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C3500HD tow rig

Primary vehicle for towing trailers
Overview Gallery Discussion
Rear lights taken care of, 6in LED ovals where the original square lights were. Finally street legal hahaha.

Rinsed out the storage boxes, had a few inches of dirt in each.

Rides smoother than it used to, extra thousand pounds on the rear helps haha. New turbo certainly whistles a tune when driving.

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Fuel system upgrade. Water separator, raptor 150 lift pump, final filter (can't remember if 2 or 5 micron rated), plumbed with 1/2in line from the tank to the engine.

Got some badly water contaminated fuel about 2 weeks ago, spurred me to just get the plumbing and tubing needed to install this. The leak prone stock filter added to the frustration.

In about 3 hours of run/drive time so far it's removed a quart of water, tank has about 50 gallons of "fuel" in it at the moment.

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friend of mine in 2011 down in NC got some bad bio-diesel and it took out 2 pumps on his cummins trucks . 1 in his 3500 flatbed personal and one in his tooltruck for work . . . oh was he pissed . the personal truck i saw it sheered off the shaft to the pump after he removed the cover .

clean fuel on diesel is 100% priority #1 ........ my 1 friend up here owner operator got his own tank at home for his rig just for this fact .
 
sweetk30 said:
friend of mine in 2011 down in NC got some bad bio-diesel and it took out 2 pumps on his cummins trucks . 1 in his 3500 flatbed personal and one in his tooltruck for work . . . oh was he pissed . the personal truck i saw it sheered off the shaft to the pump after he removed the cover .

clean fuel on diesel is 100% priority #1 ........ my 1 friend up here owner operator got his own tank at home for his rig just for this fact .
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Yep bad fuel can cause major damage on diesels, common rail engines are far more susceptible to issues than these older ones. Thankfully the issues I was having ranged from sporadic low power to intermittent stalling. Newer would have taken out the injectors and likely the main pump.

Corrected the water separator mounting location. Way that housing is designed it works best when sitting above the fuel tank. If anyone is wondering I can hear the lift pump when idling, but not while driving.

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Roughly 2 quarts of water drained out from the fuel, new system is working great. A tune will happen in the future but thats it for performance upgrades.

Swapped from a 195F to a 180F thermostat to give that extra buffer when working the engine and the temps go up.

Headed back to Utah next week so did a test with the camper and new bed. Trailer nose is higher than it should be, talking to a welder about mounting the recessed b&w hitch to fix the problem. Rear suspension squats just under 1in with the weight on it, that's without the overload springs hahaha.

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Past week started off promising. Lowered the hitch all the way to the frame, can use the Cody Cushion hitch with the camper.

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Hitch lowered

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Then on the trip up to Utah it went well until a little past Cortez Colorado, where blowby massively increased and could no longer keep temps at or below 210F. Feels like it lost a cylinder as well.

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red EOD said:
Past week started off promising. Lowered the hitch all the way to the frame, can use the Cody Cushion hitch with the camper.

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Hitch lowered

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Then on the trip up to Utah it went well until a little past Cortez Colorado, where blowby massively increased and could no longer keep temps at or below 210F. Feels like it lost a cylinder as well.

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Well I guess you're close enough to try and limp it home, drive at night and keep an eye on oil levels.
By the way, 210 is not high, especially for a diesel.
When you get past 225 is when I worry.
My freightliner runs at 210 steady and stays at 220 up hills all the time winter included
 
imiceman44 said:
Well I guess you're close enough to try and limp it home, drive at night and keep an eye on oil levels.
By the way, 210 is not high, especially for a diesel.
When you get past 225 is when I worry.
My freightliner runs at 210 steady and stays at 220 up hills all the time winter included
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Most engines absolutely correct. 6.5 and 6.2 has a known reputation of failing at temps over 210F.

1 quart every 20 miles between Cortez and Monticello, it didn't make it past Monticello.
 
That sucks. At least you have the camper to stay in where you break. You got someone coming from up north to get this?
 
Truckman4life said:
That sucks. At least you have the camper to stay in where you break. You got someone coming from up north to get this?
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Friend towed the camper up to Cedar Fort last night and stored the truck at a mechanic shop in Monticello. Trying to make arrangements to get the truck up here later this week.

Might be money ahead in the long run to get a different truck. Lack of 4x4 and crew cab are my 2 main problems with this truck.

Have a friend with a spare 6.2 diesel available if I go the cheap upfront route of replacing the engine.
 
That sucks. Engine swap is easy and straightforward to go with the 6.2 block. Doesn’t help your other issues though.
 
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