'83 Crew Conversion

[HSchroen]

Earl, I have a '85 Crew Cab and hope to start the same conversion soon. I have found a suitable 1st Gen donor truck that is also a 4x4. Do I need to swap the transfer case from the donor truck as well? Or can I reuse what its mine now?

Had time to make anymore progress to your truck? Keep up the good work and pictures!

 

[EarlKann]

Depends what transfer case your crew has. If it is still original it should have the same NP205 tcase that the diesel has, in which case it wouldn't matter which one you used as they should be identical. My crew had already been "converted" once to a '93 Magnum fuel injected engine and had the less desireable NP208 transfercase usually found in 1/2 ton trucks so I am using the NP205 from my cummins donor.



More work coming over this Memorial Day weekend. I have an exhaust on order and if it comes in on time I hope to fire it up before the weekend is out. Major things remaining include welding new radiator mounts to the core support (they were cut off for the gas engine installation), front end re-assembly (wiring/sheetmetal,etc), swapping rear axle, and measuring for rear driveshaft that looks like it will need to be shortened.

 

[EarlKann]

Well, no exhaust yet :{ but we did get some re-assembly done. Oo.



First up, the core support/radiator mounts. The one from the donor was pretty wadded up so we had to work with the one that was on the crew. It is a diesel core support but had been modified by the previous owner for the gas engine. Lower radiator mounts had been cut off so we fabbed some new ones out of rectangular tubing.

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Mounts for the gas radiator were welded over the holes for the intercooler and had to be cut and pried off. The result is pretty ugly but functional. Good thing I'm not building a show truck.

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Did some repairs on the cowl cracks before the sheet metal goes back on. Jed's welder isn't really made for sheet metal so he did the best he could. I'll fill in the rest with body calulking before assembly.

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It's finally going back together.

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Also got the NP205 tcase installed and the Dana 70 rear swapped in. Need to pick up my drive shaft tomorrow and then just waiting for the exhaust to come in. Maybe next time I'll have a road test to report.

 

[Gordon Maney]

Earl, what does this mean?



Figured this was the time to do the KDP



What is KDP?

 

[HSchroen]

Any progress report Earl?

 

[EarlKann]

Any progress report Earl?

Spent Sunday getting the new exhaust fit up. Got one from www.bigexhaust.com 3" down pipe and 4" back from there. Tight fit around the trans cross member/t-case but otherwise a nice product. Forgot to bring the camera with me though. :{



One more good weekend and I should be able to fire it up and drive it around. Oo.



How about you?? Ready to start your own thread yet?

 

[bgilbert]

Earl, looking and sounding real good. Keep us updated, I'm sure I'll be asking questions in the near months as well. Oh btw, don't forget to get rid of that Fram oil filter.

 

[budctdca]

Kdp

gordon maney:



The Kdp is one of the biggest flaws/concerns a 1st or 2nd gen owner can have about their motor. KDP stands for Killer Dowel Pin. in the the cummins motors, when the timing case is mounted to the block at the factory, there is a slip fit dowel pin that helps align the case to the block, well, according to cummins, its not possible to know if all the pins are accurately sized. so basically what can happen over time is that the pin falls out and messes up a hole bunch of things. you can see in the pictures where earl has tabbed the pin to restrict its movement outward.

 

[EarlKann]

budctdca, thanks for the help on the KDP question. I know what its about, and why we all go to the trouble of fixing it, but I'd have a hard time explaining it.

 

[EarlKann]

Still not running but a little more progress.



Got an exhaust from www.bigexhaust.com I know... . Rip's, but my budget is running low and this was $100 cheaper. Same 3" down pipe and 4" dp back.



First, the 4" that goes around the transmission/transfer case.

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During the first mock up I didn't like how this piece was fitting. It was a little to close to either the tcase or the cross member. I ended up buying a 3" ID/OD adapter and adding it into the system at the end of the down pipe to push the trans/tcase pipe back a few inches greatly improving the clearance.

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The rest of the system was a nice fit and I am quite pleased with it.

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Used the factory hanger brackets along with pieces of every type of exhaust hanger that they stocked at the auto parts store. We did have to move the factory brackets to new locations on the frame rail to line up with the muffler.

