Frybrid 1998 Dodge / Cummins Pickup
5.9 ltr 12 valve, Bosch P7100 IP
When I decided to replace my Suburban with a diesel vehicle I began to outline exactly what I needed. I needed to have the ability to pull a trailer, carry building materials, make dump runs, move motorcycles and equipment for the shop, I needed a truck and needed 4x4 were I to be capable of towing on soft or wet ground. With a child a crew cab with 4 doors would be a requirement and living in a city the vehicle would need to be maneuverable so it would need to be as short as possible. Since the vehicle would have to have readily available replacement parts the idea of importing something was out of the question, and since Cummins manufacturers arguable the best diesel engines, and sells them to Dodge the field was narrowing. I soon discovered that the Cummins workhorse 5.9 fitted with the P7100 IP was only available from 1994 - 1998 in dodge trucks. This motor was chosen for its rock solid simplicity, ease of modification and the fact that it was fitted with a Bosch in-line injection pump with an excellent reputation.
The 5.9 12 valve P7100 motor only came in a crew cab with 4 doors for half a year, 1998 - 1998.5 and few short beds were made. I looked for about a year before I found the truck I was looking for. It was bright red (not my favorite) and had been lifted and fitted with large off-road tires (again not really what I wanted) but it was a good start.
The first thing to do was to address the known issues with there trucks and with this engine.
In order of importance they are:
The KDP or Killer Dowel Pin:
The 5.9 12v engine had a terrible fault, when the timing case was bolted to the front of the motor it was first located by several small dowel pins, the uppermost of these has a tendency to slowly vibrate loose and fall out, when this happens it falls into the timing gears and is either wedged against the aluminum housing cracking it and creating an oil leak, falls into the gears and breaks them causing the pistons to contact the valves destroying the engine, or falls into the oil pan and is not an issue.
This is the first thing that should be addressed on these motors. There are two methods of repairing this defect, the first is to remove the timing cover, remove the bolt adjacent to the pin and install an eccentric washer under the bolt which locks the pin in its hole. The second (the jig method developed by John Strenkowski ) is to drill a small hole in the cover, tap it and install a bolt which will prevent the pin from falling out. Little information on the availability of this jig is available. The first method is the most accepted and information can be found here. Kits are available for this repair from several vendors:
http://www.tstproducts.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=64
http://dodgeram.org/tech/dsl/Dowel_Pin/tab.htm
The front end:
Many of these trucks develop front end issues, mine was one of these. I replaced all the front tie rods, the steering box, the link bar and had the front end aligned. Even with all this work my truck would still pull to the right under braking so I diagnosed the brake system as follows:
Drained and replace the brake fluid with Dot 4 Super. Brake fluid absorbs water and this water can corrode the master cylinder and calipers causing one or more pistons in the caliper to seize which will result in reduced brake performance and uneven wear. Brake fluid should be changed and the system flushed every year.
Information on Brake fluids is available here and is actually quite interesting.
Removed and lubricated the pins on which the caliper moved, if these are not lubricated the caliper can bind resulting in reduced brake performance and uneven wear.
Removed and replaced the brake pads with high quality pads. Inexpensive pads and "Lifetime" pads do not function properly and can be so hard that they destroy brake rotors.
The problem persisted. Why would the brakes pull to one side if everything seemed to be functioning properly? I theorized that were one caliper to not return properly the pads would always be slightly dragging and this would heat up the pad material, when the brakes were applied the heated pad would then grab more than the other side. I carefully inspected the calipers and found them to be functioning properly so I began to inspect the flexible brake lines connecting the caliper to the vehicle and found a slight deformity in the brake line on the right side. It appeared that when the suspension was lifted and larger tires installed that the mounting tab for this line was bent and when the wheel came to full steering lock, it rubbed on the brake line. This had damaged the line so that only some of the fluid could return to the caliper and could cause the problem I had theorized. I replaced the line and the problem vanished.
The transmission:
This truck is an automatic and dodge recommends that the bands be adjusted every 24k miles, a simple adjustment to the first band mad a huge difference in the performance of my truck. Information can be found here.
In addition I adjusted my TPS (Throttle position sensor). Information here.
Modifications
General:
The following is a list of modifications I am making to this vehicle, I will post images as the modifications take place.
