My Ramcharger Build

[hemijimmy]

Well, about one year ago I started converting my 1985 cream puff 4x4 Ramcharger to a 1993 12 vlv drive train. I have since registered a couple thousand miles on the clock. I cant be happier with the project. The 1993 had 303,000 on it when I started. I went through motor completely but did not tear down bottom end. It did not need it. Cross hatch still in cylinders no blow by. Head was milled to flatten and valve job was done. All new gaskets throughout. New head studs. Rebuilt getrag 360 and the 205 transfer case myself. Custom drive shaft for proper length. Body was totally rusted out on the Boston donor work truck. W250 5 spd 4x4. It ran and drove good. 4x4 all worked great. perfect donor truck. My Ramcharger came from Arizona and is completely rust free. Perfect candidate for the 12 vlv. Original paint and interior. Its still a work in progress but its my daily driver around town and in the woods. Even rebuilt the AC ice cold. Presently running the 1/2 ton axcels which only had 95,000 on them. I will be rebuilding the dana 60 front and dana 70 rear. Once done they will be swapped out also. Works well the way it is now though with 35's. I used 45 hp injectors, stock turbo, tweaked the pump some what but not crazy. Im not into Cole rolling just dependable power and fuel economy.

I have pictures from start to finish and thought I needed to get them online to share my experience. This was, is a fun project I had in my head for several years. Good trucks to work with arent getting any easier to find these days either so it was time. Im no wizard on the computer so bare with me. Ill gather all my pics once thread approved and start working my way through the build.

Thanks Jim Posey

 

[hemijimmy]

November 2015. Here is a shot of the two trucks right before I started tear down of the donor truck. Sad to say the body on the 93 was a total loss. It went to the metal scrap yard. I saved some items like windshield wiper system, door regulators etc etc, things that would work on Ramcharger. I sold the computer to a guy in need for a 100 bucks. I did not go back with the computer. Just didnt see the need. The Ramcharger shot is at home after driving it across country from Arizona. Stock 360. Couple years ago. I redid top end and put big cam in it at first. I lifted with Superlift 5 inch kit and new Rancho shocks all around so I could run 35's. Ran ok but I still had cummins in mind so after a few months of running the 360 I found a donor truck, got it bought and transported to florida. I waited till the weather cooled off to start project.

 

[hemijimmy]

Here is a few donor truck pics during tear down. I did save the vin plate just in case. Every door and fender on this truck was a rusty bent up mess. Top of cab rusted through all the way across. I hate rust repair so I **** caned everything. I saved core support, you need that for intercooler. It was ok. I noticed the center of core support had been cut out and welded back in. Hum why. Then I noticed no info tag on the timing cover. As it turns out I found the killer dowel pin in oil pan when I tore motor down. It had been repaired in the truck. It broke a couple gears and the aluminum timing housing. I found some pieces of gear teeth in pan and original housing with info tag had been replaced. Seller said he was unaware of this issue. Im sure he wasent. It had been done prior to him having truck. He bought for a conversion and just never got to it. I got lucky there was no block damage. Repair was done ok except for the crap in pan. Truck ran strong. Started with a slight bump of starter. Shifted ok. Drove ok except for brakes pretty sketchy.

 

[hemijimmy]

Here is getrag 360 and np205 out of truck. Motor on stand. Odometer with 303,000. Word of advice, take plenty of picture to help in reassembly. Smart phones are great. The transmission had spun the front bearing and messed up the snout/bearing retainer on front of trans. I found rebuild kits easy to come by for the getrag 360. Jap or Korean bearings though. Had no problem replacing the bearing retainer with new. The rubber boot on shifter could not find. Made another work I found. You do need some experience doing this sort of thing with the right tools or take to a shop or friend. Im a retired Nuc Power plant Mechanic. I have a retired machinist buddy with a mill and lathe in his shop half mile away. The trans was just before destroying itself. Lucky again. No other damage inside.

The transfer case was perfect inside. I installed all new seals and it works well. Had another buddy with a large heavy duty Thern and engine stand for the cummins. You need HD for this motor it is heavy. A cheap Harbor Freight one will not hold it for long. 1000 lbs

 

[hemijimmy]