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Used the factory tail pipe hanger as well. It is a little bit low, but acceptable on a daily driver. If this were a serious off-road truck I'd want it to be up higher.

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[EarlKann]

Besides the exhaust, we got the "new" bed set on, and the front fenders (and inner fenders) put back on. Need to finish putting the wiring back together in the engine compartment, bleed the fuel system and brakes, check the fluids, and make a once over of all the nuts and bolts to make sure we didn't forget to tighten something down. Maybe we'll get it fired for the 4th.



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[EarlKann]

Finally got it fired up and actually drove it yesterday. Oo. Oo. Oo.



No pics cause I forgot the camera again.



Still needs some finishing up. Need to put the dash back together, install the grill and hood, bleed the brakes. Its not getting full throttle and the trans kick down isn't quite right. It seemed a bit sluggish when driving, but it could be the throttle linkage and I'm working on getting a 4. 10 rear to match my front.



Hope to get some smoke pics up soon.

 

[HSchroen]

Congrats Earl! I've gotten a little closer myself... pulled the motor/trans/transfer case out of my donor truck last weekend. Going to pull the drivetrain out of my truck this weekend and hopefully set the Cummins in there and scope things out.

What gears does your Dana 70 have?

Finally got it fired up and actually drove it yesterday. Oo. Oo. Oo.



No pics cause I forgot the camea again.



Still needs some finishing up. Need to put the dash back together, install the grill and hood, bleed the brakes. Its not getting full throttle and the trans kick down isn't quite right. It seemed a bit sluggish when driving, but it could be the throttle linkage and I'm working on getting a 4. 10 rear to match my front.



Hope to get some smoke pics up soon.

 

[EarlKann]

Congrats Earl! I've gotten a little closer myself... pulled the motor/trans/transfer case out of my donor truck last weekend. Going to pull the drivetrain out of my truck this weekend and hopefully set the Cummins in there and scope things out.

What gears does your Dana 70 have?

Thanks. With over 3,600 views and only 34 posts so far (most of them mine) I hope that my thread has helped or at least entertained some of you. If anyone has any questions about stuff that I may not have covered feel free to post up or PM me. Even though my conversion took much longer than I planned it would have taken even longer had I not had some of the great information I've found here on TDR.



My current D70 from the donor truck is running 3. 54 gears. If you read through the boards you'll find that most people do not recommend the 4. 10's but with 315/75/16 tires and the fact that I drive up and down a 5,000ft elevation change daily, I definitely want them.

 

[Chris and Sam]

cool deal, glad to hear that you got it going.

 

[Willys]

I've been both entertained and informed



Congratulations on a successful conversion, please keep it coming!



I'm thinking about eventually doing something like this myself, but on a pre-99 ford crewcab/shortbed 4x4... .

 

[HSchroen]

Earl, since you removed the dash on your donor perhaps you can give me some tips... I was trying to figure out what all I need to remove from the dash, so I can get to all the bolts and or screws which hold the dash frame to the cab. How do you get to the screws which I'm assuming hold the top part of the dash to the cab? I dont see anything. I've removed the dash cluster and glove box... do I also need to remove the air venting which is behind the cluster?

I would like to remove the dash and "air box" (where the heater core is) as one complete assembly to install in my Crew.

Thanks!

 

[EarlKann]

In order to remove the complete dash frame you have to take the windshield out. :{ There are a number of screws that are under the windshield rubber, you can't even see them until you take the windshield rubber off.

 

[HSchroen]

Any more progress Earl? Or pics? I've got the dash swapped out in mine... . took the entire dash, dash frame, wiring, and a/c / heater core box out of the donor and swapped them over. Really not too difficult, just a little time consuming.

No I'm working on getting the engine compartment cleaned up, gonna spary some POR-15 and sound deadener on the cowl before I drop in the Cummins (probably next weekend).

 

[bgilbert]

Earl what did you use to 'enlarge' the motor mount hole in the crossmember? Does it just have to be opened up a bit, not perfect? Keep up the great work, oh and try not to forget the camera .