i want to buy a cummins diesel for my next truck but i dont know if i want second generation or third generation. I am on a budget for the truck itself but when i buy it i want to go all out with performance and lift which would be a better truck to do this with. Why?

 

What kind of budget are we talking about?

Also, give us a better idea of what you mean by all out. Everybody has different visions of what all out is, so tell us what you are thinking and where you want it to go. The more you give, the more you'll get.

You can get a whole lot of2nd gen truck for a lot less than a 3rd gen. Anything between 94 and 98 is a great building block and will respond well to mod's. There are parts for damn near anything you'd want to do to one of them to.

 

with the 98.5-02's the only thing you have to worry about is the injector pump, but keep the pressure and flow to it and it will be fine, and some electrical gremlins in the trans. 3rd gens are the easiest to BOMB, however the 94-98.4's only take a few min and $0.00 to turn them up.

 

Toss your budgetary constraints out the window right now.

 

I want to go for a lift prolly about 6 inch.... prolly 36 in tires mickey t's wrapped around mickey t rims..... i want to do a new turbo set up possibly twins in the future..... injectors...... tuners..... stacks...... i want the diesel of my dreams i know it will take time but thats how life goes.... but to start out i dont wanna spend more then 25k on a truck and im more of a fan of regular cab but if a deal comes alond on extended i will take it

 

With those mod's in mind, the first thing you are gonna have to do is get a stronger transmission. Those mod's there are gonna turn your stock tranny into a very nice mechanical soup. Then the stress of those bigger meats is just going to compound the issue.

Whenever you add big power and transfer it to big rubber, something is gonna give. The t-case can handle some 20K lbs of input torque, so that's not gonna be the weak spot. The rear end is an 11.5" with 4" axle tubes, so that's not the weak spot. So where does that leave you....the transmission and axle shafts.

Build your driveline to handle the mod's you plan in the future or alll those go faster goodies will do nothing but snap parts when you decide to realy get on it. It's a lot cheaper, in the end, to build a stout driveline that can handle abuse before adding power.

Just my .02.

 

but which should i get the second gen or the third gen...... yea the trans would blow pretty quick

 

well. . .you have two choices with the 2nd gens. . .either a 12 valve or a 24 valve. the 12 valves are less problemattic, but have the older interior design as opposed to the 24 valves. the 3rd gens are more "plug and play" when it comes to power upgrades to the engine, and the 48RE trans can hold some decient power with few mods (TC and valve body) but once you push any year much over 100-125hp over stock your gunna start melting the clutches in the auto trans.

if it is a manual, well. . .calling south bend clutch will solve all of your clutch slipping problems all the way to 850hp as the New Venture trannies can handle quite alot of ponies.