The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)

[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!!

[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

[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.

[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!

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by 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!

Yeah, its in here somewhere, but I have no idea where. They are 255/85R16 on a stock 16 x 6.5" wheel.

Sorry for the delay here, but I was feuding with my computer and ended up having to let the smoke out of it and then get another one, then load all of the files and whatnot out of my laptop into my new desk top pc (still in progress right now). I have a bunch of pics and maybe something else to add, but the pics haven't made it into this unit yet (probably tonight sometime). Photobucket is sending me hate-mail saying my account is going to melt down, so we'll see what happens there once I dump my last couple runs into it--yeah, just some more boring trip photos...

[mosesburb]

Well, I had to let the smoke out of my old computer so my escapades have gone un-documented lately. I have gotten out but through wrestling with my computer and dealing with the newfound heat, I had not posted anything.

So, on a Saturday about a month ago I headed over to my machinist's house to kidnap him and take him out wheelin. All my plans were set, weapons were loaded, ordinace stowed and secured. Then it happened. My wife informed me that my boy was going with her to some something and not going with me out on the trail. Uh, what am I going to do without my door gunner?? Immediate adjustments were necessary. Oof.

So I headout at the crack of dawn and slink over to my buddy Russ's place (it was actually about 0900). Now, not having a door gunner created an issue for me. I had to lay down my own cover fire. I rolled up and in a hail of gunfire (I casually parked in the driveway and rang the door bell), I managed to get Russ loaded in the truck and took off in a barrage of bullets (It was probably just gravel bouncing into the wheel wells from the tires). I think I heard his wife yelling something about not bringing him back (might have actually happened), but I could be mistaken on that one--she was throwing a bunch of lead our way (wishing us a good time and come home safely).

So, we are on the road. I come to the realization that this is his first ride in the truck that his machine work helped finish to my specs. We were heading up to an area north of Lake Pleasant. The trail past the turnoff for the boat ramp was practically paved now, but further north it did go back to the typical gravel road that it had been.



It surprised me that the Saguaro cactus were still preparing to bloom this late in the year:



Gratuitous truck shot: I stopped here because most every rock around this area was sparkling like they were full of mica or bright quartz or something. It was kind of strange. Sedimentary, metamorphic all of them sparkled. It was just right here though, not other areas.



So I thought I knew where we were, but come to find out I thought we were about seven miles south of where we actually were. This is cool because I know where we actually were and we were on a trail that I thought was locked up by a private land owner. I was looking at a map and knew where I was on the map, but my brain was telling me that we were somewhere else. I listened to what the map said and we rolled through Walker Canyon:



After a while of driving and a few intersections of other minor trails, you come around a corner (still in the middle of nowhere) and you are greeted with this:



It is an old resort that was built back in the 1800's. It was famous for its hot springs. A fire started in the hotel and it burned down in 1976. It is so far out that bythe time fire crews could get on site it was too late.

This is a shot of the foundation of the old hotel.



There is a caretaker who lives in the old activites building now (yellow building in the first pic). He keeps everybody away. It can be viewed from the trail, but from what I have heard, the place is not too friendly to strangers.

On the way out, Lake Pleasant comes in to view:



The whole trip is mostly just a sight-seeing run, but it is so nice to get out and see some things that are not in town. The two best things that came out of the trip were figuring out that the trail that I thought was closed was actually open and the second was that I finally tried adjusting my shocks. I put Rancho RS9000's on and when I started driving it, I adjusted them up fairly stout and left them there. Well,somewhere during our trip I decided to try turning them down a couple clicks. WOW!! What a diffference. It didn't make it a Cadillac, but it softened the ride up noticably. It softened it enough that I could actually start driving it a bit aggressively on a few stretches of the low trail in the river bed. That was fun. It was the first time I had driven this thing beyond an "easy" drive. It was a blast. Not too soft, but soft enough to have some fun. I had not experienced the cresting of a hill and not being able to see which way the trail goes on the other side and having to prepare for either direction immediately. Fun, FUN!! That was cool. I do not know why I never adjusted the shocks, but I wish I had a couple years ago. It would have helped significantly on some of the trails we have run.

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Cool story and glad to see the burb getting used..

