CK5
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82 stepside. Thoughts and crazy ideas

Never pass up on those pedals. Somebody always wants them if you don't need them.

Otherwise good work to get the truck moving.
 
Ah the joy of having a 18 year old daily and a 39 year old backup. They always need something.

The Dodge wiring issue has required buying a new sensor harness. Another 600 bucks in parts :yikes:. But when I can't find the correct pigtail and I'm finding other wire corrosion. So this should fix that issue.

Then the Stepside has no dash lights for some reason. All other lights work including the aftermarket gauges :thinking:. Probably something stupid. They had been working.

Oh well, always something.
 
Ah progress, ah few steps forward and one or two back.

Saturday I threw a new steering stabilizer on and reinstalled my panhard bar. Yay, the old girl tracks straight down the road with no death wobble. I had accidentally left the panhard down in Florida, my folks shipped it up for me. The stabilizer was weak, so a new one was good maintenance.

So all seemed good I took her out for a quick test drive once warmed up, was only 25°f on Saturday. Everything was good so I figured I'll drive her home, finally. Or so I thought.

4 miles into a 17 mile trip and I start hearing this rattle and a thumping sound. And it is definitely associated with engine rpm. I find a spot to pull over and start looking for anything. Engine still running, oil pressure is good, coolant temp is good and no leaks that I can see.

Then I hear it drop and hit the ground.20210213_175650.jpg

When I switched from the gm8 turbo to the HX40. I had to use an adapter to go from the T3 flange pattern on the manifold to the T4 flange on the turbo. Pretty simple, it's a 1/2 inch thick piece of stainless with both bolt patterns in it.I made studs to hold the turbo down and left the manifold side as bolts. All stainless hardware. Nicely coated with anti-seize. As stainless likes to gaul when threaded into stainless.

So a call to my girl and an hour lateor so later. I have get the bolt back in and tighten and I drive back to the shop. And bring the van I've been using home again.

Now while looking over everything I noticed a bunch of oil/soot seeping through an exhaust clamp. So I'm going to have to pull the turbo to check the bushing and I'll probably just change them again. Just to be sure. The rebuild kits are cheap enough, like 50 bucks.

Since I have it off though. I want to make sure the bolt's can never back out again. 1 fell out, another was a full turn loose. The other 2 were 1/2 a turn loose. I've though about safety wire. As the adapter stays in the truck when the turbo is pulled. But access is pretty tight to use the pliers for safety wire. I could tack the threads with the turbo pulled. It'll never move then. But that's more of a last resort option. The adapter being loose I think is the source of the thumping sound also. It's a low key sound, like an air compressor makes on the intake stroke.

Other then safety wire. What's a removable option out there? I'm up for making or modifing as needed.


Regardless of those issues. I drove the truck and it runs really good other then the issues listed above. 20 psi warm oil pressure at 1500 rpms. 10 psi at idle. 0psi boost just sitting at 55mph. So fuel mileage should be pretty good also.

I say warm vs hot because it was only 25° out :D
 
Lock washers?

I had them on the setup that fell out. The split ring style. Maybe the serrated style would work better :thinking:. I should be able to find them in stainless.


I need to find a new driver side seat belt too. It retracts fine but the belt it self is getting frayed and crinkled. Making it hard to pull to latch.

Anyone selling a good set of blue seatbelts?
 
All the big trucks run studs with spacers and pinch nuts on manifolds. Any room to do something like that on this spacer? I'm betting it's coming loose from the expansion and contraction with the heat cycles.
 
All the big trucks run studs with spacers and pinch nuts on manifolds. Any room to do something like that on this spacer? I'm betting it's coming loose from the expansion and contraction with the heat cycles.

Possibly. I made the turbo side studs. The manifold side is kinda tight. But there might be enough room to do the same. I'll look this afternoon.

I agree about the heat cycles being the likely cause.
 
I had them on the setup that fell out. The split ring style. Maybe the serrated style would work better :thinking:. I should be able to find them in stainless.


I need to find a new driver side seat belt too. It retracts fine but the belt it self is getting frayed and crinkled. Making it hard to pull to latch.

Anyone selling a good set of blue seatbelts?
I like Nylock but not in higher temp situations. deformed nuts work well and the serrated head stuff works pretty good. Split lock washers are garbage NASA has videos of how they loosen up under vibration. I'm a fan of Nord Lock's as they actually take more to break loose than the torque achieved.
 
I think serrated is the way to go with stainless. The deformed nuts will destroy the stainless making it a one and done.

