Author Topic: 97 Dodge Ram 2500, AKA Shitty Dodge  (Read 32417 times)

TrailTamer

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97 Dodge Ram 2500, AKA Shitty Dodge
« on: May 30, 2013, 02:43:37 PM »
I call my truck "shitty dodge"

bought with 199k miles I believe 3 years ago.

now have 230k miles (I had a 94 escort manual to DD with before I came to Rochester for RIT)

I originally bought it to be used as tow rig for my towing needs. Right now I don't really have anything to tow with right now. So it's mainly my DD when the weather's bad or far distance. I ride my bicycle to school whenever I can.

I am running WMO as W85(Waste Motor Oil) in the 12v Cummins. Most alternative fuel user will call it as W85, in meaning of 85% waste oil to 15% RUG (Regular Unleaded Gasoline), if you wonder what it means.

I has been running on WMO for approximately 7k miles now. During that 7k miles I had around three tanks of straight D2 (didn't bring enough WMO with me on one of my road trip). Clogged a fuel filter once. Harder to start when cold and require pedal to fire but will always starts. Will not idle on its own when cold as well so I installed a "pull and turn to lock" kind of cable from NAPA, attached to the pedal for the cold start and driving so I don't need to drive with both of my feet.

I built my filtering set-up to process waste oil into usable fuel for my truck in my garage. I blend my waste oil with 15% RUG to settle out majority of dirt/sludges and water then I pump it through a set of motor oil filters, into centrifuging barrel, using pabiodiesel 55 GPH (I wish I have gone with something bigger lol).

more on that later when I get pics of it.

I built the trans last year. I pulled it out at 210k miles, IIRC, to rebuild/upgrade. The trans looked original but EVERYTHING inside looks FANTASTIC for this mileage. ABSOLUTELY no problem spotted anywhere.  I did the clutch pack upgrade (i used big blue's step by step to do this on compd). I put in billet accumulator piston, second gear servo, and all other small goodies. I bought my $300 single billet disk tq converter locally in chicago, no problem with it whatsoever. sadly no billet input shaft, but that's in the plan in future, with other more goodies to hold up for more power, or 6 speed manual swap. The valve body has been upgraded too. this trans work great, no slipping. I'm running 50% DIII, 50% tractor hydraulic fluid.

The engine are relatively stock, other than turned up pump. The pump have advanced timing to ~16*, gauges (pyro, trans, boost, and fuel pressure), Mack plug, AFC housing mods, and a fuel plate grinded into a 100 profile. If I remove the fuel plate, my truck can make dang near 50 psi of boost at WOT, but of course EGT are pegged hardcore. I am running the 100 fuel plate in it to limit the boost to ~35 psi boost max and no HIGH egt.

I am planning to do some upgrade to the front end in near future. I found a set of ford ball joint knuckles with the bolt-on calipers on pirate4x4 and should be here in mail soon.

I'll need to get everything else.....

-spindle
-hub
-35 spline stubs
-yukon hardcore locking hubs
-78/79 ford D60 driver side inner shaft, 35 spline
-99-04 ford D60 passenger side inner shaft, 35 spline
-an axle shaft seal of a kind for the passenger side of the pumpkin
-brakes (calipers, rotors, and pads)
-and some small pieces... as usual.

I am still not sure if I should ditch the D70U for a D80....

In the next few weeks I'll put on new flip out towing mirrors to replace my stock floppy mirrors and put on the door panels i got from mr.mindless (thanks!) and upgrade trans oil pan to goerend's unit and some kind of bigger oil cooler up front, possibly with a fan to help it to stay cool this year when I go on the sands again in silver lake. last year my truck's trans temp rose to around 275'ish IIRC  :o





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TrailTamer

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Re: 97 Dodge Ram 2500, AKA Shitty Dodge
« Reply #1 on: May 30, 2013, 02:47:58 PM »
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Harrison

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Re: 97 Dodge Ram 2500, AKA Shitty Dodge
« Reply #2 on: May 30, 2013, 03:03:01 PM »
Hmm, if yours is "Shitty Dodge", Idk what mine should have been called haha

Nice rig. I'll definitely be interested in seeing the centrifuge setup. I'm starting with sock filters (today actually) and running 30% to see how it does, 3 tanks of D2 in 7k miles is impressive!

