New Member, New Truck, Need Advice

[Bowtie Smoker]

Found this site soing research before buying my new pride and joy. Just bought a 90 Chevy four-door w/ CM flatbed and complete 93 dodge drivetrain. Got a few questions.
1) Getrag: Fill with what type fluid, parts store said 5w-30, is this right?
2) Has 3.54 gears, in 4th gear at 45 mph has vibration, no tach yet so don't know RPM's. Any thoughts? The previous owner just put in South Bend clutch and tailshaft bearing on t-case. The only thing loose I can find is carrier bearing on custom driveshaft. Could that be it?
3) Drove it on Interstate yesterday and wound it up pretty good to see how fast she would move. Got out and noticed oil all over bed boxes. loked under and found quite a bit of oil. I drove it regular for 300 miles before this and never saw any oil. After inspection lots of oil dripping off transmission crossmember. Blow-by tube was tucked up on frame and I think oil came from blow-by tube. What would cause excessive oil from blow-by and high RPM. I am not a diesel expert, been around tractors and equipment my whole life, but where does blow-by actually come from?
4) Had a 94 P-Stroke and always ran Rotella and Lucas. What oil should I run in this? Fella I know has 93 cummins and all he has run is 20w-50 and he has around 300k on it. This engine has 250k to 300k.

Thanks for any help.

 

[crashnzuk]

Found this site soing research before buying my new pride and joy. Just bought a 90 Chevy four-door w/ CM flatbed and complete 93 dodge drivetrain. Got a few questions.
1) Getrag: Fill with what type fluid, parts store said 5w-30, is this right?
2) Has 3.54 gears, in 4th gear at 45 mph has vibration, no tach yet so don't know RPM's. Any thoughts? The previous owner just put in South Bend clutch and tailshaft bearing on t-case. The only thing loose I can find is carrier bearing on custom driveshaft. Could that be it?
3) Drove it on Interstate yesterday and wound it up pretty good to see how fast she would move. Got out and noticed oil all over bed boxes. loked under and found quite a bit of oil. I drove it regular for 300 miles before this and never saw any oil. After inspection lots of oil dripping off transmission crossmember. Blow-by tube was tucked up on frame and I think oil came from blow-by tube. What would cause excessive oil from blow-by and high RPM. I am not a diesel expert, been around tractors and equipment my whole life, but where does blow-by actually come from?
4) Had a 94 P-Stroke and always ran Rotella and Lucas. What oil should I run in this? Fella I know has 93 cummins and all he has run is 20w-50 and he has around 300k on it. This engine has 250k to 300k.

Thanks for any help.

Good lookin' truck you got there.

1)Yes, 5-30 in what ever flavor you like. Most will recommend synthetic, but I've used standard oil and syn-blend in mine and both work fine.

2)If you have an iffy carrier bearing, change it and see if that's it. It is possible you have a vibe caused by driveshaft angle or phasing though since this drivetrain was swapped in. Try the easy/obvious first though. Also, being a dually with aftermarket wheels, make sure they are running true. Some wheels don't center on the hub correctly.

3)If your tube was tucked up in the frame, it may be collecting oil and then blowing it out when running it hard. Make it so the tube hangs straight down with no restriction and see what happens. Blow-by, or excessive crankcase pressure is caused by worn piston rings letting combustion gasses past the pistons. My neighbor has a med-duty truck with a C series Cummins that does what you describe. In the valley, it runs fine and leaks zero oil. As soon as you take it and run it hard up a grade, it is spewing oil from the road-draft tube like the Valdez. I think his engine is worn out. Hopefully yours is just a tube issue.

4)I run Chevron Delo 15-40 in mine, but others run Shell Rotella. Doesn't really matter as long as it's diesel oil. I prefer to stick with one brand once I start using it so as not to have any problems with additive package incompatibility.

Hope this helps you some.
Travis..

 

[argve]

Nice looking rig!

The drive line vibration does sound like the carrier bearing since you mention that it's loose.

 

[Bowtie Smoker]

Thanks for the help. Where is the best place to buy gauges? I want all new gauges and it lacks pyro, boost, and tach. I want a new exhaust manifold, best one? How do I know if it is factory turbo housing, what markings would it have on it?

 

[argve]

The factory turbo is/was a WH1C by holset.

Exhaust manifold - I used an ATS 3 piece unit - better flow "supposed anyways" but I liked the fact that it had room to move around the stock ones because of their size have a nasty habit of cracking or lifting the head from the block because of the heat and cooling cycles they go through.

Gauges - you can pick them just about anywhere. I had a neat gauge in my goat truck it was a westach dual gauge had both the pyro and boost gauge all in one.

I have used Isspro gauges in the past and liked them the best. You can get them color coded in that part of the sweep will be green, then yellow then finally red so that you look at them in a glance and see where you are running.

What I found with pyro and boost gauges especially the boost gauge is that the only time I really used them was when I was troubleshooting a problem other than that I just drove because I found I really didn't need to know what the boost and temps were while running down the road - if I was getting on it I didn't need a gauge to tell me because my right foot already knew. But I didnt' have problems with EGT control in the old goat truck, she flowed pretty well in the exhaust dept so she kept her cool. But on a new to me truck I would have gauge until I learned how she acted.