this is my dream truck.. wonder what kinda mileage your going to get outta it. gotta let me know!
CK5
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Clifford Project - '88 Cummins CrewCab
- Thread starter fabjunkie
- Start date
In to see the outcome of the wrenchfest
rompinstompinmudmonkey
1/2 ton status
We've been working like hell on this truck the past couple of days. We finished up the front axle and the crossover steering yesterday and tackled the fuel system today. When I picked it up, the truck wouldn't start without a little boost of ether. After it was running it was smooth and sounded great. It just wouldnt start on its own. I figured the lift pump was weak or the system needed to be primed. We swapped the fuel filter and noticed that the fuel didn't smell like diesel, but rather old, stinky, rotten gas mixed with diesel. The P.O. never drained the gas from the tanks but added enough diesel to make it run. We dropped both tanks today and cleaned the diesel/rotten gas cocktail from them. The new fuel lines aren't finished yet, but we expect to have the truck road worthy in 2 more days.
fabjunkie
1/2 ton status
Finishing the fuel lines up this morning. Going to knock out the little **** today, diffs, brake lines, air horns 
Going to wait on the rear disc conversion for now. Aaron is dropping the rear driveshaft off today. I'll drive the truck down and get the front shaft figured out when it's drivable.
Going to wait on the rear disc conversion for now. Aaron is dropping the rear driveshaft off today. I'll drive the truck down and get the front shaft figured out when it's drivable.
fabjunkie
1/2 ton status
Fuel lines, stainless brake lines, diff covers are done. Diffs are 4.10's and it has a gov-bomb. Drilled and tapped the exhaust manifold for the egt and a spare hole so if I need one later. Turbo flange gasket was leaking. Waiting on the new one tomorrow, so that held us up from getting the exhaust on. Driveshaft will be done tomorrow. Oh yeah, it sucks posting from a phone.
no pichers?!?!
fabjunkie
1/2 ton status
And the money shot.
I'm in love. Shipping to 74868?
Just scrape off that dodge ram lettering and your in business! Lookin good!
fabjunkie
1/2 ton status
What a week. Truck is on the road. Only one day behind schedule. Just need to trim the fenders a bit and I have a12 hour drive today. Will have full report and pics when I get home.
rompinstompinmudmonkey
1/2 ton status
He's ready to get on the road, but not before a poser shot next to my truck. Something about a couple Cummins crew cabs together is so sexy
I miss that grass 
can't wait to hear a full report on this! Mileage, average rpm, etc.
juanblzer
1/2 ton status
Take naps on the way home this time. Better late than dead!
The truck looks sweet! Glad it worked out. My buddy pat bought a k5 down here and we did an axle swap and he drive it home to Colorado. He had to tighten the valves on the Rez somewhere but he made it
The truck looks sweet! Glad it worked out. My buddy pat bought a k5 down here and we did an axle swap and he drive it home to Colorado. He had to tighten the valves on the Rez somewhere but he made it
fabjunkie
1/2 ton status
Don't have the numbers in yet. Still need to fill up to check mileage. Got 11.5mpg from Phoenix to Flagstaff. That was running 80-85 in the 15-20lbs of boost the whole way. That's also a 6k mile elevation climb with loooong grades. No tach, but I would bet it was 2200 or so. Hit snow around Vail. No front shaft and knobby tires made that interesting. Left Phoenix at Noon on Sunday, stopped in Moab for about 6 hours and got some sleep, had court in Glenwood Springs for about 2 hours and pulled into Denver at 11:30 Monday. Not bad considering the drive. Got horrible death wobble about a mile from the house. Going to put on a new stabilizer and give it a little more toe-in tonight. Will see if that makes it go away.
Got Smoke?
1/2 ton status
Awesome thread....your truck and the rompin's dually are my dream style truck...I wouldn't care to have a DRW or a SRW as long as it was CC LWB with a Cummins!
fabjunkie
1/2 ton status
What's funny is he wanted a SRW and I would rather have a DRW.....go figure.
So mpg from Flagstaff to Denver was about 16.3. Again, that was running 75+ and through the hills. Not bad considering my Tacoma would get 15-15.5 on the highway and it was half the truck on 285/75/16's.
Fixed the death wobble. Put a new stabilizer on and set the toe to 1/4" in. While doing the stabilizer, I noticed I could see daylight under the zero rate on the driver side. I was able to tighten the inner u-bolt several turns on each nut. I think the u-bolt was the main problem, but it needed the stabilizer anyway.
