2020 ES Manual: My Lil' Truckster...

[MetroMPG]

Hey, congrats!!

Nice summary of pros/cons.

I'm going to copy your mini-review to a dedicated thread in the reviews section where it may get a few more eyeballs.

PS: don't forget to make a garage entry for it.

[Fummins]

No, it's WAAAAAY better than that. Ha! (Just a matter of opinion.) It is a 2000 Dodge Ram 2500HD 4X4 Quad Cab Long Bed 6 Speed Cummins. I've had it since it was born and have had very little trouble out of it. A for real 5" straight pipe. No cats, no resonator, no muffler.

Attachment 19365

I just found a pick of my old 02 Dog! I was hauling water. Had 2 275 gallon totes in the back lol Basically 2 Mirages. They weren't tied down and I couldn't open the tailgate so I rolled down the driveway and hit the brakes to slide them forward a little(too far)
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[7milesout]

You should have kept that jewel.

[Fummins]

You should have kept that jewel.

I kinda miss it. I wasn’t nice to it lol. It was an automatic so that was a weak link.

Did you ever have yours cold enough to kill 2 cylinders to warm up faster? That was neat

[klroger]

Did you ever have yours cold enough to kill 2 cylinders to warm up faster? That was neat

OK, Now I have to ask you to explain this to me??? Was this just a Cummins thing??? I know they had the heater in the intake, but was unaware of other warm-up programming... Some of this stuff is really interesting...

[Fummins]

OK, Now I have to ask you to explain this to me??? Was this just a Cummins thing??? I know they had the heater in the intake, but was unaware of other warm-up programming... Some of this stuff is really interesting...

It was a 98.5-02 dodge diesel thing. I had someone at a dealer enable that feature on mine. When it’s cold it’d start like normal then ramp up the idle after a min or so to help the engine warm up. When its really cold it would bump the idle up then cut fuel to 2 or 3 cylinders(I forget). It sounded like chit! It did help get the engine up to temp. If it idled at normal rpm in the cold it would never put out heat.

I just found a video, maybe it was 3cylinders not 2? https://youtube.com/shorts/8SDHKq3DYLY?feature=share

[7milesout]

No, that feature is not active on mine. The coldest I ever saw was -5°F when I lived in Michigan. It fired up, but it was missing on at least 2 cylinders. It made the one in that video sound GOOD. It took it about 30 seconds to get them all fired up. It's done that maybe twice.

I would suspect that's killing 2 cylinders but I don't know. And maybe it's alternating which 2 cylinders it's killing. But the dead cylinders require the rest of the engine to work harder to overcome them not pulling their load.

[klroger]

It was a 98.5-02 dodge diesel thing. I had someone at a dealer enable that feature on mine. When it’s cold it’d start like normal then ramp up the idle after a min or so to help the engine warm up. When its really cold it would bump the idle up then cut fuel to 2 or 3 cylinders(I forget). It sounded like chit! It did help get the engine up to temp. If it idled at normal rpm in the cold it would never put out heat.

I just found a video, maybe it was 3cylinders not 2? https://youtube.com/shorts/8SDHKq3DYLY?feature=share

Cool, I didn't know they did that.. Thanks for the info...

[7milesout]

klroger - From my memory, that feature had to be activated. Back when I had any interest in that, the dealer would charge about $80 or so to activate it. I was not interested in it THAT much. I purposely NEVER wanted a dealer to connect their computer to my OBD. At least back in the day (they may still do this), if the software is not the latest version, while they had it connected, they would flash to the latest version automatically (would not even tell the owner).

I wanted to avoid that flashing at all cost. Because the new software did things I didn't agree with. For example, it would dumb down the temp gauge. Meaning, the temp gauge would follow a preset movement from cold to warm. And then it would hold that preset warm position until either a) the vehicle was shut off, or b) an overheat condition was detected ... at which point the needle would slam right to hot. They did that because many dudes would see their coolant gauge move more toward the right than they were used to, so they would take it to the dealer to "fix." When there wasn't really any problem, and there was nothing a dealer could do. So it was a waste of time for the dealer to have to mess with. So they dumbed it down. And did other things, who knows. I didn't want that, so I have never had a dealer to connect to my OBD.

How do I know they never have? Well, I think it's only been to a dealer twice in its life. And both times I move the OBD connector out of its mount, and push it back up into a wire bundle where it cannot be found. The last dealer I ever took it to gave me the standard, we're going to have to charge you a $115 diagnostic fee regardless. I gave them the keys and said, "good luck with that."

It needed a lift pump. A simple thing really, but messy. I called them beforehand to make sure they had a lift pump on hand. They did. I went in and said, "please replace the lift pump with the XXXX-XXXX lift pump part you have in house." That's when he said, "OK, but we have to charge you a diagnostic fee to confirm your codes." I said, don't bother, I'm simply asking you to replace the lift pump, doesn't matter if it is good or bad, just replace it." He said, "we have to check your codes and charge you the diagnostic fee." That's when they would flash the computer. And that's when I said, good luck with that.

When I went back to pick it up later that day, the same guy was ringing me up on the bill. He gave me the most sarcastic sideways glances. I was dying to see the bill to make sure I didn't have a diagnostic charge on there because I know there was no way they could have connected. Looked at the bill, no diagnostic fee. I didn't rub his nose in it. Just paid the bill and left. When I got home, it took me about 20 minutes of digging around to find that connector. I was about to lose my s--t thinking they had cut off the connector. Finally I found it, so there was no way they found it. Snapped it right back into the mount. My truck is as dealer virgin as can be. And runs perfect. The point is, that feature was not that desired by me because I don't let it idle much at all. And I knew I wouldn't live in Michigan much longer ... because wife. I would be driving before that kicked in. And keeping a dealer's mitts off my computer was very important to me.