[mosesburb]

Well, I can't find the pics I want to post, but I have been driving the hell out of this thing so I figured an update is due. With the price of diesel fuel and the mileage this gets, it is the most economical vehicle I own (never saw that coming).

Had a minor major issue awhile back when the anti-rotation strap on my fan clutch, which was designed to always be in tension, went into compression for some unknown reason. When this happened it bowed the strap enough for the fan blade to hit it and shove it into the radiator wrecking the fan and putting a pinhole in the edge of about six tubes of the radiator. Not bad. I drove it home, tore it down and took the radiator to get fixed. Well the repair did not go so well and the core got ruined, so I ended up buying a new radiator. The fan blade got dinked up a bit, so I got a new one of those also. I went with a small block fan this time as the big block fan took so much power to turn and even above 110* the fan clutch never came on for temperature--it only came on for the a/c pressure or by the manual switch. It was horrendously loud also. The one thing I did not check was how overdriven the fan pulley is on the Cummins versus the big block. At about 2k on the Cummins it sounds like about 5k with the big block. I will not know how well it works until next summer, but for now it is fine as it never turns on with the current temps. I replaced the anti-rotation strap with a piece of 1x1/8" flat stock with steel locknuts on the ends so it can move without destroying what it is bolted to. The thing I wonder about this carnage is why it waited 1100 miles to happen. Oh well.

Then last week, I get off the freeway towards work and notice I can't see out the back window very well. Hmmm, it was not that dirty when I left the house. Hmmm. What could do that?? Hmmm. I get to work and look underneath the truck and the whole underside is dripping what appears to be enigne oil. Oh my, this can not be good. It wasn't. Come to find out, the input shaft seal on the injection pump decided to take the day off without telling me, allowing fuel to flow freely into the crankcase. I had it hauled home and picked up the seal the next day. I actually picked up a pump reseal kit. It has a bunch more parts than a q-jet kit and only cost $19.50. Got home that night and pulled the injection pump out to change the seal. While it was out, I removed a child-proof cap off of one of the adjustment screws on the pump and gave it a couple turns in. When I drained the oil I figured I should use a five gallon bucket just in case it has way more than the 11qts of oil. Well, it did. I drained SIX GALLONS of liquid that looked like oil, but flowed and smelled just like diesel fuel out of it. I checked with a friend of mine at a heavy truck dealer and got his recommendation on an oil change interval and what to look for. He said watch the blowby and the oil pressure. My oil pressure had dropped significantly, but I did not know if that was due to bearing issues or just no viscosity.

After the oil change, my oil pressure is right where it used to be and there is no blowby to speak of, so I would say the bullet got dodged. When I reinstalled the injection pump, I advanced it a bit and that, coupled with the turning of the screw that no longer has the child-proof cap on it resulted in a whole ton more power--holy cow. This thing moved before, but it flat hauls now. Running down the freeway seems like it requires less effort and the whole sound of the motor has changed. All that from an advance and turning a screw a couple turns--wow.

So all seems well now. Runs good, drives good. I am getting the D60F put together, so that should be going in soon hopefully.