I'm back... with a new truck!

[CStansbury]

I'm back... and it’s time to build a new truck!

Hi everyone! It's great to be back on the TDR. I haven't been around much for the last few years since I sold my Cummins powered Humvee. I really missed having a Cummins truck in my stable, so I picked up a 2003 2500 4x4 crew-cab, long bed, 6-speed truck on Wednesday. It's a 1-owner truck out of southern Virginia and it looks to have been pretty well cared for over the last 212,000 miles. I'm excited to get to know the truck in the coming weeks. I already have a list of mods planned out for it including Husky Liners, tow mirrors, coating the underside with Fluid Film, gauges, and some meatier tires. Stay tuned for lots and lots of project reports!

Here's a pic!

 

[crispyboy]

Love the color! That's a pretty nice truck as it sits. I would add a set of tow mirrors to your list.
I did the fluid film winterization two weeks ago with an undercoating gun. I purchased a gallon of the stuff on sale at Napa.

 

[CStansbury]

Love the color! That's a pretty nice truck as it sits. I would add a set of tow mirrors to your list.
I did the fluid film winterization two weeks ago with an undercoating gun. I purchased a gallon of the stuff on sale at Napa.

Thanks! I have always liked this color. I’m glad to know NAPA carries FluidFilm. That will save me some shipping costs!

 

[Prairie Dog]

Welcome back!
I do remember you and and your uber interesting ride.
It's good to see you found such a nice truck - very clean looking.

Scott

 

[CStansbury]

Welcome back!
I do remember you and and your uber interesting ride.
It's good to see you found such a nice truck - very clean looking.

Scott

Thanks Scott! It’s great to be back. I had a lot of fun with the Cummins Humvee project, but had to sell it to buy a new daily driver. I would like to do another one some day. There are quite a few Humvees out there with blown 6.2/6.5 diesels just begging for transplants. In the meantime, I’m going to have fun turning this truck into a reliable towing/daily-driving machine. Your truck has a lot of the same mods I’m planning for mine, so I will have to pick your brain sometime.

 

[CStansbury]

Update! I picked up my new truck on Wednesday last week and then took it back to the dealership on Thursday because the power locks were completely dead. It turned out that all four actuators were toast and there was a broken wire in the left rear door bundle. They ordered parts on Friday and got it back to me on Monday. Thankfully, it was all covered under warranty!

I have enjoyed driving it and getting to know it this week. I have also enjoyed buying lots of parts for it. I got enough stuff ordered to keep me busy for a few weekends - headlights, tail lights, tow mirrors, and some other odds and ends. My first piece showed up in the mail tonight - a new driver’s door reflector. I’m guessing that will be the fastest/easiest of any of the projects since it took all of about 2 seconds to snap it in place. :-laf Looks great!

 

[Wayne M.]

Welcome back! Great looker and great power train! Do you think it was ever chipped or juiced up?

 

[CStansbury]

Welcome back! Great looker and great power train! Do you think it was ever chipped or juiced up?

Thanks, Wayne! I haven’t found any evidence so far to lead me to believe it was hot rodded. The only non-stock items I have seen so far are the exhaust, a red LED on the driver’s knee panel, and what looks to be a fuel pressure sensor on the CP3. The LED was disconnected at some point, so I’m not sure what that went to. The clutch feels a little stiff to me, so it may be aftermarket, but it’s been at least 12 years since I last drove my last NV5600 truck so I can’t say for sure.

 

[CStansbury]

Got some startling results when I checked the oil level in my truck when filling up at lunch yesterday. It was a couple of inches high on the dipstick and it was smelling strongly of diesel fuel. I dropped it off at the dealership yesterday evening. They're currently trying to figure out if it is injector or CP3 related. Dangit.

It was high on oil when I filled it up the day after I bought it too. The dealer had just changed the oil, so the service manager thought some bonehead tech overfilled it. They changed the oil again when they had it in the shop working on the power locks this past Monday.

All of this begs the question, how long did the previous owner know about this issue and is that why he traded the truck off? Also, how long did he drive it that way before he turned it in? Trying not to panic...

 

[Bob4x4]

Hopefully it didn’t get a lot of miles put on after the fuel issue..Used trucks are always risky.I had a guy bring me a low mile(60k) truck.I found a broken head and cracked diff center section.Not a cheap repair

 

[CStansbury]

Hopefully it didn’t get a lot of miles put on after the fuel issue..Used trucks are always risky.I had a guy bring me a low mile(60k) truck.I found a broken head and cracked diff center section.Not a cheap repair

Yep, buying used is a crap shoot. I was pretty optimistic going into this deal because it was a clean 1-owner truck and the dealer is a friend of mine, but you just never know what your going to run into.

 

[K5IP]

I also have an 03 with an NV5600.
All in all, I think we have one of the best trucks ever made.

Even if you need a set of injectors, as I did at only 100K miles, for about $2200 and a Saturday of work, it will be good for another 200K. If you add additional filtering, even longer than that.
Just be glad of what you have.

 

[CStansbury]

I also have an 03 with an NV5600.
All in all, I think we have one of the best trucks ever made.

Even if you need a set of injectors, as I did at only 100K miles, for about $2200 and a Saturday of work, it will be good for another 200K. If you add additional filtering, even longer than that.
Just be glad of what you have.

Glad to hear there are some more 2003’s out there in the TDR family! I got a call from the service manager about 20 minutes ago and he said a couple of injectors are bad. He is working on getting authorization to replace all six under warranty. Fingers crossed.

 

[Prairie Dog]

Oh there's lots of us 03's out there

 

[frank1]

Three 03's here, wish I had another three!!! Pullin' landscape trailers eight to nine months a year and pushing snow the balance of the year! Great trucks!!! Good luck with your new ride!

 

[CStansbury]

Woohoo! Looks like I’m in good company with the 2003 trucks.

The worst part about this weekend is I have a garage full of new parts for my truck and no truck to work on. I’m left with cleaning the garage instead. :{:{

 

[Regcabguy]

There's a low mileage '03 ST HO qcsb,6-speed nearby that I'd love to have.
The guy's son sold it to him after making a roundtrip to Honduras many years ago.
He drives it a few miles weekly.

 

[CStansbury]

There's a low mileage '03 ST HO qcsb,6-speed nearby that I'd love to have.
The guy's son sold it to him after making a roundtrip to Honduras many years ago.
He drives it a few miles weekly.

That sounds like a great truck! Hopefully he’ll sell it to you one day!

 

[Greg_Stein]

Ive got an '03 2500 but its an Automatic unfortunately(it was expensive to rebuild, but its all just part of the game). I was wondering how having high oil level could lead to a diagnosis of bad injectors? are they injecting so much fuel that its getting past the piston rings? but wouldnt you have alot of Black smoke coming from the exhaust too?

 

[CStansbury]

Ive got an '03 2500 but its an Automatic unfortunately(it was expensive to rebuild, but its all just part of the game). I was wondering how having high oil level could lead to a diagnosis of bad injectors? are they injecting so much fuel that its getting past the piston rings? but wouldnt you have alot of Black smoke coming from the exhaust too?

Hi Greg. One of the more common reasons for fuel in the oil is a cracked injector body. That will allow fuel to spray out under the valve cover and mingle with the oil. Another possibility is a leaking shaft seal on the CP3. Both of those issues will allow the truck to run normally while diluting the oil with fuel.