Project 67 GMC custom 6.5 turbo diesel

[mal68ibu]

Two more.

[mal68ibu]

Ok so its getting really close to D day. I'm actually trying to drop the motor this weekend. My stud girdle kit was delayed, but they took care of me and shipped it expediated on their dime. I got my waterpump (from SSdiesel supply) bolted up, started bolting up the accessories, painted the exhaust manifolds, got a D-max clutch fan for it (from ssdiesel supply), and backed the truck into its hole and pulled the front clip. For you guys east of the Rockies this should make you jealous. I unbolted everything with a 1/4 drive, 3/8 drive ratchet, hand wrenches, and a screwdriver. Had the bumper and clip off it in about an hour, to hour and a half. So the engine with everything on it needs to be sold. The power brake system needs to be sold and I need to pull the entire heater out of the truck. I'll cut a peice to cover and bolt up to the firewall to cover the heater holes, I'll install a cable driven throttle, and intall a full hydroboost system for the brakes. So here's the pics.

[67_C-30]

Subscribed! When I get back from vacation, I'm going to be putting mine in. It is on the stand, assembled and ready to put in. I've pretty decided to intercool mine as well to help with towing, so I'll have to plumb that also.

[jimmydean]

Awesome color, I was looking to paint my 6.2L classic orange as well. I should have my motor on the stand on Saturday with any luck.

[mal68ibu]

Ok so people have aparantly found some money they couldnt spend on vacation but could on ebay because I got really busy again, and this project took a back seat. The engine has been "sitting" in its new home for about 2 weeks or so now. I found the factory small block towers and small block mounts were not going to work. I swiped a pair of towers and mounts from a 73-87 truck and those are really close. I have to hack up the frame to make the engine sit down in the cradle but f'it I'm going to weld the towers to the frame and x-member anyways. I figure if this doesnt work out I'm going to have a fit and part the truck out. With the procedes from that I can put a pretty nice big block in my chevelle. Anyways this is where I'm at and just as soon as things start to go my way again I'm sure I'll put a smile back on. Looks kinda neat sitting there tho.

[67_C-30]

What was keep the small block towers and mounts from working?

[mal68ibu]

Ok so its been a damn long while since I've posted some updates. Engine and trans are finally mounted in their final resting place. I have my intercooler and piping kit in hand, and the core bolted back to the front so I can mock up mounts and create some new holes for pipes. I started playing around with exhaust ideas and come to the conclusion that i'm going to have to modify the 93 down tube and run on the outside of the frame rail. This will force me to cut my inner fender and fab up somthing to fill the hole if necissary. I also have the hydro boost bolted up and only have a few issues to clear up there. I also need to determine if I need to shave my duramax fan as its damn close to the very front x-member on the frame, or shave the x-member. So far things have started moving along again and my buddy thinks we should be ready to fire it up in a few weeks to make sure the engine runs. I'm thinking that if we fire it in January, I'm doing good. I should have some new pics of engine mounts, hydroboost and other up soon.

[Spray-Bomb]

I would shave my X-member before I even touched that fan

Hope it all goes well

I noticed that you used studs to bolt your head down, thats a really good upgrade on these things
That with the intercooler & the 97 cooling system, should make this thing a pretty darn good engine & last a while

BTW, love the VW bus

[67_C-30]

Originally Posted by mal68ibu

Ok so its been a damn long while since I've posted some updates. Engine and trans are finally mounted in their final resting place. I have my intercooler and piping kit in hand, and the core bolted back to the front so I can mock up mounts and create some new holes for pipes. I started playing around with exhaust ideas and come to the conclusion that i'm going to have to modify the 93 down tube and run on the outside of the frame rail. This will force me to cut my inner fender and fab up somthing to fill the hole if necissary. I also have the hydro boost bolted up and only have a few issues to clear up there. I also need to determine if I need to shave my duramax fan as its damn close to the very front x-member on the frame, or shave the x-member. So far things have started moving along again and my buddy thinks we should be ready to fire it up in a few weeks to make sure the engine runs. I'm thinking that if we fire it in January, I'm doing good. I should have some new pics of engine mounts, hydroboost and other up soon.

Yeah, I figured out that exhaust problem myself! I did give me a good excuse to fab up a full 4" exhaust system!

[thirdstreettito]

Updates?

[mal68ibu]

So I've put together consecutive weeks of working on this thing. One day a week totally devoted to getting this on the road.............so I don't get frustrated with the project, and ebay it one part at a time. So I got the core all hacked up for the intercooler last week and make up some brackets for it. This week I installed the intercooler. We fabbed up some pipes for it and piped the whole thing out. Heres some pics.

[Spray-Bomb]

Sweet

[Hart_Rod]

Way cool......!

[Skirkpat]

Pretty Nice.

[Ackattack]

nice build. Gives me some good info for when I do my diesel swap.

