88 K5 Build Thread - 4BTA Cummins Swap - 05/18 Dory is delivered to Alaska!!

[y5mgisi]

figured id be the guy to mention your u bolts even right after you said ya was gettin shorter ones

Haha! Ok i just wasnt sure. so i figured i would clue you in incase you hadnt read and just looked at the pics. but knowing what i know now,

Yea what Bowtie said! Your u bolts are WAY too long!

 

[kdoske]

Great job man! Now you can add to the threads where people ask, "How do i get my steering arm off?" Where did you order your u-bolts from? and do you mind me asking how much the cost?

Sorry I missed this questions. I got them from Summit. I think they where around 40$. These U bolts are huge and would probably only be used in a very very raised truck with masive springs or blocks in the rear.

 

[kdoske]

Next drag link you mess with...take a small chisel and use it like a wedge to slightly open up the adjuster sleeve. Then you'll be able to spin in the DLE's almost by hand and not have to fight them.

Rene

After reading this I can only say one thing......I'm and idiot! I'm not sure why I didn't do that. These long day builds are getting to my BRAIN!!!!!!

 

[kdoske]

Sorry for the lack of updates. Its been raining here!!! Today was the first day with no rain in 3 days. I woke up and it was pretty cold so I started up the diesel shop heater I have and it was great. I got my exhaust done today--I think. Clearance is really tight so let me know if you think I will have any problems. I will be redoing the exhaust properly when I get to AK. I just needed something installed for now. The pic below shows the clearance between the exhaust and the firewall. Its probably around 1/4 of an inch!

This pictures shows the clearance between the exhuast and the transmission dip stick tube. I had to cut the dip stick tube mount with my dremel spiral cut bit to accommodate it which is why the cut looks so ****. There is a quarter inch between exhaust and tube mount and probably an 1/8 between exhaust and the second nut that holds the tube mount.

Here is the one I am really not sure of. These lines are the fuel lines. There is probably two inches at the shortest point and 3.5-4 inches at the longest between the exhaust and the fuel lines. I will probably tack weld a heat shield between the two and wrap the rubber part of the lines with heat shield for good measure. I think I will be ok but im not sure.

Here is the new drive shaft I had made locally with 1350 u joints and a conversions u joint on the axle side that has a 1350/Saginaw 44 u joint. This will allow me to upgrade my rear Axel at a later date. I was really impressed with the drive shaft and it cost me only $300 which I though was pretty fair, but wtf do I know.

The last thing I did today was mount the drivers side fender. You guys can finally see the paint job that I have been promising pictures of.

If I'm lucky I might get the engine started tomorrow

 

[jt512]

Awesome progress really, what you have accomplished in the amount of time you have had is great . I am really loving the build, after all, its a K5 and it's got a Cummins .
On the down pipe clearance, why not header wrap it? At least until it is past the heat sensitive areas (fuel lines) . I plan on wrapping mine from the turbo until it gets back near the t- case, I did however have to move my fuel lines to the driver side already, no chance of having a 5/8" line and a 4 or 5" down pipe on the same side

Keep up the great work, can't wait to hear it run

 

[stumpjump]

Here is the one I am really not sure of. These lines are the fuel lines. There is probably two inches at the shortest point and 3.5-4 inches at the longest between the exhaust and the fuel lines. I will probably tack weld a heat shield between the two and wrap the rubber part of the lines with heat shield for good measure. I think I will be ok but im not sure.

I think this is way to close for rubber fuel lines. I would be less worried if it were hard lines and you wrapped the pipe and added a shield but think you will significantly compromise those rubber lines by getting that close to that much heat, especially when you'll see temps of 1000*+

I melted my axle breather tube lines on my cummins and they were 8" from the down pipe... Granted that truck put down 450hp and 900 ft/lbs and ran hotter than you will most likely but it doesn't seem like an acceptable risk for fuel lines. If I were you I would reroute the lines farther away... Just my take

 

[kdoske]

OK, so obviously I didn't get it started. This rain has been killing me. Its raining right now actually. Suppose to rain until 2 or 3 so maybe I can get some work done today. Afters stumps recomendation I decided that I am going to install the fuel lines on the drivers side. I have never done a hard line install before and I'm just worried it will eat up to much time but its got to be done.

