Dirtgypsy goes SOA

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Dirtgypsy, how did you know your drive shaft was binding? I mean what were the symptoms? I'm just finishing my SOA and have a new low frequency vibration. Awesome build BTW

Hi Jeff,

Hard to explain online but if you take a jointed section like pinion and driveline and put enough of a bend into it the joint will bind. Think of it like the wobbly extension on your ratchets. They like a minimal angle. Anything above a 45 and they dont turn very well.

Thats what my rear line was doing when I tried the "pinion same angle as the transfer" I am not sure if I posted later or not but I ended up putting in like 4 degree shims and it solved the problem till I recut the rear pearches and added the CV style joint.

Hope this helps and thanks for the kind words.

Do you have a build thread? Any pics? That will help with trying to diagnose a vib.

Clint
 
Thanks to Jeff I made it back to the first page:bounce:

I have to start putting more emoticons into the threads or I will never hear the end of it from a 5 and 3 year old. :D

Anyways I have been staring at this truck for the last few days and after my last days work and post I have had a couple of things bugging me. The first was the clocking on the stock tranny. I know that the Isuzu was dead flat front to back and side to side. The 2F with 3F bell housing made the tranny and subsequintly the engine clock about 6 degrees to the passenger side. I spent the better part of 3 hours yesterday trying different options to get this flat but was not happy with any of them. I decided to sleep on it and re-address the issue today.

I bounced some ideas off of Mike when he got here and within a few minutes we were busy fabbing. Decided that it was now or never and went to work on a new tranny cross member. This allowed a couple of things. First is that we were able to get the tranny and engine flat side to side. Next wes that I was able to suck the trans and transfer case up closer to the body. Last was a beefier design to eventually build an actual skid off of.

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Pretty basic design but it still takes time to do!

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I will need to clearance for the front driveline and cap the ends. But, I am very happy with the results.

With setting everything flat it afforded some more room around the starter to frame and A/C to steering interference.

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Lots of room around firewall!

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Once that was done I changed my mind again and am not using the Isuzu. I am using One Mike HP....

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This guy gets more done on Cruisers than a full blown dedicated fab shop. Mike was eager to get started on the engine mounts. I bounced some ideas of of him and we had a plan. I was hopeful we would get some done today but what we ended up with was beyond what I had imagined! I am soo pleased with these and mad props to Mike for burning them in for me! :grinpimp::steer:

Good shot showing the trans centered in the bay now.

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passenger side:

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drivers side:

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under shot:

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And one more shot of the cross member:

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I am working on a turbo upgrade (I hope) on thursday but it wont be till next week that I have anymore updates. I also saw a package from Oregon Fuel Injection and am hoping that when I open the box its the correct injectors for this motor!

Thanks for looking.

Clint
 
Holy Cow! Imagine my surprise when a finally finished reading this thread. I had to post up the drive line question when I was at that part so I wouldn't forget. I had no idea what a cool turn your build would take me. You might end up with to me what is a perfect rig. As for the drive line I did as you did and made the drive flanges "the same". Everyone else has said it, I will too. Your wheels rock! I've loved those wheels since back in the day when I had a set on my Chevelle. So why did you need an adapter and a bell housing ? I thought that's what the adapter is for. You guys sure have some cool rigs up there! I'm lame with a camera so I don't have a build thread. Its hard to stop and take pics when your in the zone.Keep up the great work your fans are wanting more:clap:
 
Looking good!

Pretty basic design but it still takes time to do!

Clint

Ain't that the truth! It always amazes me how much time these "little" projects take up.

:cheers:
 
This is absolutely killing me to be stuck out here in nowheresville. I'm sorry that I can't spend every weekend there working on it.

A little oil burner motivation for you... last tank averaged 20.5mpgs for me.
 
Holy Cow! Imagine my surprise when a finally finished reading this thread. I had to post up the drive line question when I was at that part so I wouldn't forget. I had no idea what a cool turn your build would take me. You might end up with to me what is a perfect rig. As for the drive line I did as you did and made the drive flanges "the same". Everyone else has said it, I will too. Your wheels rock! I've loved those wheels since back in the day when I had a set on my Chevelle. So why did you need an adapter and a bell housing ? I thought that's what the adapter is for. You guys sure have some cool rigs up there! I'm lame with a camera so I don't have a build thread. Its hard to stop and take pics when your in the zone.Keep up the great work your fans are wanting more:clap:

Haha! Thanks for the kind words Jeff. It is a labor of love I suppose. My wife and I joke that this truck will still be running strong when my 5 year old takes it of my hands when he can drive!

Looking good!



Ain't that the truth! It always amazes me how much time these "little" projects take up.

:cheers:

Ain't that the truth brother! Better now than regret it later!

This is absolutely killing me to be stuck out here in nowheresville. I'm sorry that I can't spend every weekend there working on it.

A little oil burner motivation for you... last tank averaged 20.5mpgs for me.

Nice! I can't wait to double my mpg! Don't worry about getting over here right now. This is the boring stuff. No on the other hand in two weeks I am going to need some help with the wiring!

BTW you are never "stuck" you are only "momentarily detained" You owe me a dollar.

Clint
 
Hi Keif,

Not sure of years but I am guesing that somewhere around 88-89. Mine was built in 9/88.

KInd of a bummer day. I have been working like mad for the past 2 weeks to get this thing in and today was the day. It started out well and things were moving smoothly.

