The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by MrBeast

No, I cant take any more boredom, My brain has been overcome with the urge to get an old Dodge Power Wagon, Stuff a Cummins in it, and put a Old restored Lincoln Welder on the back.

Too many projects, must resist urge for more!

Why so much effort to resist. It is much easier to just go with it.

Originally Posted by Sequoyah

Me and my wife were out there and stayed in the old hospital. Merkin and caduceus vineyards have a shop there in town too! It's Maynard James Keenan's venture into wine making. Fun town!

Yeah, we actually had lunch up there. When I first started going up there it was all fenced off, no trespassing type stuff. We would sneak around checking out what was then, just a super-creepy old abandoned hospital. Then one time we were up there and there was activity around it. That is when they were starting the renovation. It kind of took some of the creepiness away from it, but man, what a neat place now with all the fancy woodwork and polished brass fixtures. Not like any hospital today, that's for sure.

Originally Posted by FRENCHBLUE72

Very cool little town..

Yeah, it really is.

[mosesburb]

So we did finally head down the hill into Jerome. It's not every day that you see 1800rpm with 200* EGT:



So we got into Jerome and started looking for somewhere to eat. It was a Wednesday, but the place was still packed. We ended up heading up to the old UVCC company hospital that has been refurbished into a nice hotel and restaurant.



It is built at about the highest point in town so the views off of the balcony we ate on were magnificent.



That black stuff in the center of the picture down in the valley is in a town called Clarkdale. When the mine transitioned from tunnel/shaft mining to open pit, the mill had to be moved so UVCC created the company town of Clarkdale. The pile of black stuff is the slag pile from the new mill that was built down there. The two buildings that are at the right end of the pile are railroad buildings. There is an old roundhouse down there too. I have some old film pics but no digitals to post of that. It is kind of cool from a history buff standpoint.

So, just out of sight to the right of the picture is another mine. It was located at the bottom of town and was called the Little Daisy Mine. There is a state park in the old Douglas mansion on site, but for some reason it was closed that day. The coolest part of the mansion is the 3-d model that was built as part of litigation that shows all of the tunnels and shafts under the town. It is super cool, but no pics because they were closed.

One thing that was open that I have never seen open before was the old headframe on the Little Daisy Mine.



This is the car that transported men and material down to the tunnels:



If you look between the headframe on the left and the red headframe on the right there is a grey hill in the background. That is the United Verde Copper Company mine--the one that started as tunnel and shaft that became an open pit. I guess a bit of geologic history is in order now. Once upon a time, about a hundred million years ago (give or take a few), the valley that Jerome occupies the side of was formed by sea floor spreading deepunder an ocean. Well, some individual figured that some of the ore that they were mining at the UVCC mine had slid down into the valley when the rift valley was formed. He was right.



This facility has always been fenced off and locked up--until now. The gate was open so we wandered in. I was surprised to find that the shaft had a glass lid on it with high power lights pointing down.



It is a bit un-nerving standing there and looking between your feet and knowing that the next solid thing under your feet after the glass is 1900' down.



Gratuitous truck shot for good measure:



The building in the background is the Little Daisy Hotel. It was built to house the workers in the mine. Over thirty years ago (as long as I have been going to Jerome) this building was sold for scrap. It appears as though someone is renovating the place so maybe some day it will be a hotel again.

[jbclassix]

Awesome pictures man! Working in a gold mine in a historic mining district (and owning a burb) I really appreciate the pictures! Its cool to see stuff like that!

[justcuz]

Yep, the scenery, the history and the wide open spaces of the west make me realize I would have a tough time living east of the Mississippi River ever again.

The burb is looking like it needs some rocker panel love!

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by justcuz

Yep, the scenery, the history and the wide open spaces of the west make me realize I would have a tough time living east of the Mississippi River ever again.

The burb is looking like it needs some rocker panel love!

Yeah, there is definitely some great scenery out here. So many people do not realize the best scenery can not be viewed from pavement.

