My current project
 

Well I guess I'm far enough into my current project that I will let you guys in on it. This is why no boats for me for the time being, this thing is taking up ALOT of my time.

Copied and pasted from another site I frequent.
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Progress has been slow as I have too many irons in the fire, but this is where I'm at now. I have my SUBURBAN with the engine, trans, and transfer case pulled out. I also got my 01 donor's powertrain pulled out.

Here's my donor after I drove her into the shop. The radiator and intercooler were trashed from it's wreck, but you'd be surprised at how well a heater core can cool an engine.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0867.jpg
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0868.jpg
This was after the first afternoon of about 2 1/2 hours with my nephew helping me. He's trying to learn more about cars than what his playstation has taught him.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0870.jpg
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0872.jpg
Took all of the harness's out without cutting.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0871.jpg
On the second afternoon it was just me, so I was able to work without teaching. Took about 3 hours to have her out and the donor rolled out.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0873.jpg
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0874.jpg

It wasn't actually as bad as I thought it would be to pull the engine and tranny out together. It's one HEAVY SOB, but came out fairly easily. The worst part was realizing while the engine was hanging on the hoist that the front diff had to drop down an inch to slide the engine out in order to clear the oil pan.

I'm still up in the air as to wether or not to transfer the cluster and BCM over. The only things I see that I will lose that really matter is the tranny temp guage and the tow/haul switch. I already have an older QUADZILLA digital guage for the tranny, and BRAYDEN at FLEECE can write me a custom TCM OS that will allow me to use tow/haul without the BCM. The WIF light can simply be tapped into the sensors output as it is just a magnetic on off switch that grounds a circuit. The wait to start light and check engine light already have there own drivers coming out of the ECM, so they can be wired directly to my existing cluster. The 01 ECM appears to have the correct ABS seperate output and a speedo output, so I should be able to elimnate my VSSB.

I'm sure I'll run into many obstacles along the way, but so far it hasn't been that bad. The ALLISON measures just 1" longer than my 4L80E, and the LB7 block has dual bolt patterns that will accept my old engine mounts. I'm going to do a test fit in the next few days to see if the mounts line up or not in the SUBURBAN, but if my measurements are correct the DMAX is actually not as long as the 6.5 I pulled out. And the fact that they moved #1 over to the passenger side on the DMAX should allow ample room for the downpipe to fit in.

It also turns out that there is a converted 99 C2500 SUBURBAN in VALRICO that has a 01 DURAMAX ALLISON in it. His is a 2 wheel drive, but he said it was a pretty easy swap. His was a 6.5 to start with as well, VS the one the dieselpage did where they started with a 88 1500 gasser. I'm probably being overly optimistic, but I don't want to burn myself out early on in this big of a project.

And here is the recipient just before the 6.5 was pulled.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...R/HPIM0047.jpg

This is the thread that got me started on this project.

http://www.thedieselpageforums.com/t...ad.php?t=27851

And this is my second update on it.
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Well I worked on it again today and made a little progress. Here is the SUBURBAN stripped down and ready for some test fits.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0879.jpg

Here's trial fit #1.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0883.jpg

Here's trial fit #5 after several attempts of finding what had to be dropped and cut. Ended up having to remove the front differential, cutting the corner off of the passenger side engine mount pad on the frame, remove the bumper, and drop the steering linkage down.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0886.jpg

Here's #7 where I actually got it somewhat close to where it should sit.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0887.jpg

And on the 9th try I got it somewhat mocked in and was able to do some test fitting and clearance checking.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0889.jpg

Should be plenty of room to move the radiator back and put the intercooler up there as I have over 4 inches of clearance between the fan and radiator.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0888.jpg

Unfortunately it looks like I will either have to lift the body 2 inches, OR hammer out the tranny tunnel a bit, possibly switch over to the electric shift transfer case as the shift linkage is RIGHT against the tranny, cut part of the oil pan out and make a notch in it in the front to clear the steering linkage, hammer part of the oil pan in by the differential mounts, and do some more clearancing on the mount pads as to gain some clearance between the block and mount pads. This is a TIGHT fit, but looks doable. The hood will also be tight down to the engine at the compressor it looks like. I was able to get the transmission crossmember and mount in, but the tranny is touching the trans tunnel as it sits now. I'll try and get some more pics of how it fits tommorrow, after 7 hours of putting the engine in and out I was WHIPPED!