[vectorit]

Awesome day out with the burb!

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by FRENCHBLUE72

Cool story and glad to see the burb getting used..

Thanks!! Yeah, me too. I drive it every day, but this is the only driving that really counts.

Originally Posted by vectorit

Awesome day out with the burb!

It really was. What I had "planned" would have been a pretty short jaunt, but our misfortune or misdirection as it was, turned it into a real nice day.

[eagleuh1]

Some beautiful scenery out your way. Went looking for Apache tears near Tonapah, Saddle Mountain area couple times. Keep the weekend drive pics coming.

[1985-GMC]

I love reading about the adventures with the your awesome cummins burb, keep em coming!

[mosesburb]

This last run kind of wet the whistle for some more trail time, so I decided some camping would be a good thing to do for the next run. I found that there was a car show south of Chino Valley on 28 May, so I figured that was a good excuse to get out of town. We were going to camp somewhere but one of my wife's co-workers just bought a cabin out west of Prescott and offered to let us stay in their pop-up trailer there. Well that sounds easier than truck camping, so that's what we did.

We lit out for Prescott at a decent hour of the morning. It is probably pretty evident by now that even if I am going somewhere easily accessible on the highway, I usually find some less traveled way to get there. This trip is no exception. We swung off of 69 and ran Poland Road.



I like Poland Road alot because you are in pine trees almost immediately. Instant altitude.



One cool feature of Poland Road is there are two train tunnels on it. One is full of water but the other is still accessible. This was used when the roadbed we are traveling on was a rail road and the tunnels were used to alleviate problems associated with switchbacks or just cut distance off by going through instead of around or over the mountains. If you do not know where to look, it is almost impossible to find--it is still difficult even when knowing where to look. This is what the entrance looks like:



The tunnel is not too long and the other end of it has been almost completely back-filled. A person can still climb up and out of it, but it is not a wide open end like the entrance is. It is cool, the roof of the tunnel is still black from the soot of the steam locomotives rolling through it. This is looking back at the entrance from inside the tunnel:



Gratuitous truck shot from the "textured" side (all dents were provided by the original owner):



The road heads up and out from there through five points and on towards Senator Highway. This was taken somewhere after five points: This pic doesn't seem too special, but it is one of my favorite pics from my Suburban travels.



Heading past an old mine up on the left here:



Down the road a bit, down the side of the mountain, there was a big mining operation on the side of the mountain. There isn't much left of it, but there is still a building skeleton here:



I think it was a warehouse of some sort. Not much left on the site besides that.

I have not tried this before, but my wife stuck the camera out of the window and tried to take some video of what we were seeing. It didn't turn out so well, it is 90* off and I can't figure out how to turn it and it is pretty shaky because there is not stabilization in the digi cam, but I thought it was kind of cool because it caught some exhaust music in the process, so I thought I'd post it to show what this thing sounds like in the wilderness.

Click on the pic:

[hgs_notes]

Good stuff. Looks like a nice drive.

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Cool video you burb almost sounds like it s a diesel hahahhahhahahaha.. Kiddin it sounds great but very wierd you would not expect to hear that sound from a vintage burb.

[jbclassix]

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Good stuff. Looks like a nice drive.

Thanks!! Yeah, it really is a nice drive. Alot of it is graded and smooth, but there is enough slow-speed to feel like you got out on a trail, but not so much you hate the road before you get to the end--not to mention the great scenery along the way.

Originally Posted by FRENCHBLUE72

Cool video you burb almost sounds like it s a diesel hahahhahhahahaha.. Kiddin it sounds great but very wierd you would not expect to hear that sound from a vintage burb.

This thing makes it easy to pick the "car guy" out of a crowd. Say there is a group of people standing in a parking lot. I light this thing up and the one dude whose head whips around to look--that's the car guy in the crowd. Even driving down the road, driving past people standing on the corner or at a bus stop--same thing. It's just a raggety old Suburban, until it starts up (or is heard running). The it is obvious that something is not right with it. My wife says she likes the strange looks and tilted heads this thing gets.

Originally Posted by jbclassix

Thanks!!

[Dieselwrencher]

Very cool trip and pics as usual! The weird looks and comments are what I like the most about conversions.