Hey guys. I need opinions and questions answered about a 24v. I looked at it tonight and may need to buy it Monday. It is a 1998.5 Dodge 2500 Quadcab, 4x4, longbed, 5spd, w/ 72000 miles. Price is $19500 I have been researching 12v's mostly and need the dirt on 24v's. I know they cost more to mod and that they have the VP44 fuel pump that is $$$ to replace. The truck is at a Chevrolet Dealer on there used lot. It appears to be in pretty good shape. It has no signs of a snow plow setup and no 5th wheel or gooseneck hookups. It does have a 2" ball with a 4 pin wiring harness and a brake controller in the cab. The truck appears to have a fair amount of options including power drivers seat, CD, quad cab, power windows, and power locks. It has a cloth interior with one minor cigarette burn on the rear seat. The only problems that I noticed were the cig burn, the power motor in the drivers seat seamed a little weak, and the front bumper's chromo had a few flaws. Questions: What do I need to know about the 24v especially the 98.5 model? Is it worth it to get a 3yr/36 warranty for a couple thousand extra? Is the price fair. I think they will take $18000 maybe less. Opinons? Thanks Harley
There are two things you need to check before you do anything with it. 1. Check the fuel pressure. If it's a dealership than they can easily test it over in the service department. If it has any less than 13lbs of fuel pressure at the pump than I wouldn't be to thrilled about it. That means the lift pump is dying, no big deal as long as it's caught before it actually quit working. I did not know this and bought my truck with a bad lift pump. Had it changed when the truck died on me, but my VP44 seems to be fine and ran great after the new lift pump. I've heard the phrase "you either get a strong VP44 or a weak tempermental one." If the fuel pressure checks out and it runs good I'd say it's fine. 2. Look underneith and behind the injection pump on the drivers side towards the front of the motor. On the side of the block there could be a big casting that reads "53", you DON'T want this. This was a block that came from a certain mill that were all basically bad. Most of them eventually crack and leak anti freeze. If those two things check out, you've got yourself a great truck! I HIGHLY reccommend the 24v over the 12v trucks. Much easier to get power out of them and more "user friendly" than the 12v. Plus, they have a better interior and power plastic mirrors instead of the old style looking metal mirrors. As far as the warranty thing, thats up to you. I bought a service contract warranty because I didn't feel I had the cash on hand if the truck lost the tranny or injection pump. Plus, the A/C was low on freeon and I knew that these trucks did have a problem with the Evaps developing holes in them, so I knew that I already had one thing that the warranty could take care of and start getting my money's worth. Turned out I did have a bad evap and it cost my warranty $1K to have Dodge R&R it. When my dad bought his '02 Ram dually H.O. 6spd, he didn't get the service contract. He has the money on hand if anything goes wrong, regardless of it's price and since he had the manual there he figured thats one less big expensive part to go out. If the two things that I mentioned checked out, since it has a manual, and you have the cash on hand to fix anything that could happen, then I would forget the service contract. I paid $2K for mine and am still about $500 short of getting my $2K worth, and thats dealership work. The service contract is all up to your finances.
Definately check fuel pressure and block casting number as RJF explained. If you do buy it definately invest the $50-100 for a fuel pressure gauge right away and if you plan to mod up get a pyro and boost. The manual tranny is a plus because the stock autos suck. I persoanlly like the 12v engine because I like to tinker and do things myself and making cheap HP out the 12v is easy but if you want to be able to turn the power off the 24v you can just turn the chip on or off where mine is controlled by the gas pedal. I have a 97 12v with a BHAF filter, straight pipe, and I ground my stock fuel plate into a #100 and a friend has a 01 24v with the BHAF, straight pipe and edge comp box. We can run them all day long and we basically even out. I think if I had stock sized tires like he does I would get him every time. I only have $50 into engine mods not counting $$$ on guages. He has $600 or so before gauges. Hope that gives you a comparison... basically it runs down to if you like to do your own tuning and tweaking I'd hold out for a 12V but if you want to be able to just go stock or full power get 24v. If modding the engine isn't a big deal then get a truck that has all the creature conforts you like.
