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- #621
tacked and welded in..
Biodiesel Piggie #2 Buildup (was Sad Sad day...)
- Thread starter dieselcruiserhead
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- Thread starter
- #622
other side, this one was a whole lot easier.. Cuts made with cutoff wheel on the grinder with the plate in the vise...
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- #623
welded in.. You can see pen marks where I was marking approx location where the motor mount would be...
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- #624
I didn't post because I didn't think it'd make as much sense but the other day I made the plates to bolt to the side of the block.. I could have used 6BT mounts but because the 4BTs are shorter, they interfere with the starter on the driver's side so I have to fab up mounts from scratch... Also, the mounts I fab up will let me use the 4BT specific liquid filled mounts that isolate a lot of the "vibration" that people talk a lot about with the 4BTs (which I think is much less a of a deal than is described on the 'net, anyway), but I figured I would use the OEM app.. the liquid filled mounts really let the motor bounce around and give little/basically no vibration to the actual truck, and are strong as hell.. but they are expensive, best way to get them is used if you can find them...
First pic shows the actual mounts...
Second is my "drill press" (need to get one of those at some point LOL...)
Third is the actual plate, this is the one for the drivers side but I mocked it up on the passenger side (which is clean,
) to make sure holes/placement were all correct.. Had to be very careful about hole size/placement to get the plates right and drilling, which I did right, luckily...
First pic shows the actual mounts...
Second is my "drill press" (need to get one of those at some point LOL...)
Third is the actual plate, this is the one for the drivers side but I mocked it up on the passenger side (which is clean,
) to make sure holes/placement were all correct.. Had to be very careful about hole size/placement to get the plates right and drilling, which I did right, luckily...
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- #625
Here is a pic of the drivers side, with that plate on it.. You can see the four block holes it went into... It never would have crossed my mind to use these holes until I saw a 6BT setup... You can also see the starter just barely fits and not hits the plate...
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- #626
Next put the motor back in.. Spent quite a bit of time again, getting it put back in place "just right" again, it was definitely a precision placement versus some other setups..
Here is the correct plate on the passenger side.. Next, I started getting sloppy about taking pics, so I took final pics. But you can get an idea of what it what. The top plate there (2nd pic) is a piece of 4" strap, 1/4" thick. I cut the corner off and added some 2" strap to get the corner there, which I show why I did that later on...
Here is the correct plate on the passenger side.. Next, I started getting sloppy about taking pics, so I took final pics. But you can get an idea of what it what. The top plate there (2nd pic) is a piece of 4" strap, 1/4" thick. I cut the corner off and added some 2" strap to get the corner there, which I show why I did that later on...
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- #627
then pulled it all off to weld it up... Top pic shows what I started with, some 3/16" remnants I have lying around, and bent up and trimmed to form the gusset..
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That is very beefy.
On top of the liquid filled mount, there is only one bolt that keeps the engine in place. Is that not an issue due to the transmission mount also helping keeping it in place? One bolt does not seem like enough to me, but then again I'm not a fabricator.
On top of the liquid filled mount, there is only one bolt that keeps the engine in place. Is that not an issue due to the transmission mount also helping keeping it in place? One bolt does not seem like enough to me, but then again I'm not a fabricator.
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- #629
Bottom piece, all welded up.. Instead of using strap on the sides, I went for one big gusset on the bottom which I think is a cleaner final product...
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- #630
and the final product...
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- #631
sorry more pics, I am sort of proud of these so I took a lot of pics
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- #632
So this is about as far as I got.. Here are some final pics of the drivers side and the starter.. You can also see the engine side plate and that's next, the driver's side mount.. Which should go a lot quicker since so much of the prep has already been done.. 
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- #633
It is a little surprising but that is the design, by GM or Cummins or whoever designed it.. Quite a few motor mounts have only one bolt believe it or not too, and it works so I guess that is the plan.. Also, pretty much all of this stuff I have been building is super over built, so it might through a little perspective off here, for what its worth...
