Build Dirty Koala Build - Cummins Common Rail + NV4500 + HF2AV Swap

[thegogglesdonothing]

The Honda Accord who was trying desperately to pass me on that hill was unsuccessful in his attempt...such a strange feeling.

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Get used to this feeling. I find it to be perhaps the most satisfying thing about my rig. It's particularly fun when it happens with Jeeps and "street king" trucks. There's a long, steep grade that climbs up over 7,000 feet on the Interstate near me, and my truck absolutely whistles up the thing. Such a change of pace, and so fun.

 

[JeepinPete]

I've been following your build. Great progress, looks like it is going to be a fine truck once all the bugs are worked out.

Brings back memories. Did a 5.3L swap in a Jeep a few year back. Then started an Isuzu swap before life got in the way. Engine swaps are fun, ain't they?

Which highway are you taking out to Rausch? I live just south of Allentown PA. You are welcome to borrow the AC amplifier out of my '95 for the weekend, assuming they are compatible. Mail it back when you get the chance.

 

[Mr Cimarron]

Look up Larry B's shutoff solenoid. Haven't had any problem with it in the 80. I have a problem with the solenoid, Ford, in my Ford F350 with it not shutting down sometimes. Maybe its a Ford thing.

 

[Dirty Koala]

I'm not diesel guy but I know the start circuit and various other components (shutdown) likely draw amp loads never envisioned with the OEM wring...etc. Probably save some heartburn in totally isolating those and having them on their own circuits with appropriate gauge wire...etc, which I think you are getting there. Same with the "pre-heater". I think some people have resorted to a manual control for shutdown. Replicate the setup from the donor vehicle which I assume is a dodge, where possible or feasible (I did not go back and read through the entire thread).

Looks like a great setup......I'm sure a stock 6bt puts out plenty of power vs. the OEM setup, so much in torque that I suspect other parts will be a suspect at some point due to the torque output.

That is exactly what I did, isolated the circuits and now have manual control over the shutoff solenoid. I just put another 170 miles on the truck today.

 

[Dirty Koala]

Get used to this feeling. I find it to be perhaps the most satisfying thing about my rig. It's particularly fun when it happens with Jeeps and "street king" trucks. There's a long, steep grade that climbs up over 7,000 feet on the Interstate near me, and my truck absolutely whistles up the thing. Such a change of pace, and so fun.

I had some long steep grades coming out to PA today, it lugged over those passes with ease. I had no less than 5 thumbs up and one trucker blew his air horn in appreciation as I tore away from him up a hill.

 

[Dirty Koala]

I've been following your build. Great progress, looks like it is going to be a fine truck once all the bugs are worked out.

Brings back memories. Did a 5.3L swap in a Jeep a few year back. Then started an Isuzu swap before life got in the way. Engine swaps are fun, ain't they?

Which highway are you taking out to Rausch? I live just south of Allentown PA. You are welcome to borrow the AC amplifier out of my '95 for the weekend, assuming they are compatible. Mail it back when you get the chance.

Hey Pete,
I got out to pine grove campground about 2 hrs ago...it was a mighty hot drive. I am not sure about compatibility, I think the 97 40th, CE & LX's have a different amp. Thank you for the offer though. Are you coming ingredients you CMCC?

 

[Dirty Koala]

Look up Larry B's shutoff solenoid. Haven't had any problem with it in the 80. I have a problem with the solenoid, Ford, in my Ford F350 with it not shutting down sometimes. Maybe its a Ford thing.

larryb's is where I got my shutoff solenoid wiring harness and a few other bit's and pieces. I'll get a new solenoid from them also.

I am not familiar with the Ford shutoff solenoid...does it operate much like the Cummins?

 

[Mr Cimarron]

larryb's is where I got my shutoff solenoid wiring harness and a few other bit's and pieces. I'll get a new solenoid from them also.

I am not familiar with the Ford shutoff solenoid...does it operate much like the Cummins?

I'm not either. My F350 is a big wheel barrow to me. I replace stuff when it breaks and do maintenance. No real research like I do on the Land Cruisers.

 

[Dirty Koala]

Just got back from a successful trip to Coal Mine Cruiser Classic in PA. After getting that low voltage issue sorted on Wednesday night, we were ready to hit the road on Thursday morning. Before leaving I checked most of my nuts and bolts to make sure nothing had come loose, all good. I checked my fluids, all good.

On the cruise out, I was putting the motor through it's paces, there are many long grades, some steep along our planned route. I pushed the motor up to 28lbs boost, the max EGT I saw was 1150 doing about 80 mph up a long grade with a fully loaded rig, towing a fully loaded M416 trailer.

Everything was going swimmingly until I crested the last of the big passes, as I am coasting down the backside of the mountain, it starts raining, very localised rain, its just hitting my windshield...cr@p that's my coolant spraying.

I pull over and investigate, my radiator cap is missing, nothing is leaking or broken. I didn't fully secure the cap before leaving in the morning after my fluid check. I fortunately found the cap in my auxiliary battery tray. I fill up the radiator with water I was carrying (about 9 liters was needed), and then continue on to camp without issue.

Cute cabin, the wifey approves.