The rockers are actually completely solid. This truck spent time in Arizona snow country where they use volcanic cinders instead of road salt. It works great in that it gives great traction, it doesn't rot the vehicle, but it does chip the paint. Believe it or not, there are just a boatload of tiny stone chips there that have minor surface rust in them. There is also a wear spot where the previous owners leg or foot dragged the sill and removed the paint but other than that, it's solid. It does look really bad in the pic there though. Maybe I should paint it-- naaaaah.

This is a closer pic, but it still really doesn't convey how solid the panel is. A few minutes with a D/A sander would take the paint and rust right off.



The only "real" rust is about three inches in front of the left rear tire, right below the lower trim. There are a couple tiny pinholes right there, but that is the only "real" rust that it has. If this thing had lived pretty much anywhere but here, the stone chips would have manifested into decomposition long, long ago, but here in the desert, this surface rust will last for many, many more years.

[justcuz]

Thanks for the explanation, you're right it looks worse than it actually is. Lots of interesting old trucks in that lot, even looked like there may have been an old Studebaker cab in there. The green cab by the yellow International dump with the Chevy pickup bed trailer next to it.

[hgs_notes]

Your stories here rival the DED ones in 4 Wheel & Off Road or the Border to Border series in Four Wheeler. Several years ago my brother in law and I took a few days to get out of town. He's in Idaho Falls (my wifes home town) and had a late 80's full size Bronco. We picked up a Delorme map book and chose a route, then tried to follow it as close as possible. We headed north to the St Anthony Sand Dunes, very cool place to get side tracked, then headed west through the sage brush back country, we came across an old sheep herder, basque spanish I believe, who was living in the covered wagon out with his sheep, miles from any town. We continued, on until we hit the next paved road, at least 50 miles, and headed up to the old mining towns there. One is below Meadow Lake, the old town of Gilmore, ID. We actually camped out on the remaining floor of an old miners cabin. The walls were gone, but it was solid and flat, unlike the rest of the mountain side. We could not use the campground at the lake side because it was still buried in snow. Nevermind that it was July 6th, we had to hike our way to the lake, which was still froze over except for a ring around the shoreline about 10 ft wide. I wish I had taken pictures, but I can still see it clearly in my mind.

Our adventure still far from over, we headed south through the range, followed gullies til the end, nearly burned out the front rotors going downhill for about a full mile and a trail that may have existed several decades before, climbed buttes and followed creeks and streams nearly to the sources. It was an amazing trip that I'll never forget.

When we got home, we were visited my wifes great grandmother and telling her about the trip. She told us her dad worked the mine when she was a little girl, about 6 then, and they lived in that mine camp we stayed at. Hows that for a bit of family history?

The bro-in-law and I did another trip a few years later going west of town into the DOE site that was also an excellent adventure in his late 80's chevy truck. I have a few pics of that trip.

Once my Jimmy is road worthy again, I told my wife I want to take a road trip with our son. This is the kind of thing I really want to share with him. My wife thinks I woldn't want to leave MN, but she's wrong. I love it out west. When we plan trips out to visit her family, I look forward to it more than her. Next one is late july this year for a wedding. I can't wait, even thogh the Jimmy will stay home and the Denali will take us there in comfort. The bro-in-law now has a mid 80's Blazer. I need to start working on him now to take a day or 2 for us to hit the hills again. If not him, my other bro-in-law has a ford super duty that he is not afraid of getting dirty, and it will haul his atv also. Man I love it out there.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Your stories here rival the DED ones in 4 Wheel & Off Road or the Border to Border series in Four Wheeler.

Thanks!! Yeah, this thread has kind of morphed from a build into a repository for my vacation photos. Oh, well. Hopefully it will get some people out from behind their computers and get them behind the wheel. I have always been a photo nut and now that digital cameras are around and I don't have to buy film and pay processing fees to see the pics, I have just gotten that much worse. That, and now I have a place to put them.

There will be a little tech back in here soon--just to break up the monotony of my travel pics, but then (hopefully) it will be back to some trail photos.

