R2.8 Crate Motor

[Timd32]

I've searched this before and is still on my maybe list for my 2WD Willy's build. It came back up in my news feed.

https://www.fourwheeler.com/ultimate-adventure/2020/cummins-r2-8-on-ultimate-adventure-2020/

There are some folks who have some miles on them.

The short block is China from what I read and final assembly and QC is in USA.

Not that any of ours are USA, that really does not bother me.

Found this one says 10k miles on it. I'm not anywhere close to a $42k budget, sounds like they paid for the build which is completely fine with me if you have it to spend and you just enjoy the ride. Aside from that was worried about the reliability but sounds like they are working out OK.

https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/cummins-r2-8-repower-complete-10-000-miles-on-it.1216625/

Anyone with first hand knowledge on these welcome any input.

Finally got my ball mount cut off that was stuck to my truck, worn 3" air cut off tool worked out great for that, if it cools off a tad will get my trailer finally configured to my truck and maybe work on dragging the Willys home in the next few weeks.

There are alot of 4BT swaps already, stilll loooking for something different, and maybe match it up with one of those fancy 5 or 6 speeds folks were looking at last year, have to dig out those threads.

 

[Ozymandias]

Be careful with Gasoline to Diesel conversion, I've seen many problems afterwards with the rest of the drivetrain that couldn't stand the beating of the Diesel. I dont speak about torque or horsepower, it's the torque spikes that every single combustion sends into the gearbox and the differential that destroys gears and bearings that are not built for this.

It's not a problem immediately, more in the long run.

 

[Timd32]

Yeah its a complete powertrain swap. There is nothing there now.

I have a Ford 9" rear in there, but its not correct and has to go. It was built pretty well with better bearings and some other stuff, but its not going to work.

It was a Ford 289 and had a C6 with a Dana 30, thats been gone for a long time.

 

[Ozymandias]

Sounds good, please keep us updated.
The 2.8 is a fine sized engine for the Willys.
Enough power but still light enough for the chassis.
Good choice in my eyes.

 

[Wayne M.]

Tim, do you know about-

https://quickdrawbrand.com/ ?

Herein is a treasure trove of ideas. These guys are great! I follow them on Instagram and they always have me panting! They’ll adapt any engine to any transmission. I know Ozy is kinda right, but my personal prescription (without knowing your intentions) for the Willys would be a GM 700R4 OD auto or NV35-4500 5 speed and a Ford 9” out back, and a Mustang II street rod type front suspension.

 

[Timd32]

Tim, do you know about-

https://quickdrawbrand.com/ ?

Herein is a treasure trove of ideas. These guys are great! I follow them on Instagram and they always have me panting! They’ll adapt any engine to any transmission. I know Ozy is kinda right, but my personal prescription (without knowing your intentions) for the Willys would be a GM 700R4 OD auto or NV35-4500 5 speed and a Ford 9” out back, and a Mustang II street rod type front suspension.

No I have not seen them. Looks cool for sure.
Will check them out and see what they have going.

Since the truck has already been modified many times it's not going back stock too much work there, something I can cruise to work but if needed for service calls not afraid to go on a decent drive.

I figured with 2020 issues in general Cummims would just stop doing these and the program goes away due to lack of market demand and who knows they still might go away, so thats a concern of mine if they drop the program what kind of support will you have a few years out.

 

[JR]

I'm mostly sure my 67 will end up with a diesel swap one day. That 2.8 is way outside of my budget even though I'd be doing the work. She'll probably end up with either a 4b or more likely a ALH series engine out of a TDI. I've seen one of those swaps before into an early 80's Toyota pickup. It worked well. There's a pretty good market for the ALH engines too as far as stand alone components, ECM upgrades, performance turbos, injectors, performance hard parts, etc. New enough to employ an ecm but still very simple motors that utilizes a cheap and reliable mechanical injection system.

 

[Tuesdak]

@Timd32 The current trade war with China is a big concern. It's either going to be "more expensive" like it is now to get stuff, production moved to another country and "knock off cloned" by China, or dropped.

This engine is all out full emissions. Are you going to run it enough? Further the expensive emissions parts may be it's downfall for future parts.

If it does get dropped and you experience a no parts available failure you can drop in a 4BT.

How many miles you planning on running this per year? (At some point with low miles driven even a low mile design life engine can survive.)

 

[Wayne M.]

I would surely explore other engines. The right TDI combo might be good, or even another industrial engine tuned for a little spunk. QuickDraw can hook any trans to a SAE bell.

 

[Timd32]

Yep I'm all in on alot of those points, I was surprised to see the post that they were still plugging away with these, figured 2020 put this program out to pasture. It's a great concept from a small turn key diesel.

I looked into the Quickdraw and they have the capability for exactly what I would need mounting wise if I go small diesel they will be involved for sure. It comes down to a time thing for sure and they have a bunch of good solid builds.

The Cons of the EPA Diesel:
It would not be run in the Winter, I currently have about 30k mi on my 2018 2500 Gasser so I'm like 15k miles per year. But thats year round. So I would think I could do 4k on this as long as I built it right and it's driveable. I have a 20mi commute each way and at no point is the speed limit 50mph, we do run a little over 50mph, and I can run Rt 80 for 13 miles if I wanted to go another route.

I see some folks here that don't run the 6.7 enough each year and run into issues.

What's there now:
It never had a pick up bed its was a flat wooden bed.

