# New Old Truck for Rusty



## rusty (Apr 17, 2011)

About a week ago the transmission went in my Ford Ranger, I still had all forward gears with no reverse, the planetary drum had broke. I could have repaired the transmission for less than $100.00 in parts but the little Ford was beat and ready for the scrap yard.

One thing I have noticed these past two winters is that I was not getting the same mile per gallon,since my driving habits have not changed it came down to the gasoline. The manufactures have been adding 10% methanol and no longer have to advise at the pump that the gasoline has been adulterated. 

After giving this some thought decided to go with diesel, I owned a 93 Dodge with the Cummings engine and loved it, so I knew this engine as proven over Ford and GM who still struggle to gain market.

I wanted another standard but wife won out with the automatic, after driving the Dodge came to the conclusion that you can not do harm to the engine with an automatic it never allows over revving the engine.

Some things I check on a used vehicle, take it for a good boot test drive, park it one fresh ground and check for oil leaks after it's sat half an hour. Open the radiator cap and check for bubbles, if any show this could be a cracked cylinder head between valves or a gasket, assume the worst and pass.

Pull the dip stick form the transmission do a sniff test, if it smells or looks burnt another pass, now take careful watch over the transmission when you engage it when warm after the test drive it should be quick to engage from neutral or reverse if it is kinda sluffs this indicates the seals are hardened from being over heated usually heavy towing or the seals could be by-passing the oil which shows on cold transmission the oil can still look good and not smelling burnt. with seal problems just beginning. 

Next test is at the exhaust, take a piece of heavy paper folded in half to make a hinge hold this over the pipe so that the hinge is center the paper should have a constant blow away if it flaps to the pipe this indicates bad valves. When the valves are bad or even just leaking a bit the paper actually hits back to the pipe hard enough to make a flapping sound that is easy to hear.

When ever I bought a motor cycle never purchased one that had excessive bluing on the exhaust pipe, this indicates the bike was ridden hard.

Hope this helps to save you some grief when purchasing a used vehicle.

Regards
Rusty


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## wrecker45 (Apr 17, 2011)

hey nice brand new second hand used truck. :mrgreen: i started driving truck for a living in 1966. i was 17. cummins has always been my favorite. i had a 903 v8 in an international sleeper cab. she had a 13 speed and would do 110 mph in 11 gear. :twisted:


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## rusty (Apr 17, 2011)

wrecker45 said:


> hey nice brand new second hand used truck. :mrgreen: i started driving truck for a living in 1966. i was 17. cummins has always been my favorite. i had a 903 v8 in an international sleeper cab. she had a 13 speed and would do 110 mph in 11 gear. :twisted:



My favorite engine, Caterpillar with 550 hp with an 18 speed road ranger behind it, next choice in transmission is the 5 and 4 box with an air shift. On the newer trucks with large HP engines if you want more speed disconnect the speedometer cable at the transmission so the the computer no longer gets the MPH signal.

This should improve your driving record by racking up points and fines.

This stunt will probably void your warranty!


Regards
Rusty


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## Militoy (Apr 17, 2011)

Nice Dodge. That Cummins is certainly a sturdy engine. Wish my old Chevy pickup had a diesel in it instead of a gas engine. We're pretty big on diesels here around the house - My son has a 6.2 he has spliced into a Cherokee / Gladiator hybrid; My brother-in-law builds rock-crawlers using the Cummins 4BT; and one of my military trucks is factory-equipped with a 2-stroke Detroit 3-53.


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## rusty (Apr 17, 2011)

Militoy said:


> Nice Dodge. That Cummins is certainly a sturdy engine. Wish my old Chevy pickup had a diesel in it instead of a gas engine. We're pretty big on diesels here around the house - My son has a 6.2 he has spliced into a Cherokee / Gladiator hybrid; My brother-in-law builds rock-crawlers using the Cummins 4BT; and one of my military trucks is factory-equipped with a 2-stroke Detroit 3-53.



Me too, those Detroit diesel are like the ever ready bunny they just keep on going and going. The old Michigan loader I bought for the scrap yard in Hope B.C. sat 13 years and fired right up, drove it home after airing up the tires. Paid $500.00 for the loader and used it 4 years with only an injector change.

My Case backhoe had the 4BT Cummings engine naturally aspirated, I thought it was a bit under powered but then again you weren't breaking things in the drive-train.

I think the 4BT would make a very good engine for a rock crawler very economical on fuel, do you have any pictures.

Regards
Rusty


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## Barren Realms 007 (Apr 17, 2011)

rusty said:


> Militoy said:
> 
> 
> > Nice Dodge. That Cummins is certainly a sturdy engine. Wish my old Chevy pickup had a diesel in it instead of a gas engine. We're pretty big on diesels here around the house - My son has a 6.2 he has spliced into a Cherokee / Gladiator hybrid; My brother-in-law builds rock-crawlers using the Cummins 4BT; and one of my military trucks is factory-equipped with a 2-stroke Detroit 3-53.
> ...



I use to like the International diesels that use to put in the Fords.


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## rusty (Apr 17, 2011)

Barren Realms 007 said:


> rusty said:
> 
> 
> > Militoy said:
> ...



Barren my first gravel truck an 87 had the same engine that Ford used in their light pick up trucks, They called the engine a D190 mine had a 5 and 4 two stick transmission behind it giving me 20 forward gears with 4 reverse. actually you had more than 20 forward gears because you could split your shifts.

