Vintage Trucks

[dells68 7,498]

Been doing a little more research @bcgold.  I have always been a Chevy man, but married into a Dodge family 15 years ago.  Since then; I’ve really developed a love of these old trucks.  Heck my last two daily drivers have been Rams and my next one will be too!  That horizontal grille pattern dates that truck to 48-53.  Starting in 54 the grille was inset, almost frenched, into a surround.  Very nice example of a post war Dodge.  Is it yours or local to you?  My brother in law has my father in laws 48 that carries over the early rounded cab and fenders.  Hopefully he’ll get it finished now that he has built a garage to work in.  

[bc.gold 3,403]

3 hours ago, dells68 said:

Been doing a little more research @bcgold.  I have always been a Chevy man, but married into a Dodge family 15 years ago.  Since then; I’ve really developed a love of these old trucks.  Heck my last two daily drivers have been Rams and my next one will be too!  That horizontal grille pattern dates that truck to 48-53.  Starting in 54 the grille was inset, almost frenched, into a surround.  Very nice example of a post war Dodge.  Is it yours or local to you?  My brother in law has my father in laws 48 that carries over the early rounded cab and fenders.  Hopefully he’ll get it finished now that he has built a garage to work in.  

 

No it's not mine but is available, I wanted to date the truck to see if it would have the differential parts needed for Cvans 1930 DeSoto. But I think this truck is much to new to be considered.

Edited March 21, 2020 by bcgold

[8ntruck 6,998]

Kev - is that ramp truck you just picked up going to get employment hauling a race car around?

 

 

[Pullstart 62,838]

48 minutes ago, 8ntruck said:

Kev - is that ramp truck you just picked up going to get employment hauling a race car around?

 

 

 

Yessir!  The vintage Chevy in the back barn hasn’t made any progress through our winter... so it’ll be one of my father inlaw’s other two VROA Modifieds 

[8ntruck 6,998]

10 hours ago, pullstart said:

 

Yessir!  The vintage Chevy in the back barn hasn’t made any progress through our winter... so it’ll be one of my father inlaw’s other two VROA Modifieds 

Where will he be running, should the racing season actually happen this year?

[Pullstart 62,838]

1 minute ago, 8ntruck said:

Where will he be running, should the racing season actually happen this year?

 

Mainly Berlin raceway in Marne, but there are a few other shows at Birch Run and a couple other tracks between Lansing and Ohio I think.

[8ntruck 6,998]

19 minutes ago, pullstart said:

 

Mainly Berlin raceway in Marne, but there are a few other shows at Birch Run and a couple other tracks between Lansing and Ohio I think.

Nothing at Crystal, then?

 

Sorry folks, we'be wandered off topic here.  Just to get back on topic, I will say I put my 72 C 10 to work last week.  Hauled 7 pieces of 4 by 10 by 1/2 inch drywall and 10 pieces of 4 by 8 by 1/2 mold resistant drywall home.  Rode real nice with that load.  Sorry.  Didn't think to take any pictures.

Edited March 22, 2020 by 8ntruck

[ebinmaine 67,440]

2 minutes ago, 8ntruck said:

we'be wandered off topic here

Wouldn't be a proper Redsquare thread if it didn't keel off at some point...

 

 

[Pullstart 62,838]

2 minutes ago, 8ntruck said:

Nothing at Crystal, then?

 

 

Not that series, it’s all pavement.  My brother in-law has a dirt car and occasionally makes it to Crystal if I-96 is off.  That’s a dirt modified.

[8ntruck 6,998]

17 minutes ago, pullstart said:

 

Not that series, it’s all pavement.  My brother in-law has a dirt car and occasionally makes it to Crystal if I-96 is off.  That’s a dirt modified.

Ionia is only about 1/2 hour from us.  I'll try to catch a couple of races this year - again, providing the Covid craziness has eased.

[Pullstart 62,838]

@8ntruck Bill, here you go.

 

My wife’s dad races the 49 car.  He has another car that some friends are racing and I haven’t seen that one in person yet.  Her brother wheels the 37 and her step dad pilots the 25.  Yeah, racing is all over in the family.

 

 

[bc.gold 3,403]

9 minutes ago, 8ntruck said:

Nothing at Crystal, then?

 

Sorry folks, we'be wandered off topic here.  Just to get back on topic, I will say I put my 72 C 10 to work last week.  Hauled 7 pieces of 4 by 10 by 1/2 inch drywall and 10 pieces of 4 by 8 by 1/2 mold resistant drywall home.  Rode real nice with that load.  Sorry.  Didn't think to take any pictures.

 

I recently noticed the manufactures of drywall board now pumps air into the slurry so the finished product now full of air pockets it uses less material, lighter to handle and has a better R factor.

