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Long, slow build of my truck

It's pricier but since you're going through ORD for some parts I would have them make you a set of front springs. The improvement in ride quality is worth the cost. They'll flex really well also, not sure if you're worried about that.

I have 4:56s with a 700r4 and 35s. It's about perfect. Plus for a movable brick she still gets high teens for mileage on the highway.
 
KrisML said:
It's pricier but since you're going through ORD for some parts I would have them make you a set of front springs. The improvement in ride quality is worth the cost. They'll flex really well also, not sure if you're worried about that.

I have 4:56s with a 700r4 and 35s. It's about perfect. Plus for a movable brick she still gets high teens for mileage on the highway.
Click to expand...

The ride sucks with the torsion bars up. I'll price springs from ORD but I think I'll wind up with Sky Jacker.

Picking up a wrecked LBZ tomorrow to tear the engine and trans out of. 3.73's and 35's would be no match for 360hp and 650ftlbs.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
pacificdrumma said:
The ride sucks with the torsion bars up. I'll price springs from ORD but I think I'll wind up with Sky Jacker.

Picking up a wrecked LBZ tomorrow to tear the engine and trans out of. 3.73's and 35's would be no match for 360hp and 650ftlbs.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Its worth looking into.

Well now, that's a whole different, but awesome, direction to go in. So your dumping the 6.5 then?
 
KrisML said:
Its worth looking into.

Well now, that's a whole different, but awesome, direction to go in. So your dumping the 6.5 then?
Click to expand...

I think the phrase I would use is "putting on hold" the 6.5. I don't want to have two daily driver trucks, because I know I wouldn't drive them equally. And I love my green truck too much (it's my first vehicle, owned it for 6 years) to not have it be my daily driver truck. So that means the green truck gets to be the one that gets built into the ultimate GMT400. This means 1 ton axles, the newer drive train, traction bars, etc.

However, that will leave me with a decent running 6.5 that needs a home. I got the racing bug when we went to Nats last summer. What I want to do is find a 3/4 ton 2wd truck and make a rcsb 6.5 "race truck" where it does not need to be a practical daily. Floor-mounted ratchet shifter, hood stack, fuel cell in the bed, 2wd, etc. I love the 6.5 scene too much to leave, and a lightweight truck would give me the best shot at a competitive 6.5 powered truck. So in a perfect world, the LBZ/ZF6 truck will tow the short bed 6.5 truck to races.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Sounds like a good plan. Should be pretty cool when its done.

I'm not sure if you've heard but sadly Raceway Park has closed the track. It's going to become a storage yard for either lkq or copart. I forget which.
 
KrisML said:
Sounds like a good plan. Should be pretty cool when its done.

I'm not sure if you've heard but sadly Raceway Park has closed the track. It's going to become a storage yard for either lkq or copart. I forget which.
Click to expand...

Yes I did hear that. Very sad. I'm glad I got to race there this year. I understand that they will continue to hold events there, just with no racing. Copart is the reason.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Well, let's up this thread, shall we?

A lot has changed on the truck in the last year or so since I posted here.

I will recap as best as I can. Be warned, there are not a lot of pictures of the work itself. I think the pictures will be their own post, this one is already too long.

The solid axle swap went fairly easily. It took about 3 weeks of hit-and-miss productivity to get it done. I spent a little more time waiting for parts than I would have liked, but that's how these things go. I'd like to start by publicly thanking Brent (owner) of Valley Truck and Off-Road in Ellington, CT. I dealt almost exclusively with Brent on the whole SAS project, including the purchase of the axle, (almost) all parts, the wheels and tires, etc. as well as being fortunate enough to use shop space to do the conversion. Initially I was looking for a 90's OBS Ford axle with ball joints. This was the plan due to the sky-high value of king pin axles and the relative surplus of ball joint axles near me. However, I struck gold when Brent had an '86 F350 dually axle in stock, 4.10 gears. So we tore that axle down and sent it over to Pete Hany at CT Axle & Spindle (also in Ellington, CT) for a rebuild and re-gear. With the Duramax on the long-term schedule, I wanted to keep the truck 3.73. With the 0.72 6th gear in the ZF, the 3.73's, and 35's I will have a nice cruising speed; somewhere in the area of 1800rpm/75mph in 6th. If there is a scenario where the truck is towing heavy, I can drop into 5th and be 2200rpm/65mph or thereabouts. I knew that the 6.5 was not going to enjoy the big rubber and tall gears, but I figured it couldn't be that bad.

