Engine/Transmission (1998.5 - 2002) Longer time to startup

[Luciano]

Lately I've noticed my truck is requiring a little more cranking from my starter to fire up. It used to fire up really fast, and now it's requiring that I hold the key longer. The first thing that comes to mind is the fact that I have never had the valves adjusted. The reason for that is because I called an official Cummins repair center (SoCal), and they recommended that I don't do the valve adjustment. It did not make sense to me, but I figured, I'd wait a while and was no big deal. The second thing that comes to mind, is the fact that My Check Engine light turned on for a couple of days, and has not turned back on again. I'm probably already due for a fuel filter replacement too. Can anyone tell me if a need of a valve adjustment would be a cause for my truck taking a little longer to fire up? FYI... I have to fairly new Yellow Top Optima batteries that are fresh. They are providing nice strong cranking to fire it up. It's just taking longer. Guess I should check my K&N Air filter while I'm at it. Almost forgot to mention that my truck has 118,000 miles on it.



Any recommended locations where I should get the valve adjustment done in SoCal (Rosemead)? Any info would be greatly appreciated.





98. 5 24V 3500 QC 4x4 A/T Banks Power Pack

 

[isb360]

I'm surprised a Cummins shop would tell you not to have the valves adjusted, especially since it's easy work and $$ for them. I had the "overhead adjust" done at 110k. The mechanic that wrenched my truck mentioned to me that of the 24 valves, "only a few needed adjustment" and the others were right on spec.

I noticed no difference in truck behavior before vs. after valve adjust.

Sometimes my truck cranks 1/2 a turn and fires up, other times it lopes over a few times, then fires.

Go to a dealer and see if there are any codes stored in the computer since your check engine light came on.



Tim

 

[RBallard]

Are you sure it isn't the batteries? Mine normally starts on the first compression and when it started taking longer than normal,after about a week I decided to pull the batteries and have them tested. I found that I had a bad battery. It showed 12V but voltage dropped to nothing when loaded.

 

[Luciano]

I'm pretty sure it's not the batteries because they crank nice and healthy.