87 Chevy Crew Cab 4x4 Converion/Cummins swap

[DieselRat]

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.

[Chevy3+3]

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

[DieselRat]

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

[DieselRat]

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!

[Chevy3+3]

Thanks for getting that measurement.

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

[MTCK]

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.

[DieselRat]

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.

[DieselRat]

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.





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'



Hoping to get the injectors installed tonight.

[NastyBuzzard]

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.

[DieselRat]

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.

[DieselRat]

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.

[lower50's]

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.

[DieselRat]

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.

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.

[NastyBuzzard]

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.

[DieselRat]

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!

[NastyBuzzard]

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

[DieselRat]

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

[LT7A]

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.

[DieselRat]

17 acres

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

[brimc]

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.

[87max]

Filler neck supply may have what you want

[DieselRat]

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?

[COS399]

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

[DieselRat]

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

[COS399]

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