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W350 Crew Cab - The ultimate first gen - Pics and history

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First Gen Fuel heater

  • Motorhead
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R

911 guys spacer on end of crankshaft cant get rear main seal off?

  • Ryan Menke
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DVolk said:
I think on the Ramchargers They use all the same size of fuel pickups so id say just swap in the correct fuel pick /sending unit etc
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Pictures are worth 1000 words so see below.



Harlacher said:
I cannot wait to see the completed truck. I envy you so much, sitting in the drivers seat of that beast knowing that every nut and bolt on it have been turned/tuned/torqued/drilled or modified by you. The smile should go from ear to ear.
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Yes, I do look forward to that feeling. Sadly, it has been 5 years and no driving! ;)



I do look forward to that though. Knowing if it fails, it is youe fault! :-laf:D



snuff said:
nice restro job, what kind of over/under drive do you have?
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Gear Vendors.
 
And to bring this thread back on track... .



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Ramcharger fuel tank. 1000 words. It fits in there no problem.



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I made straps to hold the tank up. That is a factory crossmember that is in all of these trucks. It is the crossmember that holds up the spare tire. Remove the spare tire stuff, and away you go!



The heavy 4 gauge lines are wired direct to the batter so I can operate a winch or any high power device from the back of the truck.





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This is the crossmember amd fuel pump. As a tank valve does not work well whrn you have a FASS system (the FASS unit recirculates the fuel and the lines would have to be huge!!) I have it set up with a facotry Ramcharger fuel pump that will pump fuel to the front tank. To be able to do this though, you will need to run two fuel tank gauges so you can see live info. You dont want to verflow the front tank.



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Front tank, 5 gal air tank, and FASS in the bottom corner.



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All the underbody wiring sitting on top of the Amsoil bypass filter setup.



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Size comparison... . makes the W250 still look small even with no body on it!



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FASS system:



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The good stuff!!!







This is test fitting the cab on the frame with the NV5600 in it so I could see how much clearance I had between the bellhousing and cab strength rib. I did have to do some grinding in the end. Take note old exhaust manifold.



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No manifold:



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New ATS manifold!



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Take note of a silencer ring that happened to fall out... .



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Parts soda blasted to bare metal ready to go to the paint shop.



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DVolk said:
So what had to be done to the fire wall for the gen 2 manifold to fit ?



Did you have the cab roof cut off ?
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You have 100% lost me on both question.



If the manifold you are referring to is the exhaust manifold, it is the same as a gen 1 manifold.



Ahhhh, the roof. Why am I cutting the roof??? :confused:
 
A few more shots I found from before the soda blasting. This is the underside of the cab:



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Lower C pillar and rocker area. The holes are from the running boards that were on the truck. Everytime an earlier owner went offroading and ripped the boards off he would screw em back on! LOL



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OK. Back in order here..... So everything was soda blasted and took it strait to the painter. After 1 FULL YEAR of them "fixing and painting" I got the call to come and get the stuff. Was one frickin long year.



We decided for safety of the freshly painted parts, we would bolt it right on. So up went the frame assy:



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The extra fuel tank door was added at the shop. As the fuel filler neck for the ramcharger tank falls about there, I went to a yard and cut out the inner and outer fuel door sections of another first gen then had them welded in. If you look on oyur first gen, you can still see the indent stripe break behind the wheel well from where it was once offered as a duel tank model in the 70's.



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That is also all new bed floor as the onld one was beyond repair.
 
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A few doors are still missing as the paint colors did not match, so I left them there and took the body.



Next stop, MBRP performance exhaust for the exhaust mockup and measuring. After a few days there, I picked it up and home it came!



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Stack holes are in!



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Great write up Robert, ad a LOT of work. I admire your skills and determination. Makes me sad I didn't continue with my crew project. The amount of time and money my 03 project took was enough strain on the wallet and family so in reality the 84 crew would have been too much. It still took me over 8 months of all my spare time before I got it on the road. I still have details to finish in the spring.