KingtheZJ

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Re: 97 Dodge Ram 2500, AKA Shitty Dodge
« Reply #3 on: May 30, 2013, 03:04:16 PM »
complete BJ D60s have been had recently for $300. So keep them in mind when piecing together the spindles/hubs etc.

see discussion here about the Yukon blem shafts which are marketed as USA standard. Skip to post 44 for pics with the joints installed.
http://bb.m4wdfabrications.com/index.php?topic=769.0
Rock auto sell the 35spline USA Standard 4340 stubs for $60 each ($138 shipped/pair). check the pirate vender i linked in the first post of that other thread.

Is the 78/79 ford D60 driver side inner shaft commonly used for the CAD delete? I have one you can have. Its a stock neckdown shaft. Yukon Hardcore Lockouts are the way to go. They are $270 shipped from a vender on pirate (afaik, thats the cheapest).

Nick

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Re: 97 Dodge Ram 2500, AKA Shitty Dodge
« Reply #4 on: May 30, 2013, 03:35:29 PM »
Hi ho to another alternate fuel Cummins guy!

TrailTamer

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Re: 97 Dodge Ram 2500, AKA Shitty Dodge
« Reply #5 on: May 30, 2013, 08:06:57 PM »
complete BJ D60s have been had recently for $300. So keep them in mind when piecing together the spindles/hubs etc.

see discussion here about the Yukon blem shafts which are marketed as USA standard. Skip to post 44 for pics with the joints installed.
http://bb.m4wdfabrications.com/index.php?topic=769.0
Rock auto sell the 35spline USA Standard 4340 stubs for $60 each ($138 shipped/pair). check the pirate vender i linked in the first post of that other thread.

Is the 78/79 ford D60 driver side inner shaft commonly used for the CAD delete? I have one you can have. Its a stock neckdown shaft. Yukon Hardcore Lockouts are the way to go. They are $270 shipped from a vender on pirate (afaik, thats the cheapest).

I forgot to add to the list, I'll need 35 spline side gears to put in the carrier to accept the 35 spline shafts (I think it's 30 or 32 spline stock in dodge bj D60). And block off plate when I remove the cad mess.

I'm not too sure I'll want the stock 78/79 axle shaft with the neck down as that'll be the weakest link on entire of the axle assembly when I'm done. If its a non-neck down then I may be interested.

The cad is on the passenger side of the D60. The 78/79 inner left axle shaft is correct in length to use to get the 35 spline shafts without going custom. The 99-04 Ford SD D60's inner right is also correct in length to delete the cad and get the 35 spline shafts.

Info can be found here on how to cobble something together to make those dodge BJ D60 somewhat decent. http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/dodge/653085-dodge-dana-60-front-tech.html

TrailTamer

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Re: 97 Dodge Ram 2500, AKA Shitty Dodge
« Reply #6 on: May 30, 2013, 08:12:59 PM »
Nick and Harrison-

Be warned, if you expect your truck to run smokeless on WMO, you'll be disappointed. Otherwise enjoy the money saving!!!! Every 50 gallons I burn, it only cost me approximately $30-$35. Better than $200 at $4/ea gal!!!!

KingtheZJ

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Re: 97 Dodge Ram 2500, AKA Shitty Dodge
« Reply #7 on: May 31, 2013, 08:39:19 AM »
i have 35spline side gears you can have.

my chromo inners were 175 shipped. see that other thread.


sounds like you have it planned out nice. I'll keep an eye out for a ford D60 for you. Iver bought 3 78-79 D60s around this area in the past year. paid $450 max, and sold 2 housing for $400. So if you found one of those you could easily make money on the deal. BJ housings are still worth money, but not as much.