 

[8ntruck 6,998]

41 minutes ago, bcgold said:

 

I recently noticed the manufactures of drywall board now pumps air into the slurry so the finished product now full of air pockets it uses less material, lighter to handle and has a better R factor.

 

Yup. The 10 footers were 'light weight' drywall.  Lots of spherical voids are visible in the cut edges.

[12 hp Kohler 1,014]

Picked this one up about a month and a half ago. 1995 dodge 2500 Cummins 2wd. As some of you remember I used to have a 1960s international harvester pickup. That was gonna be my first truck but it ended up being to much of a project. It needed a lot more work than it was worth so I ended up parting it out.
The dodge wasn’t exactly what I was looking for but it will haul a trailer load of tractors so I am happy. Its got an indestructible tank of an engine and one of the cleanest bodies I have ever seen on a second gen. Other than some surface rust it doesn’t have a spec of rust anywhere. It will get a paint job sometime in the next few months.

[Pullstart 62,838]

29 minutes ago, 12 hp Kohler said:

Picked this one up about a month and a half ago. 1995 dodge 2500 Cummins 2wd. As some of you remember I used to have a 1960s international harvester pickup. That was gonna be my first truck but it ended up being to much of a project. It needed a lot more work than it was worth so I ended up parting it out.
The dodge wasn’t exactly what I was looking for but it will haul a trailer load of tractors so I am happy. Its got an indestructible tank of an engine and one of the cleanest bodies I have ever seen on a second gen. Other than some surface rust it doesn’t have a spec of rust anywhere. It will get a paint job sometime in the next few months.

 

Nice ride Robbie!  Is that an auto or stick?

[12 hp Kohler 1,014]

14 minutes ago, pullstart said:

 

Nice ride Robbie!  Is that an auto or stick?

Sadly it’s an auto. I really wanted a 5 speed nv4500. The trans in it now only has 10-20k miles left on it so I will probably swap a 5 speed in at some point. 

[ebinmaine 67,440]

6 hours ago, 12 hp Kohler said:

1995 dodge 2500 Cummins 2wd

Nice rig there.

Quite a following for em.

LOVE the sound of those older Cummins ... Like a diesel should sound...

 

[wheelhorseman 3,211]

I had to share my son Travis’s Facebook post. A brief history........ I bought that truck when I was 18 (1986 Chevy square body) and drove it for many years then Travis wanted it so we gave it to him for a graduation gift (it was ruff) so he worked on it and put lots of time and $ into it and we LS swapped the engine and now he is very proud of it as he should be! I sure do miss it!!! I love his caption 😂😁

Edited March 31, 2020 by wheelhorseman

[PeacemakerJack 10,738]

 if you guys go back to page two and post #41 you will see several pics of this truck in the “rough” stage.  It sure turned out AWESOME!

 

 My tired 5.7 TBI needs some help and @pullstart is talking me into a 6.0 LS replacement.  If I wasn’t so worried about the electrical part of it, I can’t see why it isn’t a good idea.  I know that you guys have done a couple of them with success.  Maybe I need to get off the fence and do the swap🤔

[Cvans 1,009]

I really like the old pilot house Dodges. That one looks to be in very nice condition. When I moved out here in the early 70's the Chev/CMC and Dodge pickups from that era were everywhere setting unused. Fords had all been snapped up but no one really wanted the others. I should have hauled them out to the farm but not being a big PU person it just didn't interest me. Now those trucks are in demand and bringing good money. 

[EricF 589]

On 3/27/2020 at 4:24 AM, ebinmaine said:

Nice rig there.

Quite a following for em.

LOVE the sound of those older Cummins ... Like a diesel should sound...

 

Another Cummins Dodge owner here... Great engine. Best truck I've had since my old '83 F150 with the 300 straight six and 3-on-the-tree.

 

A few things to know about the Dodges...

 

Some of them have a "silencer" ring in the turbo intake to minimize turbo whistle. It was added at the request of Dodge, not a standard Cummins part. A lot of owners have taken them out over the years, but some may still have them. It's a plastic ring snapped into the inlet side of the turbo. Now, a lot of us know what happens to a lot of plastics exposed to heat over time -- if they don't melt, they slowly become brittle. Not what you want on the inlet side of a turbo if it cracks or breaks. I'd recommend taking it out, if it's there. Easy to spot; take the inlet duct hose off the turbo and either there's a plastic ring in there or there's nothing but metal.

 

If you swap in a manual, don't shift to 5th below 1500RPM when loaded. And stay reasonably close to it unloaded. Seems to be a bit hard on the 5th gear synchro otherwise... the torque from that engine is serious!

