OM606.692 Turbodiesel into FJ40 (SBC Swap)

[ravenholm]

Here is the frame primed and painted. Felt so good to finally get a new coating on there! I went with a nice Pantone 425C for the frame rather than the traditional black, because I wanted to be able to see grease/oil indicating a leak or other issue, while still being a sensible 'frame' sort of color. Paint is Sherwin Williams Genesis Single Stage over epoxy primer.

 

[ravenholm]

Holy goddess stripping down the axles was a filthy job.

 

[ravenholm]

The intercooler rear heat exchanger frame, brackets, burly SPAL fan.

 

[ravenholm]

Mocking up the oil-filter relocation. I just couldn't build a model of this that a liked, so I had to position it the old-fashioned way.
That's all for today.

 

[47coeman]

Good to have you back, and congratulations on your becoming sober. Yes getting things right takes time as I know it has taken me more than I expected with mine. I think that there are some parallels with yours and mine however, you are going way above me on many. You can follow as I am another 45 Resto here. Again good to have you back.

 

[ravenholm]

Good to have you back, and congratulations on your becoming sober. Yes getting things right takes time as I know it has taken me more than I expected with mine. I think that there are some parallels with yours and mine however, you are going way above me on many. You can follow as I am another 45 Resto here. Again good to have you back.

Many thanks! Good to see you again, too. Our efforts with these trucks have many life parallels and lessons buried in the grease and swearing......

 

[47coeman]

Many thanks! Good to see you again, too. Our efforts with these trucks have many life parallels and lessons buried in the grease and swearing......

Yes they do, as a reminder I have 2 rigs I am doing. Yes I am crazy for sure the other rig in the hard core section under skips 35 is farther along and I am doing more of the assembly. Ron will also install the 606. Both have been machined decked, rods were adjusted for the head decking, bored for new pistons and all the rotating parts were balanced. Both will be going back together after the final parts are picked up today from the balancer. Take a look over in the hard core section for the 35 and the 45 section for another 45 build.

 

[ravenholm]

So here is a question:
I have a set of TrailGear 'Longfields' (I know there is some debate as to the awesomeness of these post TrailGear's acquisition....). I bought them to have as a backup on a lengthy offroad trip in the sierras.

My front axle is fully apart. My current axles are stock. Should I stay with the stock axles till they go, or take the opportunity to slug the TrailGear axles in there? I've heard some rumblings that the Chromoly axles, although plenty strong, don't have the longevity of the stock axles.

Any thoughts?

 

[NightFury]

So here is a question:
I have a set of TrailGear 'Longfields' (I know there is some debate as to the awesomeness of these post TrailGear's acquisition....). I bought them to have as a backup on a lengthy offroad trip in the sierras.

My front axle is fully apart. My current axles are stock. Should I stay with the stock axles till they go, or take the opportunity to slug the TrailGear axles in there? I've heard some rumblings that the Chromoly axles, although plenty strong, don't have the longevity of the stock axles.

Any thoughts?

Longevity of the Chromoly axles is more of an issue in full time 4wd vehicles like the FJ80, where the axle is always spinning and the birfields are wearing on itself constantly. For part time 4wd with locking hubs the axle will only be spinning when you lock the hubs and so the faster wearing chromoly isn't really an issue.

Unless you are planning on keeping it in 4wd with the hubs locked a large percentage of the time I would put in the stronger axles now and save the stockers as trail spares. Changing a birf in your garage with all your tools and a vice is one thing. Changing a birf on the trail is a big messy pain in the butt.

-Travis

 

[ravenholm]

Thanks Travis - exactly the type of info I was looking for. Cheers. In go the Longfields, then.

 

[ravenholm]

Ok, update time!

First up is transmission time. Here's the output end of the NV4500 with fifth gear nut upgrade. This is an Advance Adapters GM transmission. I head a leak between the trans and the adapter at this surface, and this time around I wanted to do it right, so it's been ubercleaned and slightly honed.

I like to build up transmissions vertically, so I attach the bell housing and stand them on end. Once the adapter was on there:

I've added this little oil level window / thermometer so I don't have to wonder if my tranny has enough oil anymore.... I drilled and tapped the case. In this location there is a lot of clearance on the back side. I machined some wedge-shaped nylon washers to adapt the irregular surface of the transmission to the flat plane of the oil level window. There is a chance this unit won't hold up to the temps the NV4500s run - it's rated for oils and 220f. We'll see. Heavier duty units got into crazy money on McMaster, so this is where I'll start.