Here is a shot of the finished head ready to reinstall. Killer dowel pin tab I made from 18 gage sheet metal. All bolts on timing housing removed and reinstalled with lock tight. Important to do. Inside block looked very good. It had antifreeze still. I used Eastwoods ceramic engine paint two part stuff high heat. I was pleased with it and its holding up well. I have a good pressure cleaner. It took three times on engine before I tore down to get clean using Simple Green full strength. I check a couple rod bearings and was happy with not tearing into short block. When hot Im idling at 20 psi oil pressure. Off idle 40 to 50 psi. Im sure another 100,000 or so easy and prob a lot more. If I need to one day Ill do a rebuild on short block if I live that long. Im retired on a budget and have too many toys already. I pulled cam and inspected, all looked good. You can see cylinder cross hatch in pic. That is the front trans bearing. When I knocked retainer off it all kind of feel out in pieces. Do not let the trans syncro balls fly out on you. I did and spent a couple hours finding all the springs and balls. On my hands and knees. I ended up splitting the inner race with a waffer wheel to get off. Be careful not to nick shaft. I stuffed the cylinders full of rags and used a large hone stone to clean up deck before head went on. Its a lot of work but must be done if your not have machine shop do block for you. Dont get the grit in the rings. That last shot is the killer dowel pin I found in bottom of pan, along with some crunchy gear pieces. No telling how long it ran that way. When I tore down I cut oil filter apart it was clean inside, well no chunks anyway.

 

[promisedland]

WOW! I will be following along! Nice!!

 

[hemijimmy]

I ended up using this Valspar two part Implement paint on the under side of Ramcharger body and frame. Pretty happy with it. I have a compressor and sprayer. I spent days cleaning everything with the pressure cleaner and Simple green before paint. Thats the 360 from Ramcharger. The frame you see holding truck body is some scrap heavy wall 1/4 inch box tube my machinist buddy had lying around. I carefully jacked up truck body off frame using wood cribbing and built the frame work in place under truck with my welder. I was a Nuc certified pipe welder also, word of caution attempting this. You need to be an experienced welder to attempt, use a heavy wall tubing. I used heavy duty scaffold wheels with the acme thread height adjustment you drive around with a hammer to lift and roll the body back out of the way. I still had to let the air out of the tires for that last couple inchs of clearance. I had a large enough concrete area to be able to do so and roll the body back on smooth concrete. I cleaned under truck cab while off and painted it with two coats also. I did this kind of work for a living in the power plant. Please use caution if attempting. Dangerous stuff. When I reinstalled body I just got it back in place on cribbing and cut the welds to remove the frame work. I let body back down by jacking carefully, slowly. Having a covered work area helped a lot also. This took several months to do on and off.

 

[hemijimmy]

Couple shots of engine assembled. As far as fitting Cummins in Ramcharger frame they are a good match. A few of these have been done over the years. I saw one online a few years ago and started looking into it. The 1st gen truck front end is the same as the Ramcharger. Frame and body, fire wall etc etc. I used the cross member for the trans from the 3/4 ton so it would line up correctly. I ended up moving it back one bolt hole length. I had to drill 4 holes, 2 top 2 bottom on each side of frame and it bolts right up. Same bolt pattern and size as half ton. Its just made to fit the Getrag 360 mounting plate so you need it from donor truck. I had to add about 2 inchs to the mounting plate where the elongated holes are in mount plate.Since Im at this point, having the donor truck complete and running is a must. Their are a lot of little things needed that without a donor truck would take for ever to gather up and cost a fortune buying one piece at a time. The front cross member is the same for the 360 gas motor and the Cummins on the first gen trucks. Same motor mounts and location on cross member. With the correct motor mount brackets that came with donor truck. Cummins fits perfectly in the Ramcharger. It dosent know any difference from firewall forward cause there is none. The power steering same on both trucks. Diesel pump bolts right up. You do need the core support and 93 grill from the diesel truck so the correct radiator and inter cooler will fit right. If you use a none intercooled cummins you can keep the old style grill if wanted. The 1985 chrome bumper bolted up no problem with the mounting brackets from donor truck. It moves the bumper forward to math diesel grill and core support with enough room to mount my winch behind mine. I read alot of back and forth about half ton springs and the Cummins. I would not use the stock flat half ton springs but the 5 inch lift springs I used from Super lift sit perfectly level with my truck and I have a winch on the front also. Your not trying to carry 3/4 ton weight rating that the truck could carry. On a 4x4 you want it to articulate well off road and I wanted it to ride good. It works great off road and rides really smooth. If anything its slightly high in the front. I do not use a sway bar front or rear. It lets the springs work much better without. Mine handles well on the highway also at 65 or 70. I did not want a highway truck. I have another diesel for that. Its all in new condition with new well balanced 35 goodyears. Had I kept stock ride height I would have had to put stock front 3/4 springs in Ramcharger for the weight of the Cummins. They bolt right up if thats the way your going. Ill do some more in a day or two. Its beer thirty.