 

The factory exhaust or factory-style replacements are adequate but not great for either economy or noise reduction. When mine gave in to rust, I replaced it with a bolt-on system that increased the diameter by an inch. (It's necked-down to a standard flange to bolt up to the turbo outlet.) The muffler is a basic "commercial" model which is nothing but a big empty resonator can with a hole-punched cylindrical baffle that's more holes than solid. Gets a few more MPG on average, and turbo spool-up is more responsive  It's noisier at the tailpipe, but actually quieter in the cab due to a change in resonance. Lots cheaper and better sounding than the fancy "performance" exhausts and mufflers, and will probably last longer.

 

The intake heater is hard on the electrical system. If you're going to have an alternator failure, expect it to happen in cold weather when it has to work extra hard to recharge the batteries after running the intake heater plus turning over a cold engine. And there's a control circuit for the heater system that can be wonky and pop its fuse due to a short-term high current draw. Replacing that fuse with a self-resetting breaker seems to be the fix. This is a Dodge problem; apparently the Cummins specs call for a more robust and isolated circuit, but Dodge went cheap and used a standard automotive fuse setup in the electrical block.

 

There's a  vacuum pump on the left side of the engine, in front, that develops a minor oil leak around the power steering pump's shaft that drives it. It causes oil to be flung all over the front of the engine bay and makes it look like there's a terrible leak somewhere. It's also the leading cause of the truck "marking its territory" from an oil drip near the left front axle. It's just annoying, not catastrophic like it might look or an inexperienced shop might try to tell you. There are shaft seal replacement kits; you don't even have to replace the pump like some may tell you. Or you can leave it alone if you don't worry about the mess. The truck will probably burn more oil than it can leak from the pump seal over the course of an oil change interval.

 

Some of these trucks have what's supposed to be a load-sensitive brake proportioning valve at the rear suspension. It doesn't do a whole lot of good, and it will eventually rust and leak. And it's no longer available. There's a proportioning valve eliminator kit that will make the necessary connections between the chassis and axle hardlines and the flexible line between them, leaving you with a functioning conventional brake system.

 

Like any diesel, cold weather isn't exactly a bad problem, but you'll curse the poorer fuel economy and more sluggish performance that comes with it. Nothing like a 40 degree day in an otherwise frigid stretch to remind you what the Cummins' "normal" performance is like. It's kind of like a grumpy old horse in the cold weather, and an eager young workhorse when it's warm.

 

Everything mechanical is generally easy to access and work on. Quite possibly the absolute worst part to have to change is the heater core, because you have to tear apart most of the dashboard to get to it. Fortunately, that's probably been done on most any surviving truck, because the factory heater cores tended to give up after 10 or 15 years, and the aftermarket replacements are usually better made. The previous owner of my truck did that job himself... In my driveway... And I didn't envy him. 

[12 hp Kohler 1,014]

1 hour ago, EricF said:

Another Cummins Dodge owner here... Great engine. Best truck I've had since my old '83 F150 with the 300 straight six and 3-on-the-tree.

 

A few things to know about the Dodges...

 

Some of them have a "silencer" ring in the turbo intake to minimize turbo whistle. It was added at the request of Dodge, not a standard Cummins part. A lot of owners have taken them out over the years, but some may still have them. It's a plastic ring snapped into the inlet side of the turbo. Now, a lot of us know what happens to a lot of plastics exposed to heat over time -- if they don't melt, they slowly become brittle. Not what you want on the inlet side of a turbo if it cracks or breaks. I'd recommend taking it out, if it's there. Easy to spot; take the inlet duct hose off the turbo and either there's a plastic ring in there or there's nothing but metal.

 

If you swap in a manual, don't shift to 5th below 1500RPM when loaded. And stay reasonably close to it unloaded. Seems to be a bit hard on the 5th gear synchro otherwise... the torque from that engine is serious!

 

The factory exhaust or factory-style replacements are adequate but not great for either economy or noise reduction. When mine gave in to rust, I replaced it with a bolt-on system that increased the diameter by an inch. (It's necked-down to a standard flange to bolt up to the turbo outlet.) The muffler is a basic "commercial" model which is nothing but a big empty resonator can with a hole-punched cylindrical baffle that's more holes than solid. Gets a few more MPG on average, and turbo spool-up is more responsive  It's noisier at the tailpipe, but actually quieter in the cab due to a change in resonance. Lots cheaper and better sounding than the fancy "performance" exhausts and mufflers, and will probably last longer.

 

The intake heater is hard on the electrical system. If you're going to have an alternator failure, expect it to happen in cold weather when it has to work extra hard to recharge the batteries after running the intake heater plus turning over a cold engine. And there's a control circuit for the heater system that can be wonky and pop its fuse due to a short-term high current draw. Replacing that fuse with a self-resetting breaker seems to be the fix. This is a Dodge problem; apparently the Cummins specs call for a more robust and isolated circuit, but Dodge went cheap and used a standard automotive fuse setup in the electrical block.

