Topic: guess who's back and buildin a towrig!

[red]

well got back from iraq in mid august and picked up an 87 chevy land yacht. crew cab long bed dually 4x4 that had a 454, sm465, np205, and dana 60/80 axles (rear axle surprised me) with a 9' long flatbed riding on a 6" lift and 35" tires

so after driving it for about a month i got to searching for a donor truck with a p-pump series 5.9L 12 valve cummins for the conversion


after stripping the cummins out of the dodge and selling/scraping off the rest of it


got started tearing the cummins apart to inspect it. was running just fine in the donor truck, but figured since i have it out might as well inspect everything and upgrade the internals (where money allowed).


after the internals taken care of, killer dowel pin addressed, main and head studs installed and a new 3 piece exhaust manifold and a better turbo


then it was time to begin tearing down the dually to begin its drivetrain transplant/upgrade. the old 454 and sm465 pulled just fine, but 8-9mpg loaded or not wasnt going to cut it, and although i could upgrade the 454 to a decent amount of power, the 12 valve can put far more with the same amount of money and easily get double the fuel economy (gotta love old diesels for that)




new drivetrain going in








couple details about the new setup.
95 12 valve cummins:
-arp main studs
-arp head studs
-60lbs valve springs
-4k rpm governor spring kit
-5x.014 injectors (for those unfamiliar they are normally referred to as the stage 3 injectors)
-ats 3 piece manifold
-ats aurora 3000 turbo, will add a 2nd turbo down the road for compounds, this turbo is the smaller one that starts building boost around 1k rpm's and maxes at 65 lbs boost
-south bend clutch/flywheel rated for 1100ft/lbs of torque

nv4500 trans:
-5 speed manual, no upgrades besides the new 5th gear shaft being fully splined and a different nut to fix that issue.

np205 t-case:
-being converted to a 29 spline to bolt up to the dodge nv4500

this thing has been keeping me busy, why i havent been around lol

[red [OP]]

the dually also see's some offroading, nothing extreme but up to the medium trails

[yota4x4sc]

that sick.. i love the 12v s

[BUDDERS]

That thing is already pretty sweet, but it's going to be sick when it's running.  I wonder what kind of numbers you are going to get when that thing is tuned up?

[locked 4x4]

  Awesome Build 

[66cobra]

ive been thinking of this conversion into a 91 burb sweet

[red [OP]]

That thing is already pretty sweet, but it's going to be sick when it's running.  I wonder what kind of numbers you are going to get when that thing is tuned up?

should be in the area  of 900-1000ft/lbs but will be short to begin with because i didnt advance the timing to 17 degrees like i should have, but i'll wait to do that until i get the truck up and running. time has not been my friend for the past few months argg. target for this truck is to be a reliable, extremely powerful, comfortable towrig that gets high teens to better (empty) for fuel economy that is still able to do some medium offroading. will pull the bench seats out later down the road and install bucket seats, probably the ones that came in a similar era suburban that are cloth because of how comfortable they are. the bench seats that are in it are in great shape and pretty comfortable, but not as good as the cloth buckets.

[874runnertoys]

nice build

[red [OP]]

thanks, waiting to have some free time so i can work on it again

[46&2]

This thing is bad ass. Always loved these trucks and a 12V Cummins was exactly what I wanted to swap into my 90 Burban. Gonna be following this for sure. 

[red [OP]]

planning to have the trans in this weekend, will have to bend the shifter because of how far back it is (sits right in front of the bench seat where the t-case shifter used to be), not a big problem. the t-case shifter will have to be relocated to in-front of the trans shifter and will need to modify the linkage accordingly, will need to get a little creative for that part.


i'll list out a full price list of the swap when its all finished, can be done for cheaper than i am but i wanted to address some things while the motor was out, didnt want an auto, and wanted to upgrade to an overdrive trans.

[83 Crawler]

ill be following this one as well!

[red [OP]]

well waiting for parts so trans wont be in till next week, grrr

[jrock]

Man that is cool. I wanted to do virtually the same build but with a 1975 and an Allison trans.

[Rocksnail]

Cool build up. By the looks of your rear tires they seam to be touching? if they are look into some wheel spacers before you have a nice blow out.

[red [OP]]

have wheel spacers, there is some clearance between the tires when i'm on the street. in the offroading pics i was aired down to 20psi to allow some flex. when your just shy of 8000 pounds 20psi makes for some decent flex lol. add on the extra weight from the cummins and the nv4500 figure i'm around 8300-8600 once the swap is done, as well as a heavy duty bumper/grill guard along with rock sliders down the road its a heavy sob that will pull like a dream

[red [OP]]

trans is in, waiting for a few snap rings to arrive then i should be able to get the t-case mounted up

[bslh8tr]

  Nice!

[red [OP]]

hate having to wait for parts but the project is almost done. waiting for the throttle cable, trans-tcase adapter (cant get the one i have machined to work), and the turbo drain tube. still trying to find a shifter for the trans, the 94-97 nv4500 shifter is hard to find!

[BLACKDOG]

Definitely watching this one, if nothing else its motivation for what I'm planning to do.  I'm picking up a 71 chevy (dream truck) which I want to do the same thing with.

[fade]

damn, thats what i want as a tow rig, i been looking for a 3+3 dually for past 2 years. looks like you have a great start. waiting for parts and running in to problems sucks, been dealing with it on my truck the past 7 months.