My 96 Dodge diesel is just about to turn 300,000 miles and i have noticed this past year that it is slowly developing less & less power. She is a cab & chassis truck with a 11ft. utility bed. Overall weight is around 9000lbs - 10,000lbs. The diesel is completely stock. Original injection pump, injectors, everything except the air cleaner (just replaced it) and a straight exhaust. She has the NV4500 5 spd. and a 4.11 diff. At 70mph, i'm turning 2350 rpm.

What i have been seeing here lately is less power to get up hills. I can be doing 70mph on a flat road but when i hit any sort of an incline, i end up having to downshift several times to get up the hill. It gets worse driving into any kind of head wind also. The hill country around central Texas are just killing me. Start out on a hill @ 70mph and end up at the top of the hill @35mph in 3rd. And i'm not talking about mountain roads... just your average incline on a highway.

I had one guy tell me i need to have my valve adjusted... then have my pump & injectors looked at.... and then i had one guy tell me just the opposite... have my injectors replaced & don't worry about the valves.

She has never had a valve adjustment since she left the factory.




Any help would be appreciated

 

I would 2nd the advice on the injector pump & lift pump. I'm not sure which injector pump your truck has but I do know the VP44 on the 98-02's have problems with lubrication. Check the lift pump fuel pressure 1st, under load if possible to see where it's at.

 

First thing I would do is change the fuel filter.
A valve adjustment is also a good idea.
The 12v Cummins should have the valves adjusted about every 50k