Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

Haven't driven the truck all week. Decided I was going to try and get this HX35 put on and plumb up the charge cooler setup. Figured I would start on the turbo side since there was a little more going on there than intake side. Got the turbo on and clocked, a little massaging of the passenger inner fender and it was good. Put the intake ram on the other side and wouldn't ya know it hits my brake master. Scoured the web looking at pics of other conversions and I guess just my luck with engine placement theres no room and no way to make it work. Went down to the cummins shop near me and scoured through their misc pieces trying to find a different elbow and just wasn't coming up with anything. So I got a hold of a piece of 3" J bend stainless pipe and made up my own! Its not welded to the flange yet in this pic but heres what I came up with.

http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps1uq74b7l.jpg

Hopefully finish that up tonight, planning monday to go back down to the shop and check my timing and some other things and get it running better.

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

Do you have a pulse adapter to hook to a timing light to check your timing?

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

I don't, I'm taking it down to a shop near me to do a couple things including timing on monday.

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

Just a little update.

Put the stock turbo back on and took it down to the shop. Timing was off a bit so we adjusted that. Then played with the pump some. Definately woke it up a little. Didn't want to go to crazy until I get a set of gauges, so theres definately more to be had once I get that all sorted out.

Also figured out I am definitely going to need to get a drop pitman arm. My steering rod ends are a little out of their comfort zone. Hauled a crapload of firewood this weekend, gotta love a 1 ton. Didn't matter whether I had 1 piece of wood or an overflowing bed full, it didn't seem to notice a difference either way.

So now that I am broke, I'm going to order a new pitman arm, then just drive this thing for a while and save up for some gauges. Then the short long term plans are, gauges, injectors, finalize the turbo upgrade and finish my exhaust up right, carpet and more sound proofing. oh the list goes on...

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

Sounds like you've nailed down a plan. I wouldn't have thought you would need a drop pitman arm. Do you have a picture showing the angle of the steering arm? I'm thinking about bumping my lift another 1 1/2" but I hate to change out pitman arms, lol

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

I'll grab a picture here shortly. To me it looks about maxed out for travel on the steering box size TRE. Shouldnt be too aweful to change out, I'm use to the kind that have the big nut on the bottom then you have to pull it off the tapered shaft, at least this one looks like it should come off with a minor fight.

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

I was curious if you ever had time to measure the height of the front wheel well to the ground. I like the stance it has and wanting to bump mine a little more. Thanks

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

crapper, I forgot. I will get that for you.

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

SO I finally got around to measuring for ya! 41 1/2" from ground to wheel wheel opening.

And honestly I wish it was a little lower. It has hardly settled at all! I was banking on the springs sagging a bit more than they did, still have good positive arch to the spring.

On a side note, but goes along with it. I've got some stuff rattling and popping in the front end somewhere. I know the steering shaft has a little knock in it (i did a conversion to an XJ shaft and got rid of the rag joint a while ago) so thats part of it. Might be my steering box too, but its just too rattly in the front over bumps and such. Not where I want it to be!

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

Thanks for getting that measurement.

My front end rattles but it is actually my brake calipers. They are noisy as hell.

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

It looks good with that stance, though. Mine actually settled a couple inches when I installed the big block and hit the road. Only have about 3/4" of up travel before bump stop contact.

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

I bought shocks after I had the lift installed so I have a lot of good travel in either direction. Just seeing the dust line from the bodies moving I dont think I will ever hit the bump stops! Besides that, not that its a 'flexy' vehicle as far as offroading, thats where my clinkity clankity clunk stuff comes from when I raise one side and not the other, so gotta get that figured out and everything will be as perfect as I can get it.

Got a bunch of miles on it and its running awesome, turned the power up some and have a fresh set of injectors coming as well as some gauges.

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

Got a few new things done.

BUZZARD, I managed to get my front sway bar mounted up. Worked out good, It was too dark for pics so I will add some next time. I need to get new bushings for it, but otherwise it was pretty simple to add in with the 4x4 frame mounts.

Also finally finished up putting in the HX35 and charge piping. As well as boost and pyro gauges. Drilled and tapped my manifold for the pyro probe, welded a plate to my intake ram arm and drilled and tapped that for the boost gauge. I found 73-87 chevy trucks (website) that makes a custom pillar mount for gauges for our trucks. Works out perfectly.

