Being somewhat under the weather healthwise and not feeling up to fooling with the engine lately, I took my '97 3500 5 spd (3.54 gears) up to the Cummins facility in Fort Worth this week and had the valves adjusted. I had noticed a peculiar sound at heavy load a few times, kind of a clattering tapping noise, and asked them to check out my lift pump etc. to make sure it was fueling right (no gauge yet).
The Cummins guys seem to do good quality work, the valve adjustment was done quickly, they steam cleaned the engine along the way and put new gaskets on the covers. The gaskets they used were gray, I thought they were supposed to use the black ones but the service guy said no difference. Hmmm.
Anyways, they told me they ran the truck on the dyno to check out engine under load, didn't see anything unusual and thought the engine was running fine. According to the service manager, "It put about 162 hp to the rear wheels, that's about what we expect from a 215hp manual so it looks like everythings fine."
I would have expected #'s in this range for an auto, but seem to recall stock #'s for the 215 manuals to run between 180-200 hp or so. When I told the guy it seemed low, he said that was what they normally saw for a 96 or 97 5spd. The dyno sheet didn't show torque, rpm, or anything else except 162hp at 51mph. This translates into about 2000rpm in 5th or 1500rpm in 4th based on my MkI eyeball, don't know what gear they used, guy didn't recall but said probably 4th as it is 1 to 1.
Do these numbers sound reasonable for a stock '97? Any info is appreciated...