Project SS....Underway

[oldestof11]

If ya want pics and a full write up, go here http://www.dieseltruckresource.com/dev/ ... p?t=189055

Now, what is Project SS? Smokin' Suburban. Thats right! A conversion is taking place!

Progress so far is the front clip is off, the engine is almost ready to be pulled outta the Burb, the 727 and Cummins is gonna get a once over before being put in. I wanna get the engine in and running about Late Feb-early March. And now my wallet is about $900 lighter



Jon

[PToombs]

Good Luck Jon, sounds like a good project!

[GO OVRIT]

A friend of mine put a 93 engine and getrag in a '90 crew cab dually chevy. It turned out really nice....best thing you can do to a Chevy. If you run into any roadblocks fabbing the mounts and modifying the crossmember I'll try and get you some pics of how he did it. Of coarse his is 4wd so he was able to set it down pretty lo in the frame. Good luck.

[oldestof11]

From Yesterday:

12pm
I got the tranny and engine out. I am eating lunch and will be back out in about 1 hour to take pics, clean up a little, then put the front crank shaft seal back on as I boogered the other one when I did the KDP.

3pm
ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was coming home from O'Reilly's in my car after getting Grey RTV and Red Lok-Tite to do the front crank seal and stopped at a stop sign. Put'er 1st, start letting out the clutch, idiot light for oil pops on, and she gives a lurch and dies!!!!!!

Has oil, but crankshaft won't move. My guess is I got the RPM's a little low, couldn't suck any oil, and blew something up.

Now I am working OT on trying to get this done!

Today:
Well today I didn't do anything to it. Read here for a little info as to why:

http://www.dieseltruckresource.com/d...d.php?t=189552

What I am doing is attaching the tranny to the motor and putting it in as one piece to get everything lined up but to do that I need the flex pplate bolts and the TC bolts to bolt everything together. And to get the needed bolts from the local tranny shop, I need to drive about 20 miles on black ice to get there. Not today.

Now that I have no running vehicles in my name, my bro is letting me use his 86 F250 6.9L diesel. It is ok but nothing like the Cummins

And work is asking for volunteers to be laid off for a week at a time. I am putting my name in as I have enough money, then I would have the time to get a lot done.

Progress is slow.

Jon

[oldestof11]

Did a lot today! And I have some pics too!

I lowered the engine/tranny combo into the engine bay. I looked and it looked like I could get the Dodges mounts where the old 350 mounts were. So I wrestled it near them and couldn't move them any more. It was caught some where. The turbo was hitting the the wheel wells. So I rotated it about 90-100*. Now I saw that the old mounted places needed to be moved forward about 2". And I was right! I took off the old plates wher the mounts were connected and used a uni-bit to enlarge the 1/2" holes to 9/16". The old Chevy mounts were 4 in a rectangle. I enlarged the bottom front ones and left it loose as I lowered the engine into the bay. To say that it went in easy would be saying that you can shove a square peg into a round hole. Needs a little trimming to get in.

Driver side



Passenger side



As you can see, it isn't bolted yet. But I wanted to make sure the steering didn't get bound up in it. With it bolted like this, I now have room to work with around the firewall AND the AC box!

Firewall



AC Box. Looks are deceiving as I hae about 6" straight back to work with and around 2"-3" around the AC. I need some heat wrap.





And so you can see how it sits in the bay....




Thats all for now. I am pumped to say the least!

Jon

[PToombs]

Good job Jon! Looks like the front is a little high?

[cummins king]

ya nice job but does the front ever look high or is the host still conected

[MUDDY]

moved to 'conversions'

[oldestof11]

Ok, got the old exhaust system off.

Ok, no manifold yet but I did do some more work. I made a tranny mount and bought the rubber mounts for it from a 90 D250. I found out that the way the engine and tranny sit, I could use the old crossmember and single hole that the 700R4 was bolted into.

To make the tranny mount, I took what was left of the old one and modified it. All I had was a flat piece of bar with 2 holes in it. So I took a 1/2" bolt and welded it to the plate right between the 2 holes. And then I took a piece of 2" OD pipe and welded that around the bolt. So the tranny is going to sit on a piece of 2" pipe and the rubber mount.

I put the front clip in and checked the clearance between the rad and fan. Not good. BUT I notice it is about as wide as the old AC radiator sat.. The supports for the front clip are just wide enough for the Dodge radiator. So I cut the top of the clip to recess the the radiator a little into the clip. Nice But then I notice that the hood needs to be, um, modified I am thinking something like the SRT 10 hoods, that way it is functional and nice looking.

Now I had my best friends dad call me and ask how it was going (Used to be a mechanic and LOVES 80's Suburbans). Anyhoo, he offered to let me have the front end parts from 1 (he has like 6 of them) of his 3/4T Burbs! WOOHOO! And the 14bolt rear end. Has the 3.42 he thinks.

Pics soon of the clip and the mounts.

Jon

[oldestof11]

I do not know what happen to my last post but I got the 3rd gen manifold on and it fits. I ported it a little to match the old square exhaust ports.


Well, Saturday I put the front crank seal on. No more leaks hopefully. I started cutting up the front clip to hold the stock 93 Dodge radiator. Fits nicely now. I tried to take the radiator fan off but it wasn't budging with a 12 or 14" crescent wrench.

Monday I finished the cutting of the front clip. Set it in place and went to O'Reillys after work to get a fan clutch wrench repair set thingy...Whatever it is called. I heated the nut up and was turning it CW. Nothing. Kept slipping the wrench off and busting my knuckles. I was using a 20oz hammer too! Well here comes my bro from work and looks at what I am doing. He asks if I tried using the 3" exhaust pipe that is about 5ft long There it goes, 2 hrs of busting knuckles and in 30 secs it was off.

Well, as I was doing this, I found the right wire and used the battery to connect directly to the old in-tank fuel pump for the TBI 350. I drained all 15 gallons of gas and gave it to my parents. They needed it and paid for rent a bit.

Ok, I got the belt on, some wires connected. I put in 3 gallons of oil. I thought that since it sat for about 9 months, I could turn it over with out it firing up. So it goes crank....crank.....VRRROOOMMM!!!!! I was like Crap! I forgot the IP held some fuel! No turbo, no exhaust, just the manifold. LOUD! I jump out and pull the shut down lever. Whew! Nothing broke.

So now, the chevy fuel pump goes into the LP a about 10 psi and I also used the stock chevy return line. All I have to do now is get the bolts for the torque converter tightened, turbo on, IC on, fill the radiator, figure driveshaft lenghts and get my dash wired up. You know the the Equus gauges that you buy at parts stores fit nicely into the old dash and gives it a classy look for pennies on the dollar? http://www.iequus.com/product_info.p...y_id=100_1 10 Now the 3 gauge pod set is going to hold the Boost, tranny temp, and oil temp gauges. The pyro goes where the optional analog clock would go on the dash. I will get a pic soon

That is what is going on now.

Jon