So here is what I did when I had a chance.

I changed out the gas cap!!!

Here I am using my engine hoist to lift the front end of the truck to install the new tires.

Here she is, I amazed at how tall this truck rides. I guess 35" tires, a 4" suspension lift ,and a 4" body lift will do that. I can't wait to remove the body lift. Its going to look so much better.

Here is both fenders and wheel wells installed and most of the wiring routed.

Here I did some other random things and also installed the intake filter. I was supposed to paint the intake tube black but I forgot!!!

Heres the before in case anyone forgot!

This next pick I took for a little help. I took these spring hinges off for the hood without really looking at them first. Can someone figure out which one goes on what side, lol. Cause I'm looking at them I can't figure out which one goes on the drivers side and which one on the passenger side.

 

[stumpjump]

The way they are in that pic is how they mound to the fenders and hood. Right is drivers side, left is passengers. Nice work on the truck man you are running my dream engine, this thread is bad for my wallet...

 

[kdoske]

Awesome progress really, what you have accomplished in the amount of time you have had is great . I am really loving the build, after all, its a K5 and it's got a Cummins .
On the down pipe clearance, why not header wrap it? At least until it is past the heat sensitive areas (fuel lines) . I plan on wrapping mine from the turbo until it gets back near the t- case, I did however have to move my fuel lines to the driver side already, no chance of having a 5/8" line and a 4 or 5" down pipe on the same side

Keep up the great work, can't wait to hear it run

Thanks man, means a lot comming from another cummins build member. Yours is sweet too.

 

[kdoske]

The way they are in that pic is how they mound to the fenders and hood. Right is drivers side, left is passengers. Nice work on the truck man you are running my dream engine, this thread is bad for my wallet...

Thanks for the quick help Appriciate all your feedback. Trust me when I say this. YES, this thread is bad for ANYONES wallet.

 

[jt512]

Thanks for the quick help Appriciate all your feedback. Trust me when I say this. YES, this thread is bad for ANYONES wallet.

sometimes I think this forum is bad for my wallet

As far as running new fuel lines, it's no bad to do, but, why stay with hard lines ? Why not run soft lines, something like the "push lock" stuff that comes with aftermarket pump filter combos like FASS and Air Dog ?

 

[sixb]

sometimes I think this forum is bad for my wallet

As far as running new fuel lines, it's no bad to do, but, why stay with hard lines ? Why not run soft lines, something like the "push lock" stuff that comes with aftermarket pump filter combos like FASS and Air Dog ?

X3
On the wallet and the fuel lines I figure my 4bt has to go so I can stop dreaming up stuff to put it in
My fass system came with soft lines and the push lock stuff from the tank to the engine on my 02 Cummins. I may use the same stuff for my swap.

 

[kdoske]

I actually did start running soft fuel lines today but I don't plan on keeping it that way. The whole purpose of this build was longevity and badassery. While I normally wouldn't have a problem using them for this build it just doesn't seem right. Having said that because of my time crunch I am going to use soft lines until I get to AK then once there I will add it to my list of things to do. Didn't really get much done today because I spent most of the day running to the store and getting random things for my build, but hopefully I will have more pics to post tomorrow.

 

[sandypants]

suscribed!!!!!! very bad ass. what base are you going to?

 

[kdoske]

So I never did put any of the fasteners on the fuel lines because I don't have any bolts to use. I will get some tomorrow though. For now the lines are all setup and it should be done tomorrow.

Today I dropped the pan on my 4L80E to change the filter before I filled the transmission with ATF. Not sure if I ever mentioned it but my 4L80E is a 2005 with 80k original miles on it. It really was a good find. When I dropped the pan I still had in the back of my mind that I would open it up and it would be all black and smell like burnt tires. To my relief it looked brand new and had that normal weird fruity ATF smell when I finally removed all 1000 bolts holding the pan in place. (The filter shown is the new one)

I slowly drained the pan to see if I could see any metal fragments at all and there was absolutely nothing besides the super fine stuff thats always in there.