Cool story about your grandma there. You mention DOE, as in Dept of Engergy??

[hgs_notes]

Yep, Dept of Energy. Big nuclear site just west of Idaho Falls on the snake river plateau. I was training for the nuclear navy out there when I met my future wife a couple decades ago. My brother in law worked construction out there for years, but there are not many projects lately and had to change jobs. There are 3 buttes on the south end of the site and we trucked up to the top of the biggest one. There is a road (sorta) and some kind of observation building up there with a small radio tower. You can see for dozens of miles in all directions. I made a panaramic view photo montage using 4x6 pics taped together. Now I have a sony dcs-hx5 which I think is one of the best point and shoots outthere. Panaramic photos are as easy as pushing a button, and I can take burst shots of my kids activities at 10 frames/sec at 10x optical zoom. And it does HD video that I can plug directly into my TV, which was cool when we went to the drag races in Brainerd last year. Amazing how far these little machines have come.

After I wrote the story above, I emailed my brothers in law and at least one will be taking some time to get into the back country with me. I can not wait.

[mosesburb]

That sounds cool!! You mention your panoramic shots being made with taped together 4x6 prints. I have one sitting on my coffee table right now just like that of Jerome that I made probably fifteen years ago. Low tech?? Yes. Cool?? Definitely. I did a little looking at the camera you mention and it sounds very cool. Might have to look closer at the new crop of cameras out there now.

[mosesburb]

Well, after a post trip inspection some time ago I found an issue that required attention. Evidently when I made my lower hose fitting on the motor it was too close to the frame rail. This situaton was made worse when I built my transmission crossmember and raised the rear of the engine up a fuzz (scientific measurement right there). I believe that this, coupled with everything settling in created the condition that left the lower hose resting on the frame rail. It was not a situation that required immediate attention, but it also was not going to provide a very good service life if it was not addressed.

Sounds like fun. Let's go!!

This is what it looked like without the inner fenderwell:



This is what was happening to the hose assembly:



There is no real damage per se, but my concern was that dirt and stones would get trapped between the hose an frame rail and work holes into the hose. If you look close you can see some starting already.

Ok, so that's great, but what to do. There is not much room there with the frame rail, a/c compressor, inner fenderwell and belt right there. I figured pipe is smaller in o.d. than hose, but not flexible. Hmm, this could work. I bought a mandrel u-bend from Lefthander Chassis.



I pulled my water inlet fitting off the motor and ground out my previous hose fitting. There is a stub of .188 wall tubing welded into the flange I made that I put the thinner tubing that forms the hose fitting into. It makes the whole thing way bunches stronger (scientific quantity).

So, I got to trying to figure out an angle for the nipple, a direction to point it, an elevation that will clear everything, but still leave me with the longest hose possible. I got it figured out and welded it up and also welded a hose retention bead on the end of it. I think I ended up with everything I needed, but the lower hose is shorter than I would have liked.



So, with such a short hose, I was a bit nervous about the tubing that makes the hose nipple. Even though it is piloted into the .188 wall tube that is in the 3/8" plate that forms the flange, I was still a bit apprehensive about the possibility of a problem so I figured out a little supoport bracket that sits out toward the hose end.



I blew a coat of paint on it and put it back together. It clears everything very well and seems to be fine so far with the shorter hose. While I had the system down for modification, I decided to do a coolant service. I drained the green coolant that I had in there and went back in with the red Rotella ELC (Extended Life Coolant). I flushed the green out and everything in the cooling system looked brand new still. My only issue with the old coolant was it started smelling funky. Not terrible funky, just funky. I absolutely despise red coolant for some reason, but this is the stuff that the truck dealerships that I deal with use, so if it is good enough for them, I decided to give it a try. We'll see.

[hgs_notes]

I think your moto is "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing so well it could survive an IED explosion.

[ERASER5]

It seems that you share my motto. "There is no such thing as over kill. Only open fire! and gotta reload!"