So the week started with getting the truck to start on it's own. Up until this point it would take a burst of ether to start, but would run once started. When we pulled the fuel filter it reeked of rotten gas. Hmmm.... So put a new filter on and hooked up a 5 gallon can of fresh diesel. It fired right up once primed and you could hear the difference in the way it was running once it sucked up fresh fuel. Dropped the tanks. Pumped about 6-7 gallon of gas out of each tank. At least the PO had dumped some diesel in on top of the gas in the driver tank. I later found a receipt in the truck for gas from 08, when the swap started. We were surprised that it even ran, but it did. Ran new fuel lines from front to back. Ended up leaving the fuel pumps in the tanks, which makes priming the system easy btw.
Steering and front axle were next. We tore it down and repacked the the wheel bearings. Brakes look like they were replaced not too long ago. Swapped the kingpin studs from the passenger side to the driver knuckle, put new springs, bushings, and cups in, and installed a WFO passenger arm. Aaron picked up a Dodge arm, 2wd steering box, and tie rod ends before I got there. Got all of that put on.
Aaron also made up some brake lines for me, so we got those swapped out along with taking out the LPV in the rear. It was kind of on a whim to make them, but it ended up being a good thing as the originals were dry rotted and stretched at droop.
I had ordered a 4" Diamond Eye Performance exhaust system for 89-91 Dodge 4wd. I still need to finish up the rear of it. The downpipe fits great and the rest of it fits pretty damn good. Having the divorced t-case presented some problems, but nothing horrible. I ended up using part of a 2' muffler delete piece to get the third section around the t-case a little better. It all fit with the slip joints with the exception of the downpipe to second section. The angle just wouldn't work, but with it cocked just a little, the welded up real nice and fit great.
The intake was the original one from the Dodge and would not fit correctly with the second battery. I ordered the WIX 42790 filter from fleetfilter.com and found a 90* 4" to 3" reducer from siliconeintakes.com. Both of these fit great a short piece of 4" tube and stick the filter right between the second battery and A/C box. The filter could be a half inch less in diameter as it wedges between the inner fender and the hood. There are some other BHAF options with a little different dimensions that I may try next time.
The clutch has a remote reservoir and the factory Dodge one was in the truck. Only problem was the mounting tab was broken and the nipple had been glued back on with something gooey. I didn't trust this to get me home much less in the long run. The brake master cylinder had been changed out at some point to the plastic unit from the cast iron. I could not find a suitable reservoir for the clutch that was easily available and cost effective. So we came up with running the clutch off of the brake master. Then there was the problem of coming up with a rubber washer to seal fittings through the plastic. Running out of time, the KISS method came around and we decided to switch the brake master back out to a cast iron unit and drill and tap it to accept a 1/4" 1/8NPT fitting.
The driver seat was rotted out a bit because the window had been left down for a while and both seats have little rips and tears throughout. So I swapped the front and rear seats so my ass would have proper support and covered them with some saddle blanket covers. This will suffice until I can get something else figured out to get rid of the bench seats.
The driveshaft shop screwed us on a couple u-joints putting in the wrong size joints and yokes, but we luckily had the conversion joints needed to get everything together. I need to have a yoke changed out on the rear shaft when I get the front shaft built, but it works for now.
All in all, we got the truck drivable at 3am Sunday morning. On the first test drive, it was a dog. Luckily we had Aaron's truck to compare and noticed the throttle stop had never been touched and was set a bit forward of his. Hell, it still had the tamper proof cover on it. Knocked the cover off and adjusted the screw back even with Aaron's. Second test drive felt like it picked up 80hp. It can still use some more, but that will come with time.
Sorry the intake is the only thing I have a pic of. I'll work on getting some more over the next couple days. I was working on it from about 9 to 6-7 every day until Aaron got home, then we would work on it til about 1 every morning. I have to thank him and his wife for putting up with me for a week and letting me crash on their couch. This could not have happened if it weren't for their hospitality.
So mpg from Flagstaff to Denver was about 16.3. Again, that was running 75+ and through the hills. Not bad considering my Tacoma would get 15-15.5 on the highway and it was half the truck on 285/75/16's.
Fixed the death wobble. Put a new stabilizer on and set the toe to 1/4" in. While doing the stabilizer, I noticed I could see daylight under the zero rate on the driver side. I was able to tighten the inner u-bolt several turns on each nut. I think the u-bolt was the main problem, but it needed the stabilizer anyway.
