My 1990 W250 Regular Cab - History and Modifications - WARNING: LOTS of Pics!!

[crazzywolfie]

cool. i just find when you replace 1 brake line you end up blowing another break line when you go to bleed the air out of the system. if you didn't blow any other lines they might be in better shape than they look but with the stock armor coated stuff it can be hard to tell. i know my ramcharger had a very slow leak in one of the stock line and held up for about 4 months before it blew. then when i replaced the one that blew i had another line blow.

 

[Shadrach]

And in your spare time you......?
A) sleep
B) go to work ( with some possible sleep time there )
C) do stuff around home
D) work on the Crew Cab

Final answer D

 

[RVTRKN]

Loved your thread, but it's the reason I buy new when my trucks have lots of miles and years on them. It's cool you have so much personal pride in your things that your willing to go the extra mile. I had to go through my Evaporator on my 94, never again will I spend so much time and effort on something like that again. I'll just have some mechanic screw it up for me. :-laf:-laf:-laf

 

[BILLUA]

This thread is awesome! Thanks for all the pics and explanations.

My dad just procured a 92 W 250 extended cab 4x4 5 spd that I am going to be bringing back to Vegas for my next project.

I can't wait to get started

 

[RSchwarzli]

cool. i just find when you replace 1 brake line you end up blowing another break line when you go to bleed the air out of the system. if you didn't blow any other lines they might be in better shape than they look but with the stock armor coated stuff it can be hard to tell. i know my ramcharger had a very slow leak in one of the stock line and held up for about 4 months before it blew. then when i replaced the one that blew i had another line blow.

Yeah, I have my concerns too. But the next line runs from front to back. So will see once the truck is running and I do a few hard brakings on the driveway to see what happens.

And in your spare time you......?
A) sleep
B) go to work ( with some possible sleep time there )
C) do stuff around home
D) work on the Crew Cab

Final answer D

Thats the problem. I dont have a lot of spare time. LOL Also the reason I am still single.

Oh, and B is no longer allowed. Apparently not "their" problem I have vehicle issues.

Loved your thread, but it's the reason I buy new when my trucks have lots of miles and years on them. It's cool you have so much personal pride in your things that your willing to go the extra mile. I had to go through my Evaporator on my 94, never again will I spend so much time and effort on something like that again. I'll just have some mechanic screw it up for me. :-laf:-laf:-laf

Yeah, there are MANY days I question why I do this. LOL I just figure I am too far into it now.

This thread is awesome! Thanks for all the pics and explanations.

My dad just procured a 92 W 250 extended cab 4x4 5 spd that I am going to be bringing back to Vegas for my next project.

I can't wait to get started

No problem! Good luck on the project!

 

[RSchwarzli]

Going to leave a few more images here of the truck.....

This was in 2012 when I parted out the old Ramcharger as the Ontario govt didn't feel it was road safe anymore. Decided to do a photo shoot with it and play around with the camera before I dumped it off at the scrap yard.

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[ENafziger]

Beautiful thread. Great reference material. And one of the reasons that TDR is second to none!!

--Eric

 

[RSchwarzli]

Glad you enjoyed it Eric!

 

[RSchwarzli]

Jan/Feb 2014:


OK. Time for an update!


So we last left off with the hitch being done late last year. Once that was done, I spun the truck around and it was time for project gen 2 rad and intercooler. For those of you who do not know, this is a labor intensive job.


So, first off was a few pics of what the truck has been for the last 11 years in the area we will be ripping apart:



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Then a few pics of the parts that have arrived off a wrecked 2002 Ram (donated the IC, some piping, small random parts) plus other years of Rams (and the parts store!!) that will be needed for this swap.


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Horton Fan clutch setup:



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[RSchwarzli]

So, step 1: Pull the old parts off

New vs old IC

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Step 2: Cut the rad core support: #ad




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Step 3: Cut more rad core support



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Yes, the entire rib was cut out top to bottom!!



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Step 4: Cut even more rad core support!! LOL




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To give you a visual of how much cutting has been done, that upper left piece is the fan stand beside the pile of cut out sheet metal!



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Step 5: Now that the core support will work, the rad was tested. Then the IC was added into the mix. The fan shroud though also needed a haircut…



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Test fit prior to install:



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[RSchwarzli]

Step 6: As I had a buddy over who was feeling full of energy, he decided to tackle putting in the gen 2 oil cooler. The gen 2 oil cooler looks similar but the plates are further spaced thus allowing the coolant to do a better job of cooling the oil. While it was out it did prove that frequent coolant changes keeps the engine clean!

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Step 7: Next up was fabricating and then locating mounts for the IC and rad as the factory ones will obviously no longer work.



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The ear on the driver’s side was too long so the slot was made deeper then the excess was chopped off:



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Step 8: Intake. My gen 1 intake will no longer work as the pipe diameter from the IC is now 3” vs the old 2.5. So, I grabbed the old gen 2 factory intake off the shelf that was originally on the crew engine, cut some parts off that wouldn’t fit around the gen 1 injector lines, and then hit up the bent grinder at work to clean things up.