Below is the clutch sandwich. My adapter setup is from Bendsten's Speed Gems.
I need to say something about this company. Bendsten has a reputation for being a bit gruff, to put it mildly. When I first did the conversion, the adapter I bought from them tipped the transmission on it's side by 15 degrees. I didn't have time to work it out, so I ran it as is. This lean caused the oil to leak out of the breather, as well as other issues, so this time I figured I'd fix it. Keep in mind the adapter had been in my truck for a couple years. I called Bendsten to ask about buying another adapter plate (they now offered one with the correct clocking).
Bob Bendsten immediately cut me off - 'The first one was wrong. Send it back, we'll send you the right one.' I was shocked - this is a $600 adapter plate purchased 6 years ago.
So, gruff, yes, but in my case, they more than stood by their product, and I am grateful.

 

[ravenholm]

So here is the aforementioned adapter plate, with the dial caliper in place to center it. I didn't do this the first time. Don't be like me. Dial caliper's aren't expensive and the measuring process isn't hard. By the time I was done, I was +- .003.
The trans mounts to this via tight pins, so everything after of this doesn't have any wiggle to allow for off center installation. This plate, however, has plenty of room in the bolt holes, so it needs to be centered. I drilled and tapped two lower holes to match those on my bellhousing. Note that if you elect to use the lower bolt holes on this plate that go into the oil pan, you will not be able to drop the pan without also dropping the transmission.....

Once all centered, it was assembly time. I like to put the clutch assembly onto the transmission and mate that whole thing up to the block that way. You have to secure the adapter plate to the mercedes flex plate with bolts inserted through an access port from the engine side anyways, so this approach saves the pita of getting the transmission to smoothly insert into the clutch.

and in she goes...

Here is the super burly crossmember I designed to replace the stupid AA end cap style one. The mounts are RuffStuff DOM bushings, the bar is 1x2 steel I bent with a rose tip OxyAcetelyne and a lot of sweating leverage....

 

[ravenholm]

Final pic of trans in position from above. I have chosen to off-center the engine / trans about 1 inch towards the drivers side. This creates better clearance for the merc engine fan against the frame, better clearance for the oil pan/front diff, and more room for the ridonculous turbo octopus (hexapus?) monster on the other side. It also reduces the total angle on the driveshafts a bit. Lastly it creates JUST enough space for a 3" exhaust to sneak through tucked above the trans mount.

Ok, on to other stuff! Here are the mount tabs for the fuel tank. These are RuffStuff trick tabs, so useful. That way I can avoid drill the cross-member. I used two because I'm paranoid about stuff falling off..... Then I bent up some straps to hold the bottom of the tank.

Straps attach aft via more trick tabs and direct bolt to the rear frame:

In goes the tank. Very proud of this, first thing I ever TIG'd in stainless that came out all right. Only 3 pinholes when I went to pressure test! The tank has a 'typhoon sump' that the feed and return lines dip down into, a fuel-cell style float. For baffling I chopped up a whole bunch of 3" aluminum thin-wall tube I had found from a scrapper. It's clean, will never disolve in the fuel, is light, and takes up very little volume. Much better than wiffle balls! I crammed the whole lot in there before I welded the last panel closed, smooshed down the panel, and voila.

Tanks is right about 24 gallons. Sump is a 5 inch tube section, with about a 1.5 hole to the main tank. This will allow the sump to trap a good amount of fuel in the sump even at extreme angles.

I decided to leave the tank bare stainless instead of painting to facilitate future weld repairs. Not perfect, but I'm pleased.

 

[ravenholm]

Top view of the tank installed, with the retention cable I thought up to keep the tank tight.

Next up air-bag mounts. These were a huge pita. I put the bags on the truck to stabilize the roll when towing, and they worked so well I ended up liking them a lot for road-driving. Really cuts down on the roll, so I wanted to keep them, but the angle I had them previously wasn't ideal. It took most of a day of fitting/trimming refitting to find a spot that didn't interfere with the intercooler radiator or other stuff and presented the air bag fully perpendicular to the axle. One of those unexpected fights. I had to trim the intercooler mount brackets back, which means I'll have touch up paint work I have to do on the frame. Oh well.

Started fitting the exhaust. Here is where the CAD planning really paid off. It allowed get the design of the fuel tank just right to allow for the 3 exhaust to thread the needle between fuel tank, shock, air bag, intercooler radiator, and axle. Jees. However, it works! I used some really nifty stainless polyurethane exhaust mounts from summit - they hold the exhaust very very in place - which is good, because there is only 1/4 clearance on either side where it passes the transfer case and the frame.

Although very tight, there is good 2 fingers between the exhaust and the shock. My tires should bind on the wheel wells before the shock is compressed enough to result in contact with the exhaust.

