Project: ____________________________

[brimc]

Real nice work!

[y5mgisi]

Yes indeed!

[Devillusion]

thanks...appreciate it. Gonna try to keep plugging away but my ocd gets the better of me...especially when I just brought home my Montana 68 suburban 2wd tonight...its taunting me already and isn't even off the trailer yet lmao
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[Devillusion]

Got the new upper D60 bushing kits/springs installed, left original washers plus new washers in there to add a tiny bit more compression to help rid any sort of death wobble scenario's. Cross over steering arm, new gaskets, and ARP stud kit in its new home, had an extra bushing cap left over from my 98' SAS swap so got rid of the factory steering arm cover as well to clean things up a bit.

New 4" HD front springs...decided to stay away from the 52" spring swap as this will be a driver not a dedicated trail rig. Off-road Design "FUSH" rear hangar kit with grease able bushings, just have to install the zero rates and move front axle forward 1" along with all new U bolts and spring plates. So far everything is going reasonably smooth (knock on wood)....

Started ripping apart the front clip, steering box, and all the unneeded crap that goes along with it. Drive train will be removed soon and start sizing up the 12V to drop in.

[MTCK]

Good progress keep it up.

[Dieselwrencher]

Looking very nice. Do you plan to add a track bar to the front?

[Devillusion]

Not planning on it....but time will tell. My buddy finished up my old crew project "raising Cain" and has no issues yet still works the hell out of it and is running 37s on it. But is running a sway bar I believe.

The FUSH kit should help somewhat but don't believe it would be noticeable. Poly bushings will also help..but again how much I am not sure. I am only using a total of 5" suspension lift as well so maybe won't be as noticeable as some larger lifts.
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[slammed427]

Sweet! I'm in for the ride!

[Devillusion]

Got the motor, transmission, tcase, and firewall/wiring harness all removed and discarded yesterday, along with the sale of the original 350 going to it's new home. Will be ordering my sound deadener/dampner, EZ wiring harness kit, and motor mounts this week. Cross member being fabbed up tomorrow.....

[jhama78]

In for updates. Thanks for providing the measurements for the rear spring swap.

[Devillusion]

Made some good progress in last week or so...90% of the suspension is done, interior gutted, firewall mods near complete, clutch master cylinder is near done, waiting on parts to arrive to complete some other stuff, and cross member/mods done.

Clutch master cylinder was donated by a 1995 F250....benefit: a lot lighter clutch pedal, because it's a bigger bore, but not to big to over extend the dodge slave cylinder, or make the engagement location to touchy. Along with this the fire wall may not to be strong enough and will eventually crack/fail over time and usage. So I chopped out the area where the fuse block and master comes through the firewall and spliced in some 3/16" plate to help out the situation. I ordered a new wiring harness anyway, and this cleans it all up/gets rid of all the crappy looking holes that are no longer going to be needed. As you can see in the pics, the clutch master cylinder is ridiculously close to the wiper motor, this being that it was mounted as high as possible to attain as much of a straight shot to the master cylinder/rod/pedal assembly to avoid premature wear on the seal inside the master. They don't like much side load and may fail sooner than normal. Ended up with 2* inside and 2* on the master in relation to the fire wall so we should be gold on that. This master cylinder also rotates when mounted around 2" counter clockwise, so fluid level top ups/checks are easily attained regardless how bad it looks.

Also went and filled in nearly all the swiss cheese holes in the firewall....GM must have had a competition to see how many useless holes they could put in here...just cause. Not going to spend a pile of time smoothing it out, but want to get a reasonable decent look to it before it gets hammered with soundproofing and bed liner. Clean and simple. Trimmed up a few pieces on the firewall as well...here and there, rolled the firewall seam for transmission clearance.

Cab floor or even as a whole ended up much better than I had expected...floors are near mint. Some light bubbles showing but clean steel underneath when hit with a flap disc really quick.

Still trying to decide on a color for it....not looking for a high maintenance color...so considering possibly a silver or green. Interior is going a two tone grey/charcoal so either would work I guess. Motor/trans/tcase is more than likely going Cummins tan...Seriously considering doing a color matched bedliner throughout the truck...inside and out. Have a design in mind to make it stand out somewhat and still keep it very much the work truck/head turner/daily driver I intend it to be when completed.

Front brake lines end up being 2wd versions with the mounting tab removed, and adjusted hard line at the caliper. More than long enough for a driver plus some. Going with the setup I have, then using a braided line....tends for a very touchy pedal on some applications so decided to keep it simple with stock parts.


Tons of pics to update....

[Dieselwrencher]

Great work you're doing here. I'd honestly paint the engine black. The tan looks horrible in 6 months to a year. Red is right behind it.

