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My New Kenworth

durallymax

durallymax

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Well new to my collection of toys and projects.

Its a 1976 W900A With a 335 Cummins, Eaton 10spd reyco suspension and a lot of ugliness.

It needs tons of TLC, but its what you get when you pay salvage price for it.

I have a lot of plans and big dreams but most likely I will stretch it some more, put a 36 or 42" flat-top sleeper on it and then go through and paint everything back up pretty and of course some 7 or 8" really tall mitre cuts. Id like to put low air ride on it as well to put it on the ground. I kinda wanna swap out the motor with something else but I havent decided. i definately wanna put a different trans in it though.

Basically it will be a truck to play with off and on and when its done it will just be a show truck, sunday cruiser and occasional milk and grain hauler.


Heres some pics.

DSCN0582.jpg

DSCN0581.jpg

DSCN0576.jpg

DSCN0574.jpg
 
I actually do want to put a 12v71 or 8v92TA in it. and a 5+4 or 6+4 spicer trans.
 
Nice. How many miles on the truck and motor? A little elbow grease and interior detailing and you will be all set! Good luck with it.
 
About 290,000 miles. Gonna take a lot of elbow grease. But should be fun.
 
I'll see you at next year's Sandwich Fair in the season final of the super semi pulling circuit! :thumbsup:

J/K (sort of...)

Good luck with it Vinny!
 
Once i get it going ill hook it at a few street semi pulls probably. It would be badass to have a super semi though too.
 
I vote for the 12V-92 with the big jake kit, up the turbo's to 4 and run a 21 speed box....the 5+4 gets old real fast; looks cool with 2 sticks coming up thru the floor thou..

looks as thou you have plenty of frame room for the 42" box...over sized 210 gallon tanks on each side and find spot to hide a 100 pound propane bottle for some fun
 
on a scale of 0-mother inlaw of uglyness......that baby is right near mother in law....can't wait to see it all shined up
 
a 12v92 would be badass but I would need an extended hood. i got time though.
 
sharp truck im not much of a fan of elaborate paint jobs though. I want to chop the top on my KW.
 
That 335 Cummins is no slouch. I drove a '69 White with one. Truck motored pretty good. It was a brute as well.
I drove a Big Hood 76 with a 444 Big cam. Man the Jake could scare old ladies to death...:D
 
yep. Most people these days dont understand what the older motors were capable of. They hear 335hp and think its a pooch. yet they pull hard.

I drove an older W900B with a 400 Big Cam and that thing felt like it could walk all over the 07 T800 I drove with a 550 C15

Now heres my crazy engine idea. Buy a 16V92 put jakes on it off of 8V92s and put quad turbos on it. And of course straight pipes. But that will never happen.
 
would be cool to see 14 feet of motor under a 20 foot hood.....the sound of the jake hitting at 2200 rpm on 12 cylinders would be awesome!!!
 
Well The Kenworthless Lives.

Finally done with harvest and have some time so yesterday I went digging for a used Oil cooler and found one locally, then came back and steamed it off last night and then drug it into the shop. Charged up the air system with the shop air and worked on fixing the leaks and such and figuring out what doesnt work. I need a New E6 Foot valve and im trying to get the rest of the foot brake to free up otherwise I may need those parts too, but the E6 valve needs replacing, something about it being the part that stops the truck makes me want to replace it instead of "make it work".

Then charged the batterys up and started finding out what electrical issues there were and to my suprise there were very few. 2 burnt out clearance lights, half of the dash gauge lights burnt out and for some reason when I charge up the air system the right blinker stays on, shouldnt be too hard to figure out though. Power Probe IIIs are the best invention ever.

If you remember from my original post, the oil cooler was supposedly bad because it froze over winter. But the previous owner also thought that he remembered it shooting oil everywhere. This didnt really add up to me much so i decided I would try to start the engine first to see where the issue actually was. The coolant crossover pipe from the oil cooler to the block was disconnected and the cooling system was drained.