Finally was able to finish up an actual intake for the thing including a simple aluminum surround for it just to dress it up a tad. Its an AFE filter connected to a stock 2nd gen intake tube.

http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/z...pscgugohb2.jpg

http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/z...psd1t74uiv.jpg

Dont mind the custom overflow bottle. Gotta make a trip to the JY to find something else!

and lastly for now I got new injectors from 'the hungry diesel'

http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/z...psbiih8cl8.jpg

Hoping to get the injectors installed tonight.

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

Looking good!! Ill keep checking back for sway bar pics!! I looked into trying to use the 2wd mounts but I think they are too far forward.

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

Yea exactly what I found out. I had cut them off when I was removing them anyways, had enough drilling out rivets!!.

Got my injectors all installed last night, got late and didn't feel like bleeding them all out to get it started, hopefully get that done tonight and see what happens.

Also had one of those little Harbor Freight cameras to look in my cylinders, all pistons look good, still have good cross hatching on the cylinder walls so I was pleased about that.

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

Just had to report back that I got the truck fired up last night, of course I had to go back and tighten a couple holding nuts for the injectors that leaked but what a difference! No more powerstroke fluttering sound, runs nice and smooth! Very apparent now how bad my other injectors really were. Didn't go for an extended drive or really get my foot in the throttle to see if they added much power, but that wasn't the goal anyways.

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

Glad it is working good so far. When I had my injectors checked before I drove it, one didn't work at all. Wow what a difference.

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

Here are some pics of my sway bar addition. Got new bushings showing up today so I am going to get everything painted up and finished.
Probably a little hard to tell what your looking at but I took 4x4 frame side mounts and drilled new holes in my 2x4 frame to bolt them up, then the one little foot that comes off the side I used a piece of pipe to give it strength then bolted that to the front crossmember.
http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/z...psysv9rbuj.jpg
Ended up needing this little spacer on my application to bring the bar back down to more parallel instead of having a sharp angle up. So its just a piece of 2x3 square tube cut to fit with holes drilled through.

http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/z...psc2q7xc9z.jpg

http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps5m9cc7pg.jpg

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

I dig it!! I will have to design a similar bracket and add it to the list of my conversion parts!! I appreciate the pictures a lot! Interesting that you spaced them down from the frame, I was contemplating spacing them up off the axle. Same thing I suppose.

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

The issue I see with that is the bushing mounts are part of the top plate on the U bolts, I didnt want to more less add a 'block' between the spring and the plate, especially with the front end weight. This way is rock solid and seems good so far!

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

I wasn't meaning use blocks to raise it. More like ORDs sway bar disconnects like here http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/misc-...sconnects.html

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

I thought that after I posted, problem then is more bushings! But that would definitely work.

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

Great looking truck. Even better with how capable you've made it. No surprise that it's getting looks with close to 17 acres of high impact red paint at eye level contrasted with black. Like it a lot.

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

17 acres :bann:

And ya know...red is my least favorite color!

Thanks for the comments. Its cold out now, and it doesn't come close to fitting in my garage so I haven't done anything but drive it lately. Aside from a couple minor issues its awesome! Couple things I should have just bit the bullet and did while I was slaving away building it, like tear apart the rear brakes and install the ebrake cables would have been nice! Plus I've been holding out that the wifey is getting my sound proofing for the floor for xmas so its LOUD inside the cab, plus new carpet.

Come nicer weather I plan to yank the trans out and figure out whats making noise in there (bearing sounds at 40+mph) do the ebrakes, new steering box and fix my wobbly tilt column. Oh and side steps, paint a few things, front driveshaft, another gauge for my empty pillar spot, new speedo cable (if anyone have one from a 4x4 truck I would buy it!) also need to find a diesel filler for the fuel tank, I fill with a funnel right now at the pumps because the gas filler is smaller dia than the diesel....for all the guys wanting to do the swap..it really really never ends!!!

And lastly turn up the power a little more :devil:

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

I just found your build here and read the entire thing. Great looking truck and the work you have done on it looks great as well. Looking forward to more updates, working out more of the bugs etc. Maybe you can get your tc shifter and front drive shaft in after you pull the trans to work out that noise issue.
Thanks for sharing.

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

Filler neck supply may have what you want

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

Thanks for the comments guys. I saw the filler necks at LMC, just didn't wanna pay $70 for it! I will check out the other place.

Next summer I plan to get my other driveshaft and TC shifter all setup. I likely wont really 'need' 4x4, I just cant stand owning a 2wd truck! Got a few goodies for xmas that I will probably put in on a nice day here soon, got some sound deadener and new black carpet, plus a new interior light fixture for the roof. Also want to do the headliner while I'm messing with that. Busy time of year for me and not enough daylight hours to mess with it!


