My current project

[THEFERMANATOR]

Originally Posted by willy

Good luck, don't rush it brother, now is when the mistakes can happen as I am sure you know

I made a few tonight, but it didn't end that badly.

Tonights update.

I don't have many pics tonight, but I did make some headway with it. I got impatient today so I got the harness mostly finished up and decided to do a test fire to make sure it was all working properly. Well the first 3 attempts it just wheeled over and wouldn't fire a lick. It was building rail pressure and such, and I had disabled the theft system with EFILIVE. So after about an hour of head scratching it dawned on me, I had disconnected the FICM because I was doing some welding on the downpipe hanger on the engine. Hooked up the FICM and after about 3 seconds of cranking she came to life. After about 20 seconds of running it must have learned the new balance rates a bit and started smoothing out it's idle and sounded pretty good. SO hopefully this will give me a second wind and I can get this thing wrapped up soon and on the road.

Now for a few pics.
Heres the harness mostly together and ready for a test fire.



Heres the new location for the glow plug/intake heater fuse. It is right underneath and in front of the ABS pump and right behind where the drivers side battery will go. This also helped in the problem that the DMAX battery cables has too short of a lead to reach to my PDC for my 95, so I used the fuse block as a junction block and hooked on the 6 guage cable from the old harness on the battery side of the fuse block and this got me a good power cable to the PDC.


And heres the PDC almost finished up. I ran out of tape so I couldn't put the flex covering over it tonight. Didn't come out to bad for a spliced together mess.(And don't ask me how many solders and splices I had to make in that one little area, it's a good thing that I like electrical)


And a special treat, the audio sucks but you get the idea.
http://s162.photobucket.com/albums/t...t=HPIM0984.flv

[willy]

Sounds like a road trip coming

[THEFERMANATOR]

I had a shorter day today as I have to go down tommorrow and get one of the new exhaust pipes expanded so it will fit onto my CORSA muffler. I got MOST all of the wiring in and done today as well as the driveshafts. Since I needed to have the pipe done I decided to take my time and make the wiring as neat as possible. After finishing up the wiring and putting the shafts in I started her up and put it in gear to see if it would go in and it dropped into forward and reverse right away. I also did 3 starts on it with no check engine light so I may be OK in the MIL department. The tachometer works fine since I am driving it off the alternator just like a 6.5 did. I still need to check my speed outputs as I decided to try and use the ECM's and bypas the VSSB(if they don't work I left the wires there so I can hook it back up).

Heres a shot of the engine with the harness's in place(ECM and TCM will be mounted last after everything is together).





Heres the PDC all finished up.


And I spent some time and made an updated insert to go in my PDC for correct fuses and relays.


My toggle switches in and my QUDZILLA guage.


The fuel cooler and you can also see the driveshaft.


And a few underside shots to show how tight the fit is.

[cterrebonne]

that sub is going to be a beast

[Stinky_Hooker]

You are an evil genius!!!


"Frankenburban"

[THEFERMANATOR]

Originally Posted by Stinky_Hooker

"Frankenburban"

I may have to steal this one STINK, it fit's.

Today's update.

Well I got the exhaust finished up yesterday, and I spent today cutting away at the radiator support to fit the DMAX intercooler and radiator in. It is a TIGHT fit between the radiator and fan clutch, but after about 4 hours of cutting and modifying I was able to get enough room to put the fan clutch on with the radiator in place which leaves me an inch of clearance between the clutch and core and 2 1/4" from the fan blade tips to the core. I decided to make it a close fit and severely modify the radiator support to accomadate a stock cooler and radiator rather than modifying the radiator, intercooler, and support. Once I get it boxed back together it will be plenty stout as I can sit on it now without it buckling and I am no where near done reinforcing it.

Here's a few shots of the exhaust. That 4" pipe looks HUGE compared to my old 3" pipe I had before.



And the CORSA muffler is a MONSTER compared to the 4" DIAMOND EYE that came in the kit. I ended up having to relocate the front hanger forward so I could move the muffler forward and I had to modify the middle hanger some to allow this as well.


Not a job for the timid.



Removed just a little bit bit of metal from it so far.

[THEFERMANATOR]

I guess I've been slacking on updating this one. I got to driver today and feel her out a bit and the power of the DMAX is SWEET in this SUB. It has more power with 3.42's in it than my 6.5 EVER had with the 4.10's. I have run into a few bugs that have to be ironed out though. I'm leaving on my honeymoon on WEDNESDAY, so thankfully I have a back-up vehicle for my trip.

First off the heater return pipe from the heater cores to the lower radiator hose developed a leak in it right at the weld for the retaining arm.


So I'll have to get a new tube for when I get back. Also I have 2 codes that won't go away that I can find no reason for, P0748 and P0778. Also I have very little power in 1st gear and lots of blue smoke if I giver her more than about 20% throttle. This only seems to happen in 1st as 2nd and 3rd pulled VERY strongly. Also my tow/haul mode isn't functioning properly as it gives me VERY hard shifts when engaged and holds them out ridicuously long and provides NO grade braking what so ever. I wasn't able to get her up fast enough where I was driving to test out the OD/LO function.

The A/C doesn't engage for some reason so I'll have to do some digging tommorrow with EFILIVE and see if I can figure out why the ECM isn't commanding the A/C relay(A/C works when I jumpered it).

Heres a pic showing the TCM and you can see the ECM as well tucked in by the drivers side battery tray.


I haven't finished up the airbox yet, so for now the filter is just laying in there.


Another engine bay pic.


And a pic of the front end with my projector headlights. I did have the grill and such on it, but had to take it back off to get to the bolts that hold the drivers battery tray in place.


Hopefully I can get ahold of Brayden before I leave and get his opinion on what to check for the 2 codes and also about low power in 1st as I think it is a torque management issue.

[THEFERMANATOR]

Got one more bug figured out this morning. WONDERFUL ALLDATA got me again. I charged the A/C but the compressor wouldn't turn on. I dug up everything I could from ALLDATA about the A/C trigger and it clearly said that it looks for a ground from the A/C control head to trigger the compressor, THIS IS FALSE! It looks for a 12V+ signal to trigger the compressor to come on. So now I have to go back into my PDC and remove the A/C request relay and hook the A/C sense wire up to my A/C request wire from the 95 head since it powers the circuit on.

[THEFERMANATOR]

And I was asked on the other forum things I would have done differently, this is a short compilation.

First I would do a 2" body lift and raise the engine up 1". Second I would move the torsion bar crossmember back 1" like the guys who do CUMMINS swaps do and then slide the assembly back 1". After doing this swap I would do the dash swap with it if I ever did another. The custom TCM and other hassles isn't worth it. If somebody could make an interface box to allow tow/haul mode like the factory did with the BCM then I would go this route like I did. The DURAMAX intercooler does fit after MASSIVE amounts of radiator support work, but I think a modified CUMMINS IC would be a better option like BIGLEY did with his. Any way you slice it this is NOT an easy swap, and you WILL encounter MANY hurdles and challenges. And don't try to always take what seems like the easy way out as in the end it could bite you in the but. I encountered this with the power steering lines, fuel lines, and trans cooler lines. I ended up going with AN lines for the tranny, and the good hard nylon cored with cotton wrapped fuel lines, and mixing and matching the power steering lines.

And a donor vehicle is a MUST in my opinion. You will be pulling your hair out trying to piece evrything together from one of the EBAY deals. Also a newer SUBURBAN would be a MUCH better option to do this swap as the wiring is almost plug and play for most everything in it.