Install an automatic transmission cooler:
Since I plan to tow with this vehicle in hot climates it will need an transmission cooler. I have chosen an in-line cooler with a thermostatically controlled fan. This unit mounts under the truck in the return line from the factory cooler.
Dump bed:
I have made numerous trips to the dump over the past year, we have cleared out about 1.5 tons of blackberry vines, removed a cement walkway, cleared oput the basement and all the other normal homeowner duties. In the comming summer we plan to remove the rotting deck and rebuild it, remove another cement walkway and replace it with gravel, build a fence, etc. etc. SO I decided that a dump bed would save at least 1/2 the labor of all these projects and found a system which allowed me to convert the standard ben to a dump bed.
Installtion was fairly simple in a full shop and took about 6 hours. The bed was removed, a hydraulic ram, pump, strengthening braces and hindges installed. Here is the result.
The ram will lift 4,000 lbs and runs from flat to full incline in about 10 seconds.
Install gauges:
I purchased a 3 gauge pillar pod and a single gauge pod which fits over the steering column and am installing the following gauges:
EGT gauge to monitor Exhaust Gas Temperature insuring that I do not melt my engine when towing or due to performance modifications.
Boost Gauge to monitor turbo boost, an early indication of a failing turbo, plugged air filter etc. which can result in engine damage.
Transmission temp gauge to monitor transmission temps so i do not burn it up while towing.
Vegetable oil fuel level gauge to monitor the level of VO in the fuel tank.
To install the pillar pod I removed the stock pillar cover and cut from it the three spring clip sections by simply cutting the cover horizontally with a hack saw, I then trimmed about 3/4 of an inch from each side (the side where it would meet the door seal and the side where it would meet the windshield). I then installed these sections on the pillar and put some hot glue on each one and quickly installed the new pillar pod and pressed it to the three sections and waited for the glue to cure. I removed the new pillar pod carefully with the three spring clip sections attached, turned it over on the bench and securely glued all the sections in place with copious amounts of hot glue. The result was a new pillar pod which was held in place just as the original had been with no ugly screws.
Performance modifications:
Cam plate:
The 5.9 12v motor fitted with the P7100 Injection pump can produce an amazing amount of power, much of this is controlled by the injection pumps fuel delivery and this is adjustable with a "Cam plate", I have just installed a #6 cam plate and the improvement is amazing. Taking the engine from the stock 180 hp to 250 hp. Information here. The procedure is simple and took me about 40 minutes.
The PDR Governor Spring Kit:
This is a special combination of Bosch springs and Piers' unique design on seats. The GSK is designed to allow your pump to rev past factory settings without compromising pump safety. 3000RPM and 4000RPM kits available. I chose the 3k spring kit and will be installing it shortly. Information here.
Vegetable oil system:
The Frybrid system in this truck is the new Frybrid system, it utilizes a controlled loop return and while running on vegetable oil the returned fuel is fed back into the vegetable oil system between the filter and the final fuel heat exchanger, but returns to the vegetable oil tank when in the purge cycle. This system has several benefits; it requires that only the amount of fuel being burned by the engine be drawn from the tank and pass through the filter. Since a diesel system may circulate as much as 60 gallons per hour while only consuming 3 or 4 gallons per hour, this syletem extends filter life, reduces vacuum on the fuel system and since the fuel being put back into the heat exchanger has already been heated, it increases the efficiency of the heating system. In order to accomplish this we are using 3 valves; one conmtrollign the source of the fuel, one controlling the return of the fuel and another controlling the path of the returned vegetable oil. All functions are controlled by the Microprocessor.
In this image you can see the mounting plate on the valve covers, the three valves and the use of JIC fittings and push on hose connections.
In this image the custom tank can be seen. This tank was complicated by the requirement that the hydraulic ram sits just above the tank. On the right side of the tank pictured the in-tank heat exchanger can be seen, on the left side are the filler cap, vent, level gauge and an additional port for remote filling.
Winch and Power
I installed a front bumper hitch in addition to the rear one on the truck, on each of these hitches I installed a quick-connect connector hooked up to the battery, I then installed a quick-connect connector on my winch, a transfer pump, a barrel lift and a set of 35' jumper cables. Now any of these accessories can be moved from the front of the vehicle to the rear and connected without opening the hood.