Started with the drill and tap on the Isuzu Flywheel to mount the adapter:

The new adapter is self centering so drill and tap is no big deal. It comes with the hardware you supply the drill and tap:

IMG_0319.jpg


After that I got out the thread lock and went to town on all the adapter bolts both on flywheel and on bag of engine. Started to mount the kick arse Centerforce clutch and found that I didn't have the right hardware for it. Make sure you get the right ones as standard bolts aren't shouldered to align the plate:

Mr Gasket part #910

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This killed almost an hour having to run into the next town just to find these bolts. No big deal and all was looking good. Then I found that I didn't have the right length bolts for the AA to Isuzu adapter and had to run back to ACE. I picked up the right bolts and back at it again. Got the clutch aligned and throw out bearing ready to go. Popped in the bronze pilot bushing and oh crap. Standstill....

IMG_0328.jpg


I went to put on the clutch fork and like a total duma$$ I forgot to get the clutch arm pivot ball out of the old housing!!! Man what a bummer. I called about 3 people in the area and no luck. Then I remembered back in the day that NAPA had blister packs of odds and ends and the pivot ball was also used on Chevy trucks in the mid 80's! Bonus! Off to the store only to find that they are out of "stock" Oh wait we have not sold one of those in like 7 years....

I went ahead and ordered it but it wasn't in till the 430 pm truck. By then I was needed at the field to coach T-Ball for my 5 year old and game done. I puttered around the engine for a bit and put some sound deadning in the drivers/ passenger side floor and called it quits.

In case your wondering here is the part. Dorman part # 615-1430. You will need a 27/64th drill and 12mm 1.75 pitch tap to install.

IMG_0329.jpg


On a good note I did find the turbo I am going to run. Its an IHI RBC6 by Borg Warner. It originally came on the GM 6.5 diesels but was also run by 8.1 liter Hinos and a few 5.2 liter Isuzu's. I don't have the inducer/ exducer ratings but its a .70 A/R turbo good for about 350hp and 18 psi. Here is size comparison to stock:

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You boys and girls have a good weekend and I will check back in tuesday or wed when the engine is sitting in the bay!

Clint :cheers:
 
Talk about a turbo!

That thing is huge.

Can't wait to see this finished.
 
Actually the stock one is really tiny so it's a perspective thing.

Clint that turbo looks like a much better size than the stock one, it'll be fun to play with it and it should give you growing room. I drove Chad's truck this week doing some research for tranny shifting and now I have boost envy. That thing is a monster! Makes me want to put my turbo swap higher on the priority list but really I need to focus on my axle first.

Soon enough sweet diesel particulate will be filling you nose and oddly enough, you'll feel more earthy.
 
Yeah I am hoping this thing works out. In my research there are some options of swapping the inducer to have it spool faster. I know there have been a few reports saying the turbo chokes out at 2500 rpm but that's on 8cyl. I think I will be fine with the 4 banger.

The new Dodge's have crazy torque and its almost instant when the turbo spools up. Too bad they get such horrible mileage.

Clint
 
Nice Warringtons in the turbo picture. ;) I don't know why I notice stuff like that.

Bummer about the clutch problems. But, hey, at least you have a cool turbo. I'm hoping to upgrade to a turbo at some point, but it will be a ways down the line.

:cheers:
 
Clint,

Wow, you've made a bunch of progress. Congrats! Sorry you had a few setbacks, but we all have a few when it comes to conversions. My turbo, injectors and injector pump were all junk! Money I hadn't planned on spending. But it all works out in the end.

Here are a couple of photos of the air cleaner that you sold me. It worked great and the Isuzu is breathing nicely!

I love your motor mounts! Those came out sweet. I did mine out of 4" box but I wish I built them like yours. Nice!

Your going to need an AC amp from an HJ61 or FJ62 to make the AC work like factory, so keep your eyes open for one.
Also, I would go with the electric fan setup, so much easier to do and you can install a relay that turns it on when the AC comes on so your condenser will always be working efficiently.

Keep up the good work, it is coming out great!
Don

front.jpg

Enginebay.jpg
 
Longbow, that's a great looking engine bay. I like how you've used the space and that electric panel is a slick idea.
 
toddw83,
I haven't posted mine up yet, but I have it just about ready so I will probably post one up within the next 2 weeks as soon as I get all my pics together.

Boots4,
Thanks for the kind words. I have lusted after your rig for a long time! Yours is one of the reasons that I decided to go diesel.

Sorry for the hijack Clint. I really just wanted to say thanks for the help with the air cleaner.

Don
 
Hey Don,

I am glad you posted up those pics. The air cleaner looks a bit better than the duct tape! I will keep my eye out for the AC amplifier. Looking at your pics it looks like you have a manual cut out? Any reason other than ease of build you took out the electric one?

I really hope to get this engine in this week and start on te wiring. The weather looks like its going to cooperate so i am optimistic.

clint
 
Clint,

You're right, it does look a little better than the K&N duct taped onto the rubber hose!

I went with a cable for shutdown just for simplicity and the other cable in that box is for cold weather fuel enrichment and I just don't need that either down here in the desert, so I decided to just go simple.

Hopefully your weather will hold and you can get this thing in there. Your going to love your truck even more once it is in there. The low end torque for wheeling is incredible and the power is so nice around town and on the highway. I smile every time I start mine up!

Post more pics as you go!

Good luck,

Don
 
All your rigs look great guys! And I agree with Mike, that's one nice engine bay longbow. And the engine mounts Clint & Mike came up with are REAL nice....easy to just drop the engine *down*---mine was a little convoluted using the C-channel approach (especially getting the cuts right for mating up to the rail just right).

Forge on!
 
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