 

[GCP]

Beautiful work so far, I'm subscribing to this thread with great excitement and anticipation. Keep up the good work!

GCP

 

[hemijimmy]

I was able to find all the information needed on the internet between google, diesel forums, YouTube to answer most questions I had about any part of this build. I also purcased PDF file Shop Manuel's. I used Rock Auto for parts and Amazon, Geno's Garage also. Geno's garage is a great source for the hard to find parts and accurate info. The machine shop that did my vlv job also turned my flywheel for me cheap $30 I think. Vlv job was around $250 no parts needed. I found an original style Clutch and pressure plate at Rock Auto. Some of the newer stuff use a smaller clutch disc. The rear and front main seals are a pain in the butt to do. You Tube helped after ruining one seal. Patients needed to get them right. In the end no leaks. You do not want to do in the truck trust me. I ran this motor a couple hours in frame before any body went on encase of leaks so I could fix if needed. I purchased a rebuild kit for the Vacuum pump. A new one is $$$$$. Mine works real good, no leaks. It also helps to carefully bag and tag parts and all bolts coming apart. makes going back organized and smooth. I spent a day or so just pre cleaning bolts for reassembly. That shot of block is after I honed prior to head install.

 

[hemijimmy]

I reused the fuel lines from the donor truck so It connected to the engine correctly with the oring quick connect fittings. I used the Ramcharger plastic tank which fits the frame right and holds 35 gallons. Back by the tank I ran rubber hose from the hard fuel line to the tank. You need fuel line approved for diesel fuel or it will not last long. You have to ask for diesel fuel line and dont let the parts guy mess you up. I ended up ordering from Amazon to get the right stuff. I made a custom pickup screen from stainless steel fine mesh screen material. I reused the stock fuel tank float level indicator and tank fitting. Been running 6 or 7 months with no problems. I did not build a high HP setup. I have no fuel starvation issues or priming problems. I have run truck up some steep inclines off road, up down side ways no fuel issues. Running 35's with AC running I average 14 or 15 around town and 18 or 19 on the highway. If I had to guess where my power level is Id say 200 HP or so. This engine stock I believe was 145 hp 400 ft lb. My Ramcharger will easily out run most traffic on the road with out excessive smoke. It only smokes with your foot buried in it. Before removing the injector pp I scribed a mark on the timing housing for a reference going back. I have not had the timing checked. I run an exhaust temp gauge and a boost gauge. My exhaust temps are well within a safe range. Idle 250 or so, on highway running 65 about 550 to 650 maybe 3 lb of boost. When accelerating hard it will run up to 800 or 900 but comes right back down when your foot come off throttle. At some point I may take it some place to have timing set correctly but with good power, fuel economy, and safe exhaust temps there is no rush. Anytime you change things like fuel settings and boost pressures timing etc you must run a exhaust temp gauge or chance melting pistons, just a word of caution. I used an adjustable boost orifice fitting. With stock turbo Im making about 21 to 22 lb of boost. That's plenty trust me. Had I built a high power setup I would have totally rebuilt engine first with all new parts. I wanted dependable low smoke setup. In the woods It will idle all day in 2nd or 3rd gear without foot on gas and it will not stall out. Plenty of torque. With the 1/2 ton axles Im careful not to snatch it around to much. Some say 1/2 ton axles wont stand up to the Cummins torque. So far thats not the case for me. If I was 18 yrs old maybe not. I wanted to be able to drive the truck while I finished the 3/4 ton axles. I did put locking hubs on the dana 44 and did away with the vacuum actuator system. You can buy a mechanical fix to the vacuum system that locks axle disconnect in permanently. Thats what I did. Ramchargers always were hit or miss locking up with the old vacuum lock up. All that stuff is in trash. So far so good. This winter I plan to go through the 3/4 ton axles. They are the better choice for sure. The shot of the cross member brace for transmission is to show you need the ones from donor truck because the cross member sits lower for the diesel. Make sure you keep those from donor.

 

[hemijimmy]