302 and an AOD fit in exactly where the 289 and C6 was, I have one all sitting there now, if I run an old school ford it's like as much plug and play as you can get.

Anyone want to get rid of a 289 and C6 I'm all in. About 4 bolts and back in business.

What could it be:
This might become a shop truck of sorts. I actually might need to lose my lift gate on my 2500, I have all sorts of trailers now and it might not work with the big trailer, if that happens I was looking at maybe throwing the gate on a flat bed of sorts and make like a stake body out of this thing. It had a 10 leaf in the back and a Dana 30 when I got it. It does not need to haul more than 500lbs, the frame is 3/16" steel and was rated 2000lbs back in the day, with improved braking I think 1100 would be a safe bet with the bed, gate, and load all in nowadays. Again its all local roads Im not looking to do crazy stuff with this but if ot has a purpose it would get used more for sure.

Gate weigh is 503lbs per the book.

The first Tommy Gate was installed in 1965 so its not a stretch to put one on an old truck, and it would give it purpose.

Winch was ordered today for the tilt trailer. So still collecting parts to get the show on the road.

 

[JR]

What winch did you end up with Tim?

 

[Timd32]

What winch did you end up with Tim?

After much hem and haw and too much research we pulled the trigger on a Warn Zeon, went with that one was spending too much time trying to figure them all out and it was in stock from a place near by.

It's overkill for just the trailer. Luckily we have some use for it at the shop.

We have a few pieces of equipment at work we are going to use it for, and we got the New Holland LS220 stuck pretty well twice down on the one part of the inlaws property and we think the bigger unit will be good to have if we can figure out some sort of universal mount.

Its heavy showing around 70lbs. So might be some sort of pipe dream that we can use this on a few different pieces of equipment will see.

It looks pretty slick marketing wise, just need to figure out the final mounting, for now it should bolt up, but I will figure out some sort of disconnect plate. The tilt bed portion has a winch plate so should be pretty easy to bolt up for right now.

So now will need to build up a battery set up for the storage box.

 

[Wayne M.]

On the Willys, what will you do for a brake system?

 

[Timd32]

Probably a 8" dual power MC that would go in the normal underhood drivers side spot. They make some neat 7" ones that go under dash.

But I need see if I'm trashing the front end if keeping they make a really simple electric power steering kit that is in line with the existing column and mounts under dash. Then might be too crowded for underdash MC.

The existing MC is under the cab is a single manual MC, there is a frame mount power. They have frame mount power dual as well.

I never realized how specific the valving can be for disc and drum it all makes sense but glad I did nothing on the brakes 25yr ago when I got this thing would have screwed it up. Not that I still won't.

The existing front end is a very common straight axle, if I stick with that they make a ton of stuff for those to convert to disc.

I already have a 9" rear so they have a ton of kits for those.

Place like speedway motors has a lot of kits and good information, unsure on the overall products they sell but easy to grab some screen shots of what's out there.

Option 1 upgrade whats there.
If you look at the "gasser" kit that drop straight axle is closer what I have.

Option 2 MS II front end. Disc on the rear.

 

[JR]

Those are nice winches!

IMO the best thing to do is set it up on a plate with a 2" receiver. That way you can mount it to any hitch. I bought a couple of cheap 2-1/2 x 2" adapters and welded them to my 3 point hitches, tractor buckets, etc. Also welded one to the headache rack of my tilt deck. No fussing with bolts every time you want to mount it or remove it. Just pull the hitch pin and go.
A buddy bought his winch the same time I did but he bolted his to his trailer. "It only takes a minute to take out 4 bolts". He's had to replace his due to leaving it set out in the elements so long. Meanwhile mine still looks like new aside from the cable because it lives in the garage every night.

If you are going to be doing some relatively heavy pulling you may want to pick up a snatch block. Most winches rated capacity is on the first or 2nd wrap, with each successive wrap capacity falls off quickly. Plus you generally are not hooked to a battery that is able to maintain a rapid charge- IE your trailer battery - and the added load really depletes the battery in short order. Running two parts on the winch halves the strain on everything. Sometimes I'll bring my jump box to throw on the battery if I'm doing multiple pulls.

 

[Wayne M.]

Speedway is excellent, and one of your best friends in a build like this!

 

[Timd32]

Great info on the winch yeah anything that can reduce the stress on stuff when pulling.

I have some larger trees to drag out nothing like that stuff you had on your trailer, we have on 35" ash that is down and pinned against some others they are all going down hill so gravity should help a bit just to get them down to a flatter part to be able to process, and they would be smaller pieces.

On the Speedway I was very surprised to run across them looks like a great site, glad to heat they are a good vendor. I would just have to work with one of their inside folks to talk it all over before just guessing on parts.

I have a friend who now works part time at my shop who is good at piecing together these kind of builds, he has a custom '54 F1, and is helping finish up a '51 F100 that is more stock, not the same but it all is pretty close. Might have those Ford numbers backwards but same difference....

 

[Jdorfmeyer]

Speedway is here in Lincoln, NE and they are a good company and do a lot for builders across the country. Good vendor for sure!

 

[TFucili]

My neighbor is originally from the area, knows the "speedy" family, and is one of, if not their longest standing customer.

 

[Timd32]

Yeah been checking out their YouTube collection, I don't see why I could not rebuild what I have, it appears they pretty much have all sorts of stuff exactly what I already have.

They could make it pretty easy with out doing all the MSII kit.