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And then the intake horn wouldn’t go on due to the 89/90 throttle lever plate so it was removed and chopped:


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Step 9: Thermostat elbow change! Take note, this is all 3 styles of t stat elbows used on the 12Vs. The 1989 and 1990 is on the left and the 91.5-93 in the middle (these use the same size thermostat with jiggle pins). The far right is the 2nd gen style that uses the bypass hose to bleed pressure. T stat is also a larger diameter. For my application, I wanted to stay without the little hose so I used the 91-93 style with gen 1 t-stat. Flow due to a smaller t stat won’t be affected too much as the outlet size is still the same:


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Step 10: Testing the IC piping. Figures, it doesn’t work right off the shelf




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Angle at the bottom boot is too sharp and the length is too short:


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So some cutting was done as well as welding in angles onto the drivers side pipe:

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Andy by the end, it fit!



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[RSchwarzli]

Step 11: AC Condenser.


I couldn’t make the gen 1 unit fit between the IC and the rad so then I decided I would use the gen 2 style as it would mount to the front of the IC nice and clean so I went that route. This requires mods though too as the AC styles are different due to R12 vs R134 lines. LOL




The before:


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Chop!


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Need brass block off the old AC condenser as the new ones are different:



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Starting to fab AC lines…



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And connected:


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[RSchwarzli]

Well with the new IC piping in, I found out the battery doesn’t work anymore. Soooo, it was relocated inside the fender. This also required the negative cable to be grounded to the head vs the bottom of the block like the factory did it:


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That brings us to the final assembly of the behind the bumper goodies and one last inspection of all parts prior to full disassembly again for painting and final bolting in:



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This shows all the custom brackets to make this work:



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That brings you up to speed! Needless to say, I have not made much progress on the crew cab!

 

[SnoKing]

Nice job! I at times miss my 1993 Dodge RAM. Warn front bumper and wide wheels/tires gave it a nice look. Chris

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[Shadrach]

When someone asks what year is your truck you will have to answer " Which Part? " Thanks for all the info. David

 

[NIsaacs]

When someone asks what year is your truck you will have to answer " Which Part? " Thanks for all the info. David

Johnny Cash's Psychobilly Cadillac comes to mind Awesome work being done, for sure.

Nick

 

[RSchwarzli]

Yes. There is less and less gen 1 on this truck every year. Lol. Oh well. To 99% if the world, it is an abnormally gifted "old" truck!


Oh, and David, I already do for the crew.

 

[Shadrach]

It's nice to be able to pick and choose the "best" parts for your truck. My buddies 93 W350 has a 96 CTD, a 98 Dana 80 rear end and a 08 G56 trans. It started out life as a W250 with "only 160 HP and 400 TQ " and a Getrag. I remember a race car called "Split Personality" IIRC it had a Chrysler Hemi, a GM Powerglide 2 speed trans and a Ford 9" rear end in it. David

 

[RSchwarzli]

Sorry for the delay in finishing this build update. Let me get right back to where we left off.


First thing I had to do was cut the valance. Due to the new IC, the valance would not fit. So a saws all and some creativity solved that. The area now left open in the middle will be covered by a bigger grill.


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Cut once, measure 15x. Thanks to a friend these cut nicely. SOOOO not a one person job and also very nerve racking. You slip, and they need to be repainted. Cut too short, and they don’t work and you then have to find another at a boneyard, cut it, then have it painted.




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Test fit.




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So last step was to test fit everything to ensure it all worked and fit. So, after all final changes were done, everything was stripped back down to starting point so both truck and parts could be painted now that I knew nothing else needed to be modified after paint.



Truck:


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Parts:




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Basically at this point it was a matter of building back up. Rad went in, Horton fan clutch went in, wiring was completed, IC and piping went in, Condenser went in, intake horn went on, turbo went back on, downpipe back on, lower valence was cut to now fit the much more protruding condenser, and then the intake was next. One of the items I wanted to tackle while re assembling was cold air. So that was what went in next before assembly could be completed.

 

[RSchwarzli]

COLD AIR INTAKE:



So for every 1 deg F the intake air goes up, there is an equivalent 3 deg F drop in EGT. So based on calculations, if I am sucking in hot under hood air with my open element filter, and if I can suck min 70 deg cooler air at WOT, then the exponential drop of my EGT would be 210 deg. Now we are getting somewhere worth looking into. So what stared off as something simple ended up taking a full day to fabricate. But it is well worth it. Under hood air previously was very hot so this should help cool the EGTs allowing more fuel to be added.


So I started out with a cardboard template before getting into metal. I wanted to make sure this all fit prior to welding.



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Next step was to start fabbing with metal. Although this looks pretty straight forward, there is a LOT of time that needs to go into getting everything just right as that area is tight.




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Then once I got the area quarantined from the hot air, it was time to ram some more air into that box. As there is no Ram Air setup available for Gen 1’s, I made my own. This is a semi truck intake that goes over the cab of cab over class 8’s. Figured that would flow enough for my B series. So that is what went in upside down. Then I fabbed up the ducting and supports that would hold the scoop onto the truck and the ducts for the air feed into the new air box.



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Then a test of the filter proved it needed a support rack to hold the end up.



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Then, the Fleetguard AH1141 (AKA BHAF) filter went in.



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Then the pipe went on with the addition of a filter minder to ensure I am getting enough air flow from my design and it is now complete!



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