If you have been around diesels for a long time, then you know all about the fuel injection changes that have happened since the Cummins came out. If you aren’t, then you may look at this title and think we made a mistake.

Before common rail engines, the Cummins had a VP pump. Before the VP pump was a p-pump and before the p-pump was a VE pump.

We, recently, came across Jodo on the Cummins Forum and were a little surprised by his project. He was going to take a 6.7 Cummins and convert it over to a VE. Once we realized that he wasn’t modifying the engine for better horsepower and trying to make a performance engine out of it, it started to make sense.

Jodo has been in business for years and has seen all of the changes and how reliable some parts are and aren’t. After all, he makes a living selling used Cummins parts (click here to see his store). He, also, deals with a lot of people who make their living on the road. They are all looking for good mileage and reliability.

Jodo has been doing VE swaps on Cummins engine for years with great success. One of his customers is getting 26 mpg unloaded on the freeway and 16 loaded. “Another Hot Shot is using an ‘04 3500 four door dually with a 6 speed manual. His trailer is a tandem dually and it ways 8500lbs empty. He has a heavy foot and he is reporting 16.5 loaded and 21 with his trailer empty. The worst I have seen is in a ‘05 3500 4wd dually loaded heavy getting 14.5. These are just the customers I talk with regularly,” says Jodo.

With these type of results and with how simple the systems are, we can really appreciate what Jodo is doing. The VE pumps are really great pumps and are relatively cheap, easy to find and are easy to fix.

Notice the two holes drilled in between each of the cylinders. These steam ports are not on the 24 valve heads that came on the VP equipped engines.

Jodo basically outlined the challenges he saw upfront and went to town on the modification. Initially, he knocked out mounting the 1st generation gear case. As soon as he finished that, he modified the oil pan to work with the cover.

With the lower end basically ready for the conversion, a 24 valve head was prepped. The big differences here are the steam ports. Jodo laid an old gasket on top of the head, marked the two holes in between each cylinder and drilled the steam ports.

One aspect of this project that got a lot of feedback was the black and yellow paint Jodo used. He reasoning is because of durability, but it does happen to be a competing engine manufacturer’s colors (and paint). Either way, the engines look fantastic when he is done.

After getting most of the engine back together Jodo started running into a few small issues, the front cover and oil pan needed to be trimmed to clear the 6.7-liter damper and fan hub. Outside of that, Jodo reports this conversion to be easier than he expected.

Here is a link to a video he made of it running on the ground before he installed it.

Jodo opted to run a HE351VE turbocharger for this setup. He has had great luck with the VE pumps and HE351VE turbochargers.

He does outline how he modifies the delivery valves and the process he used to dial in his fuel economy.

The truck that he ended up sticking this 6.7 in is his 2005 Dodge 3500 4wd truck. The truck, currently, has a 24 valve VE pumped 5.9-liter with a 68RFE tranny behind it. (Yep, 65RFE.)

Jodo is still tweaking the with the delivery valves, fuel pin and adjusting a few other minor items trying to get his mileage just right. The last update he was getting just over 21 mpg but he thinks he can get several more mpg out of it.

This is a very interesting thread with all of the discussion of the 68RFE tranny and VE pump conversion. In fact, he has even started another project of making a standalone emission system to work with the newer trucks and older engines. Make sure you spend some time reading this very interesting thread!