- From time to time in life,
we often find comfort in nostalgic things.
Things like grandma's homemade chili on a cold winter day,
or the smell of sweet, fresh cut alfalfa
while you're rolling down a back road in the summertime.
the same can be said about trucks as well.
However, there's a certain degree of comfort
that comes along with the nostalgia
of trucks from our youth,
but there's one nostalgic truck from the nineties
that guys just can't seem to get enough of.
This diesel monster got tons of attention, but why?
I'm Dustin with Custom Offsets,
you guys can find me at dusti.co on the old Instagram.
In today's video, we're sitting down
and answering the question to find out
just why you might want a second gen Cummins.
Let's get it.
(upbeat hip-hop music)
- As we're turning up the injection pump
and hooking up the pull sled here,
I wanted to remind you guys that
if you need anything for your truck,
be that a lift kit to bumpers, to headlights,
to taillights, to even wheels and tires,
which we will mount and balance
and ship to your door for free of course.
You can find all of that at customoffsets.com.
Also, If you guys haven't already heard,
we're doing another giveaway and this time,
we're giving back to a pretty awesome charity that we love
to support over here at custom offsets.
That's right, if you haven't heard we're supporting
the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.
The NFFF is a national charity dedicated to remembering
and honoring the fallen heroes of this great nation.
Now, obviously this one was super cool to us
because the anniversary of September 11th
is right around the corner and we couldn't have picked
a better charity to support with this one.
Best part about all of this is that you get to help us
make a donation just by picking up
one of these awesome t-shirts.
It's got this little flag design thing.
It's got our partners on the back.
It's pretty cool.
Plus with every t-shirt you guys pick up,
it also gets you entered to win a free set of wheels
from our friends over at Moto Metal,
which is pretty awesome.
So we're talking free wheels and awesome t-shirts
and a kick-ass charity, count me in.
I've got like five of these.
They're awesome.
I can't win anyway, but they're just cool.
All right. So let's talk about the second gen Cummins
for just a second here.
The second gen Cummins trucks had big shoes to fill.
I mean, after all Dodge saw a huge success
with its first gen trucks, but it was time for a refresh.
Cue the second gen.
Introduced in 1994, which is a year after I was born,
the second gen Cummins three quarter,
and one ton trucks would keep
the same dependable and reliable 12 valve Cummins
that the first gen had but only for a few years,
we'll talk about that a little bit later.
Produced between 1994 and 2002,
the second gens came in a few different offerings,
as we know that Dodge loves to do this, right?
The automatic transmission trucks would come with
what Dodge referred to as their standard output engine,
which put down 215 horsepower and 420 foot pounds of torque.
In case you're more of a manual guy, good news,
the manual option got the high output Cummins diesels,
which put down 235 horsepower and 460 pound feet of torque,
which is a little bit more than the automatic.
While not crazy by today's standards.
This was competitive with the other trucks at the time
where, for example, the seven three Powerstrokes
were only putting up roughly 210 horsepower.
Side note, can we just talk about how crazy that it is,
that when we were kids,
trucks were only making like 250 horsepower
and today you can go buy a brand new Cummins
that puts out 400 horsepower
and over 1000 pound feet of torque?
That's a lot, like double, it's fricking nuts.
They're also rated to tow like 40,000 pounds,
which is listen, that's a whole nother topic.
Okay. We'll get into that another time.
In terms of engine options,
the second gen diesels would be powered
by a six liter Cummins turbo diesel.
In a true Dodge fashion,
because they love to change things up
more than your girlfriend trying to get ready on date night,
Dodge offered not one but two diesel options
in the second gen, depending on what year you picked it up.
See Dodge first launched the second gen in 1994.
And they built off the success
of the D and W 250 and 350 series trucks.
Because of that, Dodge took the 12 valve
and just slapped it into the new trucks
with just a little bit of changes.
Most notably here with the changes
would be a new style injector,
a much larger intercooler, and of course,
a new turbo because who doesn't like spooly stuff,
not only did these few tweaks help make better power,
but they also helped reduce emissions
compared to previous generations because let's face it,
the first gen trucks were not the most efficient.
Now listen, in terms of diesel engines,
I'm not sure that there's any other engine out there
with a more cult-like following than the 12 valve.
12 valve guys, they're nuts, they're crazy.
They always talk about p-pump this and reliable that,
and less wires this,
and three total cables through the firewall
and on and on and on.
While I'm joking here, it is important to note
that the 12 valve guys are a proud group of people.
And for good reason, the 12 valve was a solid engine.
It ran forever and it was just plain reliable
and it just got it done.
Plus if you want to make big power,
it's stupid easy with a 12 valve.
Considering there are tons and tons of 12 valves out there
being north of over a thousand horsepower,
which is a lot, but we already know
all good things must come to an end, right?
