Hi All,
I recently bought a 1994 GMC Top Kick with a Cat 3116 Diesel and Auto Tranny.
The truck has about 485K miles (mostly highway per owner) and seems to be in pretty good shape.
The owner lost a hauling contract and kept the truck for 3 years after the loss of the contract in the hopes of getting another gig that never materialized.
The truck was started and driven around locally (in the neighborhood) to keep the batteries charged and the fluids circulating but the fuel has, per the owner, been in the truck for the 3 years the truck was more or less inactive.
I bought he truck and it seemed to run fine locally BUT when I ran on the highway and started up hills the truck bogged a lot , ran as though it was missing and started spewing smoke....laying down a smoke screen of sorts BUT without the power normally associated with rolling coal.
Anyways, this continued on many of the larger hills on the interstate and I decided , rather than pressing harder and harder on the accelerator to try to maintain speed on the hills, I would just hold the accelerator pedal at a fixed point (where it wouldn't stumble and smoke) and see how it did up hills.
As expected the truck ran fine on the flats and smaller inclines BUT as the inclines grew and the truck lost speed (remember I was holding the accelerator at a constant level), the truck speed dropped and would commence smoking and "missing".
Also interesting to note, not all hills of roughly the same steepness cause the missing and smoking.....the truck never acted up on the flats or down hill.
The truck was driven at about 55 to 60 MPH.
I did fill the tanks up and added power service at double the normal level to help lube and clean things up....I also added Wal Mart TC3 2 stroke oil to the fuel to help lube the injection pump.
FWIW the owner told me of the truck "acting up" when pushing up hills but dismissed it as the truck being made in a time when 55 MPH was the speed limit and recommened to me to keep the speeds lower.
The tach on the truck did not work so not really able to approximate the rear end ratio by MPH VS speed.
What are your thought as to what could be causing my issues?
I do plan on changing out all fluids and filters but the truck is currently in the shop getting a state and DOT inspection....I hope it passes with minimal need for repairs / parts.
Thanks in advance for any and all help on this.
Andrew
I recently bought a 1994 GMC Top Kick with a Cat 3116 Diesel and Auto Tranny.
The truck has about 485K miles (mostly highway per owner) and seems to be in pretty good shape.
The owner lost a hauling contract and kept the truck for 3 years after the loss of the contract in the hopes of getting another gig that never materialized.
The truck was started and driven around locally (in the neighborhood) to keep the batteries charged and the fluids circulating but the fuel has, per the owner, been in the truck for the 3 years the truck was more or less inactive.
I bought he truck and it seemed to run fine locally BUT when I ran on the highway and started up hills the truck bogged a lot , ran as though it was missing and started spewing smoke....laying down a smoke screen of sorts BUT without the power normally associated with rolling coal.
Anyways, this continued on many of the larger hills on the interstate and I decided , rather than pressing harder and harder on the accelerator to try to maintain speed on the hills, I would just hold the accelerator pedal at a fixed point (where it wouldn't stumble and smoke) and see how it did up hills.
As expected the truck ran fine on the flats and smaller inclines BUT as the inclines grew and the truck lost speed (remember I was holding the accelerator at a constant level), the truck speed dropped and would commence smoking and "missing".
Also interesting to note, not all hills of roughly the same steepness cause the missing and smoking.....the truck never acted up on the flats or down hill.
The truck was driven at about 55 to 60 MPH.
I did fill the tanks up and added power service at double the normal level to help lube and clean things up....I also added Wal Mart TC3 2 stroke oil to the fuel to help lube the injection pump.
FWIW the owner told me of the truck "acting up" when pushing up hills but dismissed it as the truck being made in a time when 55 MPH was the speed limit and recommened to me to keep the speeds lower.
The tach on the truck did not work so not really able to approximate the rear end ratio by MPH VS speed.
What are your thought as to what could be causing my issues?
I do plan on changing out all fluids and filters but the truck is currently in the shop getting a state and DOT inspection....I hope it passes with minimal need for repairs / parts.
Thanks in advance for any and all help on this.
Andrew