[COS399]

Nice work as usual.

[Valarius_Starchaser]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Great work you're doing here. I'd honestly paint the engine black. The tan looks horrible in 6 months to a year. Red is right behind it.

x2 especially with all the plains dirt flying around here I painted a 383 in a nova, cherry red once drove it twice and that was the last time it looked "nice" not that it ever went slow enough for me to stop and look at the bay anyhow

[Devillusion]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Great work you're doing here. I'd honestly paint the engine black. The tan looks horrible in 6 months to a year. Red is right behind it.

Really? Well.......that blows! lmao.

Well, maybe I will have to option for black then with some body coloured matching pieces? Give it some visual appeal of sorts anyway.

Managed to get some additional firewall bracing done tonight, I realize I am probably going overkill but I HATE doing stuff a second time around. Nothing ruins a day worse...I just don't want the truck to have the dodge firewall issue after being driven for a few months. I don't think this firewall should move a millimetre when done...lmao. easier to do it now than after all the sound deadener is in place.

Speaking of which, anyone had any experience with a really good firewall sound suppressant? Looking at BQuiet stuff....Want to do what I can to quiet down the cab as much as possible.

[Devillusion]

Originally Posted by COS399

Nice work as usual.

thanks...appreciate that.

[y5mgisi]

I gotta catch up on this thread! Looks like you are doing cool stuff!

[Dieselwrencher]

That's what I've been doing the last 4-5yrs. Paint the long block gloss black, and VC, turbo comp housing, intercooler piping, and intake horn body color. Seems to set things off nice and it looks nice for a long while. Every conversion I used to do was either red or blue, and a few tan. man it was depressing to have a crappy looking engine in 6 months. And those weren't leakers. Haha

On the sound deadening, I used raptor liner sound depressing stuff on one build and it was pretty quiet. It had a 7.3 in it and was half the firewall space of a square. I was pretty impressed with how well it helped. I did the inside and outside of it. I would like to do that on my 76 too. We'll see how that goes. It's eating money like they all do. Haha

[Devillusion]

Neoprene transmission mount


EZ wiring 21 circuit kit


1410 yoke for the rear t case output. Plan on using the dodge shafts out back.


Cummins swap mounts


Neoprene clam shell replacements



3 coats of Chassis Saver paint on the floor and firewall.



Bit more firewall bracing around the master cylinder, modified factory pedal braces to tie into the pedal assembly as well.


http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s...psfahdkv8l.jpg
Adjustable clutch rod (under dash), hardened steel tip (heat/oil bath cool), heim joint at the pedal, and drilled/pinned.


Clutch master in place...


GM HD alternator off the big cube vans

[MTCK]

Nice work you have been busy.

[Dieselwrencher]

Nice work. The more I think about it, I think I'll be getting a 21 circuit harness for my 76 instead of spending th emoney on a AAW for it. Put the dough some where else in the truck. Haha

[Devillusion]

Got the killer dowl pin plate made and installed, heater hose fittings on top of the head figured out, and bypass hose to be picked up tomorrow. Still trying to figure out the right NON A/C tensioner pulley number...they keep giving me wrong ones at NAPA. Not sure what is going on there...will get it figured out eventually.

...also needed some "detail therapy" hahaha, so started blasting and painting some items for a change of pace. Trimmed up the intake ram off the motor, sanded it out smooth, blasted and painted it. Came out pretty sweet actually....will slap up some pics later. It's late...and don't feel like uploading pics tonight.

Also started fabricating my alternator bracket....using an HD GM alternator off the Kodiak trucks, some heavy duty vans were equipped with them too but not many. Really good units that rarely wear out. Have it figured out I believe that alternator will be within 1/16" of factory position.

[Dieselwrencher]

The tensioner is the same on oem cummins ones for a/c and non a/c. I've robbed grooved ISB (24v industrial) tensioner pulleys to put on them for the non AC configuration though.

[Devillusion]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

The tensioner is the same on oem cummins ones for a/c and non a/c. I've robbed grooved ISB (24v industrial) tensioner pulleys to put on them for the non AC configuration though.

Ya, I knew that but apparently what was keeping me stuck is this POS aftermarket Chinese tensioner that has a different design to the backside where the pulley bolts on. There is pulley interference. I stole the original dayco version from my other 12v and it swapped over fine.

Also made some modifications and changes to the alternator bracket mock up...stock tensioner was interfering once I changed it so had to start over hahahahaha go figure. Hoping to have the mdf mock up done tonight so I can go get them cut out tomorrow.
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[Dieselwrencher]

It's always something isn't it?