Whoo that's tight. I'll have just enough space for the pyrogel/ceramic/stainless insulation blankets to squeeze in and wrap the exhaust to keep things cool.

 

[ravenholm]

Some nice new brake flex lines from StopTech, and the u-bolts and painted plates in place.

Heading the other direction we have the engine with the sequential turbos in place. All hard pipe with needed flex thanks to vanjay clamps (not installed.)
I'm still deciding how I feel about the bulldozer yellow. Pantone 109 was the mix formula. The dark grey and bronze are nice sensible german engine colors, but I wanted to spice things up when it came to this monster intake. The small snail (HE211) is still in primer because I forgot to paint it.... Hot side snails are silver VHT ceramic over VHT primer. I couldn't justify the cost to have them Jett-Hot coated, especially when I'm going to further insulate them. Just wanted something to keep the rust off.

Other side of the intake, the frozen boost air-to-water IC up top, and the stock merc runners welded to a 3" aluminum tube.

Here's a side view of the hexapus blower contraption:

Was really not pleased with how my welds turned out on the small compressor intake pipe, but after grinding them off an redoing them 3 times with pretty much the same result, I had had enough. That tube is too thin (.063 wall) to grind them down smooth without resulting in holes. They were air tight, and that was that.

Lastfully, more progress on the oil-tower relocation. This was necessary to move the engine down and back and clear the brake booster/firewall. Here I've got the AN lines to the block in, including the drain-back line. I used -10 for the main lines, -6 for the drain.

That's all for this week. This weekend I'm hoping to finish the exhaust, including the wastegate bypass, and start assembling the front axle. Once the mechanicals are all bolted back together, I can dive into the plumbing and electrical, which I'm really looking forward too.

 

[47coeman]

Some nice new brake flex lines from StopTech, and the u-bolts and painted plates in place. View attachment 2381646

Heading the other direction we have the engine with the sequential turbos in place. All hard pipe with needed flex thanks to vanjay clamps (not installed.)
I'm still deciding how I feel about the bulldozer yellow. Pantone 109 was the mix formula. The dark grey and bronze are nice sensible german engine colors, but I wanted to spice things up when it came to this monster intake. The small snail (HE211) is still in primer because I forgot to paint it.... Hot side snails are silver VHT ceramic over VHT primer. I couldn't justify the cost to have them Jett-Hot coated, especially when I'm going to further insulate them. Just wanted something to keep the rust off.

View attachment 2381648

Other side of the intake, the frozen boost air-to-water IC up top, and the stock merc runners welded to a 3" aluminum tube.

View attachment 2381655
Here's a side view of the hexapus blower contraption:
View attachment 2381656
Was really not pleased with how my welds turned out on the small compressor intake pipe, but after grinding them off an redoing them 3 times with pretty much the same result, I had had enough. That tube is too thin (.063 wall) to grind them down smooth without resulting in holes. They were air tight, and that was that.

Lastfully, more progress on the oil-tower relocation. This was necessary to move the engine down and back and clear the brake booster/firewall. Here I've got the AN lines to the block in, including the drain-back line. I used -10 for the main lines, -6 for the drain.

View attachment 2381660

That's all for this week. This weekend I'm hoping to finish the exhaust, including the wastegate bypass, and start assembling the front axle. Once the mechanicals are all bolted back together, I can dive into the plumbing and electrical, which I'm really looking forward too.

Great work my friend, pics are great also...

 

[LandCruisinMy93]

Welcome Back. Congratulations on chosing sobriety and on your progress. I'm still piddling with my swap as time allows also. Keep up the work, it's nice to see you posting in your own thread again after it was momentarily hijacked. I too am striving for no oil leaks but it seems every time I stop 1 another appears, Lol. Glad to see old Bentdsen replaced your adapter and that so many have been inspired to put OM606's in their cruisers.

 

[Choo Magoo]

How did you align the adapter ring to the engine block? I purchased my kit from Speed Gems in early 2021 and the engine to adapter ring has two dowels that go into the om606 that have zero play in them. Did you use offset dowel pins or something or did your adapter not have dowel pins going into the 606? Your flywheel also looks significantly different then mine. I'm glad to see there's enough demand for this drivetrain setup that Speed Gems has ongoing R&D on it.

 

[southern jeeper]

Hey @ravenholm I reading back over your thread as I am working on my own 606 swap and I was wondering if the engine mounts you used where the stock merc oil filled mounts and what your opinion on them were?

 

[GTB66]

Hey @ravenholm I reading back over your thread as I am working on my own 606 swap and I was wondering if the engine mounts you used where the stock merc oil filled mounts and what your opinion on them were?

I Would also like to know this. Anymore updates on the rebuild @ravenholm?