TrailTamer

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Re: 97 Dodge Ram 2500, AKA Shitty Dodge
« Reply #8 on: June 04, 2013, 11:11:00 PM »
Anyone know where I can buy por-15 locally? I want to use some of it in/on bottom of my doors while I have the panels off to prevent any rust from growing (no rust there as far as I've seen and want it to remain that way).

TrailTamer

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Re: 97 Dodge Ram 2500, AKA Shitty Dodge
« Reply #9 on: June 04, 2013, 11:13:21 PM »
i have 35spline side gears you can have.

my chromo inners were 175 shipped. see that other thread.


sounds like you have it planned out nice. I'll keep an eye out for a ford D60 for you. Iver bought 3 78-79 D60s around this area in the past year. paid $450 max, and sold 2 housing for $400. So if you found one of those you could easily make money on the deal. BJ housings are still worth money, but not as much.

Thanks for the 35 spline side gears! Post here or pm me if you find something for me that I could use.

I tried to find those 4340 usa standard axle shafts on rock auto website but I can't find exact what I need so ill try to call rockauto to order what I want.

mr.mindless

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Re: 97 Dodge Ram 2500, AKA Shitty Dodge
« Reply #10 on: June 18, 2013, 05:08:07 PM »
this trans work great, no slipping. I'm running 50% DIII, 50% tractor hydraulic fluid.

Finally catching up on some reading and got to this thread - that's an interesting recipe to run in a trans whose family is famously picky on fluid. What's the reasoning behind that? Everything that I've read says the clutch packs don't last with Dex fluid in there
Quote from: etk300ex
oh lord!

TrailTamer

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Re: 97 Dodge Ram 2500, AKA Shitty Dodge
« Reply #11 on: June 20, 2013, 12:23:38 AM »
http://www.competitiondiesel.com/forums/showthread.php?t=120969

This thread is what made me to run hydraulic fluid & DIII mix. I bought 5 gallon of tractor hydraulic oil with green lid from oreilly for way less than what it'll cost for DIII or the gold-mixed ATF+4. I follow many of big blue's auto trans modding ideas. Mind you, goerend recommend DIII with a bottle of lubeguard.

The main reason I go hydraulic fluid cuz it have more higher temperature tolerance before failing and better holding for clutches and better sealing and cheaper to buy. Worked fine in the winter at 50/50 ratio.

mr.mindless

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97 Dodge Ram 2500, AKA Shitty Dodge
« Reply #12 on: June 20, 2013, 09:37:04 AM »
Very interesting read.

I do wonder how the clutch longevity might change. CompD is full of folks who think a 50k trans life is normal - but in those trucks it often is. My dodge auto experience is limited to gassers - where they last 50k+ crawling no problem.

I might think about the higher end tractor fluid as a fill for a few things now that I wouldnt have before.



You've got a 1500 stall in that thing? Wow.


Tapatalking in traffic
Quote from: etk300ex
oh lord!

TrailTamer

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Re: 97 Dodge Ram 2500, AKA Shitty Dodge
« Reply #13 on: June 21, 2013, 05:43:44 AM »
I don't have that 1500 rpm stall converter in my truck right now. I have goerend's triple disk stalled to 1500 rpm and their upgraded valve body back at home waiting for my next round of trans upgrade/rebuild. I'm waiting to "find" some $ (i hoped to get that VA tow job!) to buy billet input shaft and some other little sonnax billet goodies then the trans will be coming out then that's when I'll inspect how it reacted the tractor fluid and decide if I'll run that again or go back to 100% DIII.

My truck currently have billet single disk with lower stall than stock. No idea what it's rated at but not much less than stock stall. In my opinion it is still way too loose, becaus soon as I can lock up the converter, the truck literally take off so I know that 1500 rpm stall will be the ticket for my driving habit and goerend said this is their most selling stall speed.

TrailTamer

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Re: 97 Dodge Ram 2500, AKA Shitty Dodge
« Reply #14 on: July 11, 2013, 07:41:06 PM »
I thought that I'll make a post on how I'm doing my WMO operations

most pics are self-explanation



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