I went and looked at the truck again today indepth. It is not a "53" block. The truck is in pretty good shape overall with minor blemishes in the interior and on the exterior. It was used to tow with a 2" ball and a 7pin plug. It has a brake controller. It has a new Reese hitch that has never been used though. The 2" ball was bumper mount. The truck has a Dana 80 rear with 3.55's and a limited slip. Is the D80 a standard option or a bonus option? The truck had it ECM replaced in 99. I found the factory authorized sticker under the hood with the part # for the ECM and PCM. Why would the ECM need to be replaced? Should I worry about this? What is a fair price to offer for a truck like this? They want $19500, I was thinking of offering them $15000 and see if they would take that. Any input? Thanks
That is a little odd, a 2" ball mounted on the bumper. Thats fine for little trailers, but trailers little enough that don't need a brake controller. There is a brand new hitch on it? To replace the factory unit right? Why would they pull on the bumper? Thats interesting.... The D80 rear end is standard on all HD3/4t and 1 ton models. Meaning, if you ordered a 3/4T with a standard tranny you got a rear D80 over the auto/70 combo. It didn't matter on the 1 tons, all were 80's. The rear diff lock should be treated fairly valuable in my book. It should be a track lock or power lock IIRC, both are good units. The main reason why I say it should be valued is that I didn't find it in 4x4 models much at all when I was looking. I don't know why this is, but I'm guessing that most people that order 4wd don't actually have direct plans of needing it and figure it will be plenty of traction so why pay extra for a rear LS.... what do you think? You will find a lot of posi 2wd models, I'm guessing 2wd prospecting owners felt the LS was money well spent since they don't want 4wd. Thats my theory anyway. My truck is a one legger 4x4, REALLY wish I had a posi in the back. Value that option. I wouldn't worry about the ECM, computers go bad sometimes. Although if it's had more than one computer die then I would look more into it. I don't know what area of the country you are in, but out here in California things go a little higher than most of the country. The stealership wanted $25,900 for my truck, after your average hagling I got it down to $22,900. It's the sales tax, california licence fees, and other crap that kills a guy, cost nearly $4K on top of the truck. Mine had 101K on it when I bought it, nearly flawless truck all in all for a 100K truck. Mine was about the most you could spend ordering a new truck in '01 with leather, sport, 4x4, everything. I would offer $15K and see what happens. It all depends on how bad you want the truck. Liek I said over at Ck5, I was VERY picky about what I was going to buy and when I found my truck, I was ready to pay good money for it if need be because it was what I wanted exactly. It's your call on how much you want to spend. I wouldn't go over 18.5K or so.
I like the fact that it has the D80 and the LS. I have seen the LS in action and it works well. Therobzilla has the LS in his 99 dualie. He got into a tight spot in a dry wash with his 30ft gooseneck hooked up. He had very little room to turn around in and he ended up having to put it in 4x4 and make some hard left turns under power to get the truck turned around. The LS hooked up well and he was spinning both sets of those dualie tires. I was pretty impressed with it since it was a factory piece. I am also kinda puzzled about the 2" ball on the bumper with a brake controller. I am not that worried about it though with only 70K and the clutch seems to hookup just fine. I am still debating the purchase. I ran my finances today and I can afford it as long as I can keep my payments at about $350/month or less. I am looking around to find other trucks that are comparable to get a feel for what trucks are in the area. Sofar I am finding that there $19500 isn't to out of line but is a little high. I am also having a hard time finding manuals especially at reputable dealers. I think if I can get out the door with the truck and tax, title, etc for $17500 I would buy it. I think TTL around here would cost me around $2000. I like this 98 because it is at a reputable dealer and has been inspected mechanically. I would definitly have it inspected by a independent mechanic first but it is nice to know that they have been in the business for a few years and will be awhile longer. It is not a Joe Shmuck's carlot that will be out of business in 6 months. I asked the salesman on the lot if there was any known problems and he did make me feel a little better because he said flat out that if there mechanics thought it had any problems they would have just sent it to the dealer auction and been rid of a truck that had some ?'s behind it. I have "heard" that some of the early 24V Ram's came with and ECM that was a little to aggressive (similar to the Catcher) and that they recalled some of them to replace the ECM's. I thought that this might have been why the ECM was replaced but I don't know for sure. Harley
I just figured out that the ECM and PCM have not been replaced, they have been reflashed by the Dodge dealer per a DC recall. I also checked and the truck has had all the recall notices attended to and fixed. Harley
I've actually never seen a track lock or Power lock in action but I have always heard good stuff about them and they have a good rep, heck, some guys use those two units in their wheelers. I'm going to check my dad's '02 Ram dually to see if he's got it, I never checked. Well, it sounds like it's a sound truck. I also wouldn't worry about the bumper pull thing, as long as the bumper and it's brackets look fine. I would think the clutch should be in good shape. The previous owner of my dad's '02 H.O. dually used it to pull a gooseneck on the Rockies in CO. I bet it was heavy too since the truck has an exhaust brake. Clutch works fine and we haven't seen any R&R clutch in the maintenance records. Did they tell you what PSI the fuel system had at the VP44 pump? I'd go for it if you really like the truck, it sounds like it's in good shape. That is pretty much standard for a dealer to mark it up pretty good, I still have the original window flyer from the dealership for my truck, they put it up first at $28,900.
look under the bed and see if there was ever a fifth wheel/gooseneck hitch in it. sometimes guys will remove the hitch and put a plastic drop in liner in the bed to cover the holes.
The bed has on liner in it. It is stock with no holes for 5th wheel or Gneck. The bed is actually in really good shape and doesn't look like it ever saw much use for hauling things in the bed. No big scratches or dents. I looked at an 01 today that the bed looked like absolute hell on. The inside of the bed had more scratches then a guy trying to hold a cat underwater. It also had a 5th wheel setup that had been removed. It was a nice truck except for the bed. The price was good ($21K, 64K miles) but it had an auto tranny and had seen obvious towing duty. Harley
I recently picked up a cherry 98.5 24v, 5 speed, 2WD. It had 77,000 when I bought it. Sounds very similar to what you're looking at and I couldn't be happier. I picked up ours for $15,000 which seemed to be a great price around here for a lower mileage Cummins rig. Good luck with your truck hunting
