Watching My 2nd Gen Get Outta Hand: The Build Thread

Decided to get rid of the fender stack, it was fun watching flames come out at night and made for a great tuning tool to get the truck running clean but it's time for a change. Picked up a 5" exhaust for cheap, just need to get new frame brackets since I got rid of my original ones. Gonna have to change the compound piping to make a downpipe fit, thinking about running the manifold charger backwards so I can shorten the hotpipe and buy some space that way, we'll see what fits best.



Been fighting a leaking trans line since the new converter went in, turns out Summit Racing brand stainless braided hose wasn't the best choice. It's real soft on the hot line coming out of the converter and leaks out of the hose end. Had those lines on for almost 2 years and they've seen a lot of heat. Time to find something better.

Thanks for the awesome read! I absolutely love these kind of builds man keep it up! Most people don't want to go for rides in a fast diesel because they know they will get addicted lol

Before fixing the trans lines I wanted to move the 6.0 cooler, it fit alright behind the stock bumper but it was always a tight fit once I switched to the sport bumper. Had to do some trimming and hammering and even then I cracked a few condensers from rubbing on stuff over time. Picked up a buddies old intercooler that doesn’t have any boost leaks unlike mine, before I put it in I bolted the trans cooler to the back side of it with some rubber fender washers between the two. Had to ditch the hood latch support for now but I’m much happier with the trans cooler tucked between the radiator and intercooler. No more cracking condensers because there’s a massive trans cooler wedged in there.

RMJ_LB7 said:

Thanks for the awesome read! I absolutely love these kind of builds man keep it up! Most people don't want to go for rides in a fast diesel because they know they will get addicted lol

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Thanks man! Going for a ride in quick trucks is what gave me the bug, didn’t take much haha

I have really enjoyed this write up.

bracker8040 said:

I have really enjoyed this write up.

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Thanks!

Made some changes to the blow by setup, the last one worked fine for short bursts but on longer pulls I was still getting oil out of my catch can. Tried running both vent lines to the exhaust venturi and you can see how that went.



Just cruising down the highway it was sucking oil out non-stop, I didn't lose a lot but it sure made a mess. New plan is to run both valve cover lines into a small catch can and instead of venting the catch can to atmosphere I'll run it into the exhaust venturi. I think doing it this way will keep oil from getting sucked out when driving nicely and under heavy throttle the venturi will manage crank case pressure. Any oil that does escape should be taken care of in the exhaust. Just an idea for now, hopefully it'll work.

Also got this funny looking pump bolted to a mock up engine and ordered a controller for it.

Got the new exhaust hung under the truck last weekend


Made the new downpipe a few days ago. Not too proud of how it turned out but it let me keep my A/C in place with a little bending and doesn't hit anything else. Going to wrap it this weekend and weld in a new fitting for the exhaust venturi. It's already so much nicer driving the truck, I can hear my radio, hear the turbos, and hear all the other little noises I wish I still didn't know about.


Got the controller in and started screwing with this pump, it might end up on the truck sooner than I thought.

Been picking away at the list a little more since it's getting nice out and I'm stuck at home more often.

New trans cooler setup is installed and seems to be working great, I can finally put a normal grille support back up front.


Took the downpipe out and added the vacuum fitting for the crank case vent along with another bracket that bolts to the ear sticking off the passenger side of the trans. Put some heat wrap on before I threw it back in.


Still psyched about having a normal exhaust, I've been putting a lot more miles on the truck lately. Got the crank case evac setup redone and it seems to be working well. No more oily mess under the hood, seems to suck a little oil after a really hard pull but its not really moving on the dipstick and I'd rather have that than a fire hazard under the hood.



Not sure if this truck is worth putting any new fenders on at this time so I fixed the fender like Red Green taught me. Little janky but it's only temporary.


The other pump project is coming along nicely, rack control and timing control are both working. Rack control parameters might need some tweaking but it's close. Waiting on a test engine so I can run this thing on a stand for a little while to get some stuff dialed in, if I'm happy with how everything works it'll go on the truck shortly after. I'll be sure to post some videos when I get that far.

Haven't had to really mess with the truck in a while, quite a relief after doing nothing but fighting myself on it the last 2 summers. I still take it out for the occasional boosted launch or some rolling burnouts. We used it to help move about a month ago and towed the boat with it a couple times. Much more enjoyable with a real exhaust and a proper evac system that doesn't blast oil everywhere. My biggest complaint now is the loose steering box and the A/C isn't as cold as it used to be, easy enough to fix.



I had a box of parts sitting around after I built my current 13mm pump. Some brand new pins, rollers, and plungers. Didn't want them to go to waste so I got the 160 cam reground into a more aggressive profile and slapped everything together with the lightened governor that came in my old pump. Made a few other gov adjustments to try and keep it from pulling fuel back up high with stock gov springs. Did 480CCs maxed out, seems pretty good with the shorter helix of the 160 plungers. I'll throw it on the truck eventually to see if it runs worth a damn.