While Pete was working on the axle, we set to work getting the ORD kit in. If there are any ORD guys on here: your kit is excellent! We had barely any issues fitting up the brackets. I will say that if you want to SAS without going too high, the ORD kit is the way to go. I went with 2.5" Sky Jacker lift springs for a square body, with an add-a-leaf as well. The springs sit about dead level. My option was to use the Sky Off-Road kit which nets 5" of lift in the brackets alone. In order to achieve the height I wanted, I would have needed to run stock springs with a wicked negative arch. I know form follows function, but negative spring arch isn't for me. As you'll see in the pictures, the 3" lift from the ORD kit with the 2.5" lift springs got me to a good height. The truck fits the 35's quite well, and is still a manageable height for doing "truck stuff". By the way, there is a 5.5" block in the rear, traction bars to come.

While the grille was off, I had to look at an eyesore I wouldn't see normally: a crusty power steering cooler. I had already planned on a new steering box at this point; I felt like my stock 223k mile unit deserved a retirement and I didn't want to subject it to 12.50" wide rubber. So we decided to enact the dangerous phrase "since we're in here we may as well..." and we rebuilt the entire power steering system. I decided to go with Red Head steering gear, to the tune of about $350. I know there are mixed reviews on Red Head, but let's face it - there are mixed reviews on everything that has ever existed. Brent is a dealer for Red Head and I can go to him with any issues I may have. So we did the Red Head box, new stock P/S cooler, new cooler hoses with push-lok fittings, new power steering pump, and new lines/hoses going to and from the box and pump. The truck handles the 35's with little difficulty.

Once I got the axle back from Pete, we hung the springs, bolted in the axle, and installed new Warn locking hubs. From there, it was mostly basic reassembly. Needless to say, I was quite happy to see the truck come off the lift and hold its own weight. We went with crossover steering, using a custom upper king pin cap that Brent had in stock. All Moog joints, and a custom drag link made from DOM by a local machinist.

I was very happy to drive the truck and get used to the new height and road behavior. So happy in fact that I drove the truck for about a month with no shocks. All spring, all the time haha. It actually rode pretty well, though it was definitely bouncy. On good pavement it rode as well as it did when it was stock IFS with the keys cranked. I drove the truck quite a bit like this, until one when I looked at the truck and noticed that the bed seemed to be crooked. A quick inspection revealed a broken passenger side rear spring hanger. Great. Let's rebuild the rear suspension, why not?

With the help of some good friends, I pulled the bed and set about grinding the frame for new mounts and paint. For anyone that has done this, you understand how miserable a job it is. For anyone that hasn't: be glad. This part of the build isn't that exciting or interesting, so I will be brief. All new spring hangers, all new shock mounts, Chassis Saver paint on the frame. Made new cross members, put the bed back on, and shipped it. While the bed was off, I decided I'd replace my rotted-through passenger cab corner. Why not, right? So over the course of 2 weeks, working only a couple hours at a time, I got it done. I'm pretty pleased with myself on it actually, as I had never done body work before. So cab corner, new rear suspension (stock, original springs reused) painted rear frame and under cab. Done. 3 months gone. Didn't get to drive the truck at all from late May to mid August.

So at this point, we have a lifted truck, new cab corner, rear shocks (no fronts) and everything is right in the world. I drove the doors off the thing at that point, and was really enjoying the truck.

Part 1 complete.
 
Before starting this section of the update, I'd like to mention that the wheels and tires are Nitto Ridge Grapplers in a 35x12.50-18 around Pro Comp 1069 alloy 18x9 wheels. Okay, continue.

The next couple things that happened with the truck were aesthetic and cosmetic. My current plan (as it has been for about 3 years now) is to transform the truck from a "kid" truck into an "adult" truck. Basically, a clean and simple truck on the exterior with tasteful modifications.

Before getting to the exterior stuff, I'll mention that I did add an Edge CTS2 monitor. Not a necessity by any means, but they were on sale, can you blame me? I figure being able to monitor IAT would be cool, as well as have a code reader on board at all times. Once the Duramax starts to take shape, the CTS2 will be a very welcome item to have.

Eventually I would like to body swap the whole truck and paint it. However, that is not in the budget so I can either leave it alone or swap panels as they become available. I'm not interested in have a multicolored truck (no disrespect to the guys that do) so I had to play the waiting game for a lot of my panels. One that was high up on the list to be replaced was the bed. Finding a clean, straight, 8' green bed with flares is a tall order, especially in New England. However, I found one! It was listed for $300 with a gate and drop-in Duraliner. Only about an hour away. I messaged the guy and set up a time to go look at it. When I arrived, it was still on the truck: a regular cab, 8 lug gasser in surprisingly good condition. The truck was missing doors to my chagrin, I need a set of doors for the truck as well, and the interior was gutted. But the bed was nice. .... The rear bumper was also nice, nicer than mine. How much for the bumper? Guy said $50. Then I looked at the fenders, they were nice... nicer than mine. How much for the fenders? Guy said $500 takes the whole truck. Good deal, but I didn't want another parts truck. I had already bought and sold 2 this year. So, I offered $400 for the whole truck and took it home. $400 bought me a bed, gate, rear bumper, and good fenders. I was able to give the rest to Brent who salvaged a couple drivetrain components off it before sending the rest to scrap.