What else I though was really cool was that little black thing in the center of the pan. At first I thought it was some kind of vibration pad but its actually a square magnet to catch the fine metal particles. The pan is even ribbed in the area so liquid can flow under the magnet to catch more metal particles. These new trans are getting FANCY!

Here is the pan all clean and the magnet all wiped off.

After the pan was all clean I started bolting it all up and I finished in what felt like an hour later. Next I decided to bolt up the core support. It went in pretty easy. All I have left to do is bolt up the body mount to the bottom.

It was getting dark so I finished with filling the trans with 2 gallons of ATF. Man did I do this in the wrong order. Dory stands so high that it made it very hard to fill the trans. Supposedly the 4L80E takes 7-8 quarts from dropped pan and 12-13 quarts dry. I decided just to do the 8 for now even though it will most likely need more once its cranked a couple times. The dipstick tube has so much bends in it I couldn't get an accurate reading no matter how many times I wiped it off. So I figure I read it tomorrow after the tube finishes draining into the pan.

suscribed!!!!!! very bad ass. what base are you going to?

Its not an actually 'Base' Just a unit with around 40 members in it.

 

[kdoske]

Ok, so I got a knock on the door at 8pm today. When I answered the door it was UPS. I know right? 8pm UPS delivery--WTF. I asked and he said they were making up for lost time during Mardi Gras. ANYWAY, When I opened the package I was totally surprised.

Yep, thats right. My DIY4x4 aluminum dash came in. Let me say that pics do this thing no justice, even the pup approves! The detail that went into making this thing is insane. I ordered in January and was starting to wonder if it would make it before I left. Now that its here I can say 100% that the wait is worth it. My dash has 2-5" gauges, 4 - 2&1/16", 4 - vent louvers, stereo din, air conditioner din, glove box, blinker indicators, brights indicator, defrost vent holes(not shown), and vin view (not shown).

 

[76zimmer]

everything is looking real good. I would definitely keep those fuel lines a little farther away from that exhaust, and maybe wrap them with the braided insulation wrap.

 

[kdoske]

everything is looking real good. I would definitely keep those fuel lines a little farther away from that exhaust, and maybe wrap them with the braided insulation wrap.

Yeah I actually just rerouted them to the other side. I love your vette build by the way. I plan to do a car next after the k5.

 

[yellowK20]

Where you headed in AK ??

 

[kdoske]

So I spent the day connecting all the coolant hosing and electrical. I also connected all the wires for my transmission controller which took an hour or so. I finished with putting the oil in the trans, transfer case, and engine. Then putting in the coolant. I intended on finally starting the engine but when I connected the battery the starter began spinning instantly. I thought I may have used the wrong wire on the ignition terminal on the starter solenoid so I pulled the wire out and connected the battery again--same result. It was really strange because nothing was connected to the starter except the positive lead coming strait from the battery. So next I connect the battery and looked at the starter while its spinning. The starter was spinning but the solenoid was not engaged, which it shouldn't be because nothing is connected to the ignition pole. I figure something has got to be wrong with the starter so I pull it. After its pulled its very obvious what the problem is.

If you look at the picture you can see that the connector I am using is bridging the input positive pole to the motors positive pole. Which isn't supposed to happen! I grabbed my hand grinder to shave it off so it wouldn't be a problem. This would bring me to my next topic--SAFETY.

I really wanted to get the engine started so I didn't grab my gloves or my face shield when I went to grind off the extra tab. While I was doing it some metal shards shot into my eye and I closed them. After that the grinder walked up the metal I was cutting and cut into my thumb. It could have been a lot worse so I'm lucky but damn, what the hell! WEAR GLOVES AND FACE SHIELDS PEOPLE!

After I got this gash to stop bleeding it started getting dark so I decided to call it a night. On a good note I will start Dory tomorrow for sure. Everything is ready. All I have to do is turn the key and bleed the fuel lines. So stay tune tomorrow to hear the beast!

Where you headed in AK ??

I'll be moving to Juneau, AK. Looks a couple hours away from you.
Quick Link To View Juneau - http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...d=ijPUObZJoZDCHKtPb4u6xA&cbp=12,59.69,,0,7.26