What year Ramcharger tank did you use? On my buddies 93 W350 we put in a pre EFI Ram fuel tank and and then used a separate electric fuel pump hooked to a simple toggle switch to pump fuel into the stock tank. He has to be careful not to over fill the "smaller" stock tank. This leaves him a "reserve" in the rear tank. He has a service body on the truck so adding an extra fuel door was different than a pick up box. Would an EFI tank with the built in fuel pump work with diesel? On my 84 Crew Cab I put in a second fuel door for just this purpose. I did the same thing on my 82 Club Cab. 1983 was the last year of the "bulge" on the inside of the box for the fuel piping. I would like to do this to my 03 also.



On the subject of clutches, on the same 93 W350, we installed a South Bend Clutch CON OFE and use their HD HYD kit from a 97 but switched the reservoir to the 93 style because of the angle of the cowl. It has a G56 from an 08, as does my 03. The 4X4 shifter was a tight fit against the right hand side of the hole. Here you can see how the reservoir mounts to the cowl of the 93, and just below it the SBC cyl. The 97 doesn't mount on an angle. You can't mount it up higher or the hood would bust it off when you closed it.



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On the subject of the differences between the holes in the cowl that is why I was going to use a complete 93 cowl welded to the crew body. The wiper holes don't line up as well IFRC. I still like 1st gens, especially Crew Cabs as there as way too many 3rd gen 4 doors. Shadrach
 
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Next item on the list was the motor. I was planning on leaving it stock, but decided to do a few things like 3000 gsk, injectros, and #10 plate.



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Good time to check the hone. Looks good. Motor from salvadge yard is a 1997 but only had 10K miles on it!



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Heads off! Cometic head gasket on!



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GSK



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#10 plate



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Head is back on, so is booster. Note rags, no valve covers.



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Where are the valve covers? I had to mill them for more clearance and then send them for powder coating! They have to be missed to remove the strength ribbing so the ARP head studs would clear and the covers would sit flat.



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Hole is now welded shut by paint shop, time to fine tune hole for 2004 shifter boot.



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Thanks you air grinder, sander, and dremmel! It now fits!



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Next, starting on interior items!



Heater box - full rebuild!





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Doors all got filled with tar/rattle trap to kill the echo. Here is the start:



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Window seals were all toast. They had a hey day at Dodge!



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Wow! Already installed! That took like two seconds! ;)



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An exterior shot. Got all the doors back. Finally taking shape! Oo.



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Would appear someone in OH wrecked their Charger SRT-8. I reaped the benefits!



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While calculating power, I decided to see if I couldnt get power, efficiency, and not much smoke. That would need compound turbos.



Then somehow this showed up! HTY3B 28 cm housing! I also see a Horton fan clutch in the background!



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The factory HX35 now as the small spinny thingy.



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Intake for the HTB3 and the amsoil bypass filter lines.



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Now, we have lots more air. But how to cool it. 1st gen cooler wont do it. But how does one fit a bigger intercooler from a 2002 in? Like this! PDR Bar and plate intercooler for 2002!



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First, cut the core support for the wider intercooler on both sides:



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Note reinforcing channel is cut.





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Now the inlet and outlet fit.



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Also, relacate the intercooler mounts further out and weld them on!



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If you use a 2nd gen intercooler, may as well use a 2002 rad as well! You will need to grind out the ribbing that runs from the top of the core support to the bottom.



Those ribs will be an issue. They need to go or the fan will rub the rad:



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You will see the silverish line from the grinding. Take as much of it out as you can!



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Dash mod time!!



Those factory gauges are gone!



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These will go in!



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Test fitting...



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As I am running all Autometer gauges, I will not need the factory stuff. I will run a 5" tach, and a 5" speedo. This leaves a void in the third spot. I still will need signals, highbeam, etc. as well as fuel level for both tanks. As I am pumping from one to the other, I will need both live. A call to a good buddy who is a CNC programmer resulted in this in the same style as the autometer faces! This started off as a block of aluminum in the lathe:



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Back Issues
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Buyer's Guides
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What Makes Us Tick?
Product Showcase
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