Well I bit the bullet and bought a new (used) truck back in June. Previously, I actually had 2 trucks…one that could haul a barn and one that got decent mileage. I got to thinking and realized that was stupid, so I replaced them with this:
1996 Dodge Ram 3500, 4x4, 5 speed, dually, Cummins diesel.
The thing will tow a battleship and still gets 18 MPG.
Here’s a few more pics:
I found it down in Mississippi. I have family in Nashville, TN, so I flew into there, rented a car, drove to MS, and drove it back home. Nashville is an awesome city btw…
Anyway, it had 172,000 on it when I picked it up, new tires, all new steering components and was 100% stock except for the large air filter. It had a large dent in the left front fender and a pretty good ding in the hood, so I had my buddy fix that before I even brought the truck to my house. I got it back home and gave it a good thorough cleaning first…it was pretty gross. Then I immediately went into the power mods. Stock, the truck wasn’t bad at all, but I can’t leave anything alone. Additionally it only got 13.7 MPG on the drive home from MS, so I knew mods would be in order. I was specifically looking for a 94-98 Cummins since the fuel system is 100% mechanical, no computerized anything. This makes it MUCH easier to mess around with. Inside the injection pump is a small plate with a contour on it that the governor arm rides up and down on. When the arm hits a valley on the plate, it allows more fuel to the engine. There are peaks on the plate to defuel the engine to help control EGT. The plate is mounted with slotted holes so it can be slid back and forth to allow more or less fueling. I pulled the stock plate and reground it so it’s pretty much flat now and slid it forward to allow more fueling. I also disassembled the AFC (air fuel control) and modified it for more rack travel (more fuel). There are adjustments for zero boost fuel, partial boost fuel, and full boost fuel so I spent a LOT of time jerking around with everything so the truck makes tons of power and pulls hard but doesn’t smoke like a forest fire. I also removed the turbocharger silencer just to annoy the dogs in the neighborhood and scare away the deer. The truck ran awesome after these mods, but the EGT was way hot. On a couple occasions I pegged the pyrometer at 1500*. The injection timing on these engines was set at 12.5* from the factory, so I bumped that to 15.5*. I also ditched the crappy stock exhaust and went with 4" back into the dual stacks. It sounds niiiiiiice. These two mods cooled the EGT waaaay off and I picked up a bunch more power. At WOT on a slight incline in 5th gear she’ll hit about 1350* at 34 psi. Right now I’d ballpark it right around 330 hp and over 800ft/lbs torque. Stock the truck was 215hp, 440ft/lbs torque. The only problem I have now is that the clutch won’t hold the power. If I mash the throttle in 4th gear it’ll slip the clutch. I’m saving up for a SouthBend feramic 13" HD clutch…it’s only $1000 :roll2: but it’ll work right and last a long time. I switched every lubricant in the truck over to synthetic as well. Guys with these trucks are reporting a 1-2 MPG gain just from the reduced friction. After all the mods, I’m making over 100 more horspower, almost doubled the torque, and went from 13.7 MPG to 18 MPG. I love diesels.
The only other thing I had to do now was fix the front of the flatbed. The truck was a feed hauler and the salt in the feed rotted out the front few inches of the bed. I picked up some diamond plate and some rectangular tubing and fixed 'er up. Here’s a pic of the repair:
I did the exhaust and put the stacks in when I had the front of the bed cut off, it made life a lot easier. Now I just have to paint the bed and we’ll be all set. 