The next morning I miss my alarm, wake up in time to race out the door and drive 45 mins to Anthracite to meet up with the guys
That left an hour earlier. I spend the day running black Diamond trails with a group of heavily modified 40's...that's one heck of a way to break in a brand new drivetrain.

The granny low 1st gear is such an improvement on the crawl ratio of the stock setup, I can only imagine how it's going to be when I get the marlin gears installed.

Towards the end of the day, crawling down a particular steep (think flip forwards steep) hill, I hear a binding clunking noise twice. We stop to investigate and can only replicate it when the front hubs are locked. As we are on our way out I figure I will diagnose the issue later.

On the last hill decent I picked up a sizable log that jammed between rear axle, frame and body. Luckily one of the guys had a folding saw which made fairly quick work of cutting it out. The bad news is that log took out my rear airlocker airline, again I will fix that later.

I put it in RWD and head back to camp about 50mins of up and down mountain passes, lots of switchback etc. definitely giving the motor a good workout.

I pull into my cabin, turn off the motor and hear a hissing sound...dear God now what. Open the hood and see I have steam spewing out of the bypass nipple on the radiator, the same one that I had cut down and glued a screw into.

The water that I had put in the radiator the day before had boiled, built up enough pressure to pop the weakest link, I am lucky it was just that screw. I JB weld the nipple hole and left it to cure overnight.

Next morning I drain out the rest of the water (it was still mostly full) fill up with coolant, that @fireball had graciously procurred for me, test drove it for about 30 mins, all is good, it holds and I'm good to go. We enjoy the rest of the festivities, won a bunch of cool stuff at the dinner raffle, burn the candle with good friends, new and old, and then pack it in for the night by 2am.

After breakfast on the deck this morning we loaded up the Cruiser, trailer, dogs and family and headed for home, no issues to report on this last leg of our first adventure.

As I arrived in my town, I didn't need to fill up the tank yet, but I did so that I could calculate the MPG. I had to do some additional math to figure out the true mileage since I have not yet calibrated the speedo to account for 4.56 gears and 37" tires. Unless I screwed up the math, looks like I got 22.9 mpg over the 457 miles I drove this weekend. This is far better than I expected, especially given the spirited driving I was doing, all the mountain passes with a loaded trailer and the day of crawling I did. Pretty stoked with the performance and mileage.

I am claiming adventure #1 a success.

 

[cruisermatt]

Awesome.

 

[JeepinPete]

Sounds like you had a great time! I'm curious to hear whats causing your noises.

 

[fireball]

23mpg?!?!!! Wow, that's awesome. Who knew this whole diesel swap would be such a profitable endeavor?

 

[Dirty Koala]

Awesome.

I agree

Sounds like you had a great time! I'm curious to hear whats causing your noises.

I just got under the truck to see if it's anything obvious. I don't believe it's the birfs, front diff or locking hubs as I can't spin the front shaft when they are both locked, but can when either or both are unlocked. (Diff not locked)

It's possible that the new double cardon front drives haft is binding, but seems unlikely. That leaves the xfer case front output shaft. I have part timed my case, and over a few frosties with Onur and Vince from forged specialties the past two nights, a theory is that I may not have put a required spacer in the xfer case when part timing it...I can't remember if I did or not. Since I have some gears to put in the case, a rebuild is going to be happening very soon, i'll see what is going on then.

23mpg?!?!!! Wow, that's awesome. Who knew this whole diesel swap would be such a profitable endeavor?

By my math, if fuel prices stay where they are, the swap will be paid off within 158k miles, that number will decrease as fuel prices increase...assuming the diesel vs regular gasoline doesn't have a drastic change in price ratios. Given my average of 25k miles per year, I can expect an ROI within 6.5 years.

 

[Wheelingnoob]

Wow crazy good millage!!! I need to advance my timming lol.

Feels good to have a successful trip eh?

 

[Mr Cimarron]

Other than the few hiccups it seems everything went okay. Mileage is great. I got a whopping 15.1 on my last fill up. The wife drove it while I was out of town so I'll blame her. I'm waiting for @Wheelingnoob to do a timing write up so I can advance mine a bit as well. Timing scares me.

 

[Dirty Koala]

Wow crazy good millage!!! I need to advance my timming lol.

Feels good to have a successful trip eh?

Yeah, I was really surprised it was that good, I was expecting 17-19. Definitely feels good to have a successful trip, no tows required.

 

[Dirty Koala]

Other than the few hiccups it seems everything went okay. Mileage is great. I got a whopping 15.1 on my last fill up. The wife drove it while I was out of town so I'll blame her. I'm waiting for @Wheelingnoob to do a timing write up so I can advance mine a bit as well. Timing scares me.

The timing should make a world of difference. The only major difference in our motors will be the pistons I am running, Mahle 286210. Another thing I didn't mention, I am going to be putting in overdrive gears, which will move all my high range gears up by 10%, this will further improve mileage on the highway.

 

[Mr Cimarron]

You go about the same way I do. The Captain Ron way of thinking.

 

[Dirty Koala]

You go about the same way I do. The Captain Ron way of thinking.
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LOL, yes I tend to jump right in and figure it out along the way.

 

[dogfishlake]

Damn, that is one sweet rig! Nice work.