 

There's a  vacuum pump on the left side of the engine, in front, that develops a minor oil leak around the power steering pump's shaft that drives it. It causes oil to be flung all over the front of the engine bay and makes it look like there's a terrible leak somewhere. It's also the leading cause of the truck "marking its territory" from an oil drip near the left front axle. It's just annoying, not catastrophic like it might look or an inexperienced shop might try to tell you. There are shaft seal replacement kits; you don't even have to replace the pump like some may tell you. Or you can leave it alone if you don't worry about the mess. The truck will probably burn more oil than it can leak from the pump seal over the course of an oil change interval.

 

Some of these trucks have what's supposed to be a load-sensitive brake proportioning valve at the rear suspension. It doesn't do a whole lot of good, and it will eventually rust and leak. And it's no longer available. There's a proportioning valve eliminator kit that will make the necessary connections between the chassis and axle hardlines and the flexible line between them, leaving you with a functioning conventional brake system.

 

Like any diesel, cold weather isn't exactly a bad problem, but you'll curse the poorer fuel economy and more sluggish performance that comes with it. Nothing like a 40 degree day in an otherwise frigid stretch to remind you what the Cummins' "normal" performance is like. It's kind of like a grumpy old horse in the cold weather, and an eager young workhorse when it's warm.

 

Everything mechanical is generally easy to access and work on. Quite possibly the absolute worst part to have to change is the heater core, because you have to tear apart most of the dashboard to get to it. Fortunately, that's probably been done on most any surviving truck, because the factory heater cores tended to give up after 10 or 15 years, and the aftermarket replacements are usually better made. The previous owner of my truck did that job himself... In my driveway... And I didn't envy him. 

Thanks for all the awesome info. Sounds like you are pretty knowledgeable about these trucks. I just took the ring in the turbo out after I read your post. My engines does leak in the front left corner so it is most likely the vacuum pump like you said. I’m not to worried about it as it’s just a slow leak. I will probably message you in the future if I have some questions. I am only 16 so I have a good bit to learn about these trucks. 
Here is a picture of the engine bay that I forgot to put in the original post. 

[ebinmaine 67,440]

1 hour ago, 12 hp Kohler said:

I am only 16 so I have a good bit to learn about these trucks

That's a great attitude to have right there.

Always remember that you have a lot to learn and you'll be better off your whole life.

I'll be 50 later this year by a calendar, 5 in the mind.

Good luck with your truck and keep us posted!

 

[EricF 589]

@12 hp Kohler Everything under the hood looks to be in decent shape. All in all, diesels aren't that intimidating to work on. Just bigger, heavier in all respects. Very dependent on fuel flow, so fuel filter changes are critical. If you don't know when the fuel filter was changed last, just get it done straight off. Oil changes and oil condition is critical. See that little tube screwed into the turbo housing, on the left as you face it? That's the oil supply to the turbo bearing. It's the lifeblood of your turbo -- oil keeps it both lubricated and cool. So you can imagine how vital it is to keep the oil pressure up and oil flowing freely through there.

 

Particularly when it's cold, start the engine, wait for the oil pressure to come up, then gently raise the engine RPMs to around 1100-1200RPM and listen for the turbo to come up to speed and stabilize with engine RPMs. Then you know the oil is flowing smoothly though the turbo bearing, and it's not starved for oil.

 

Plenty of other "old heads" here at Red Square can offer good pointers on dealing with machinery like this. Much like our beloved tractors, these engines are made to work hard and last forever, given proper care and treated well. (The Dodge bodywork can be a different problem altogether...)

 

Other piece of advice -- when it comes time to replace or upgrade parts, don't waste money on "performance" and fancy custom parts unless they're intended to be functional above all else. Go for high-quality commercial-grade parts. Durable, decent value for your money, and made to satisfy the penny-pinching efficiency demands of commercial use. With diesels, performance=efficiency and durability.  The Internet is littered with Cummins and Dodge forums... advice is everywhere, but good advice takes a little digging to find. 

 

 

[ebinmaine 67,440]

6 minutes ago, EricF said:

Other piece of advice -- when it comes time to replace or upgrade parts, don't waste money on "performance" and fancy custom parts unless they're intended to be functional above all else. Go for high-quality commercial-grade parts. Durable, decent value for your money, and made to satisfy the penny-pinching efficiency demands of commercial use. With diesels, performance=efficiency and durability

I'd agree with that and add that many of the commercial parts are inherently performance parts as well because of the desire to increase efficiency.

 

 

Stick with the good quality HD parts and they'll serve you well.