Trucks that had 13 speeds could not get into the soft spots where that 5 and 4 would get me with the power divider locked up, that truck made me a lot of money back in the early 80 when we were hit with that recession.

I was living in BC at the time and the Royal had some paper on the truck, I could not find any work to pay off that paper so one day walked into the loans officers office and laid the keys and paper work on her desk. She asked me that this was about when I told her the keys to the truck. She told me that the bank already had too many and no where to store them and that I could take the keys and leave.

Long story with a good ending, went to Alberta and found work hauling by the ton mile clearing $800.00 a day, it did not take long to pay out the paper, so much for belonging to 213 where the rates were like $35.00 an hour on a union job.

My father gave me a signed blank check and sent me on my way to find a truck, I sure miss my father and best friend, and those interest free loans.

Regards
Rusty


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## Barren Realms 007 (Apr 17, 2011)

WE use to run an International 2010 5 speed if I remember right. A work horse of a truck. It had a 500-750 busshel bed on it. One of those no clutch truck's, worked it's but off. But god help you if you missed a gear. You had to stop and start back running again. We bought it from an old junk yard for about $2,000.00 if I remember right. White cab and an orange bed and no power stearing. Man that thing use to work me to death. The stearing wheel was about 3' in dia. :twisted:


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## Militoy (Apr 17, 2011)

rusty said:


> Militoy said:
> 
> 
> > Nice Dodge. That Cummins is certainly a sturdy engine. Wish my old Chevy pickup had a diesel in it instead of a gas engine. We're pretty big on diesels here around the house - My son has a 6.2 he has spliced into a Cherokee / Gladiator hybrid; My brother-in-law builds rock-crawlers using the Cummins 4BT; and one of my military trucks is factory-equipped with a 2-stroke Detroit 3-53.
> ...



The vehicles he makes are the Scorpion rock-crawlers - the Top-Truck Challenge winner. (Hopefully) without violating any spam issues on the site- a link to some pix is http://scorpion4x4.com/coppermine/index.php


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## rusty (Apr 21, 2011)

The other day when I filled this old truck up, set the trip meter, after putting on 374.6 kms it took 43.42 liters to top her off, paid at the pump $52.07 CDN. We're paying $1.20 a liter for diesel it take 4 liters to make up a US gallon at 128 ounces.

Four liters of fuel cost me 4.80 CAD = 5.03666 USD

The miles were a mix of highway and city with some loaded.

Regards
Rusty


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## Harold_V (Apr 21, 2011)

It's a little better than that in that a gallon contains only 3.7854 liters. 

I've been driving a Cummins powered truck for more than ten years now. I'm sold on the engine. So much so that I now own two of them. 

Harold


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## rusty (Apr 21, 2011)

Harold_V said:


> It's a little better than that in that a gallon contains only 3.7854 liters.
> 
> I've been driving a Cummins powered truck for more than ten years now. I'm sold on the engine. So much so that I now own two of them.
> 
> Harold



Thanks for the correction Harold, I had always thought 4 liters was equal to a US gallon 128 fluid oz, our Canadian Imperial gallon 160 fluid oz is approximately 4.5 liters.

I have to agree with you Harold the Cummins engine is tops in the light trucks produced by Chrysler. They're easy on fuel, start willingly in cold weather and keep going and going. The used pick up I just purchased has 565,000 kilometers on the clock, still runs as new.

Regards
Rusty


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## Harold_V (Apr 22, 2011)

Starting is never an issue. I can hit the started for a half second, even if the truck has been sitting out in cold weather, and have it start immediately, no preheat. It doesn't run well, but it always starts. I expect that's a function of very high compression ratio. 

Nice thing about the Cummins engine is it is drastically detuned (which explains why they're good for 400,000 miles without major issues). It's easy to double horsepower and torque with minor modifications. None of the other pickups with diesels can make that claim. 

Harold


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## Militoy (Apr 24, 2011)

Harold_V said:


> It's a little better than that in that a gallon contains only 3.7854 liters.
> 
> I've been driving a Cummins powered truck for more than ten years now. I'm sold on the engine. So much so that I now own two of them.
> 
> Harold



Two - you are making me jealous! How many can you drive at the same time? Liter/gallon conversion notwithstanding - diesel fuel is fast approaching $5.00 a gallon today - at least in California. I have a hard time filling up my own toy, even for a weekend romp in the boonies. I can only imagine what it must be like for an independant over-the-road driver that depends on diesel in his rig on a daily basis, over thousands of miles week after week.


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## Harold_V (Apr 24, 2011)

Militoy said:


> Two - you are making me jealous! How many can you drive at the same time?


The oldest one, the '94 3/4 ton, is my regular drive. The second one, which I purchased new in '99, is a 1 ton. It's 4 wheel drive, and has a 10' van (box) on the rear. I made the purchase for pulling our travel trailer, plus having the ability to haul a model steam locomotive. It has only 17,000 miles on the odometer---a very nice truck. 



> diesel fuel is fast approaching $5.00 a gallon today - at least in California.


I'm north of you, in Washington State. Found one station that was at $4.29 last Monday, so I filled up. Took slightly more than 17 gallons, and I parted company with $75. The tank holds 36 gallons, so it's clear, filling an empty tank would cost over $150. And the price increases aren't over yet!

I had plans to buy a new travel trailer. I expect that's not going to happen. Don't need a trailer if you don't travel. 

Harold


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