The bed is an 8/10. Very clean, good crossmembers underneath, a dent in the passenger side that should pop easily, and IMMACULATE under the liner. I think the liner has been in it since day 1, and it shows. Eventually, I will have the "4x4" painted blue to match the pinstriping on the other parts of the truck, like my old bed was. Got the bed swapped on and moved onto the next part of the facelift.

Ever since riding down to Numidia, PA to go racing last summer with a friend, I have wanted to add a Tonneau cover to my truck. I never realized how much utility it adds to the truck, especially on long drives when the bed can be used to store luggage, tools, etc. My local go-to guy for parts is Sean at Street Diesel Performance in Chaplin, CT. Sean builds SEMA trucks for Fusion bumpers and American Force wheels. But he's a down-to-earth guy that helps me out with all my silly 6.5 projects. Almost any part is 1-2 days away. Summit who? Never heard of her. Anyway, I reached out to Sean to ask what Tonneau he recommended, and he sold me an Extang Trifecta 2.0. Fit and finish is nice, fits the bed well. Not a difficult item to add by any means, but I feel like its really cleans up the truck and gives it a good look.

Next up was something that I had thought of doing but never gotten around to: a good cut and buff. Let's just take a moment to say thank you to GM for using some darn good paint in the 90's. With the help of my father (who is very experienced in the field of auto detailing) we washed, claybarred, buffed, and waxed the truck. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

The truck had a pretty easy month or so following the cleanup. It was mid November and I had a 700mi round trip to PA on the horizon. One thing that I had not taken care of was my front driveshaft. I had ordered it from Chris at CT Driveshaft Service in East Hartford, CT and hadn't picked it up yet. With snow in the forecast, I figured it was as good a time as any to pick up and install the driveshaft. I was concerned about clearance with the crossover pipe, so I ordered a new Diamond Eye unit from Quadstar Tuning - yet to be installed. Anyway, I fired the driveshaft in and drove down my street to a nearby dirt road for eh, er, "testing".

I wasn't sure how the electronic t-case was going to like with the new axle. I was concerned that with the truck not "seeing" the thermal actuator for the front diff anymore that it wouldn't want to engage 4wd. That fear was quickly erased. I locked the hubs, pressed the button on the dash, and instantly had 4wd. In order to confirm that 4wd was working, I climbed a 6' dirt pile. Cool, 4wd works. So the only logical thing to do at this point was launch the thing at 7psi and see what happens. I mean, its a brand new axle, new shaft, what could possibly go wrong? Right? So I launched the truck at about 7psi and it ate. Its a narrow road, so I was more concerned about going straight than I was with my speed. I don't know how fast I went, felt like about 50mph or so. I stopped the truck, put it in 2wd, unlocked the hubs, and got back in with intentions of driving the half mile back to my house. Upon acceleration, the turbo sounded like a slide whistle. Great. Got it home no problem, with it still making 12-15psi under acceleration (normally 20) - I figured I had a boost leak. So I got home and popped the hood with the truck still running. I sprayed soapy water around some of the intake boots looking for bubbles. No bubbles. So, fearing the worst, I shut the truck down. On shut down, my fears were confirmed: the turbo sounded, how you say, "no bueno". I pulled the intake boot off it to find a chewed up wheel and scoring on the inside of the compressor housing. The old HX40 hybrid thing was down for the count.

So, with the PA trip 3 weeks away and not wanting to have the truck down for too long, I began evaluating my turbo options. My thoughts as follows:
-S300 box turbo: only available T4, will need additional work to fit, not a lot of data on a 6.5, but $699 new and a proven turbo
-Quadstar Super 54: designed to fit, I know it will work and run well, basically drop-in, but $1200+
-eBay: cheap, but hit or miss quality
-rebuild my HX40: not a project I wanted to take on
-used Holset

Initially, I went looking for a used Holset. I figured it would drop in to my current setup, and save me a couple bucks over going with a new turbo, and I could sleep at night knowing I still had a name brand turbo as opposed to a chinese unit. So I found a tight H1C locally for $100 that I picked up. 300,000 miles off an 89 Dodge but no shaft play and spun nice and smooth. Long story short, the CHRA didn't want to come apart, and I cracked the compressor bearing housing. My fault, but frustrating nonetheless. So I was out $100, and back to the drawing board.

