Todd, Will, and Myer sit down to answer the question their own viewers keep asking: what actually kills a diesel engine. This isn't a highlight reel of blown up race trucks. It's a real conversation about the boring stuff that ends up costing you the most, and by the end you'll understand exactly why some trucks hit 400,000 miles and others don't make it past 100,000.
The guys start with air filtration, breaking down why a high flow filter built for the racetrack can be the wrong call for a truck that spends its life on dirt roads, and how a warped air box lid quietly sands down cylinder walls one mile at a time. From there they get into oil change intervals, why diesel oil has to fight abrasive soot, and why stretching that interval too far on a Cummins or any diesel truck build is gambling with the bottom end.
Fuel system maintenance gets serious attention too. Todd and Myer walk through algae contamination, injector failures on common rail systems, and why a cheap tune from Facebook Marketplace can melt a piston faster than almost anything else on this list. They break down EGT damage, ring wear, and valve seat problems, then go platform by platform. You'll hear about killer dowel pin issues on 12 valve Cummins trucks, VP44 fuel pressure sensitivity, the notorious CP4 pump problems on 6.7 Power Stroke trucks, head gasket failures on Duramax engines, and why the fifth gen Cummins hydraulic roller cam setup has turned into one of the more frustrating design decisions in recent diesel history.
Whether you're running a 5.9 Cummins, a 6.7 Cummins, a Power Stroke, or a Duramax, this episode gives you a real look at what wears these engines out and what you can actually do about it before it becomes an expensive lesson.
If you're a diesel guy who wrenches on your own truck, this is the kind of episode worth taking notes on.
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Shop everything talked about in this episode, including the filters, oil, and parts, at the link below.
Shop Power Driven Diesel: https://www.powerdriven.com
0:00 Intro
0:22 What actually kills a diesel engine
1:11 Air filters and filtration mistakes
5:01 Drilling airbox holes the wrong way
5:19 Oil change intervals and soot buildup
8:10 Fuel system and fuel filter maintenance
13:58 Dodge Cummins fuel system failures by model year
17:03 Fuel additives and lift pump reliability
22:02 Bad tunes and tuning mistakes
25:31 What EGT actually damages
32:05 Manual shifting and transmission tips for towing
34:32 12 valve Cummins killer dowel pin
36:09 VP44 fuel pressure issues
36:32 2003 to 2007 common rail Cummins problems
39:24 6.7 Cummins EGR and grid heater bolt
42:06 6.0 Power Stroke problems
49:30 6.7 Power Stroke CP4 pump failures
51:18 Duramax head gaskets and crank issues
52:49 Fifth gen Cummins bottom end problems
57:12 Roller lifter and pushrod failures
1:04:32 Cummins engineering tradeoffs on 2026 models
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