I am just looking for some information on my truck I have only had it for about 2 weeks now. Its a 99 54 block cummins. I have the edge juice w/attitude, I have the fass titanium 150lp, arp head studs, ats 47re not sure which one exactly. And an s&b intake. Truck has 244k not sure about the tranny. I just want to know if there is anything I should look out for. And anyone's input on a sump or draw straw is appreciated as well. Also is a major pain in the *** to startfirst thing in the morning unless I plug it in.

 

Well my 1st question would be what temps do you have to plug it in @? And when it is running and driving do you notice anything else? smoke? and if so what color? does it have bigger sticks, bigger turbo? I would think your intake heater might not be working but also make sure your starting system is up to snuff weak batts and bad terminals can plague cold starts. On to the tranny ATS puts the serial # above the pan rail on the pass side on newer builds and on the bellhousing on older if you can find it call them and they can tell you. You just treat it like a dodge tranny run mopar atf+4 and mopar filter and adjust the bands like its stk, if you tow make sure you have a temp gauge. now as far as sump I've put fass and beans in, my personal trucks have beans in them I like them for ease of mounting w 1 bolt and one 3" hole in the tank. Now my partner in my shop is a master cert mechanic who works for kenworth during the day and he likes fass and he likes to do things the hard way we actually put 1 in for a customer last night and that requires 1 1 3/8" hole in the top one 2 3/4" in the bottom and 10 1/4" holes to mount the sump that's a lot of places for leaks. I'm not opposed to that style system everyone has a different preference. It depends on if you wana draw out the top w a bulkhead fitting or out the bottom w an external hose if you go offroad or in the woods you may not want the hose on the bottom of the tank. The other thing is do you wana drop your tank or pull the bed off to put a fass sump in w a upper bulkhead fitting because you hv to put a hole in the top and bottom. Now on vp trucks you want to try to keep your fuel press going to your ip below 20 psi there is the potential to rupture the small diaphragm in the ip. I generally see 22psi idling and that's a little close 18-20 is better. If you don't know who or when the studs got done it doesn't hurt to check them if your running a lot of boost just so you know they are torqued right Ive put head gaskets in trucks that hv studs bc no one wants to be bothered to retorque them and thn they pop it and wonder why even though they have studs. If you cam it and put valve springs in it and wana turn it 4000 rpm or higher buy a elec water pump those blocks don't like lots of water pressure and cavitation from high rpm that's why they make billet freeze plugs and coolant bypass kits ive seen 53s, 54s and 55s crack w lots of rpm, boost, hp, and factory style water pumps. I actually have a cracked 55 now and all its seen is 4k rpm but it blew all the freeze plugs out and now its got billet plugs , elec pump and a 1/2" plate bolted to the block but ive also seen 400k mile 53s that see a lot of towing w no issues. Any other info you can post about the truck would be helpful like boost, egts , fuel press, if it has bigger sticks, higher output vp, etc

 

At an idle my fuel pressure runs from 15-16 the most boost I have built is 22lbs.I have the edge attitude with hot unlocked, I dont run it on hot my egts go through the roof and my tranny temp starts yelling at me. I was told it was only the 53 block that had issues with cracking. I think the guy said it was the 54 block but I'm not 100% possitive. He did say it was one of the better blocks that was made in Mexico. It shifts hard from 2nd-3rd but when I turn the co-pilot on it helps shift smoother. The terminals are clean and it doesnt matter how cold it is in the morning its always the first start that has problems where I live its usually in the 30-40 degree range. And it didn't start doing that until I put about a half quart of atf in the tank (on a full tank) I was told to do this every 15k miles by a friend who owns a cummins he said it cleans the injectors. After seeing how it reacts I will NOT being doing that again. Is there an additive for fuel that will clean that **** out? Hoping that will help with the cold starts. That's about all I can think of right now thanks for the in-depth reply I will re-read through all the information you gave me keep it coming haha I need all the help I can get

 

I think it has a bigger turbo but I'm not sure and by bigger sticks do you mean injectors? I think he said they are either 100hp or 150hp and if that's true I hope I have a bigger turbo. I wish I would have got everything in writing so I could refer back to it. That's a lot of stuff to remember

 

Yea its 99.9% 53 blocks that crack but Ive seen good 53s as well it. I tell guys to put just a little power service in each tank - the white bottle and keep your filters changed, I think fass says 30k miles on filters I change mine once a year regardless of miles. If you just got it I would go through some things like filters, etc that way you have some kind of a starting point don't b afraid to write mileage and dates in a small notebook when you do something then you can go back and look. Ive heard of atf, 2 stroke oil and other things in fuel just use a good quality diesel additive. 100-150 injectors are a lot if your running a stk turbo. Make sure your air filter is clean and you have a free flowing exhaust. You should b running more boost especially w head studs 50 psi would be a good starting point. Ok as far as starting I would look into your intake heater because if that cycles even cold it should light right up unless its -20, 30-40 above should b no problem. It doesn't hurt to plug it in but u shouldn't have to run that fuel out of it that has atf in it change your filters put a good additive in it then see if anything changes.

 

You might want to do a valve adjustment. As well as adding the 2 stroke to the fuel. You want to add it in a 1 oz of 2 stroke to 1 gallon of fuel. But if your egt's are high I bet you have a stock turbo. But the valves and 2 stroke will help a lot.

 

Agree w you 100% gh0stman if it was me Id check torque on studs and do lash