So I think I found the oil issue with the turbo. I was talking to a local diesel shop that specializes in turbos. He said that if boost is too low, like 0 psi at 1500rpms. The turbine shaft isn't spinning fast enough to keep the oil in. Oil supply pressure is also very important. Now the engine had 10psi at warm idle. 25psi running a 1500rpms. Which through a -4 line should be more then sufficient. Then a -10 drain.

Now the hx40 I have most likely has a 16cm3 housing. Which is pretty big but not surprising as I got it from an 8.3 Cummins years ago. Which given the fuel rate from the injection pump is too much for the truck. A boat or something similar would be a different story. So onto searching for a better fit.

Now a 14cm3 is the smallest bolt housing you can get for an hx40. But with some machining the housing from an hx35 can be used. So I can get then get a 12cm housing. Now that change will make a huge difference.

Of course I can just swap to a full hx35. The compressor side are pretty close between the two. And at the power level the current engine is built for either will just fine.
 
You have 10psi of oil pressure? :eek1: :doah:

:1zhelp:

On the cheap mechanical gauge that is "T"ed into the oil supply for the turbo. The stock dash gauge reads higher. But not sure how much I trust that one.

Minimum according to GM is 1psi per 100rpms. So 10psi at 600rpm idle is almost double that. And it increases are rpms increase. So it seems low but it's being consistent, so far.
 
I know on the Cummins when I was hot rodding them, the hx40 was a weak turbo and would snap shafts with ease. The hx35 with a 12 or 14 housing was a solid turbo that would a solid 400hp without egt’s or drive pressure going crazy. Not to mention spooled way better for driving around. The hy35 that came on the autos was a tiny turbo with a 9cm housing but it spooled really fast and would hold a good 325-350hp.
 
On the cheap mechanical gauge that is "T"ed into the oil supply for the turbo. The stock dash gauge reads higher. But not sure how much I trust that one.

Minimum according to GM is 1psi per 100rpms. So 10psi at 600rpm idle is almost double that. And it increases are rpms increase. So it seems low but it's being consistent, so far.

That seems way too low. I'm not an expert, but I have had 7 of these engines. Mine have all held at least 50PSI on the dash gauge at idle (some of them more). I'd get pretty nervous if it dropped that far.

Are you measuring downstream of a restrictor plate?
 
That seems way too low. I'm not an expert, but I have had 7 of these engines. Mine have all held at least 50PSI on the dash gauge at idle (some of them more). I'd get pretty nervous if it dropped that far.

Are you measuring downstream of a restrictor plate?


Where he’s measuring it I wouldn’t be that worried, it’s not like the turbocharger adds enough restriction to the oil feed line to register much pressure
 
Where he’s measuring it I wouldn’t be that worried, it’s not like the turbocharger adds enough restriction to the oil feed line to register much pressure

My concern was for the lower end, if that represents the pressure in the block. The normal 6.2 turbine oil port is pretty near the gallery where the stock oil sensor sits, and they're both measuring the oil just downstream of the filter housing. So the readings should be fairly similar, unless he's downstream of a flow restriction.
 
My concern was for the lower end, if that represents the pressure in the block. The normal 6.2 turbine oil port is pretty near the gallery where the stock oil sensor sits, and they're both measuring the oil just downstream of the filter housing. So the readings should be fairly similar, unless he's downstream of a flow restriction.

I’d be willing to bet if the gauge was tied in to the block by itself instead of T’ed into the line the reading would he drastically different
 
The hx40 will probably be getting swapped for....... I'm not sure yet. I'm seeing what's out there as far as hx35w with a 12cm housing for a decent price. I know I could find a hx35s 12cm housing and have it machined to fit the 40. So it will depend on what I find.

The mechanical gauge is tapped in here.IMG_1320.jpg

The line uses the port right above the oil cooler ports. The gauges on the dash reads at least 20psi higher all the time. That's with different sensors over the years.

That seems way too low. I'm not an expert, but I have had 7 of these engines. Mine have all held at least 50PSI on the dash gauge at idle (some of them more). I'd get pretty nervous if it dropped that far.

Are you measuring downstream of a restrictor plate?

Have you ever checked any of those with a mechanical gauge? I'd be curious as to how it compares to your dash gauge.
 
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Have you ever checked any of those with a mechanical gauge? I'd be curious as to how it compares

I did have a mechanical gauge once, but I don't remember if I ever actually hooked it up. Safer to assume I didn't.

But with several sender/gauge combinations, I still never got anywhere near 10PSI at the block. With yours mounted downstream a ways, that might explain the discrepancy.
 
Very true. The line is around 40" long so it could be messing with the reading.
I should t it into the stock gauge port. The current spot was done quick and dirty just to get a reading on a previous engine.


On another note the harness I bought for my dodge shipped out today. So hopefully that solves the issues with that one.
 
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