Like the title says. I just picked up a 2001 Dodge Ram 2500 4x4. It is a little rough but has tons of potential. It has a 5.9 24 valve Cummins motor. It has a 5 speed manual transmission. Right now the transfer case has some issues but I have the parts on order for it. This is my first Cummins.

A little about me. I have always been a Mopar guy. I have a 68 Plymouth Satellite, 67 Dodge Dart, 08 Dodge Caliber, 02 Ram 1500, 88 Jeep Cherokee Rock Crawler, 95 Jeep Grand Cherokee, and a 90 F250 7.3 diesel that I am trying to sell right now. I know it sounds like a lot of cars but I live in the country and lots are projects.
I am a Fleet Manager for an oil field wireline company but before that I was Technician at a Dodge Dealership for the previous 15 years I specialized in Driveability, Electrical, Air Conditioning, and Diesel.

 

Welcome and Congrats on the new Cummins.

 

welcome to owning one of the best motors around!

You are going to want to do some immediate modifications to that truck if it doesn't have them already:

1. upgrade the lift pump!!! factory lift pumps are absolute junk and the #1 cause of VP44 injection pump failure. I recommend an airdog, fass, or raptor lift pump. they might be a little spendy, but they are cheaper than replacing a VP44 and will support future mods to the truck. The VP44 has a very sensitive tolerance for fuel pressure and requires 10-20PSI fuel pressure at all times. Anything outside that range will damage the injection pump.

2. Fuel pressure gauge. another must to protect the VP44. 0-30psi gauge and a needle valve in between the gauge and the place your are reading it from (either a tapped banjo bolt under the fuel filter canister, or the gauge port in an airdog or fass pump)

3. check the block to see if it is a "53" block or not. right above the oil pan on the drivers side of the block will be 1" tall raised numbers. "53" blocks are known for the block cracking on the passenger side in the water jacket by the freeze plugs. if its a 55 block or anything else, don't worry about it. If its a 53, just let it warm up before driving it hard and it'll have less chance of cracking. my truck has a 53 block and it hasn't cracked yet with 223k miles on it. hopefully it never will! 53 blocks came from 2 different plants, brazil and mexico. ones from brazil had a casting flaw that made the block weak on the passenger side in the water jacket where it cracks. mexican block didn't have that problem.

 

I recently purchased a 2001 4x4 2500 CTD auto long bed extended cab with 145k miles. Love it. New as member of forum, but reading a lot of it before that.. Good advice for new CTD owners.