My current project

[THEFERMANATOR]

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.

[cterrebonne]

Originally Posted by THEFERMANATOR

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.

[THEFERMANATOR]

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 pictures.
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.



Heres the steering shaft.


Lots of room between the turbo and firewall for the insulating mat.



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".

[Mac_Attack]

Good work Ferm! Billy Mac

[THEFERMANATOR]

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.

[THEFERMANATOR]

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.


Passenger side installed in the truck.


Drivers side installed.


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).


Oil pan clearance with it all together.


No turning back now. You can see I had to take a good bit out of the passenger side of the lower pan to clear the diff mount.


And the finished pan after welding, grinding, pressure testing, and paint.

[bradford]

You are the man Ferm!!

[msbhammer]

Good job Therm. I dont know crap about working on vehicle.

[THEFERMANATOR]

Latest update.

Progress had to slow down unfortunately this weekend as I had honey dos on Saturday and my asthma flared up yesterday. I did get to work on it for about 4 1/2 hours on Friday and was able to get the top half of the engine tore down. This engine is nowhere near as hard to work on as I thought it would be, or maybe the fact mine is on a stand makes a difference. The passenger side head gasket at the rear most coolant passage was just beginning to leak as I had the nice white chalk line on the back of the block below the gasket, and you can see the rust line in the pics on the gasket and the block. Also found that cylinder #2 was showing signs of washing down from fuel and the injector tip on that cylinder was pretty rough. 1 glow plug is burned out and 2 others look rough as well. I pulled the injectors apart and cleaned them with some spray cleaner to see what makes em tick inside, and they are actually pretty simple internally.

Here's the engine with the heads off.


The heads on the bench with the injector cups out.


right side gasket at the rear.


And the block in that spot.


This picture shows how #2 showed signs of a leaking injector as the bottom of the piston is very clean.


This may explain part of GM's troubles. This is the turbo intake horn gasket, that big ole MOPAR box for that little gasket.


And the innards of the infamous LB7 injectors.

You have the nozzle, a needle valve that rides inside of the nozzle, then the plunger that rides against the needle valve and the return spring and the spring seat that sits inside of the injector body. Inside of the injector body is a metal tab that protrudes through the spring and this is what pulls the plunger back to let the needle valve open and allow fuel through. And the 2 little pins are the locating pins that hold the nozzle in place to prevent it from turning. My camera couldn't focus on the insides or else I would have put up a pic of that as well. When I pulled it apart the needle valve was just about frozen into the injector nozzle body and required soaking to come apart. Once apart it cleans easily with spray cleaner and I re-assembled with marvel mystery oil. Debating on wether or not to replace them or have these tested and run them.

[cterrebonne]

man diesel engines rock.