I also think my trans noise may be in the shift forks itself. I won't pretend to know what goes on inside a trans as I have never torn one apart, but I do find that my noise doesn't start until about 40mph, I can drive all day below that and not hear it. Once I do hear it, if I put it in neutral and foot off the clutch, if I push the shifter forward (in between 1st and 3rd gear) the noise stops until I let it return to the center neutral position. So MAYBE theres a fork between 3rd and 4th? something on that, that is making a rubbing chirping sound?

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

On my 1988 filler necks, I just took them out and made the hole larger instead of buying new ones.

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

How did you go about doing that? Drill it out or just make cuts and spread it open?

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

I believe that I drilled out around the outer edge and then used a die grinder to clean it up. Here is a picture.

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

Good deal and thanks for the pic. Added to my to do list.

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

IM BACCKKK

Well sort of! Had a nice little warm up last week so decided its time to tear back into the truck. Been driving it a lot, other than a little steering slop its running awesome. Over the winter I picked up a set of 2015 chevy truck seats to put in. Also going to redo all the plastics, radio, carpet, headliner and dash pad to update everything and get away from the vintage red/burgandy interior. So As of now, everything minus the dash is stripped from the truck!

http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/z...psslhljh3x.jpg

http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/z...pspcslaohs.jpg

and heres a mock up of the seats just so I could get an idea with where I am at and what I gotta do! I think instead of cutting out and lowering the floor I am going to just deal with them sitting a tad higher. My floor is absolutely perfect, no rust and perfect factory paint. I would hate to cut and weld new floors and have to worry about rust forming in the future!! So basically I cut off all the mounting gear off the bottom of the seat rails and mocked up here the front seat is maybe only and inch higher than my bench was (plus I plan to fix my wobbly stock tilt column and get rid of the straight column which will free up some leg room.

http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/z...psdmpjpmed.jpg

http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/z...pszirpks62.jpg

managed to get most of the interior plastics painted this week while it was still warm. This weekend I plan on working on the brackets to get the front seats mounted in place. More updates to come.

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

Those seats look good in there. What color are you going with since you are getting rid of the red.

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

Seats looks great. More pics of them?

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

Those seats look right at home!

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

Everything is gonna be black inside. I bought the seats on a whim hoping they would be close to the right size and all and I was way right. They fit perfect even keeping stock seat belts in place. I will post more pics and updates this weekend whenever I get to leave work :waah:

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

Are those crew cab, or extended cab seats? They look better then GMT 800 seats Imo. Nicely done

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

Nice seats is the front center a seat as well?

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

Hick: I believe the listing said they were from an ext cab truck. They certainly arent shorty rear seats like most ext cab seats though. I actually almost bought a set of gmt seats, mostly because I have seen people put them into older crews. So thinking it may be the easier way out I almost did that. The heck with easy, these seats are 10X nicer and being only a year old they are firm and in awesome shape


Lower50: yes there is a jumper seat in the middle with tons of cool storage compartments and whatnot.


Managed to get brackets and all made up for the 2 front seats so they are mounted tight. Tonights supposed to be slightly warm so I plan to at least get the center console brackets made and maybe start on the rear. Only issue really I see is going to be where the console is cut out for the trans tunnel in the newer truck. Its either going to leave a bit of a gap along the floor (which wont really be horrible looking) but its gonna be a junk collection spot. I MAY made a slight bulge in the tunnel to match up to the contour of the console. Not sure yet. Kind of hard to see how its all going to look when the carpet is in there. Certainly going to hide some brackets and whatnot.

Re: 87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap
 

Cold, warm, cold, warm. Weather really sucks here lately! I got one more nice night tonight to get some work done before we get hit with snow and mess this weekend!

Started working on the rear seats. Of course there are roadblocks, but nothing too major. Trying to do this all without hacking up the floor, especially in the back being that the fuel tank is right below the rear bench. SO basically I am making a square frame that will bolt in and the seats will bolt to that, at least thats the plan, and the frame with be made into an under seat storage area. (at least it sounds good)

Here are a few more pics of the seats to get an idea on how they look/fit. The rear bench fits PERFECTLY inside the factory floor mounted seat belts.

http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps8mbpyx7y.jpg

http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/z...pswkjd3zo0.jpg

http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/z...psxvqlcfze.jpg

Rear seat is sitting on the floor in the pic, it will be much higher when its mounted. This was just for bracket position mock up.