Finally got rid of the Super Duty cab lights I put on for some stupid reason, replaced with the proper Dodge ones. While the headliner was down I replaced the nasty old fabric. The spray on glue I used didn't hold up too well so it needs to be redone, still much better than the old setup.




Went and picked up a test engine a couple weeks ago, been playing with the VP that's on it for a bit. If all goes well I'll have that funky looking pump on and running this weekend then I can throw it in the truck after.

Got the H-pump running on the engine stand but was having some trouble getting idle dialed down, had a few ideas to fix that then the plan was to put it on the truck. Went out for a drive in the 2nd gen and the truck had other plans, tappet cover gasket blew out after a few pulls. Truck has always had TONS of blow by since the compounds went on but I didn't think it was building that much pressure. Was leaking pretty bad so I ended up borrowing a trailer and towing it to the shop to tear apart. The intake shelf has been in bad shape for a while so I decided to remove that while the pump was out of the way and get it welded back up. With any luck that will go back on tonight along with an Engineered Diesel billet tappet cover. I was half tempted to leave it apart until the H-pump is ready but the Woodward Dream Cruise is this weekend and I can't sit it out.

Still collecting 6.7 parts in the background, going to pick up a few more things this weekend.

What a great thread! Thanks for sharing and please continue to update.

zachu812 said:

Haven't had to really mess with the truck in a while, quite a relief after doing nothing but fighting myself on it the last 2 summers. I still take it out for the occasional boosted launch or some rolling burnouts. We used it to help move about a month ago and towed the boat with it a couple times.

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Thats my kind of hotrod, still putting in work. Keep the updates coming.

Meyers Farms said:

What a great thread! Thanks for sharing and please continue to update.

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56cummins said:

Thats my kind of hotrod, still putting in work. Keep the updates coming.

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Thanks guys.

Got the truck back together on Friday and went for a test drive, dropped timing to 18* just to see what happens since I know it gets pissy when I increase timing. On the first pull everything felt great until I slowed down, truck was unusually choppy under light throttle. Did another short pull and saw more smoke than usual and the chargers were lazy. Lines checked out ok but I snugged them up a little anyways, same thing. Called up a buddy and he suspected a bad injector, went over and found the bad one on his pop tester. He had a set of 6x.018 nozzles sitting around that we threw those together and put them in the truck, smokes like mad now even under light throttle but I suspect the timing is to blame. I think the small nozzles I was running before explain why the truck ran so good with less timing.

Either way it ran good enough to enjoy the Dream Cruise and get a few races in. I had a big power RCSB 6.0 get away from me on a dig so I turned the pump up and hung right with him after he got the leave on the next run. Had another run from a dig with a 2nd gen swapped 6.7 truck, pulled away from him with no issues.

Going to have Weston go through these 6x.013s so I can throw them back in and get some new tires ordered for the truck. Over the next few months I'm going to try to make some driveshaft loops, bump up the stall on the converter, and fix a few more small things.

Awesome truck and write up! Looking forward to updates

Picked up most of the remaining 6.7 parts from Matts Diesel Supply, now it comes down to gaskets, rings, oil pump, and a few other odds and ends then it can go together. Still need to decide on rods, it's either Wagler Street Fighters or Fink Machine unless I come across a good deal on something used.



Got my injectors back from Weston and the truck runs normal again but I'm having a hard start issue that wasn't there before. Still fires after a lot of cranking, the blow by is becoming more of a problem again so that gives me more motivation to finish the 6.7 build.

Tags on the truck were up so I decided to have some fun with a new license plate.



You can probably see from that pic how bad my tires were. Ordered up some 305/50R20 Nankang SP-7s after reading some decent reviews, they were cheap enough it was worth trying. So far they don't seem to hook like the Nittos I used to run, we'll see what happens at the track.



We had a new ORV park open up nearby and my girlfriend as been asking to go somewhere so I swapped on the mud tires and went out for a day. We stayed away from the mud but still had a ton of fun on the trails and doing some light crawling, the truck impressed me with the stock suspension setup.



At the ORV park I did one steep sandy hill climb where I had to lay into it a good bit, got a ton of white smoke out the tailpipe from oil. I'm convinced the motor is hurt but I'm not ready to pull it out. Made one last catch can with a few revisions and some better baffling. Going to change line placement a little bit and add a pressure gauge to measure crank case pressure. Got a dune trip this weekend, if the truck survives it'll be going to the track this fall. With any luck it'll be time to swap the h-pump on after that.

Lol, love the plate.

Got the pump bolted on, going to set timing and wire it up tomorrow. If I’m lucky I’ll be able to fire it up this weekend.

Nice. Looking forward to some updates on that pump.

I could only hope my pos could do all this...lol

Stayed at the shop until about 1:30 AM on Friday to get the truck fired, got a decent idle out of it. Went back on Friday afternoon and finished the fuel system then messed with it a little more. Still need to spend a lot of time on the calibration but this is a start.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgejI0OAPuA