Attention: TDR Forum Junkies I purchased a 1995 cummins a while ago because of what everyone around me had said. At first I thought that I had made the ultimate purchase and was extremely proud of my new investment. After all I had waited years to get one of these babys. I never really started to use the truck as intended until about a year or so later. I had purchased a new quad and picked up a load of rocks for a pond I was building, not that many rocks though and coming up the cajon pass with just that load My MAX speed was 60 mph. This did not impress me at all. My mini van could haul just as much and go 85 easy up that pass. So the search for the power that I knew had to be under the hood and trapped somewhere in the cummins began.
Due to my limited, no actually no experience with diesel engines my first thought was to speak to the same people that had told me that the cummins is the only way to go. They said if I wanted more pwr that Banks was the way to go. The quest began and I purchased the pwr pack and installed it myself. This seemed to help a bit, but I still felt that there was something missing. My new friend (Banks) would have the answer, so I thought. The salesman (Tom) told me that the weak link is the Torque converter and that would solve my low power issue. Hence the pruchase of the torque converter and a transmission shift kit, but lets not stop there we also need an exhaust brake to slow this bad boy down when all that pwr hits the ground. These items took a while to get installed and when they finally were my PCM started having issues with the new exhaust brake. When the engine got warm the tach, A/C, and transmission in limp mode. what a joy. Anew PCM fixed that problem. The next problem started after the valve body mods. Burned up the 1st/rev band and drum. You see they increase the line pressure and have you change seals on one of the pistons but not the 1st/rev piston which blew. Got all that fixed and truck back on the road.
In summation all the banks stuff that I installed /has given me a taste of the potential that this truck has. This is when I discovered TDR and found a WHOLE LOT more information about this bad boy and have come to an impass in the making of my ultimate pulling machine. That is what my goal is. To maximize pulling comfort by having a truck that has the pwr to make the job easy and get good enough fuel milage to make it affordable. It would also be nice to look cool doing it.
So after all of that if you've made it this far I have a question or two for you. I can stop now and try to wear the truck out so I can get (justify) a new one or I can install some more goodies (things I think will enhance my pulling experiences). A list of these things are as follows.
Gear Vendors gear splitter
Air bags for the rear (Air Lift)
2inch level kit (for looks)
ATS exhaust manifold (can see that old one is shrinking)
Afe II air filter kit (to help him catch more air, have K&N now)
All mods to the truck are listed above except 33" tires and wheels, B&W 5th wheel hitch. The truck has 80k miles, 3. 5 gears and will probably need all of that steering stuff done to it in the future. It is also all paid for.
Is there something basic that I should due before doing these mods to make sure that my baby is performing to the best of its ability. How do I make sure that the injector pump is performing properly. What should I check or have checked to maximize my trucks performance. The other question is that if I do all of the mods and still don't have the performance I want then I will have a Truck that is worth about half of what I have in it. I am thinking about cutting my losses and getting a new truck.
gentlemen your thoughts please
Due to my limited, no actually no experience with diesel engines my first thought was to speak to the same people that had told me that the cummins is the only way to go. They said if I wanted more pwr that Banks was the way to go. The quest began and I purchased the pwr pack and installed it myself. This seemed to help a bit, but I still felt that there was something missing. My new friend (Banks) would have the answer, so I thought. The salesman (Tom) told me that the weak link is the Torque converter and that would solve my low power issue. Hence the pruchase of the torque converter and a transmission shift kit, but lets not stop there we also need an exhaust brake to slow this bad boy down when all that pwr hits the ground. These items took a while to get installed and when they finally were my PCM started having issues with the new exhaust brake. When the engine got warm the tach, A/C, and transmission in limp mode. what a joy. Anew PCM fixed that problem. The next problem started after the valve body mods. Burned up the 1st/rev band and drum. You see they increase the line pressure and have you change seals on one of the pistons but not the 1st/rev piston which blew. Got all that fixed and truck back on the road.
In summation all the banks stuff that I installed /has given me a taste of the potential that this truck has. This is when I discovered TDR and found a WHOLE LOT more information about this bad boy and have come to an impass in the making of my ultimate pulling machine. That is what my goal is. To maximize pulling comfort by having a truck that has the pwr to make the job easy and get good enough fuel milage to make it affordable. It would also be nice to look cool doing it.
So after all of that if you've made it this far I have a question or two for you. I can stop now and try to wear the truck out so I can get (justify) a new one or I can install some more goodies (things I think will enhance my pulling experiences). A list of these things are as follows.
Gear Vendors gear splitter
Air bags for the rear (Air Lift)
2inch level kit (for looks)
ATS exhaust manifold (can see that old one is shrinking)
Afe II air filter kit (to help him catch more air, have K&N now)
All mods to the truck are listed above except 33" tires and wheels, B&W 5th wheel hitch. The truck has 80k miles, 3. 5 gears and will probably need all of that steering stuff done to it in the future. It is also all paid for.
Is there something basic that I should due before doing these mods to make sure that my baby is performing to the best of its ability. How do I make sure that the injector pump is performing properly. What should I check or have checked to maximize my trucks performance. The other question is that if I do all of the mods and still don't have the performance I want then I will have a Truck that is worth about half of what I have in it. I am thinking about cutting my losses and getting a new truck.
gentlemen your thoughts please