I wound up going with the S300. Ideally, my truck is studded and I go with a Quadstar 60, but I wasn't able to spend the money, and my truck isn't studded so I didn't go that route.

Details on the S300: 60/68/0.91 T4 divided, non-gated. It runs pretty well all things considered. Being the that the truck is an auto, I can kind of get away with a bigger turbo than if it were a stick. However, the 3.73's and 35's do not work in my favor. Going from a 60mm hot side to a 68mm and from the 16mm housing to the 0.91 which visually appears to be bigger meant that it was going to be laggier. And it was. Basically, the turbo spools well if you kick the truck in the nads a little, but if you roll into it on a hill and it doesn't downshift, I see about 10psi and 1000* and climbing. Hottest I've had it is 1200, that was on the highway pulling a hill at about 7200/2000rpm. The key to keeping the turbo happy is rpm. Over 2200 and its a happy camper. My setup, unsurprisingly, does not yield good lugging. No big deal, just give it more skinny pedal and get more smiles per gallon.

I've put probably 2500 miles on the S300 so far and its a decent option. I haven't run a Quadstar turbo, but I would imagine the S300 is inferior as it has not been optimized to work on a 6.5 platform. Based on the turbos I have run, I would rank them best to worst: 60/60/16 Holset, S300, HX35, ATT.

To return to the timeline briefly, the truck made it to PA and back without a hiccup. I got it on the graffiti highway in Centralia - which is really cool if you've never been. Averaged about 14mpg on the trip, some backroads driving and probably 3/4 highway going 75-80. Par for the course as far as I am concerned.

Okay, back to the turbo. In an effort to see what I can do with this thing to make it better for a 6.5, I have ordered and now received a new exhaust housing for it. I went with an 0.81 T4 open scroll non gated housing from Boost Lab. I opted to stay T4 because of the increased flow over a T3, but the tighter 0.81 A/R for hopefully a quicker spool up. Again, I know that cm2 and A/R are apples and oranges, but for what its worth, the 0.81 its externally smaller than the 16cm2 housing that came off the HX40.

Short term plans include installing a drive pressure gauge through the EAS system on the Edge monitor, and swapping the new exhaust housing on.

That's my long-winded update on the 6.5 side of things. Not sure where/when I will update on the Duramax; there's not a ton to report yet. Thanks for reading this much, I will now go look for some good pictures to upload from the last year.
 
Couple things I forgot:

Front shock hoops are from Sky Off-Road, dual steering stabilizer is Sky Jacker, all shocks and steering stabilizers are BDS Nitro.
Also I removed my 6 year old Diamond Eye exhaust and installed a new one. Same thing, just painted this one and not running a tip this time.
I added rock lights inside the fenders. 4/$30 on Amazon? I couldn't say no.

Okay, pictures.IMG_9311.JPGIMG_9333.JPGIMG_9346.JPGIMG_9406 4.JPGIMG_9412.JPGIMG_9427.JPGIMG_9429.JPGIMG_9471.JPGIMG_9644.JPGIMG_9645.JPG
 
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Really nice update Hugh! I didn't realize you had done the rear frame restoration and body stuff over the past year. Congrats on really upgrading the look of your truck! I can't wait to hear how you like that new turbine housing. So.....do you have front shocks on the thing yet? I'd be worried about bouncing that sharp truck off the road.
 
n8in8or said:
Really nice update Hugh! I didn't realize you had done the rear frame restoration and body stuff over the past year. Congrats on really upgrading the look of your truck! I can't wait to hear how you like that new turbine housing. So.....do you have front shocks on the thing yet? I'd be worried about bouncing that sharp truck off the road.
Click to expand...

Thanks Nate! I didn’t plan on doing the “resto” work to it but the truck had other plans. Yes it does have front shocks now, I installed them 2 days before my excursion to PA.
 
pacificdrumma said:
Thanks Nate! I didn’t plan on doing the “resto” work to it but the truck had other plans. Yes it does have front shocks now, I installed them 2 days before my excursion to PA.
Click to expand...
I know how that goes.....my 2 week rust repair project has turned into a months-long frame-on resto.
 
Will L. said:
Some nice movement there.

Turbo fail sux. Did I miss, what was the cause?
Click to expand...

Not sure. I’d be willing to bet launching in 4wd for the first time didn’t help it. It also has about 100k on it with unknown origin parts. It was originally bought off eBay as a new/reman HX40/H1C hybrid. A friend of mine had it on a 93 12 valve and put probably 60k on it. Hard miles too. The thing was getting tired id imagine.
 
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