TowRig.com - Diesel Discussion and Tow Tech

I posted this in the wrong forum along with my introduction. Colorado 05 thought I would get some better answers here, so I've got and pasted my questions:

I'm looking to get a 12V CTD. I know the truck is going to get modded pretty good. I think low 14's, high 13's will make me happy, as would gas milage comperable to my current DD.

So, onto the questions. First, there seems to be many more auto's then manuals for sale, is a valve body upgrade going to be enough with my perfrmance goals, or will I need more? And if I get a 5 sp, is it going to hold with only a clutch? Next, milage: I saw a very well priced 5 sp with 250K on it. I'm a little weary of the milage, but have heard that these motors (with the exception of the KDP) have a great life span (it was a 96 BTW). Am I okay to to buy one with that much milage and just replace the tranny (or clucth?) with the savings? Also, how is this thing going to be in the winter? we hit 10 below a few times this past winter, I often times have to be at work at 6AM, I can't afford to have gelling/no start issues (should I stop looking at a diesel altogether?), the lack of glow plugs has me wondering.

Also, why is it that the 12v is perfered for performance over the 24v? It would seem that the extra flow potential of the heads would offset quite a bit. Or are there diffrences in the block design?

Thanks in advance for the help, and I appolagise for the long post, expect a plethora of questions from your answers

1. No, a valve body alone will not get you what you want. It would take at LEAST a valve body and matching hi performance torque converter. If the trans has a lot of mileage on it than your best bet is to buy a performance BOMBed trans on a pallet or order the master rebuild kit and have a good shop do it.

2. The stock clutch will not hold up to 325+ HP or so, so I have been told. A performance clutch isn't cheap at all. At least $1K+ for a good ceramic clutch. If you want to go fast, forget the manual. The autos are the ONLY way to go when it comes to going fast. Most people prefer a performance built auto over the manual in basically any situation. Reason is because the built trannies eliminate the drawbacks of the auto where the stick would have been better, like using an exhaust brake.

3. THe Cummins engine should last 500+ thousand miles. It all depends on the shape of the truck really when it comes to mileage.

4. 12v's are somewhat prefered because they have a better injection pump. The stock injection pump is capable of flowing more fuel than the 24v pump. Personally, I prefer a 24v, they are still capable of 800HP. The biggest thing is they are the most tunable, pop in a chip and remove it if need be, most good chips have settings that you can adjust on the fly from inside the cab. The 12v is stuck at what ever power level it's tuned for, not my cup of tea. :) The heads flow about the same, I have heard the 24v flows slightly more but not anything noticable.

-10 shouldn't be too much of a problem. I think it's -30 and colder that people have problems. Just make sure you plug the truck in at night and it will be fine. The CTD uses a grid heater instead of glow plugs. Basically there are coils in the intake that get hot (like a little house heater) and it heats the air coming into the engine. Mnorby claims it works better than the Fords he works with that have glow plugs.

If you have any other questions, or feel any of my answers are inadequite than just say something. ;)