Project Family Chummins

[Dieselwrencher]

I had to have my brother go get my old welder back today because the tip twisted off in the tip holder on my new welder. Man, $100 per day, dang. But it'd get the truck going so you could enjoy it.

[Ackattack]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

I had to have my brother go get my old welder back today because the tip twisted off in the tip holder on my new welder. Man, $100 per day, dang. But it'd get the truck going so you could enjoy it.

I think I found another car guy locally that has one I can borrow

[Dieselwrencher]

Good deal man! By the way, have a happy father's day on Sunday too!

[jbclassix]

Ding! turkey's done! Oh wait, you can't tell because your thermometer is stuck in the AC vent still. How is that battle coming?

I love those mirrors. GM came out with them in 03 right? I remember them showing up right after I bought my CIPA mirrors and scheming on how I could make them work on mine... I know you have seen a picture of them because you have commented one of my threads with it in it. Are those 88-98 specific?

[Ackattack]

Originally Posted by jbclassix

Ding! turkey's done! Oh wait, you can't tell because your thermometer is stuck in the AC vent still. How is that battle coming?

I love those mirrors. GM came out with them in 03 right? I remember them showing up right after I bought my CIPA mirrors and scheming on how I could make them work on mine... I know you have seen a picture of them because you have commented one of my threads with it in it. Are those 88-98 specific?

Yeah, 88-98. They come with a bracket that helps reinforce them so they don't
Vibrate as much. Seem to be nice quality and fit like factory.

I borrowed a welder. It's a MIG, but set up with flux core wire, so I just went with that since the guy didn't send the regulator with me and mine is with my welder. Overall it works fine, but definitely not as nice as using gas. Oh we'll, can't complain.

Good news tonight is that the frame is repaired! Now I have to re-enforce it. I think I figured out a way that will tie the track bar mount, engine cross member, frame and spring bracket all together, so it should be pretty strong.
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[y5mgisi]

Excellent thread!

[Ackattack]

Well, hopefully that re-enforces it enough that I won't have any problems again. I didn't get a chance to take it for a test drive tonight, so we'll see how it does in the morning.

[Ackattack]

A little update:

Somehow during the downtime, most likely messing around installing the alarm system, the ground wire to the blower got messed up. The blower wasn't working at all. So I made up a new ground wire and got that working.

Took the truck out for a test drive. The truck drives fine. When I step on the brakes, it doesn't shift to one side like it did (I was thinking that was bumpsteer due to the panhard bar and drag link not being perfectly parallel, but now realize it was the panhard bar bracket twisting on the frame) So that is good. I was messing around and really getting on the brakes, and I can lock up the rear brakes pretty easy (not a big surprise). So this got me to thinking. I'm thinking I'm going to try to install the rear ABS from the dodge pickup. I haven't looked into it much, but I do know that it did run through the computer. Hopefully I can get it to work without the computer....we'll see. It would make it A LOT better in the snow/ice though. Going about 45 I locked them up and the ass end started swinging around to the front. The good news is the steering and everything feels solid. I do need to adjust the panhard bar to center up the axle and get the steering wheel straight again (when you slide the axle over via the panhard bar, the steering also moves)

While I was driving, with the A/C on, the windshield was fogging up. There is a little leak-by, so a little cold air was blowing on the windshield. Well its so frickin humid, that it was foggin up. Guess I'll get something to block that off for now.

[Ackattack]

On Friday I'm taking the truck on its first real "road trip"....about 400 miles round trip. It's all interstate so I'll get a good baseline of what my highway mileage is. However, I'll be driving home at night, and my stock headlights suck cause they're so fogged over and yellowed. So tonight I got my clear headlights from Brown Santa and went ahead and got them installed.



I did this just to see better. Later down the road, I'll get the lower turn signals to match.

While I was out in the shop, I corrected a few things. Since I fixed the panhard bar mount, my steering has been off, about 1/4 turn off. Kind of annoying. So I centered up the axle via the panhard bar, and then a little adjustment via the drag link. It might need a little fine tuning, but should be much better.

Another thing that I took care of was with my alarm. I ran the switch power to the block thing under the dash. Apparently this was tied to the instrument panel fuse, and I popped a couple of fuses. So I disconnected it tonight. This disables the starter disable relay, so you can start the truck with the alarm on. I'll get it hooked back up eventually, but its not a huge deal.

[y5mgisi]

Cool! Good luck on the trip!

[jbclassix]

Can I come? I'll ride in the bed and bark at anyone who gets too close to the truck, I promise. As long as you're not going anywhere that has temps like we are getting out here right now.

But seriously, have fun on your trip and be safe!

[Ackattack]

The good news: I made it! 400 miles roundtrip without any hitches.

The "bad" news: I filled up at about 300 miles and only got 16.5 mpg. Not quite what I was hoping for. This was pretty much going 70mph the entire way. However, if you put this into perspective, if I had the 454 in this truck, jacked up like it is, I probably would have got 10-12....so I guess 16.5 isn't too bad.

