Need help figuring out why dodge truck won’t run right.

[Mudman13]

My truck is a 1999 Dodge Ram 2500 4x4 with a vp44 24v cummins. When I bought the truck it needed a trans so I never drove it but it idled fine but now that I am driving it I am having issues with the driveability. The truck idles a little high at 870 rpm. It white smokes when I rev on it a lot and misses. Sometimes it will drive fine but randomly lose power when going down the road and the rpm won’t exceed 2000 unless I flip the key off and back on. I’ve tried everything I can think of to fix it but I don’t know what else to try. I would like to do a p pump swap once I save up the money. Lift pump, AAPS, crank sensor, IAT sensor have all been replaced. Injectors have been pop tested. Took the timing cover off and checked the timing, and my fuel pressure is around 14 at idle and won’t drop below 8 when at full throttle. Truck doesn’t pull any codes with a code reader. If anyone has had this problem before or has any ideas I would appreciate the help. My vp44 may just be dead.




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[RattlesnakeDan]

Need to do a compression test.

[Strummer]

White smoke on a diesel is normally very bad news.

[Walker]

White smoke on a diesel is normally very bad news.

Or water in fuel or getting into the cylinders somehow.

[friscopaint]

It's not a Ford. Sorry couldn't help it.

[ramrod]

My guess is fuel problem. I would check the fuel lines for leaks, they breakdown from the inside out and leaks are hard to spot with a vacuum type system. I would also pull the sending unit out of the tank and see if something clogged in there.

[jer_james]

Whelp - its a Dodge, so that's the first problem to tackle.

[esoct25]

Vp44 sounds like to me . I drive a 2001. Has 220000 miles wouldn't trade for anything.

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[RMW]

I’m going with bad injector pump, p-pump it for sure.

[Worksalot]

What shape is the turbo in? Any air leaks?

We had a diesel engine that started missing and would lose power. It would smoke at times a lot and other times not much at all. Eventually started smoking very bad. It ended up being a blown head gasket. Replaced head gasket and that cleared up all the smoke problems but later found air leaks.

[Acameron52]

I mean, it ain’t a Powerstroke so...


Just kidding.

[Mudman13]

The white smoke smells like raw fuel. And my turbo appears to be in good shape.


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[Draco]

You got some bad fuel. I put diesel in my Bobcat and it immediately went to blowing white smoke. I put some stuff in the tank for the water and it helped a lot but still ran a little off for a while before it lined out.

[Mudman13]

I have noticed today that the truck runs much better the harder I am on it and the warmer it gets. Could this be due to water in the fuel? Or maybe a bad ECT sensor telling the ecm the wrong temps?


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[Matt_g]

VP trucks can be hard to get figured out honestly. Much rather fight a common rail. You can hotwire the vp (bypassing the computer) to see if it runs any better. That will at least tell you if the computer is good.