I'm planning on a 'burb with a diesel after I get my 68 swb done.

[mal68ibu]

Originally Posted by Ackattack

nice build. Gives me some good info for when I do my diesel swap.

I'm planning on a 'burb with a diesel after I get my 68 swb done.

LOL I'm rushing this so that I can take my 71 burb out of service. I'm over not having a pick up bed. I seriously considered cutting the roof off a few weeks ago. But cooler heads prevailed.

[mal68ibu]

Found myself a 95 3500HD with a 3 year old 6.5 and a one year old auto in it yesterday. Dirt cheap. I need a new money tree so I can put the extra 3/4 ton cab and title I have on that frame, or hack up my suburban and make me a crew cab. I wonder if the CHP would give me hell for swapping most of the body, tags and pink onto that frame and keeping it registered as a passenger car? That would be cheap to reg and insure. Has anyone out there figured out how to make days 48hrs long yet? My worthless 2 cents for the day......back to work.

[mal68ibu]

Today we got alot of running around and a little work done. Pushed the truck into the shop so we could fit the finished fuel tank to the bed and mark for the mounts to be welded on. The fuel tank is a 11/44 gal split. It 44 gallons of veggie oil and 11 gallons of diesel. Each side will be its own fuel system. Each side of the tank is separate and has its own sending unit witch will be controled by the fuel switch. The tank is all aluminum and doesnt weigh much or take up much space. We have the glow plug relay mounted on the firewall and have most of the wiring hooked up. We replaced alot of the original harness from an 86 6.2 with new wiring. To keep the wiring away from the exhaust and manifold I just pulled the wires down and ran a self tapper through a loop to the frame. Since I'm not running a stock heater we are going to fab up a panel for the heater control area to mount the fuel system switches. Since I'm not using the speaker grate I think I'm going to mount my gagues on top inbetween the defrost vents. I got new batteries today and I saved all the cables from the 93 donor truck to run two batteries. Yes that is a factory drivers side battery tray. So far we a really close on a concept for the "ram air" air intake box and element. We have some good ideas to run the coolant system, and parts are on the way to finish the fuels systems. Here are a few pics to inspect. I mocked up the grill just for fun so I could see how the intercooler looked behind it.
Adam

[mal68ibu]

More pics.

[SkullCandy]

What kind of fuel mileage are you looking to get?

[mal68ibu]

I'm hoping on the low side 17mpg, but I'm not that experienced with diesels. My friend who is helping me with this thinks that 23mpg is not unreasonable, but to be honest my right foot is made of lead. I also don't know how some of the mods will affect mileage. But to be honest it has to be better than the 10 I was getting with the 350.

[6772owner]

So is there special fuel line needed for the diesel fuel? Does it attack standard steel/aluminum line and AN braided hose?
BTW the swap looks awesome, love the piping setup. How about some pics of the air intake setup?

[mal68ibu]

I don't have the air intake even started just yet. The diesel doesn't mess with "fuel" grade hoses. However the veggie oil will mess with the rubber hoses. All the weep hoses for the injectors are viton, and the rest of the hoses are Parker Superflex. It holds up really well to bio fuels. I've added a few new pics. Only thing thats changed on the motor is all the weep lines are installed, using the original steel feed tube that runs across the engine. The dorman oil cooling lines are install, with a little bit of modification to get them around the frame. Fabbed up engine and trans oil cooling mount and installed. The engine oil lines are for all intents and purposes in the final resting place. I'm just going to install some loop straps to keep them there. I need to trim down the factory hard lines for the tranny, and just run new hose to the tranny cooler. Which I still need to get fittings for. So no start yet. Need to hook up the tranny cooler, add fluids, run some temp. wiring and fuses, and add fluids.

[6772owner]

Ok cool, the pics on page two had a pipe attached to the turbo inlet that led me to believe that you had an air intake figured out.

Looks like you are getting close to test firing that bad boy, if you dont mind me asking, what do those 6.5's go for now-a-days? Are they pretty easy to come by? Sorry for all the questions, great build.

[mal68ibu]

The green engine is another guys build and that was his exhaust. Aparantly there are 3 slightly different blocks for the 6.5 (feel free to correct me if I am wrong). I have the early one that is a 599 casting (92-93) and its all mechanical injection and has a less desirable cooling set up. 94-96 or 97 is electronic injection and better cooling inlet, and 97 or 98 and later have oil squirters for the bottom of the pistons, and I don't know if there are any upgrades to the coolant intake. Also som 93's and 94 and later are EGR engines. I looked specifically for a 92, 93 engine so that it would have all the mechanical injection stuff on it and no EGR. I got a smoking deal on mine because the owner thought it had a rod knock. Just turned out to be a nailing injector. The truck recycling yards out here want $2500+ for 92 and 93 turbo engines. They are just not showing up in the self serve yards. They are easy to come by if you are willing to shell out the cash for one.