[Bentblazer]

Nice build but I have to say that I had to mapquest Jerome. Loved all of the pics,thanks for shareing. Would love to take a road trip there but 4$ a gal gas and 1400 miles may not be in the budget

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

I think your moto is "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing so well it could survive an IED explosion.

I try to build things to get me home. Finding out I did not build something stout enough, or without enough clearance or left this or that unsecured when I am exactly half way through the middle of nowhere can really ruin a good time. I prefer to have problems like this--not too serious, can be fixed at my convenience and in my driveway as opposed to trailside.

Originally Posted by ERASER5

It seems that you share my motto. "There is no such thing as over kill. Only open fire! and gotta reload!"

That is funny. Years ago I gave myself the title of President of Overkill Enterprises. I don't recall what I was doing, but whatever it was it was probably slightly overdone.

Originally Posted by Bentblazer

Nice build but I have to say that I had to mapquest Jerome. Loved all of the pics,thanks for shareing. Would love to take a road trip there but 4$ a gal gas and 1400 miles may not be in the budget

Glad you liked the pics!! You don't have to road trip out here. You can fly in, rent a car (get the insurance!!) and go run the trails. You can do things with rental cars that you can't do with regular cars--rental cars have superpowers--seriously!!

[mosesburb]

Well, I was hoping to have some more boring trail photos to share from this past weekend, but my house decided to get all posessive and keep me home and also make me spend a bunch of money on it (nothing cool to show for it either).

Anyways, I was clearing out my camera and found a few pics that I hadn't posted. When I had the inner fenderwell out I tried to address a pain in my ass that was the drain on the evaporator case. This thing drains the water from the evaporator and lets it run anywhere and everywhere. On a humid day I can have water flowing off of five different parts. Well, I took a measurement of the od of the nipple and picked up a piece of hose with that id. The problem with that is the one side of the nipple is so close to the seam in the case that a hose can not be put on it. I can put the POS thing that came from the factory, but I don't like that thing either. Hmm, what to do. Well, I got the wild hair to measure the id of the nipple and figured out that it is a fuzz smaller than the diameter of a 3/4" pipe tap. Hmm, this could work. I grabbed my tap and cut some weak, but decent threads in the id of the nipple.



They were deep enought that I could thread a 3/4 to 1/2 bushing into it and tighten it up real well. I put some of that weapons grade International Truck RTV on it and then threaded a 1/2NPT to 3/8" barbed fitting into it (the hole inside the id of the giant nipple is only 3/8").



From that I ran a 3/8" hose down along the top of the frame and dropped it down right behind the body mount under the passenger foot well area.



I no longer have condensate pouring off of everything when the a/c is being run. Yay!!

[ERASER5]

FYI, that hose will plug up fast with moldy, slimmy gunk. Also, open tubes are in big invite to mud dobers in my area. The OEM tubes are made to self close to prevent bugs from crawling in. I wold think that a short roll of screen wire shoved into the end and pinched off would suffice on the bug prevention. Moldy gunk just has to be cleaned out once in a while.

[hgs_notes]

That works. Another option would be using a pvc fitting and regular pipe cement for the initial fitting. They have threaded adapters, etc. that would work. It would probably be a short stub of 1/2" pvc which should be very close to a 3/4" fitting size. Not having A/C I don't have one to measure. Just my home plumbing experience and my job experience adding my .02

[madhatterxlch]

Well I'm subscribed. Going to start my repower project end of the month in a 1971 Chevy K-20 a 93 Cummins, NV5600, NP205, Dana 60 & Dana 80. Any tips or suggestions will be appreciated.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

That works. Another option would be using a pvc fitting and regular pipe cement for the initial fitting. They have threaded adapters, etc. that would work. It would probably be a short stub of 1/2" pvc which should be very close to a 3/4" fitting size. Not having A/C I don't have one to measure. Just my home plumbing experience and my job experience adding my .02

I'm not sure how well PVC glue would work mating PVC to fiberglass. I believe part of the reason the minimal threads worked was because of the strength of the threads on the steel bushing and being able to reef it in there pretty tight. As tight as I got it, I bet I would have rolled plastic threads, but then again, you never know unless you try it.