When I bought the Ramcharger at first I put a nice top end on the 360. Hooker headers big cam. Stupid. Cam so big it did not like to idle in the woods. Sounds good though. New exhaust with Flow master 44 mufflers turn out behind rear wheels. I kept that system and adapted the diesel 4 inch exhaust to it. Worked out well. I used flex joints where I tied the two together. No rattles or squeaks. I boxed in the drive shaft with some angle iron. That took all the twist out of the tail pipes. I went over the cross member with the 4 inch and heat wrapped it. The 4 inch under turbo has a joint with big band clamp to allow removal if needed without cutting. This period is when I was running to get all the problems worked out prior to body install. Im to damn old to lay up under trucks very much any more. I plan to keep this truck so I wanted it done right, with body off. Glad I went this way. In Florida we have plenty of salt air, lots of water and mud. I was not building a show truck just one that would not be a rust bucket in 5 yrs. Thats why I painted everything underneath. Its a pleasure to work on this clean but it took a lot of work to get it that way. At some point I will have a good paint job done on the rest of truck. I used a new 4 core aluminum Radiator. At idle in woods 160* on highway about 180* with AC on in summer heat. I put on jack stands so I could run through all gears and check out my trans and transfer case prior to body install. The shock placement is the same between both trucks, 1/2 ton or 3/4 ton axles same setup. Easy swap. The front drive shaft for the dana 44 bolts right up to the 205 TC same flange size. I had a local shop build and balance the rear shaft with the proper yoke size and length. No vibration. When I swap axles Ill have to have it changed again. I used the stock inter-cooler cleaned and painted. I kept all the wiring from donor truck and used the engine harness and transmission transfer case wiring to run and splice under hood where needed. This truck uses a timing advance that triggers off temp sensor. Does not need computer. The engine only needs 2 wires. Fuel solenoid and starter solenoid. The stock speedo cable plugged right into transfer case without the electronic computer adapter installed for the 1993. Accurate and my stock cruise control works just fine.

 

[hemijimmy]

Here is a couple shots under truck after clean and paint. I paid I think with hardner about 70 bucks a gallon for the Valspar tractor paint. Stuff is tuff hard finish. I used just over a gallon on everything. Have plenty left for touch up.

 

[EDankievitch]

​Wow, very nice job.

 

[hemijimmy]

Here is some random shots under finished truck. After frame complete and everything was ran and tested I rolled body back over frame and slowly lowered back down on cribbing sitting on frame. I carefully ground welds off my temp lift rack and removed from under truck. Then jacked up removed cribbing little by little till I had body back on the frame body mounts. Assembled front clip and hood. Went for a test drive. I fought to get the AC refurbished for another month after driving. What I could not get was replacement hoses. I ended up having a AC shop custom make me new hoses. Mine were leaking pretty bad. Could not keep it charged. It has been great since done. Made through summer ok anyway. At the end of build I was trying to save money buy not replacing like belt tentioner. Couple months ago it failed and left me stranded. Ive had a few little things like that but I think Im beyond the reliability issues now. I need some new carpet and a paint job and Im pretty much set now. Oh the last gremlin is starter solenoid. They were an issue on 1 st gen and mine needs replacing. I will order from Geno's, they have a heavy duty one to correct issue. The other cheapo goof was the Clutch slave cylinder. I was having shifting issues, turns out slave cylinder was wore out. Replaced and problem was gone. Rock auto sells the complete new setup already primed and vented just put in and go. No bleeding to do. Full of fluid. I had an automatic. The clutch pedal arrangement bolts right in from donor truck. Drilling holes needed without dash out was a trick. You do need to cut hole in firewall allow installation. I had to move my wiring harness plug over a little to clear clutch slave cylinder. I kept my old steering column and wiring inside my truck. I spliced everything under hood that need splicing to my 1985 wiring harness under hood. It was in much better condition than the donor truck wiring. You do not need the fuel heater between fuel filter and head. geno's sells an adapter stud to screw filter right to head, toss the fuel heater unless way up north in winter. Alternator with external voltage regulator is needed cause without computer you have to wire that way. 1993 regulator was in computer module. AC compressor, Starter circuit, Fuel solenoid circuit, gauges stuff like that. Another consideration is Florida has no inspection to worry about. Many states do and you cant get away with many things we can like emission standards. These kids going around smoking people out dont help the cause at all. Another few years this kind of build will be impossible I think.

 

[hemijimmy]

Thanks, its been fun. Most of it.

 

[hemijimmy]

Winch install behind front chrome bumper. Control box under hood next to battery.

 

[hemijimmy]

Here are some inside pics. My truck had the storage cubby where info center would be in dash. I managed to mount my Exh temp gauge, Boost, and Tach side by side there instead, Down below where the OD switch would be I mounted a Water temp and Oil pressure gauge. I used the crank sensor no longer need for computer to send signal to tach. Their is several good video's on youtube explaining how to wire this up correctly. It takes a small resister soldered across two legs of the sensor. Works like a champ.

 

[JR]

Man that looks great. Good job and thanks for taking the time to post all the pictures.

 

[hemijimmy]

Thanks JR, Im hoping the new Ramcharger will be sold with the ECO diesel. I would have to park one in the driveway. Second thought maybe not, It will cost a small fortune.