Possibly new to me 02 SO 5.9l 5 Speed

[Spring1898]

May be picking up a 24v this week. Just wondering what all I should be looking to do to it off the bat besides fluids. Not new to diesels or Cummins, but am new to 24v/VP44.

The truck itself is in pretty good shape. Around 200k. I did a cursory overview of it once already but will be checking it out again before I buy.

From the looks of it the truck already has had a VP44 replacement, 5" exhaust, K&N intake kit, FASS 95, the whole steering / front end redone, and a gauge set, may have had a 5th gear fix.

Now I don't care about crazy HP or speed, but would be interested in some mild tuning for drivability and Fuel economy. My knowledge on tuners is a bit outdated and some companies have gone out of business etc. Quadzilla seems to make a cheap tuner with only 1-2 settings.

 

[DavidC]

If it has a K&N filter get rid of it for the standard filter set up. As far as tuners I have the edge comp, some have the juice.

 

[BigPapa]

^^^ What David said.

 

[GAmes]

Why new fluids? Do you feel the care for it was so bad that new fluids are needed? With the K&N the first thing I would do is send in an oil sample to check the silicate level and wear metals.

 

[Spring1898]

Generally my experience has been that people who replace things like power steering, coolant, brake fluid, trans and diff fluid are the exception not the rule. So generally I work through them so I have a known baseline from which to work.
For that K&N I will have to see whether there is another filter that is the right diameter to mount on the intake. I will measure after I buy it. It is actually pretty small compared to most of the intakes I have put on other trucks.

 

[gtwitch]

Go to the Junk Yard and pick up a bone stock Air filter housing and put it back on with a stock Mopar or Fleetguard filter and you will be back in business and much better filtering than K&N. There are several posts here on TDR over the years, about how the K&N does "NOT" filter the air!!
gtwitch in wyoming

 

[Cummins12V98]

Continue looking! Find a quality 01.5-02 with a 6 speed. You will thank me.

 

[Spring1898]

I would like to but my ability to spend the amount of coin required to get a nice HO is limited
For the amount I am spending and the upgrades done to this truck in my price range makes it hard to pass up.

 

[Cummins12V98]

Understood!

 

[Ozymandias]

The K&N would be enough reason for me to walk away from that.
That Engine eat dirt for how many miles now?

 

[Spring1898]

While I probably will not keep the K&N filter itself, nearly any aftermarket intake kit using a high volume filter will filter less efficiently than the OEM filter set up, which is probably why so many are recommending the stock set up. Peak flow is traded off against filtration to a level determined by the end user. Other factors include media type, oiled vs un-oiled, and immediate vs cumulative filtration, and perhaps most importantly, the environment the vehicle is in. I realize that most people understand this.
AFE oiled filters were traditionally my diesel filter set up of choice because their filters (at the time, probably almost 10 years ago) seemed to rate among the highest in cumulative tests, but (at the time) they still did not compare to an OEM set up. In my relatively low dust environment, that was worth the trade off to gain lower EGT's. Whether practically that made any difference, I was never able to tell.

K&N gets a bad rep in the diesel world, but in motorcycles and other realms they are much more highly regarded. My personal research showed that their dry media filters did as well as other aftermarket dry media filters (of which there are quite varied levels of performance)

As far as wear and tear on the engine, this is the first diesel I have seen personally with zero blow by. My previous F350 and F250 both had some. My Father's 12v has some. Every 4cyl VW TDI has a lot by big diesel standards. Every other diesel I have taken the time to check has some.
There is also about 3000 miles on the oil which is still very translucent, not the first one I have seen to do that, but probably less than a handful.

This is not to say that the K&N is the premier contributor to a seemingly well taken care of engine, but in this case I am not concerned.

By the way what is the normal idle on these 24v? It is cold here, but it seems to be hovering around 800. If I recall correctly my Father's 12v is much closer to 500.

 

[GAmes]

If your father's 12 valve idle is at 500 it is way below spec.

 

[JR]

750-800 rpm sounds right on the idle speed. It is non adjustable. There is a fast idle that will ramp up to 1200 rpm if intake temp reads below 32*F and ECT (coolant temp) reads below 140*F. If the intake manifold temp falls below 15*F the engine will ramp up to high idle and cut fuel to the front 3 cylinders to put an artificial load on the engine and bring it up to temp. Both features will cancel when the ECT reaches a certain threshold. I don't remember exactly what this temperature is but I believe it to be around 160*F. This is assuming your ecm was updated with the necessary tsb. They did not leave the factory with the fast idle capabilities.

Not to beat a dead horse, but I would at least request to pull the intake elbow off the turbo inlet and have a look at the wheel. It should be spotless. Signs of a passing filter include dirt on the clean side (anywhere in the black rubber elbow) and turbo inlet. Bad cases will reveal the wheel to appear sandblasted or roughly polished. There was a time when warranty claims for dusted engines due to K&N were such that Dodge put out a bulletin to all dealerships calling this out. They really are a bad filter even under the best of conditions. And these engines aren't cheap to rebuild if you happen to require such down the road.

 

[Joe Mc]

Like JR said = inspect. If there's even a little oil on the inlet pipe/wheel just think what the inside of the intercooler looks like.

That being said, I've had an SB oiled filter on for years and years, and for years have been thinking about going to an oil less filter with a sock of sorts to help keep the leaves etc. out. But, here I am still thinking...

 

[Ozymandias]

I used to have K&N in my Gassers back in the days, attached to naturally aspirated engine they really improve power somewhat - and sound great at WOT.
On Turbo it's just nonsens as this sucks just as much air as he needs to, no matter how restrict the intake is, at worst he sucks in the clogged airfilter itself.

 

[Joe Mc]

In a gas engine whatever oil is sucked from the filter will burn in the combustion chamber, same can be said about a diesel "but" the oil sucked from the filter coats everything else along the way to the combustion chamber causing dirt particles to build up and then dislodge later on along with insulating the inside of the intercooler. I really need to clean the inside of my intercooler and etc. then do away with the oil coated filtration...