Cummins ISM Emissions Questions

[charford]

Hello all,

I am new to this forum, I found it online when searching for emissions information for my new truck. We have always run older trucks, in fact we still run a 1992 International 8200. I am a farmer, and we primarily use our trucks for hauling grain, sometimes gravel, lime, etc. Recently I purchased a 2009 International 8600 on a Richie Brothers sale, it has an ISM 370, ESN: 35216169. It has 312,000 miles.

I do not know much about this truck- I found out it was originally a Penske truck- I called them to get service records and they do not have them anymore. The first thing that I did was take my truck to get looked at by our local Diesel mechanic, whom I do trust. They found no real issues with it, but I am not sure how hard they looked. Truck seems to run great. I did notice after I started using it- I was getting the light for exhaust temperature, but that more or less went away and then I got another service engine light. I took the truck to our local Cummins dealer to get the service light checked, the code was for the aft injector- which they replaced and resolved the code. "Troubleshoot fault 4282 per EDS#DSBLV1704, Flow Tested aftertreatment injector 110 max when cleaned and reflowed. Advised customer ok to replace, drain coolant, removed aft injector. Install recon aft injector, flow tested in spec. install injector and hook up. put unit in regen. passed regen, hook to insite, no faults logged."

They also mentioned that a year ago the heads were replaced under warranty- the mechanic seemed really upset and puzzled by this, and he was very cryptic about the whole encounter really haha. This is when I started to get worried about this emissions stuff, everyone I know basically says that I need to do an EGR delete. After finding and reading your side, I then became worried about that and whether or not I could find a place to get it done right or just screw it up worse. We are pretty mechanically inclinded, and when I read Rawze's post about just learning how to work on, and fix, your own machine- that is what you should do. That is kind of our philosophy, so I would like to be able to work on this- but I don't want to put a bunch of money into a truck that is already too far gone. Or if I need to do an EGR delete, that is fine but how do I know where to take it without doing more damage or getting ripped off. I do have, I think, a reliable local diesel shop that would do this for about $3500 and service it afterwards.

In any case, I began watching all Rawze's videos- but they mostly pertain to the ISX not the ISM- so therein lies my question. Is there information that pertains to doing the EGR tune-up on the ISM specifically? What do I need to do to really inspect this truck's emission systems. It is possibly that Penske performed some of this maintenance at the time the heads were replaced- but I really have no way of knowing that. We do not put a lot of miles on trucks around here- they are mostly used for short hauling grain a few times a year- maybe 10-20,000 miles a year. I like the truck, it is running great now, but I need to inspect the emissions system, replace what needs to be replaced, do an EGR tuneup on an ISM- or do the EGR Delete, or just get rid of the truck if it is past the point of really saving.

What are your guys thoughts? I just don't really know where to get started here. As I said we are pretty good mechanics- keep all kinds of ungodly old farm machinery and trucks running- but these newer computer controlled, emissions regulated vehicles are completely new to us- I'm trying to get up to speed as fast as possible- sorry about the long post.