1989 CK-style GM/Cummins Conversion

Well after a few days of trying to get a forum going here we go!!!!!

First of all I would like to give you all a little info of what the truck was like before the conversion.

1989 GMC 1-ton 2wd reg-cab dually.
-350 EFI
-Turbo 400 Auto trany
-Dana 70 GM dually rear axle with 4:10's
-the body was forest green needing alot of body work.The dually fenders were cracked and chipped, paint peeling off the hood and some nice rotten doors.
-Interior was red (uggly) NO POWER, cracked dash, falled head liner.

It was in pretty bad shape but a blast to drive seeing I didn't care what happend to it!

About 8 months after I got it I started a new job with a 1 hour drive everyday...the 3-speed auto was a BIG PIG on fuel and getting the truck for next to nothing and not wanting to buy something else I decieded to convert it to a 5-speed NV4500. I got all the needed parts from the local wreckers/rebuilders in town and for less than $2000 I jumped the truck up 5 miles per gallon!!! still only was managing to pull off 15mpg as an altime best.

That was just right around 4 years ago...right when this new rage in pickups started called "preformance diesels" started! I remember going to the local Dodge dealers that had a Demo day going (had just got in the new Hemi's at the time) and everyone was wanting to take one for a spin. In the far corner of the parking lot was a little tent setup with a Diesel preformance shop showing what they had to offer. I was looking at the Hemi and all of a sudden they started up there 2001 Cummins, reved it up, (smoke started pouring out of its stacks) and dumped the clutch and off he went spinning and burning rubber!!! At that time I had never seen anything like it and to say the least I was hooked!!!!

Anyway, back to the truck! after being to that dealership and seeing what the diesel could do I started looking for a new truck (new to me anyway) only wanting a reg-cab 4x4 Dodge Dually I was bummed when I only found one and saw the price...$10,000 more than I wanted to spend!

I also at that time joined the TDR and started reading about the huge amount of Chevy/Cummins conversions that were going on!

BINGO!!!! it all started! thought I would save a bunch (boy was I wrong :bang )...maybe I should have just bought that new truck! but thats beside the point!!!

I went back to the local wrecker/rebuilder looking for parts (engine/transmission)....at that time I was just going to keep it a 2wd! and he said not a problem and sold me the engine. It was a 1996 12valve 215HP Cummins! It would take a few weeks for them to get a Dodge 5-speed ready for me and said they would swap my GM version for it seeing it had little miles on it since I bought it from them!

At the time I was also building a Super Stock gas Pull truck (tilt body..the whole 9 yards) and money was tight so I thought that if I were to sell it I would have enough for maybe a 4x4 conversion.

I got looking at my 2wd frame and met a guy close buy that gave me a junk Dodge60 to use as a mock up. To my amazement it started to look like I could keep the coil springs instead of going the leaf spring route that many 4x4 conversions do!

I then called up the local shop I was getting the trany from and told them to put it on hold! I relized that if I had the 4x4 I could just pull with that (diesel pulls were just starting here at that time) so I was deffinatly going to make it as beefy as I could.

I figured that a 6-speed NV5600 was in order (wish now I would have just done the 5-speed after seeing what they are being put thru and weight almost 200lbs less!) so they actually had one rebuilt in stock and I went and picked it up with my engine and a few days later picked up NP241 DLD transfer case (they used the DLD because they could adapt a GM style speedo onto it seeing the GM's also used that 241 style case)

I then relized that my Dually Dana70 rear was to week for what I wanted and seeing I wanted 3:73's I just decieded to junk it. The shop were I was getting all the drivetrain from had a brand spankin new Chevy 11.5AAM dually rear loaded with 3:73's and a posi (looking into it I found out that the GM posi in the AAM's was better than the units Dodge was getting with there AAM 11.5's) so I picked up that axle as well as the Dodge 60front with the 3:73's. and brought it home and started to look at what I had and where I wanted to go!!!!

The Conversion Begins!!!

So I had all the drivetrain I needed and figured out the best way to begin would be to strip the body off the chassis and see what I had to work with! Took me less than a day to get it off and pull out the 350/5-speed. I then started looking and trying to figure out the best way about doing it and figured the engine/trany should be the first to go in or figure out at least.