So the week started with getting the truck to start on it's own. Up until this point it would take a burst of ether to start, but would run once started. When we pulled the fuel filter it reeked of rotten gas. Hmmm.... So put a new filter on and hooked up a 5 gallon can of fresh diesel. It fired right up once primed and you could hear the difference in the way it was running once it sucked up fresh fuel. Dropped the tanks. Pumped about 6-7 gallon of gas out of each tank. At least the PO had dumped some diesel in on top of the gas in the driver tank. I later found a receipt in the truck for gas from 08, when the swap started. We were surprised that it even ran, but it did. Ran new fuel lines from front to back. Ended up leaving the fuel pumps in the tanks, which makes priming the system easy btw.
Steering and front axle were next. We tore it down and repacked the the wheel bearings. Brakes look like they were replaced not too long ago. Swapped the kingpin studs from the passenger side to the driver knuckle, put new springs, bushings, and cups in, and installed a WFO passenger arm. Aaron picked up a Dodge arm, 2wd steering box, and tie rod ends before I got there. Got all of that put on.
Aaron also made up some brake lines for me, so we got those swapped out along with taking out the LPV in the rear. It was kind of on a whim to make them, but it ended up being a good thing as the originals were dry rotted and stretched at droop.
I had ordered a 4" Diamond Eye Performance exhaust system for 89-91 Dodge 4wd. I still need to finish up the rear of it. The downpipe fits great and the rest of it fits pretty damn good. Having the divorced t-case presented some problems, but nothing horrible. I ended up using part of a 2' muffler delete piece to get the third section around the t-case a little better. It all fit with the slip joints with the exception of the downpipe to second section. The angle just wouldn't work, but with it cocked just a little, the welded up real nice and fit great.
The intake was the original one from the Dodge and would not fit correctly with the second battery. I ordered the WIX 42790 filter from fleetfilter.com and found a 90* 4" to 3" reducer from siliconeintakes.com. Both of these fit great a short piece of 4" tube and stick the filter right between the second battery and A/C box. The filter could be a half inch less in diameter as it wedges between the inner fender and the hood. There are some other BHAF options with a little different dimensions that I may try next time.
The clutch has a remote reservoir and the factory Dodge one was in the truck. Only problem was the mounting tab was broken and the nipple had been glued back on with something gooey. I didn't trust this to get me home much less in the long run. The brake master cylinder had been changed out at some point to the plastic unit from the cast iron. I could not find a suitable reservoir for the clutch that was easily available and cost effective. So we came up with running the clutch off of the brake master. Then there was the problem of coming up with a rubber washer to seal fittings through the plastic. Running out of time, the KISS method came around and we decided to switch the brake master back out to a cast iron unit and drill and tap it to accept a 1/4" 1/8NPT fitting.
The driver seat was rotted out a bit because the window had been left down for a while and both seats have little rips and tears throughout. So I swapped the front and rear seats so my ass would have proper support and covered them with some saddle blanket covers. This will suffice until I can get something else figured out to get rid of the bench seats.
The driveshaft shop screwed us on a couple u-joints putting in the wrong size joints and yokes, but we luckily had the conversion joints needed to get everything together. I need to have a yoke changed out on the rear shaft when I get the front shaft built, but it works for now.
All in all, we got the truck drivable at 3am Sunday morning. On the first test drive, it was a dog. Luckily we had Aaron's truck to compare and noticed the throttle stop had never been touched and was set a bit forward of his. Hell, it still had the tamper proof cover on it. Knocked the cover off and adjusted the screw back even with Aaron's. Second test drive felt like it picked up 80hp. It can still use some more, but that will come with time.
Sorry the intake is the only thing I have a pic of. I'll work on getting some more over the next couple days. I was working on it from about 9 to 6-7 every day until Aaron got home, then we would work on it til about 1 every morning. I have to thank him and his wife for putting up with me for a week and letting me crash on their couch. This could not have happened if it weren't for their hospitality.
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Denny t pin is worth the money, stage 2 is easily driveable so if you get one go that route.
Truck looks great i'm very jealous.
Truck looks great i'm very jealous.
Got Smoke?
1/2 ton status
Did you get those Baja's from Trail Worthy?
Great stuff man. Excited for more pics. Love how generous this community is
