my first truck 92 379 short hood 36 inch sleeper

Hi power, not many people will laugh at you here, personally, I think you have the coolest truck out there. That Cat motor was one of the most popular motors out there, and for good reason, it was bullet proof and had power up the ying yang. 9 speed too, that motor had plenty of power, there was no need to split gears, like with a 13 speed. I'm sure you'll have electrical bug a boos, typical with any older truck, but those older 379's, along with the KW W900's, were the best trucks made.

 

here is a pic of my old 1987 359,,,one of the last 100 made,, single sleeper,,NTC 475, 15 spd,,paid $83K for it new in Oct 1987

 

I had electrical issues with my '85, and let me tell you, it's a spaghetti bowl behind the dash. Several times, rather than trace down the wire, I'd run a new wire and cut the old one. Several issues in the fuse box by the clutch pedal, not sure if the 379 is located there. Those older Cat's got about that mileage, I could get 5.5 with my BC Cummins, but I always had my foot in it.

 

My 13 Commons only avgs about 4.9/ 5 mpg so you ain't to far of the mark , congrats ,as far as brothers go , well do t let em get to ya , you know wwhat ya know and are seeking the rest , that's all any of us can do , congrats on the new truck.

 

Had a 3406E in mine. Injectors can give you problems. Tips break. Oil leaks around the compressor but treat it like you had an egg under your foot. They aren't made to cram to the floor. Only thing I don't like is a short hood. It will wear around points where hood rubs cab so keep it tight.Let them laugh. They have all been there one time or another. Learn.

 

You can get a bondo kit and redo the edges if you ahve some touchup paint the same color and it need repairing. Takes some sanding to reshape it. There is a tape called teflon tape you can put around rb areas also.

 

Just a not so quick piece of hard earned experience here. Find out if anything has ever been done to the cam and lifters if it has more than a million miles on it. If not replace lifters (cam followers) With the right tool (I made one) you can change followers and clips for around 1200-1500bucks (maybe less) and probably pretty well forget that area for another million. If you don't and a follower fails you are looking at a job that nearly rivals doing an inframe in both time and expense. Some will say just replace clips but after having mine go down and pulling it all apart I had a couple or three very seasoned cat mechanics tell me if followers look good just put the other 11 back in with new clips on new cam and go. Well, I come from an industrial machine shop background so I try to check all tolerances as a second nature. I set the one new follower up on a height stand and checked the play in the axle of the wheel on follower. It was like .004 or.006 which I thought was a plenty. Then I checked my old ones, They ranged from .018 to around .026 IIRC. I ended up buying 11 more new ones. Cat says replace clips any time head is off or every 600k. Few do that. Mine went down right after having overhead run. I checked overhead when i tore it down and it was spot on. Had a friend that had the same thing happen twice on two different 3406b's right after overhead was run. Overhead typically tightens from valves wearing into seats etc. That closes gap at rocker. When you open that gap back up to spec it causes more concussion to the things under it. In my case, I am most sure the lifter broke and took out the clip instead of the other way around. I bashfully explained and showed my theory to the well respected truck engine machinist that helped me install cam bearings. After looking at things and scratching his head for a minute he said "you know I believe you are right" If I had of known you could replace clips without pulling head i would have done that long ago. But I still think the lifter would have broke. At the very least, change the clips. Parts to do that are less than 100 bucks. If possible go ahead and pull lifters/followers and have them checked for slack in the axle. IIRC parts to do my cam and labor for cam bearings totaled like 3800 bucks(not including tow bill) with me doing the rest of the labor. I would guess the bill at a shop would have been twice that or more cause it is a big pita job in my opinion.