Originally Posted by ERASER5

FYI, that hose will plug up fast with moldy, slimmy gunk. Also, open tubes are in big invite to mud dobers in my area. The OEM tubes are made to self close to prevent bugs from crawling in. I wold think that a short roll of screen wire shoved into the end and pinched off would suffice on the bug prevention. Moldy gunk just has to be cleaned out once in a while.

I don't think the moldy/slimy gunk should be an issue here. Where you are, definitely, but typically we have a low humidity so when this gets shut off, it starts drying out immediately. Definitely a possibility I had not thought too much about. The only bugs I have to worry about are cutter bees. They cut out chunks of leaves and pack them in holes--any hole they can find. But either way, moldy gunk or bugs, the hose is easily removable, so if cleaning is required it should be a couple minute job.

Originally Posted by madhatterxlch

Well I'm subscribed. Going to start my repower project end of the month in a 1971 Chevy K-20 a 93 Cummins, NV5600, NP205, Dana 60 & Dana 80. Any tips or suggestions will be appreciated.

My only recommendations are to read through the thread and figure out from what I did what you do and don't want to do or want do differently. Also, start a build thread when you begin--it helps, trust me. My only other recommendation is to use a different trans if possible. Those are good transmissions but they are out of production, the company that produced them has been dissolved and all the tooling for the parts has been liquidated. This make quality parts as close to impossible to find as you can get. Most of what is available is high quality Chinese grade parts. If you have one ready to run, go with it. If you have other options, you may want to explore those.

[mosesburb]

Since I am in the re-doing mood, I figured I replace my turbo oil feed line. I made it out of regular braided steel line with aluminum fittings when I built it a couple years ago. I have had no problems with it, but it has a temp rating of around 275*F (IIRC) and a very finite service life (especially when it is used way beyond its rated temperature or pressure ratings). I decided that since it sits mere inches away from a component that can best its highest temperature rating by 1000*F it would probably be a good idea to remake it in the Teflon braided line that I should have used from the get-go (also the same material Cummins uses from the factory)

Here is what I had made originally:


I made a new line with the Teflon lined braided line. I used steel ends instead of aluminum as they are stronger and have a higher temperature rating than the aluminum fittings. I do miss the contrast and/or bling of the red and blue aluminum AN fittings though.



Here it is installed. Boring in comparison to the snazzy, super-pimp colored fittings, but more suited to the longevity I hope to acheive from this thing. I need to get back to the fitting store and see if they have gotten the steel adapters in to replace the red aluminum ones.



Hopefully soon I will be able to get back to the regularly scheduled programming of boring travel photos. Backcountry travel > service work.

[jbclassix]

Smart move on the oil line!

Couple of times on my old 6.5L I had contemplated installing one of those inline transmission oil coolers to cut temps.

[Dieselwrencher]

Nice work on the evap drain. But I as well think that maybe a 1/2" hose would help keep you from having any plugging issues. Good fix on the oil feed line. If you're interested, I can get you a good price on exhaust manifold blankets and exhaust blankets that help keep under hood temps down and help turbo spool up. I mainly use them to help keep under hood temps down. especially when these hot components are put in a tight box. I have one being made for my down pipe now. This one doesn't fit as tight as I'd like but I have a drive pressure coil in there and an electronic sensor for EGT's in the manifold. They look like this:

[thirdstreettito]

Lookin good, keep up the upgrades! Pun intended.

[TheWhiteElephant]

I love to read motivational threads like this. Great work here. One question--What size BFGs are you running, and what size Uniroyals? I apologize if you answered this before. I'm trying to decide on a size for my '73 K20 with 4" of lift and want to keep the tires semi-tame on the 16" OEM wheels. I'm leaning towards a 235/85/16.

Thanks!