Which engine in the 1981 Crew Cab?

[CAJUN 93]

tow rig, p-pump for me. dead nuts reliable. not affected by fuel quality (common rails dont like a little water in the fuel, tends to blast the tips right of the injectors). parts availble anywhere in the country. injectors arent 500 each. i guess my time at the dealership has me less than impressed with the common rail. less stuff to break on a mechanical engine. ve would be my second choice but the p-pump benefits far outweigh the ve. for a cross country hauler its the way to go.

for a toy, commonrail would be my choice.

daryl

[CumminsPower59]

Mark, I vote CR

[ellis93]

Common rail would be really cool to see in an old truck like that so that's how I voted.
For working purposes I'd lean hard on the drivability of the ve. Strickly for the timing advance of that pump.

[bmoeller]

I'd lean towards the VE myself. Loved the P-pump overall, but the 92 starts MUCH easier in the winter. Especially modded.

Putting a timing advance on the p-pump would've been a great thing.

[skilletky]

CR IMO. Or put an ISC in it. That would be cool

[Diesel]

When building a square nose Dodge one must always ask: will it be Armageddon proof? The way I see it, the only way to have a running truck in case aliens come to earth and ruin our electronics with their space rays would be to install a VE or P. Given that we must always prepare for aliens, I chose the P because it gives you a little more juice for when you are hauling alien spaceships to the scrapyard (after we beat the aliens of course).

[Mark Nixon]

When building a square nose Dodge one must always ask: will it be Armageddon proof? The way I see it, the only way to have a running truck in case aliens come to earth and ruin our electronics with their space rays would be to install a VE or P. Given that we must always prepare for aliens, I chose the P because it gives you a little more juice for when you are hauling alien spaceships to the scrapyard (after we beat the aliens of course).

The only alien I'm worried about destroying anything, is the one in the White House.
He and his ilk are doing a pretty bang-up job of screwing us all up.

I'm still debating which engine....

Mark.

[Diesel]

In all seriousness I think you of all people can sell the common rail for some $$$ and never look back. Its not like the VE or P engines are weak its just that the common rail options have nuts power. Is the CC a D or W?

[Mark Nixon]

In all seriousness I think you of all people can sell the common rail for some $$$ and never look back. Its not like the VE or P engines are weak its just that the common rail options have nuts power. Is the CC a D or W?

The Crew is D-350 dually, all that was available in a longbed, for that era.

Actually, all THREE engines are listed for sale in some online venue or another.
Surprisingly, even with new injectors and in running condition, noone has expressed any interest in the commonrail at $2500.

I'll admit that I'm just as lazy as anyone else, so the Non-Intercooled engine is VERY tempting to just swap in and go, no intercooler, very, very basic wiring, super simple radiator mods and hook-up, plus I've driven it a few miles (still in an old '75 PW), so I know it's a solid engine that would respond very well to minor pump tweaks and a turbo.

The Whole Truth?

I have TWO white Crew Cab duallies.
The temptation is to sell the CR and build 1 each, a VE pumper and a P-Pumper.

Man, I SO need to thin out the herd.

Mark.

[Diesel]

I hear you on the longbed situation. I want a crewcab square nose but because of my business I can't do anything with a womanly sized bed. The longbeds are even harder to find in non-dually form. Ideally I just want a single rear wheel, 4wd, crewcab. Heck I could even use a 318 powered on for a while since all I do is load up the bed real nice and rarely tow anything.

[1STGENFARMBOY]

for what it's worth, i'm with Daryl... that p-7100 would be a great tow rig, and the power
is pretty easy to get too.

the CR would be a cool thing to brag about (BUT) if it bucked and farted on a long haul i
know i would get this sinking feeling in my gut, where as if ether one of the 12v's bucked
it wouldn't be as bad.

Dar

[Mark Nixon]

Well, the Commonrail took itself out of the equation.
It's got a bad cranking variance and a shti ton of blowby, which means at least bad rings, a scored cylinder, if not a smoked piston.
I got it with no injectors, for real reasonable, and I got a "smokin" good deal on some Cummins re-man injectors, so I will not lose any money on the deal.
At least I have a really good HE351CW to use for something else, now.

Need some commonrail scrap iron, anyone?

Mark.

[PToombs]

Mark, does that CR have the breather filters on the timing cover? On the stuff at work there is a pair of filters on the back of the engine to catch oil and route it back to the case. Ferget it, I think it's on top in the truck engines. I've seen the filters plug due to non maintenance and when they did it blew the dipstick out and had lots of blowby. It was spewing oil outta the dipstick hole. It was kinda cool.

[Mark Nixon]

Well, what got me to wondering was the cranking variance, like it had a pushrod bent, or a rocker bridge tipped off.
When I removed the cover all was well, so I ran it with the cover off and all dogs were running on the rockers okay, but there was a haze near the front.
Put the valve cover back on and fired it and I could feel it blowing back through the filler neck an INCH away from it.
1 dog was letting blow by through in a big way.

I'm going to yank the head off it to-morrow and part the POS out.
I guess understanding their issues doesn't CURE the issue when someone else has already phawked it up.
It's too bad, they are a decent design, but Bosch F-ed up on the injector design.

Mark.

[CAJUN 93]

for what its worth the injectors are a piezo design. bosch just manufactures them. theres only so many ways to design an injector to handle anywheres from 5k to 30k psi of injector pressure. very close tolerances and very expensive machining. as i said before i'm just not a commonrail fan after a few years of being around them daily. to much to break and too expensive to fix.

daryl