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- #634
here's a pic of the factory motor mounts, for what its worth.. They bolted to the front of the motor and swept out quite a bit, more than the ones I am building.. All 1/4" thick.. I sort of tried to mimic the style a little bit with the ones I am building I suppose... 
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- #635
Also here are some last placement issues.. with hacking up the firewall and t case hump, mounting it high and back (which I had to do because of the starter)... I can actually run minimal/possibly no lift.. Which is cool, on the last rigs I needed the 4" of lift to clear the front axle from the oil pan.. This time, it works out pretty well...
So, this might change things though I'll still need at least 35" tires to get the best highway gearing, unfortunately.. I thought I might be able to maybe run some 33's but I think I will end up with a 3 or 4" lift I think, probably OEM J's or something like that...
I have at least 6" of uptravel with the only interference being the drag link possibly hitting the front of the oil pan hump, pic 1... And 2, the high pinion diff possibly hitting the side of the oil pan but they are about 2" apart.. Again, snug, but fit great and plenty of room...
So, this might change things though I'll still need at least 35" tires to get the best highway gearing, unfortunately.. I thought I might be able to maybe run some 33's but I think I will end up with a 3 or 4" lift I think, probably OEM J's or something like that...
I have at least 6" of uptravel with the only interference being the drag link possibly hitting the front of the oil pan hump, pic 1... And 2, the high pinion diff possibly hitting the side of the oil pan but they are about 2" apart.. Again, snug, but fit great and plenty of room...
Hey man good job keeping up witht he work, im kinda a lul in my project because lack of funds being in school full time. I guess its too late for this but you could have clocked your whole drivetrain to clearence the starter. Thats if the hood still shut. There was a thread about it in hardcore a little while ago. I am clocking V-wags drivetrain in two weeks when its down for a frame swap..
Looks great man.... You gonna keep the 4bt tan? always thought it looked cool that color.
-Al
Looks great man.... You gonna keep the 4bt tan? always thought it looked cool that color.
-Al
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- #638
cool, yeah I could have clocked but I think the air intake tube will hit the hood.. Also it is clocked a little bit, you can tell from the photos, about 3 degrees. So in a sense I did get a little more room that way.. But that is about the max I wanted to clock it as it sits, also to not have the transmission too crooked.. Now to figure out how to mount the trans cross member as it is a little off from level
Re rebuild, what I have pretty much decided to do I think is leave it as is, replace the bearings while I am in there replacing the oil pan gasket.. But, assuming it has good compression which it probably does, I will probably be fine.. Problem is now that I ahve a compression tester, I don't have a battery strong enough to turn it over right now.. That killer 8 cell Optima I had sort of got stolen from me (lent it to someone, never saw it again, don't have the guy's info
). So as sad as it it, I can't do a compression test until I get a good battery that can do it at some point... Doh...!
Re rebuild, what I have pretty much decided to do I think is leave it as is, replace the bearings while I am in there replacing the oil pan gasket.. But, assuming it has good compression which it probably does, I will probably be fine.. Problem is now that I ahve a compression tester, I don't have a battery strong enough to turn it over right now.. That killer 8 cell Optima I had sort of got stolen from me (lent it to someone, never saw it again, don't have the guy's info
). So as sad as it it, I can't do a compression test until I get a good battery that can do it at some point... Doh...!
looking really good man, can't wait to start my convertion. Still have to sort out lots of parts though.
Very glad to see how the carter clears everything without a lift, that puts my conversion some $$$$ nearer to compleation since I will most likely keep the 2" lift I already have, I thought I was going to be forced to get at least 4".
Again very cool and please keep posting as many pics as you like, they are certainly helping me plan everything in advance.
Very glad to see how the carter clears everything without a lift, that puts my conversion some $$$$ nearer to compleation since I will most likely keep the 2" lift I already have, I thought I was going to be forced to get at least 4".
Again very cool and please keep posting as many pics as you like, they are certainly helping me plan everything in advance.
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- #640
hate to say it but proffits was saying the 4" + is mandatory for the 80s because I don't think you have the luxury of firewall chopping? PM greasecruiser, he has some pics of the 4BT in his 80 and how it all filled in, there are other pics out there too...