I cam imagine you were WHIPPED!!...that "trial and error" thing make s for some tuff goin'..specially swingin' a motor around each time:cen:...

That is going to be a monster sub, big project, good luck with it.

great job ferm ....love them war wagons ,,, had myself an 89 with a 350 ran like and animal:clap:

The old 6.5 ran pretty good, but it always something everytime I turned around that needed work. After the last failure though, it was gonna cost me about $2K in parts alone to nurse her back to health. S o I decided to upgrade a bit to 300HP Vs my old 190HP:sly:, and why not back it up with an ALLISON. This sucker is HEAVY though, my old combo weighed about 1000-1100 pounds and this new combo weighs in around 1500. It's a big old load to swing around by myself.

ferm when you're done come on over and we'll put one in my 6.5T Tahoe. As if the rare 6.5 Diesel Tahoe wasn't rare imagine a 6.6 in a Tahoe. looking good so far.

hey ferm, you didnt happen to want to sell the 4l80e? shoot me a pm if so

The 6.5 will be up for sale soon, but I may hang onto the 4L80E. It needs built, but I have a 350 I built for my uncle but he keeps ripping the 4L60E out of it. I hope the current fully built one I did for him holds up for awhile, but he's taken out 2 already, one stock and the next one was a mild build with a HD-2 shift kit. If he tears up the fully built one I just did I'll have no choice but to swap in the 4L80E.

same situation here , i just scored a junker one from a salvage yard to hold me over while i build the one that came out of it, hopefully i can beef it up enough to handle the towing i do.

Here's a copy of my latest post on it over at DTR.

Direct link to it: http://www.dieseltowingresource.com/...273#post126273

Well I've spent a few more hours on it in the last few days. Progress has been next to nothing really, but I have worked out a few bugs and fitment issues that I was concerned with. I ended up moving the engine forward until the crossmember was bolted into the holes it was for the 4L80E, and putting the trans mount just slightly back from as far forward as it could sit in the crossmember. This unfortunately cut my clearance with the radiator down from 4. 1/2" to about 2". I wanted to move the engine as far back as possible, but it caused clearance issues with the oil pan and steering intermediate shaft. Also it was going to make fabricating engine mounts BEYOND a PITA! I also ordered in Jim Bigleys conversion guide from the page, and I am going to use the foundation of his mount templates for mine. My engine will actually be about a 1/2" furthur forward than his conversion, but at this point many things are revealed.

At this point in time there is NO DOUBT in my mind that the DURAMAX was designed to fit into the older GMT-400 platform. The ALLISON 1000 is another story. With about 5 minutes with a 3lb BFH the transmission now has about a 1/2" of clearance all around, and will have more before I'm done. The indent in the drivers manifold matches the intermediate steering shaft almost dead on. And the oil pan has a clearance spot in it that matches the steering nearly perfectly once you remove the plastic coating from it. Also by sliding the engine forward a 1/2" and lowering it down over the pan notch, it lowered the engine down and the fan shroud lines up almost perfectly center. And by using a 95 mount instead of the 01 on the trans, it brought my pinion and engine angles to within a 1/2 of a degree of each other so shimming shouldn't be required.

I'll have to rework the radiator core support a bit to work with the DMAX intercooler and retain an external trans cooler. The pages truck uses the radiator only in there conversion, and modified the condenser to slide it forward. I plan on cutting the fan shroud and sliding the radiator back an inch and gutting the center of the core support and sliding the intercooler in there.

