1980 Crew Cab conversion questions

[CLamb]

Hey Everyone,



My Dad has a 1980 Crew Cab D350 Dually. Its a very clean truck only has 75K on it. He pulls a 24 foot enclosed trailer(guessing 16K with everything) and the truck normally does real good but the 360 has been cuasing some troubles.



We had been talking a little bit about a swap but not getting serious yet. Whats the best route to go with? Obviously a 12V, would it be better to get a doner truck or better to buy a motor, trans and just buy the swap parts.



Also is there any good threads on the whole conversion process or any web pages? Thanks for any info.



Here is the truck

#ad

 

[Philip]

Buy a donor truck. You will have all the needed brackets, linkages and so on. If you start trying to buy pieces it will run into a more money.



Then when your done sell off the unneeded parts left over.



I have relatives all over your neck of the woods. :-laf :-laf I grew up there.

 

[83 crew cab]

the first gens are starting to get easer to find as doner trucks. they will have all the eng and transmission mounts that you need. you will still have to cut the radiater mounts off of your core support but that will be all the mods you have to do to your body.

 

[Chris and Sam]

not a terrible job. main thing is finding a good donor truck for not too much money. even the trucks with high mileage are bringing good money, and they are not available like we are lead to beleive. I have a 80 W200 crew with a non-ic cummins and a getrag. bte, that is a nice looking truck!! would be a nice truck to do a conversion to!

 

[CLamb]

I am assuming you have to swap the k-member as well?



I need to find him another deal like I got. I found a 92 W250 with 300K on the clock for $900, drove it home with the AC on. Its pretty rough but I am keeping it and selling my 2000 3500. I am not sure how much he really wants to do the swap but his 360 has to come out for a rebuild so thats the time to do it.

 

[Simplysmn]

you should not have to swap k member most I had to do was enlarge the holes for motor mount's but if you get a first gen I would use everything from dash foward that way it pretty much bolts right in.

 

[MTownsend]

I bought a 91 w250 doner for $1500 with a bad g360, bought a nv4500 and stuffed all the peices in my D350 crew cab making it a 4x4. Come on I know you want to make it a 4x4 LOL :-laf

https://www.turbodieselregister.com/forums/showthread.php?t=150284



BTW Thats one nice looking truck you got

 

[Chris and Sam]

conversion....

I am assuming you have to swap the k-member as well?



I need to find him another deal like I got. I found a 92 W250 with 300K on the clock for $900, drove it home with the AC on. Its pretty rough but I am keeping it and selling my 2000 3500. I am not sure how much he really wants to do the swap but his 360 has to come out for a rebuild so thats the time to do it.

front end k-member will work. easiest thing is to use a 1st gen truck with a 81 and newer cab. The dash will bolt in, but the a/c box needs to have firewall mods to really work out right. :-{}

 

[CLamb]

Well crap his is an 80, not sure on the production date though

 

[CLamb]

What about fuel lines and tanks? His has dual tanks for a total of 40 gallons. I am trying to figure out a basic list and talk him into this deal .

 

[Philip]

The tanks will be allright. They all ready have return lines into them.

Just dump the gas out and refill with the correct fluid.



The stock tank on a diesel 1st gen is a 30 gallon tank. Swap that in place of the left side tank.

 

[BLamb]

Rebuilt Motors?

Hi this is Clark's dad, I own the truck in question.



I am having a really hard time finding a donor with less than 300,000 miles for a decent price.



While I know the motors will easily go more than that I am not too comfortable taking off for a long weekend race trip, with 10,000 pounds in tow with a engine that I really don't know anything about that has four times the miles of the twenty-six year old truck!



I am thinking about maybe getting one of the 400,000 to 300,000 mile trucks I have seen and getting the engine rebuilt.



What are my options? Are there "crate motors"?



While I could rebuild a gas motor in a heart beat digging in to the Cummins would be kinda of scary for me.



If I did get brave and do my own rebuild what are good sources for rebuild kits?



All advice appreciated.



Thanks!



Bill Lamb

 

[Niki]

Hi this is Clark's dad, I own the truck in question.



I am having a really hard time finding a donor with less than 300,000 miles for a decent price.



While I know the motors will easily go more than that I am not too comfortable taking off for a long weekend race trip, with 10,000 pounds in tow with a engine that I really don't know anything about that has four times the miles of the twenty-six year old truck!



I am thinking about maybe getting one of the 400,000 to 300,000 mile trucks I have seen and getting the engine rebuilt.



What are my options? Are there "crate motors"?



While I could rebuild a gas motor in a heart beat digging in to the Cummins would be kinda of scary for me.



If I did get brave and do my own rebuild what are good sources for rebuild kits?



All advice appreciated.



Thanks!



Bill Lamb

Welcome to the site... The engine internals will probably be the least of your problems w/ a 300K donor truck. I'd be more worried about the injector pump/injectors. What else are you planning on using from the donor? What trans are you going to run? If you're going to run a getrag, get it re shimmed and have the bearings inspected. The only other thing w/ the motor is maybe taking the front cover off and loctiting the inside bolts and tabbing the dowel pin. I picked up a 300K 92 W250 that's been worked every day of its life, I'm planning on using it for a Chevy crew cab conversion. It doesn't have the power that my 93 w/ a mere 170K has, but I haven't touched the pump on the 92 either . If you're really concerned about mileage buy a 2wd donor truck, those go pretty cheap, even the lower mileage ones.

