Well first off, i'm 16 years old and i bought and payed off a 1996 Chev 6.5TD. It has 125,000 miles on it, a K&N filter, and a B&M Shift Plus Improver. Well i bought an old tractor to restore and bringing it home the truck had NO power at all. It was a John Deere B which weighs around 3000lbs which was being towed on a car trailer. If I would try to accelerate it would just blow out black smoke and i could not reach 65 mph. Later it started to overheat then lost even more power. Ever since then all it will do is blow black smoke (which is pretty cool) but it can hardly spin the tires on gravel. It has a rattle that i think is coming from the ?vacuum pump?. Someone told me it could be a clogged catylitic converter and said to cut it off. Any one have advice? I just want my power back to pull the tractor, boat, and snowmobiles. any mods that are pretty good for the money can be listed too:grd:

oh btw my dad had two tractors on the other trailer being pulled by a stock dmax and he didnt even feel them behind him

it very well could be the vac pump when they go bad they sound a lot like a bad lifter or thrown rod in a gasser.. very scary sound... cut the cat out no matter what no need for it.. a good thing to do is put a mechanics stethascope (if you have one) or a metal rod on the vac pumpw hile the engine is running (BE CAREFULL) and you'll be able to hear if the sound is coming from the pump.. sounds like from all the unburnt fuel it very well could be


Brian

Black smoke on acceleration means low boost and the 6.5L stock system is a vacuum pump, solenoid and turbo actuator. Pull the vac off the turbo at idle (should be~15" Hg) and then pull the line off the solenoid (~25" Hg). if there's no vacuum anywhere it's the vac pump, no vac past the solenoid is the solenoid.

Definetly lose the cat. IMO, lose the vacuum system too, and get a Turbo-Master for your boost issues.

Doesnt the vacuum pump control anything but the turbo? And if you do take the pump off how much shorter of a belt do you need? and i was thinking about getting a boost gauge after i got the turbomaster from heath, any recommendations?. Cuttin the cat off tonite:D

If the 8th character in your VIN is an S, it also controls the EGR valve on top of the intake.

DON'T add the Turbomaster until you have Gauges!!!

So if I do get rid of the vacuum pump what size of belt should I need?

1 size smaller.
If your truck is air conditioned, it will have a *1010 belt, you need a *1000
if no a/c, then you will have a *1020, go to a *1010.