The electrical appears to be pretty straigght forward as the 6.5 and DMAX use almost the same engine fuses and amperages. I will have to add an IGNITION 1 relay and the ECMPRV 15A and INJ B 25A for the FICM, as well as a 15 A fuse for the fuel heater. The rest are already there, and most of the wiring colors are the same between the 2. I will also have to add in another A/C relay as the 01 ECM looks for a ground from the HVAC controller, but the 95-00 controller in a 6.5 truck sends a 12V+ to engage the A/C. The APPS out of the 01 will not fit into my 95, but my 95 WILL interchange to the 01 ECM as they are both wired and work the same(just a different base with a stronger spring in it).

Now for some pictureshttp://www.dieseltowingresource.com/...es/biggrin.gif.
Steering after grinding the coating off the front of the pan and smoothing the ribs down a bit. Provided an extra 3/8" clearance by cleaning it up, and a total of almost an inch after moving it forward with this cleaning.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0890.jpg
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0891.jpg

Heres the steering shaft.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0893.jpg

Lots of room between the turbo and firewall for the insulating mat.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0894.jpg
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0895.jpg

And a few shots of the ALLISON nestled down in there nice and snuggly. I need to get a pic showing how close the shift rod is the case, it misses it by about a 1/4".
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0899.jpg
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0896.jpg

Good work Ferm! Billy Mac :beer:

Next update.

I'm making a little progress, BUT THIS THING IS KICKING MY ***!! I have spent the past 2 days fabbing the motor mounts and welding em up. The passenger side one is done, but the drivers side warped some from welding. So I have to straighten it some in the press, and weld the last brace into it. Next I'm going to re-inforce the trans crossmember and fix it where I modified it in the past for a GEAR VENDOR install that I took out. That ALLISON is quite a bit heavier than my 4L80E was and the crossmember seems to flex more than I would like with the weight on it. I also am going to have to modify the lower oil pan on the passenger side. GM changed the front diff mount on the later trucks so they could put the kick-out on the side of the oil pan for extra capacity. That kick-out hits the lower mount for the front diff on mine, so I'm going to cut and weld a plate in like Bigley did on his rather than change out the mount for the diff. I dropped the pan earlier before making the mounts and installed the diff to make sure it all would clear, and I had good clearance on it.

I also installed some limiters inside of my factory rubber mounts so the engine can't move as far since it is so tight in there. I'm hoping to finish the drivers mount, trans crossmember, and get the oil pan cut-out made tommorrow. I may take it to a local welder and have him tig it so that I don't have to worry about any leaks in the pan instead of migging it myself. If I can get that done then I'm going to go run some more parts down MONDAY and take a break from it for the day. Then start on the engine and tranny with what I'm going to do to them. I know it needs a FPR on the CP3 as it loped like a cammed big block at idle before, and I found a FORD relay for $13 to fix the glow plug controller with already. I will probably also do head gaskets as I see some signs of leakage around the passenger rear side of the head in between the block and head, and do the injector cups while I'm there.

I'm still up in the air though on the injectors. They currently have roughly 130K on em, but it had ZERO smoking before. The balance rates were less than .5 on 6 and 2 were at 2.5(one positive and one negative). I also plan on a KENNEDY lift pump, EFILIVE(found out the new AUTOCAL will only be for one ECM/TCM combo with no expansion to a second ECM or TCM incase one fails), and an adjusteable boost valve. Also I found a pre bent 4" exhaust that will fit my SUBURBAN so I don't have to modify a truck exhaust to fit. And swap out my 4.10's for some 3.42's, and replace my CV boots.

No pics tonight, been working and getting so greasy I didn't want to mess up my camera.

Got the motor mounts done today, finished up my tranny crossmember and modified the oil pan. Got the engine sitting in there and with it's weight on the mounts.