 

[PToombs]

You could buy a donor truck, and if it's not too bad, register it and drive it for a month or so. Then you know how it runs, pulls, etc.

 

[wicked6]

Hey Bill -



You should sell me your truck ("as is"??) and go buy yourself something new...







Once you're done laughing, (and there are a LOT of people reading this thread thinking the same thing I just was), seriously consider buying an entire donor truck, as the bits and pieces can REALLY get out of hand. The truck I got my 12v from was a front end wreck, and the guy wanted $5k for the whole thing. . I bought the engine / harness for $3500. . (and some other miscellaneous "stuff" from other engines laying around. ) For the $1500 difference, I coulda sold everything else out of the truck & *maybe* been out of pocket less than $3 grand. . (4x4, 5 speed, 1 ton w/a good bed) I still had to dump another $2k into an auto transmission, at LEAST $500 in misc. stuff (rad, intercooler, piping, hoses, etc) ... well. . you can see where this is going...



So, all told, if you can get a wrecked Cummins truck (that runs when you buy it), with less than 200k miles, go for it. . !!! You'll be money ahead, even if the price of entry is $5-$6k. . You will thank yourself later when you experience the cackling 6 banger pulling harder than that 360 ever could... ... in that SWEET truck... . :-laf



Linc

 

[BLamb]

Welcome to the site... The engine internals will probably be the least of your problems w/ a 300K donor truck. I'd be more worried about the injector pump/injectors. What else are you planning on using from the donor? What trans are you going to run? If you're going to run a getrag, get it re shimmed and have the bearings inspected. The only other thing w/ the motor is maybe taking the front cover off and loctiting the inside bolts and tabbing the dowel pin. I picked up a 300K 92 W250 that's been worked every day of its life, I'm planning on using it for a Chevy crew cab conversion. It doesn't have the power that my 93 w/ a mere 170K has, but I haven't touched the pump on the 92 either . If you're really concerned about mileage buy a 2wd donor truck, those go pretty cheap, even the lower mileage ones.

Thanks, Niki

The truck is an automatic now and I'll probably keep it that way for simplicity. Which ever flavor of automatic I choose I'll have it rebuilt along with fresh converter.



Maybe my expectations are off but I have not seen any 2wd trucks going for what I would call pretty cheap. Of course about the only place I can ever find any is e-bay and they either go for a pretty good price or don't make reserve.



Bill

 

[BLamb]

You could buy a donor truck, and if it's not too bad, register it and drive it for a month or so. Then you know how it runs, pulls, etc.

Not a bad idea if I can find a donor.

Thanks,

Bill

 

[BLamb]

Hey Bill -



You should sell me your truck ("as is"??) and go buy yourself something new...







Once you're done laughing, (and there are a LOT of people reading this thread thinking the same thing I just was), seriously consider buying an entire donor truck, as the bits and pieces can REALLY get out of hand. The truck I got my 12v from was a front end wreck, and the guy wanted $5k for the whole thing. . I bought the engine / harness for $3500. . (and some other miscellaneous "stuff" from other engines laying around. ) For the $1500 difference, I coulda sold everything else out of the truck & *maybe* been out of pocket less than $3 grand. . (4x4, 5 speed, 1 ton w/a good bed) I still had to dump another $2k into an auto transmission, at LEAST $500 in misc. stuff (rad, intercooler, piping, hoses, etc) ... well. . you can see where this is going...



So, all told, if you can get a wrecked Cummins truck (that runs when you buy it), with less than 200k miles, go for it. . !!! You'll be money ahead, even if the price of entry is $5-$6k. . You will thank yourself later when you experience the cackling 6 banger pulling harder than that 360 ever could... ... in that SWEET truck... . :-laf



Linc

Linc,

Well you know what they say, if the price is right the deal is real... :-laf



Seriously if I could get a premium for the truck I probably would sell it. I really don't have the time for the conversion and while a new truck would not be as cool as a 76,000 mile 1980 dually it will always be more comfortable. An wow do these Cummins powered trucks hold their value. My son has a 2000 Cummins dually and my daughter has a 2005 Hemi 2500 4x4. I asked them what our trucks had in common. My answer absolutely nothing! Of course a transplant would change a lot of that. And yes I think a first gen donor is the only way to go.



Thanks,

Bill

 

[DSteimle]

what's in the trailer?? enquiring racing minds wanna know.

 

[Philip]

Bill your running into the same wall that a lot of other people have. Its hard to find good donor trucks. Ebay like you have found is very hit and miss on trucks.



On these year model trucks most owners buy them back if they get into an accident. So not much in the junkyards eather.



You can find engines pretty easy on ebay. But transmissions and the bracketey is hard to find.



A 12 valve with a P pump will work also. So don't rule out a wrecked 2nd gen truck. The frame mounts are different. So you would need to find a set of 1st gen frame mounts.