pacificdrumma
Well-Known Member
Well fellas, it looks like some things are finally starting to take shape on my build. I have nixed a couple previous ideas and have set off in a new direction. The plan is to do a complete drivetrain swap, engine, trans, and transfer case. Drastic? Maybe. My replacement engine (with supposedly ~72k on it) has a significant amount of blowby, uses oil, and I think uses coolant too. Its a shame because the thing purrs like a kitten, but I am concerned about the internal condition of it. As far as the trans goes, its the original 4L80E with 172k that shifts pretty damn smooth, but every so often it will be slow to kick into gear when shifting into drive from park or reverse. The engine that will be going in is a '93/DB2, and it will be mated to an NV4500 with a manual shifting T-case in place of my shift-on-the-go that I have now. I would eventually like to SAS the truck too, but this thread will be about the engine and trans.
This was all a pipe dream until I was cruising Craigslist at 11:45pm last week (I always seem to get in trouble on there late at night) and just for kicks and giggles, I typed in "NV4500". Sure enough, the first hit was a guy with a K2500 extended cab long bed 4x4 with a 5.7 that had an NV4500 and was parting out the truck. Made a deal for the trans, tcase, pedals, hydraulics, driveshafts, and pressure plate, and I am going to pick it up this weekend.
As far as the engine goes, a friend of a friend of a friend has a '93 engine/4L80E combo that came out of a fleet-maintained vehicle with about 100k on it and is dirt cheap. I plan to pick that up and sell the trans. For doing the work to the engine, I will be fortunate enough to have the assistance of a good friend of mine, who is a UTI-certified, and Cummins-certified mechanic (he also has a sweet green 1st gen dodge if you watch my videos) so I will definitely have some brains helping me along the way.
My goal is 300-350 usable horsepower, relatively clean-burning, and something that will not kill the engine.
Planned mods include: custom build DB2 spec'd to 100-120cc and matched 2300psi injectors, head studs, scat crank, crank girdle (pretty much as much block strengthening as I can do) Heath cam, WMI or intercooler, and an HX40 or similar sized turbo, and a nice South Bend clutch.
The timeline is going to be this winter into spring of 2015. I wont have the engine for awhile as the NV4500 is draining my bank account, but once I get it, we are tearing it down for inspection to make sure its worth putting the time and money into.
Im sure I will have many questions along the way, and maybe we can all learn a thing or too if we are lucky. I know the one thing I am most interested to see is if gauges, speedo, etc will work taking an OBD2 truck and going 100% mechanical with it.
This was all a pipe dream until I was cruising Craigslist at 11:45pm last week (I always seem to get in trouble on there late at night) and just for kicks and giggles, I typed in "NV4500". Sure enough, the first hit was a guy with a K2500 extended cab long bed 4x4 with a 5.7 that had an NV4500 and was parting out the truck. Made a deal for the trans, tcase, pedals, hydraulics, driveshafts, and pressure plate, and I am going to pick it up this weekend.
As far as the engine goes, a friend of a friend of a friend has a '93 engine/4L80E combo that came out of a fleet-maintained vehicle with about 100k on it and is dirt cheap. I plan to pick that up and sell the trans. For doing the work to the engine, I will be fortunate enough to have the assistance of a good friend of mine, who is a UTI-certified, and Cummins-certified mechanic (he also has a sweet green 1st gen dodge if you watch my videos) so I will definitely have some brains helping me along the way.
My goal is 300-350 usable horsepower, relatively clean-burning, and something that will not kill the engine.
Planned mods include: custom build DB2 spec'd to 100-120cc and matched 2300psi injectors, head studs, scat crank, crank girdle (pretty much as much block strengthening as I can do) Heath cam, WMI or intercooler, and an HX40 or similar sized turbo, and a nice South Bend clutch.
The timeline is going to be this winter into spring of 2015. I wont have the engine for awhile as the NV4500 is draining my bank account, but once I get it, we are tearing it down for inspection to make sure its worth putting the time and money into.
Im sure I will have many questions along the way, and maybe we can all learn a thing or too if we are lucky. I know the one thing I am most interested to see is if gauges, speedo, etc will work taking an OBD2 truck and going 100% mechanical with it.