And thus was the case
for the 12 valve Cummins diesel trucks.
While I was unable to find out exactly why Cummins opted
to replace the 12 valve midway through 1998,
Dodge would effectively decide to remove it
and replace it with the newer, younger
and more valve having 24 valve Cummins.
Because you can tell that it has more valves
because of the way it is, right?
Because 12 valve, 24 valve.
It's kind of like that scene from "Fast and Furious"
where they do like the Gallo 12, Gallo 24 skyline thing.
But you know, this one actually made sense.
Like for real,
- What would be better motor for my skyline,
a Gallo 12 or a Gallo 24?
- 24.
- I didn't know pizza places made motors.
- This new Cummins power plant would see several changes,
but most notably would be that the beloved p-pump
was replaced by its all new, all electric
rotary VP-44 injection pump in the 24 valve.
Cummins would also make a few small tweaks
to the intake system,
mainly replacing the Holset HX35W in 2001
and replacing it with an HY35W turbo instead.
While the second generation of second generation engines
'cause you know, second gen, but second engine, anyway,
brought a lot of positives,
it wasn't all rainbows and unicorns here.
Perhaps one in the biggest known issues
on the later generations of the Cummins
was that neat little VP44 fuel pump
that we talked about earlier.
See, at this time in US history,
we were transitioning out of low sulfur diesel
into ultra low sulfur diesel
and while it was great for the environment,
the one thing we forgot to take into account
was that sulfur is actually
a lubricity agent in diesel fuel,
meaning that it kind of keeps things lubed up
and slick and smooth inside of things
like your fuel pump for example.
The VP44s were known for having the rotor fail
on the inside of the pump, causing your Cummins
not to have enough fuel to run effectively
because well, that's how injection pumps work, right?
They supply fuel to the injectors
and then just, bah, you know, it just happens.
Another common issue with the 24 valves
was that there was a run of block castings
that were known to fail.
Known as the 53 block scare
because of the little stamping on the side of it.
These block castings tend to crack
and ultimately leak out your coolant,
which if not caught can be catastrophic,
honestly, cause you kinda need coolant.
Good news though, these 53 blocks were caught pretty early.
So by 2001 Cummins
had already put in place a remedy for this.
And of course, who could forget
the notorious transmission issues that have plagued Dodge
for literally generations now,
like there's not a whole lot to talk about there,
but anyone who's been around Cummins knows
that the transmissions have always been a weak point.
It's just the way it is.
So what can you expect to get
when you buy a second gen Cummins here in 2021?
A quick search on the old Facebook marketplace,
will find you a wide variety of pricing,
but clean and low mile trucks are usually
somewhere in the 13 to $18,000 range,
at least here in Wisconsin.
Now with that being said, clean and super low mile trucks
are getting harder and harder to find.
So don't be surprised if you find that one guy
that knows what he's got and wants 20 grand or more for it.
Outside of that, just like any older truck,
if you're north of the rust belt here in Wisconsin,
like we are, or really in the Midwest in general,
be prepared for rust and lots of it, not just a little.
Unless the previous owner and the owners before him
were big into rust prevention,
there's gonna be a good chance you're going to end up
with some stuck and seized and rusted parts
under the cover of this thing
and your rockers, cab corners
and of course your fender wells
are also likely going to need a little
or maybe even a lot of attention.
In terms of wheel and tires,
if you're looking to stay stock height on this one,
there's plenty of examples in the gallery,
of those trucks on 20 by 10s and 20 by 12s,
usually with roughly a 33 ish size tire on them,
step that up to a six inch lift kit
and you can clear 37s and 12 wides pretty easily.
Or stuff a 14 wide with 35s on it
and still not need to trim too much.
When it comes to overall wheel choices,
we see a lot from brands like ARKON OFF-ROAD, Fuel, Hostile,
and many, many more on these trucks
because they just look damn good.
Also, this is a great time to remind you
that if you haven't already,
please consider adding your truck to the gallery.
Not only is the gallery a great way
to like waste your lunch break,
looking at a hundred thousand different trucks
with different wheel and tire packages,
but it also helps others just like you and I
figure out what fits
and what wheel and tire sizes look like
on the same truck that you have.
You can add a truck, click on the link down below,
or go to customoffsets.com/add.
If big trucks are your thing,
a second gen Cummins may be a solid option for you
as there are few companies that make lifts
as large as seven inches for these trucks,
which is pretty impressive considering that like,
they're already big trucks to begin with, honestly.
What do you guys think of the second gen Cummins?
Would you scoop or would you pass,
let me know down in the comments section below
and also let us know if there's a video idea that you guys
want on "So you want..." from us in the future.
with that I'm Dustin with Custom Offsets.
We'll see you guys on the next one.