattle soon, I figured I had better find out if I have an issue. Well I sure do.
The truck is a 2001 3500 24 valve with a 5 speed. Edge tuner I rarely ever turn on, ATS turbo, FASS fuel pump with an ISSPRO fuel pressure gauge and unverified 50 HP injectors. New interstate batteries, New Cummins MAP sensor after a recent failure. It runs well at 171K miles. So the wife and I decide to go camping. I load the slide in camper and hook up to a trailer holding 1 quad, a couple kayaks and a couple bikes with a generator mounted on the trailer tongue. About 900 pounds I would guess. It is a load but the Dodgemahal handles it. About 60 miles of travel and now up the final stretch of road to the campsite, it stumbles. Then again. A loss of power then a resumption with a blacker than normal cloud that clears quickly. About 1 second of gap there. We arrive and camp. I never really relaxed as I had hoped. My truck is not running right and we are quite a ways from home.
We reach the morning of departure and head out. It runs fine for about 50 miles. Then starts really stumbling. It gets worse as we go. Two lanes with terrible shoulders to not stop on. I make it to my Aunts place and borrow her car to drive miles to pick up a fuel filter. I install it and bleed it. We head home the last 34 miles and more of the same but now it is increasing. Loss of power, moving the pedal to different positions does nothing. It resumes with a belch and makes great power to get me back to speed then falls on itself. I struggle and white knuckle the 8 miles of uphill two lane to our road. I get on our 7 miles of gravel. I'm doing 30ish and it is running great. I stop and hit 1st, then second and third with a heavy throttle and it makes great power without stumbling. More smoke than normal. The fuel pressure rose and fell by a couple PSI every time it stopped making power back on the hiway. It ranged from 14PSI and never went below 10PSI when recovering. The truck typically runs at 12-14 PSI. It seemed like the problem showed itself mostly on the hiway. Then in third doing 25 it stumbled right before our place. So toss the higher road speed assumption. I have spoken with Blue Chip Diesel and he thought it was the VP44 and that it made good power on heavy throttle because the timing weights(?) were in a different range of travel verses where they would be while driving on the hiway and trying to sustain speed. That junk somehow got into my injection pump. My filter looked typical and nothing noteworthy struck my eye. I also spoke with Diesel Auto Power and he thought it had to do with the edge controller or the APPS. The edge was off except once when I turned it on to find it made no change at all.
Now I brought my code reader and there never at any time were ANY CODES AT ALL. Nothing to indicate what is up. Honestly both guys made sense.
Now here is something that also happened that I am assuming is not related at all. The morning we left my wait to start light stayed on. It would not go out. It started fine with an outside temp around 50. We discovered pushing on the brake made it go out till I released the pedal. OK weird... It went out eventually about 40 miles later and the morning we left camp it functioned as normal. I checked it this morning and same thing. Totally normal after the grid heaters turned on and the relay cycled. Maybe a bad intake air temp sensor?
So far I have a intake air sensor AND a APPS or TPS on order from Geno's. I am a 1/4 inch away from ordering a VP44 from Diesel Auto Power. I really don't want to get stranded on the 7 hour trip to Seattle hauling someone elses Jeep. At 171K I don't think a rebuilt and upgraded VP44 would hurt anything except the wallet. The only funny take away from all this is when you type VP44 and hold down the shift key accidentally you get this VP$$..... LOL
What do you guys think? Would the IP show issues at all speeds? All conditions? And have a code to observe? I need to fix my truck for my trip over the mountain to Seattle soon. Sorry so long. I needed to get all the info out there.
The truck is a 2001 3500 24 valve with a 5 speed. Edge tuner I rarely ever turn on, ATS turbo, FASS fuel pump with an ISSPRO fuel pressure gauge and unverified 50 HP injectors. New interstate batteries, New Cummins MAP sensor after a recent failure. It runs well at 171K miles. So the wife and I decide to go camping. I load the slide in camper and hook up to a trailer holding 1 quad, a couple kayaks and a couple bikes with a generator mounted on the trailer tongue. About 900 pounds I would guess. It is a load but the Dodgemahal handles it. About 60 miles of travel and now up the final stretch of road to the campsite, it stumbles. Then again. A loss of power then a resumption with a blacker than normal cloud that clears quickly. About 1 second of gap there. We arrive and camp. I never really relaxed as I had hoped. My truck is not running right and we are quite a ways from home.
We reach the morning of departure and head out. It runs fine for about 50 miles. Then starts really stumbling. It gets worse as we go. Two lanes with terrible shoulders to not stop on. I make it to my Aunts place and borrow her car to drive miles to pick up a fuel filter. I install it and bleed it. We head home the last 34 miles and more of the same but now it is increasing. Loss of power, moving the pedal to different positions does nothing. It resumes with a belch and makes great power to get me back to speed then falls on itself. I struggle and white knuckle the 8 miles of uphill two lane to our road. I get on our 7 miles of gravel. I'm doing 30ish and it is running great. I stop and hit 1st, then second and third with a heavy throttle and it makes great power without stumbling. More smoke than normal. The fuel pressure rose and fell by a couple PSI every time it stopped making power back on the hiway. It ranged from 14PSI and never went below 10PSI when recovering. The truck typically runs at 12-14 PSI. It seemed like the problem showed itself mostly on the hiway. Then in third doing 25 it stumbled right before our place. So toss the higher road speed assumption. I have spoken with Blue Chip Diesel and he thought it was the VP44 and that it made good power on heavy throttle because the timing weights(?) were in a different range of travel verses where they would be while driving on the hiway and trying to sustain speed. That junk somehow got into my injection pump. My filter looked typical and nothing noteworthy struck my eye. I also spoke with Diesel Auto Power and he thought it had to do with the edge controller or the APPS. The edge was off except once when I turned it on to find it made no change at all.
Now I brought my code reader and there never at any time were ANY CODES AT ALL. Nothing to indicate what is up. Honestly both guys made sense.
Now here is something that also happened that I am assuming is not related at all. The morning we left my wait to start light stayed on. It would not go out. It started fine with an outside temp around 50. We discovered pushing on the brake made it go out till I released the pedal. OK weird... It went out eventually about 40 miles later and the morning we left camp it functioned as normal. I checked it this morning and same thing. Totally normal after the grid heaters turned on and the relay cycled. Maybe a bad intake air temp sensor?
So far I have a intake air sensor AND a APPS or TPS on order from Geno's. I am a 1/4 inch away from ordering a VP44 from Diesel Auto Power. I really don't want to get stranded on the 7 hour trip to Seattle hauling someone elses Jeep. At 171K I don't think a rebuilt and upgraded VP44 would hurt anything except the wallet. The only funny take away from all this is when you type VP44 and hold down the shift key accidentally you get this VP$$..... LOL
What do you guys think? Would the IP show issues at all speeds? All conditions? And have a code to observe? I need to fix my truck for my trip over the mountain to Seattle soon. Sorry so long. I needed to get all the info out there.