Other observations:
1) I need to re-wire the electric fan. Once I got to my dad's, the fan probably ran for 15 min after I shut the truck off. I just need to put the one side of the relay on a switched power source.

2) I need a higher temp switch for the electric fans. I think they were turning on around 180. I believe my thermostat is 190. I'll see if I can find a 210 or so.

3) The A/C still needs some attention. I was in the upper 90s going out there, and the air blowing out the vents was about 55* on recir, and 60* on fresh air. Should be cooler. I'm thinking part of the problem is there is no space between the condensor and intercooler. A little space would allow air to flow through the condenser, but not necessarily through the intercooler. Of course I don't really have room for this, since the aux fan is hitting the back of the grill. So we'll see what I can come up with.

That's about it. Not too bad

[Palf70Step]

Congrats on a successful run!

We always have little things we need to tweak no matter how long we work on our toys.

[jbclassix]

16.5 is better than my 5.9L and im stock. Do you have an IR thermometer? I would check the inlet and outlet of the condenser and evaporator.

[y5mgisi]

16.5 is darn good for that big of a truck!

[jb1016]

I'm curious because of the mileage, and it's probably in this thread somewhere, but what gears are you running?

[Ackattack]

Originally Posted by jbclassix

16.5 is better than my 5.9L and im stock. Do you have an IR thermometer? I would check the inlet and outlet of the condenser and evaporator.

Good idea, I got one at work I can borrow. I just thought of this too. I have a foam insulator thing (kinda like a coozy) that goes around the dryer I should install as well, especially since its close to the turbo.

Originally Posted by jb1016

I'm curious because of the mileage, and it's probably in this thread somewhere, but what gears are you running?

3.54s Turning about 1850 rpms at 70.

I'm hoping new injectors will help mileage a little...then my secret weapon...water/meth injection

[6lcummins]

16.5 isn't bad at all considering you are stock and running larger tires. With the right set of injectors you definitely can do better though.

[Ackattack]

Originally Posted by 6lcummins

16.5 isn't bad at all considering you are stock and running larger tires. With the right set of injectors you definitely can do better though.

Got any suggestions? I was thinking a set of stock 215 HP injectors would be a good upgrade with the stock turbo and 210k+ on the stock injectors
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[6lcummins]

Originally Posted by Ackattack

Got any suggestions? I was thinking a set of stock 215 HP injectors would be a good upgrade with the stock turbo and 210k+ on the stock injectors
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215 injectors are a 5*0.009" and I would throw in a set of 5*0.010" injectors at the least. I use them as a stock replacement but tend to lean towards 5*0.012" injectors as they are the same price as the 5*0.010" and give you room to grow. Depending on the pump mods neither will smoke very much if at all until you go WOT. Run the pop pressure within 10% and it will idle smooth as butter.

[Ackattack]

No work on the truck lately (been working on my Jeep), but I did drive the truck out to one of the plants I work at sometime and was looking at some lakes we have, and dropped the front passenger side tire off into the ditch turning around (grass was mowed level, so I didn't see the ditch). Felt like the front axle fell off the truck, but it took the blow fine. I hopped out just to make sure all was good and went on.

Full shot of the beast....needs a bath:

[Ackattack]

Today I drove about 300 miles round trip, checked my mileage at 17.9!

As I was driving I was thinking of ways to improve fuel mileage. One of the thing that has bothered me is how high this thing sits. Additionally its a little higher in the front than the back, so it looks a little funky to me. Additionally, I would think that sitting nose up a little traps air under it and hurts the mileage. So I'm going to make an effort to lower the front. With the way I did my spring hangers, it will be easy to actually lower it. To get it where steering/suspension links are hitting on everything doing anything will take some more effort. One of the big pieces is the panhard bar hits the bottom of the engine crossmember when lowered. So I'm going to C-notch the engine crossmember (ya know....low rider style). I don't remember what other interferances there are. It will be awhile untill I actually get to this, but its in the works.

[Palf70Step]

She looks good. Been waiting to see how you do the lowering on it.

[Ackattack]

Well I did a little looking, and I ordered a new pitman arm. This one is off a jeep wagoneer, and only has about a 1" drop compared to the 3 or 4 inch drop the one I have on it now has. This will allow me to raise the panhard bar as well. Then I can do some clearancing and hopefully lower it down.

It will be a few weeks until I get it done though.

[Ackattack]

I'm taking tomorrow and thursday off and I'm going to knock out some work on the truck. Plans include: install new gear box to get rid of some slop, new wagoneer pitman arm, steerting stabilizer, lower it (which means hacking out some material out of the engine crossmember I believe), start making the wiring look nice, install a new hotter fan switch wired up to the relay on the ignition switch rather than the battery, so the fan doesn't run when its off.

I'm not sure I'll get done with everything, really depends how much clearancing I have to do to lower it