I went to start the truck but the batteries didnt have it in them. So this morning I tried again and after about 5 cranks it fired right up. Good Ol Cummins. (Every Time is their slogan right;)) I tapped the throttle then shut it down. Then looked under the truck and saw a 5 gallon puddle of oil. Yep there is oil getting into the cooling system somehow, and since I already bought an Oil cooler that is my first step. But if the oil cooler doesnt fix it I have some big problems and a huge boat anchor. I didnt really want the motor anyways though. After running the SN off of the motor I learned it was an NTC290. After running the SN off of the new injection pump that was put on it I learned that it was an NTC335 pump. And since 76 was the year they switched to the Big Cam the Lady at Cummins couldnt tell me if it was a Big Cam or not. Now I knew on BCIV and BCIIIs that BIG CAM was cast into the camshaft side of the block but didnt know if the BCI and BCIIs were that way. So i after chatting with the old mechanic at the shop where I got the Oil cooler from I learned that my motor was a Small Cam. He said the most obvious difference is the cam follower windows, the Big Cam windows are nearly twice as big.

The same shop has an 8v92TA 435hp that they rebuilt and want $3,500 for since they've been sitting on it for awhile. I told them I was interested in it and maybe trading them my Small Cam Cummins if it was worth much to them.The 8v92 doesnt have a Jake but I would put one on it.


So really overall this truck is turning out to be less of a project to get to run than I thought it wouldve been.


Ive had big plans for it and such, but now that its running (sorta) and im starting to see some progress Ive come back to reality and would like to have this truck finished within a year.

My current plan for this finished product is this,

Find a Pete Low Air Leaf Cutoff to replace the Reyco Spring I have now and set the truck at about a 280" wheelbase or so. Then fill all of the holes in the frame that are not used.
Better 24.5" aluminum wheels all the way around.
New 24.5 Low Pro Bridgestones all the way around.
Big Drop Bumper for the front
Gangster drop Bowtie visor
Fiberglass Rear Fenders
Paint the Frame Gloss Lime Green or Gloss Blaze orange, leaning towards the green though. Also paint the KW hood pull and emblems on the side as well as a few of the grille pieces (cant decide which ones to paint yet).
Paint the Hood, cab, visor, fenders and some grille pieces flat black.
Accent the rest of the truck with lime green and chrome tastefully.
Install 7 or 8" Mitre Cut Stacks "underframe" and as tall as possible.
get the fuel tanks refinished so they look purty.
Hide the air tanks, air dryer and batterys inside the frame rails underneath the catwalk/deckplate.
Add some chicken lights as necessary but tastefully, maybe some green underglo too.
Tint the windows

Basically the look Im going for is going to be the wheels, fuel tanks, bumper, stacks, and a couple of other little things will be polished, the frame and such will be lime green, the hood, cab, visor and fenders will be flat black and the rest will come together using one of these three colors.

Mechanically I want to put in a 2stroke detroit. And while I had big ideas of a 12v71, 12v92 and even a 16v92 I think an 8v92 will end up working great and it will stay goblin green even if it is a sliver series. I will probably put twins on it though more for looks than anything.

The 9spd will have to get ditched. I would prefer to put a 5+4 or 6+4 in it, will I hate driving it. Nope because it will be a sunday cruiser not a worker. But I would settle for a 15spd OD or 13spd.

Interior will be fairly simple. Wood Floor, LOW LOW LOW LOW LOW riding seats, a nice sound system and the rest I havent decided on yet, but its not going to be anything too flashy just simple yet tasteful.


In the end I think it will be a nice looking truck that will still leave me enough money and time leftover to put into the pulling truck and other things.

heres a pic of it today, I got frustrated with something so decided to polish a wheel to give me a sense of accomplishment.

IMAG0006.jpg
 
Neat old project....

Hey man, keep us posted on your progress. I gotta weakness for A Models. Be cool with a Detroit in it. I put a lot of miles on two stroke diesels in the day. I miss the sound of them and the 8V92s were a pretty good running engine too. Cool ride, keep working on it and post some pics as you go along.
Stay safe out there.
Ken
 
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