Big Red Pile 91 W350 Build Thread

[RCCUMMINS89]

1st gen should be fine. Just seems to be that (from my experience) 80% of 1st gens have hogged out the hydraulics and pedal stud and therefore are no longer getting full throw.

[PToombs]

I'd run 4th. You may not think you are lugging it, but you are, and the vibrations will remove 5th gear for you. Unless you put in some kind of repair, the fancy nut, fully splined shaft, or one of the dozen other fixes for it. I personally wouldn't run it below 16-1700 rpms. I really have to pay attention to mine to keeps the R's up as it's so easy to cruise along in 5th at 1500 rpms thru town.

[CumminsPower59]

Its got that fancy nut, with set screws and peened, on a fully splined mainshaft.




Doesn't matter much anyways, as its time to fix some small stuff and get it up for sale. Again.

[DodgeFreak]

why sell it?? Are you going to get what you have in it back out??

[CumminsPower59]

Financial reasons, I can't get my old house/new rental property up and going without spending a few thousand bucks. It needs to be renovated more or less...

I won't get anywhere near what I got into it, heck, I got $2000+ in the NV4500 conversion. I'm sure I got well over the $8k mark, but in reality, it might fetch $5k max. I want to sell my Suzuki Samurai first, then The Pile...

[RCCUMMINS89]

Well... things can sometimes swing around and maybe you won't have to sell it.

[CumminsPower59]

I hope so, the other house has sat empty for six months, that's quite a bit of revenue not coming in. I'm not handy with anything related to construction, at a minimum that house needs wiring, it still has knob and tube in it, any time I had to do electrical, the insulation would fall off in my hands. Just a fire waiting to happen.

In all honesty, I really don't know what my 91 is worth as it's not a "correct" truck to a purist, and I can't see it going to some flat biller kid unless I see a BIG stack of cash.

[DodgeFreak]

I hope things turn around for you. Hate to see you sell the truck especially since you got it back. Wish I had the cash for it. I was hoping it wasn't a money issue, I might of been able to help out lol.

[CumminsPower59]

Me too. At least we are getting a little bit of overtime at work, every bit helps, even if uncle sam takes a nice sized chunk of it...still more than I had before

Enough doom and gloom, back to fixin' crap.

Waaay back when, like most 1st gens, the heat would burn you out of the cab, now, not so much. I feel decent heat at the vents, heat outlets and defrost, but it seems as if I can't get it to heat up like before. Would not running carpet in the cab cause that much of a difference? I got a full size ruber mat, but that's about it. Heat valve is zip tied open as of now, valve wasn't opening fully before, got a replacement coming. Thoughts?

And back to the driving/gear/speed madness.
Drive home last night:
Ambient temp: 33F
Hubs locked
Fourth gear-direct
Engine speed 1700RPM's
55mph
0psi boost
475F 'ish-500F 'ish on the pyrometer
Thoughts?

Ok, how about personal preferences on fuel treatments??? Mainly anti-gel. It's supposed to get butt-ass cold here within 48hr's or so, and I run 2% bio. Even though the label at the pump says its treated, I'm not sure I fully trust it, but I haven't had an issue with thier fuel yet...

[DodgeFreak]

I run power service because we have it at work dads ran the yellow honey\pee lookin stuff both seem to work good.

[CumminsPower59]

I poured in a 16oz container, we'll see how well it works come Monday...

I blocked off 2/3rds of my crusty old down flow radiator, got some heat now!

[cmann250]

I blocked off 2/3rds of my crusty old down flow radiator, got some heat now!

I have a winter front for mine. Once it gets below 20* I can leave it on all the time. I don't know what I'd do without it, other than be cold.

[1STGENFARMBOY]

I have mine 100% blocked off, I drive a max of 11 miles to work, @35-40 in will get to half way up on the gauge
by the time I get to work, if I don't block it off it will barely move.

If I plug it in it moves on start-up and will blow warm. but never hot unless I block it.

[PToombs]

I run the white Power Service or Stanadyne. The PS stinks, it smells real bad and I hate to stuff the bottle under the seat because I know it will ooze out a little. I dump in some PS 911 if it's supposed to get at or below 0. My friend runs kerosene in his to cut the fuel, he never has any problems.

[CumminsPower59]

I thought about a few gallons of kerosene...