Heres my finished motor mounts.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0901.jpg

Passenger side installed in the truck.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0902.jpg

Drivers side installed.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0905.jpg

Before installing the mounts I had to take my BFH and flatten out part of the mount clamshell where the motor mount bolt was close and also added in some 1/4" plate to act as limiters to reduce engine movement. The red circle is where I had to flatten the edge off. The blue arrow shows where I added my limiters(theres one in the bottom as well).
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0900.jpg

Oil pan clearance with it all together.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0907.jpg

No turning back nowhttp://www.dieseltowingresource.com/...milies/eek.gif. You can see I had to take a good bit out of the passenger side of the lower pan to clear the diff mount.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0909.jpg

And the finished pan after welding, grinding, pressure testing, and paint.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0910.jpg

You are the man Ferm!!

hey, what did you do with the gear venders OD?

Long since got rid of it. GEAR VENDORS took it back and refunded my money for it. Never could get it to work without driveline vibrations, and after 4 months of fighting it I returned it. Just something about the combo wouldn't work and made a HORRIBLE driveline resonance that would shake the rear view mirror off the windshield.

have you seen the new 6 speed auto that TCI has? Its got me interested for the blue truck

The new TCI 6 speed is nothing more than the JET valve body that JET cchips used to sell. They discontinued it due to low sales, and TCI bought it. It simply engages the O/D unit in 1st and 2nd to give you 2 extra gears. O/D is still the same ratio, so it provides no reduction in RPM's on the highway. There are a few companies now working on adapting the new 6 speeds to the older engines. They bolt up and such, but the controllers for the transmission is part of the valve body which means you have to make a box to talk to it since you can't simply use a stand-alone TCM for it.

that would be sweet a better trans on a 5.7

yeah, the picture looked like a cross between a th400 and a 700R4

they should have somthing that would replace the 4l60e. the 4l60 should be a elec version of the 700r4. it would be cool, then my 1500 could do some towing.

just put a 4L80 or 4L80E which ever you need you won't break an 80 towing your 1500 can't pull more than the 80 will handle.

Ferm and I, well our diesels have the 4L80 in them, that's a strong trans, they were rated at able to handle 1000 hp and 1200 ft tq.

Mine HAd one, now it's backed by a much larger soldier.:sly:

yeah thats what it looks like i need to get, is there anyway to build a 4l60e to handle what a 80 can?

nope that 80 is a larger case and all totally different pan and carrier set up

look at the junk yards for a 2500 Suburban with a 454 BBC or 6.5TD also a 2500 to 3500 GM truck with either the 454 or the 6.5TD has them in them

A max build on a 4L60E can take just about the same as a stock 4L80E. A shift kit in the 80 though and you are WAY ahead of what a 60 can even think about. The 60E can be a decent tranny for a small block, but requires some work to get it there. A TRANSGO HD-2 shift kit, HUGE tranny cooler, ALTO clutches except for the 3-4 pack(the Z-pack is the way to go there), heavy sprag and one way clutch stator, 10 or 13 vane pump, corvette servo or SONNAX billet servo's(even better, but shift HARD!), SONNAX 1-2 shift valve, deep tranny pan, and a SUNCOAST billet converter will get you a stout 4L60E. You'll be looking at around $1300-1500 worth the parts alone though. Depending upon the year of your truck, an 80 will most likely be easier to swap and be less money.

yeah thats what its looking like, im findind 80's for about 600-700 on the net from the parts finder site i got my 60 from. i sure i can unload one of te 60's at least half the cost of the 80.

What exactly is the truck your having problems with?

no problems anymore since i put the new trans in. but its a 97 k1500 w/ the 5.7
how it all started was the truck was for the dealership where i work that the boss would drive to and from his house and we would use it sometimes to pull boats to the launch to run. at 90k miles the transmission went, i think the sun shell broke at where the splined collar is welded to it or so what the trans guy said. well he rebuilt it and 30k later it was making noise in just rev/1st then on the way to work i lost OD and then i lost all forward gears and reverse would work but go out. when i tow the v-20 its 80 miles one way.

