Cm871 hammering, poor thing

[txfarmer]

Amazing how much I’ve learned reading through the old posts on Rawze, I’m a newbie.

Early in the year, I acquired a 2008 389 Pete day cab in a equipment business deal for next to nothing. First I will say it was ROUGH and the oil field companies “mechanic” and his work was comical after going over this poor thing. My first actual thoughts were buying it for parts and the hood (I have several 389’s on the farm). After lots of cleaning and fluid changing I put farm tags and insurance on it and ran it local for a few months to see if it was worth spending any cash on, and we were all very surprised of how nice it drove and really gave no trouble. Remember I gave almost nothing for this thing, it kind of came with some other stuff. But it was on the road before the company closed.

So... it’s a 1 million mile 2008 Pete 389 VIN 1xp-xd49x-8-8d755233, factory day cab, 13speed, nice and low geared rears on air trac, wet kit....basically rigged out for a perfect off road farm truck just like my other 389. Even the same color. I can’t explain how dirty this truck was...wish I had pics. Inside and out. Mixed tires, butchered wiring, EVERY SINGLE shock/bushing/rubber anything was complete gone! We replaced door seals, shocks, hood and cab bushings before really running it and made a huge difference. Power washed and degreased inside and outside and got it decent to haul corn out of the field. They had obviously just completely rebuilt the AC system, compressor, lines, dash controls, all of it. Also Had new king pins and tie rod ends (drove surprisingly nice) but that’s about it!

After 4K miles and harvest with me and one of my guys both running it we are thinking of trying to “save it” instead of parting it. My main issue of why I have came here is the ole isx under the hood, I know we can all imagine that poor thing. The main issue is the hammer/rattle under load at 1500.... but after a few hours of research on Rawze that’s just one tiny thing on the list that this engine needs.

The engine has obviously been replaced it’s a Cummins ReCon engine from Cummins in Mexico. I have no clue what HP, or what the original CPL was in the truck factory. What I do know is it is a CPL2732 with a reman date 3/11/13 and serial number of 8LB001098 which I have read could just be a long block? Also this thing hasn’t used a drop of oil, doesn’t have a single slightest oil leak anywhere, it is spotless under neath and everywhere, doesn’t appear to have blowby and pulls pretty darn good (about like my 485hp paccars). HOT oil temp (215) at idle is 18-20 and close to 40 at 1600-1750 on highway.

It sounds great UNTIL you get into that 1500-1550 rpm under load, it starts a hammering, vibration that is noticeable. When running and pulling with it we just simply keep it from doing it by shifting up or down etc. This vibration/noise can slightly be heard stationary with engine revved to 1550 noise sounds up high but hard to tell. This truck also has a horrible idle until it’s warm. It starts perfect but is very eradic and slight shakes until water temp get alittle up. After that it idles perfect and consistent. Under hard pull it never makes over 25 to 30 psi of boost and the jake brakes are STOUT. I mean like slow you down quick stout, it will make 32 psi of boost with Jake on.

MY THEORY is that this engine was put in not to long ago by this company’s idiot mechanics that might have used the wrong ecm or file from some other truck OR maybe the original truck’s ECM that is for a higher hp CPL. I have NO clue. I do know that the DPF and regen does function with clean stacks, the EGR appears to work, along with the VGT. Everything LOOKS stock from outside. It has several codes on the dash which of course I can’t tell any of you because I don’t have insite yet.

My main questions and guidance I need is what to do now, I’m so intrigued by this page and this truck and I am determined to make it reliable and sort it out.

MY PLAN. In order as follows

1. Harmonic balancer (also might fix horrible belt squeal that belt and tensioner didn’t fix) CUMMINS OEM? Or good off brand?
2. Rods/main bearings (what brand and where to purchase?)
3. Overhead and check cam/rockers
4. Injector blowby test?
5. Obtain insite/teamviewer and whatever you guys tell me to buy so I can see inside ECM. MM file maybe? Still confused by the lingo and how to do) I want to demandate it and set at normal everyday HP 450-485. Hopefully this will fix the hammering??

If we still can’t find it.
6. Possibly injectors
7. Head removal/replace. My mechanic and I can do all the work especially with Rawze YouTube.



Last but least I took unit by the local “DEEZULL DALEET” tuner guy that said for $3500 he’ll delete it and tune it to 600hp which is never what I asked him to do, that was his response when I asked to plug in with insite and see if we might could figure out what the hammering was from. What a joke. I left it with him for him to look in the ECM and see if he could see anything he thought was astray. WHAT A JOKE. Called me a week later and said that my truck had a QSX off-road case Steiger engine and ecm and would be $5k for him to “build” the software for this truck. I laughed in his face and picked it up. This is the only guy in a 100 mile radius that I know of that can plug into trucks that isn’t a dealer (that’s why I took it). Luckily he didn’t change or charge me much of anything but it is unreal what shops will do when they think customers are oblivious and just open the check book for them. He had a isx tore apart in his shop with cracked head with his “tune” and delete installed it also had a NON vgt super duper turbo on it if that tells you anything.

Sorry for the long post....

So first and foremost thank you guys and second, where can I get INsite and what and where do I get cables to go from my laptop to the truck? Do I need teamviewr to send the file to somebody? Anything else I need to be able to pay one of these guys on here to look over my ECM and demandate it? Trucks are mainly off-road lots of idling and stop and go back roads.

Also keep in mind this truck isn’t my lifeline or everyday money maker, it won’t ever be more than 200 miles from home and might see 20k miles a year. It will sit in a barn for 2 weeks at a time like my other ones. Just want it decent to put a part time driver in a few months every year. I think it will be a super nice respectable truck in the end, even if I end up overhauling it.
THANKS