Sun shell failure is unfortunately common, but the BEAST sun shell takes care of that. ANY 4L60E build(and 700R's) should include a BEAST, it's the best $60 you can spend on one. If your running a stock 97 with even a 350 in it, a 4L60E should be plenty. Put a bigger cooler on it, TRANSGO HD-2 shift kit, 1-2 shift valve in the valve body while your there, and swap out the 2nd servo with a corvette servo while doing the kit as well. That will get you ALOT more holding power. Also reducing tranny temps and keeping them under 200 will make it live a happy life, anything higher and they don't last.

you would have thought that the guy would have at least installed the beast, but after i spoke with him he seems a little shady. i bought the dvd and atsg's manual for the 4l60e. thanks for the tips on beefing up rebuild. this summer i'll probably rebuild the one i removed with all the mods and wait for the new one to go out but i definately need to install and temp guage. also ferm i have a trans cooler and its kinda big, but how big of one should i run?

The factory one is pretty good if it has the optional towing one. GM ran the 11" wide by 4" tall one on some and a 6" tall on others. The problem I have seen though is the way GM mounted it. The inlet and outlet are both on the bottom, and I have seen them get slightly plugged and not flow through but the bottom 2 or 3 rows on the cooler. I rotate em 90 degrees and feed it through the bottom and out through the top, this way you know that you are using all of the coolers passages. I like this cooler as an easy add on one as it comes with line and adapters to hook right to the radiator. You could even hook it up along with your current one for extra cooling.
http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

hmmm...my cooler is about that size of the summit one. i removed my grill and was inspecting it i can put a tape on it tonight to see ,but it was quite large. it pretty much filled up the left side of the radiator with a little room up a the top. i think ultimately i need a temp guage to keep the temps in check.

now that we are on the subject, what would be involved in swaping out a 60e to a 80e in my 99 1500 Suburban. Its got 175k on it, I've changed the fluid on a regular basis. We bought it with 80 on it, so I don't know if the transmission was done before we bought it or not. We live in flat land and I've rarely towed anything with it(that may change). I figure when it hits 200, I'll start on the fresh block I have in the garage( have a fresh set of vortecs as well), I'll probably throw a little cam in it, with some good valve train, but otherwise leave it pretty tame. I might as well take care of the tranny while I'm at it, and I like the idea of towing in OD. I want the computer to work well with everything

99 is a fairly easy swap really. The tranny bolts right up to the block, but the input shaft in the transfer case is different as a 60 uses a 27 spline output and an 80 uses a 32 spline shaft. You do have to change a couple of the pins in the trans plug, and I believe you have to run one wire from the PCM to the tranny. Then you have to have a 2500 program flashed into the ECM for one with a 4L80E as one of the solonoids in the 80 works backwards from the 60 as well as the gear ratios are considerably different between the 2.

Back on topic.

Been a slow couple of days lately. I had to go run errands MONDAY, so I only got the oil pan back on it after putting JB weld over the seems for insurance. Went out today and built a stand for the engine and an adapter to put the tranny on my engine stand to make it easier to work on. Unfortunately I had a mishap today and broke my wiper motor cover and housing when the studs for the glow plug controller caught it when the engine swung sideways on me coming outhttp://www.dieseltowingresource.com/...ilies/mad2.gif. Fortunately I priced out an aftermarket one for $68, so at least it wasn't TOO expensive.

Here's the oil pan epoxied over at the seems and everywhere that I had taken the paint off.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0912.jpg

The engine sitting on it's stand.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0913.jpg

And the ALLISON on the engine stand.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0914.jpg

And my mishap.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0915.jpg

Sure is empty looking without the powerplant.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0916.jpg

Interesting note about the beast sun shell. I went through four different 700R4 rebuilds (Not by me..) for what turn out to a problem related to the sunshell. The Beast comes with a small washer that MUST be installed or else you'll be swapping out the tyranny in no time for another one. Just ask the guy who keep rebuild mine over and over and over.... Worked great after he finally figure out it was just a extra part...:oh:


Kamikaze

that d-max is a beast