At that time I found a blown up 5.9 cummins from a guy at work to use as my mock up engine. I then relized that seeing I was doing the 4x4 conversion I would have to figure out that at the same time so the Cummins and Dana60 would work together on my GM 2wd frame. I stripped the front suspension and cleaned the frame of all the brackets and cut off what I thought wasn't needed. I then placed the engine into the frame and relized that to make it sit down where I wanted to I would have to make some room below the pan (cross member). On the 2wd frames the crossmember is huge and has a bilt in skid plate and more steel than whats needed! I cut the top of the crossmember down and was able to sink the cummins 2" more into the frame than I could the first time I tried. it fit great!

I then started figuring out the engine mounts and figured that a set of 24valve mounts would work the best..but the thing was I needed 2 sets because I needed to use just the one mount out of the set (on the Cummins they use two different style of mounts per engine). What I decided to do was make the brakets (they were more like buckets) the engine mounts would sit it and then slide them into holes cut right into the top of the frame and they could slid down thru and sit on the bottom of the frame and I would weld around them. (hard to explain) but super strong!

Front Suspension-


I then slid the the Dana60 under the front and ballparked where it should be. It looked like the passenger side would be okay but the cross member above the pumpkin it self would have to be cut into. I cut into and relized there was so much meet in the whole thing that it would be best just to narrow the whole thing down! I cut ALOT of steel of it (still have ALOT there) and I had alot of room for the axle to stuff its self into the suspension.

Then I started to figure out what style of coil suspension I wanted. I knew I wanted stock parts so I tried using the dodge 4-link style. After a few ours of mesuring I started the welder! Once I had the brackets finished I relized I didn't like how they were (the GM frames are flat compared to the dodge frame)there for the brackets hung very low and didn't look at all right! I wanted a stock looking suspension.

At that same time the new 05 Fords just came out with there Coil Sprung suspension and Trailing arms! I went to the dealership and crawled under a truck and realised that suspension was just what my GM needed!!!!

I went back to the guy I got all my drive train from asking if he could find me a set...Next day I walk in and they are beside his desk! (they were huge) and I knew looking at them they would work perfectly. I took them home and started the figuring and math all over again!

With the D60 still under the truck the work began. I started looking at the mounts on the axle and figured with a few modifications I could make the Dodge brackets work and then just used some steel I had around the shop to re-enforce them. Then I started the brackets that atatch the trailing arms to the frame. They were simple to make and worked great!

I then started to look at the steering and ran into a problem. The problem was that the Panhard bar ( I swapped the 98 bar for a 2002+ bar that bolted to both points rather than the ball joint style) was comming in contact with the steering! (NOT GOOD!) More math and figuring...I figured out that I could run the Panhard bar behind the axle and up to the frame and then there would be tons of room for the steering. I made the bar and welded the mounts and it WORKED:ylsuper: :thankyou2:

The next thing was to finish the steering and after much talk on the TDR about the T-style vs Y-style (stock) I decieded to go with the T-setup seeing I needed new steering components anyway...everything worked out great and my Panhard bar was on the exact same angle as the tie-rod!

Things were really starting to come together...time for a :Cheer:

The next step in the never ending conversion was the 6-speed/T-case and rear axle.

I figured to get the tranny sitting down low enough (its quite a bit taller than a 5-speed) I would have to make a custom cross-member. I got a piece of
3" wide channel, cut it in a key locations (the sides of the channel) then got out the torch and did some heating and bending. It was now bent to the shap I wanted and welded back up the joints and ground everything smooth. I then got a piece of 6" wide 1/4" flat stock and bent it to shape of the channel and welded it to it making one heck of a stong crossmember. I went over kill on it but if you saw the weight of a 6-speed you would know why I did it!

I then lifted my cab back onto my chassis just to see if anything was interfering with the tranny......OPPS...the tunnelwas touching just on one little spot! out came the sawzall and cut and patched a little piece of the tunnel and it was all good!

I bolted the T-case up and everything was all clear! I later decieded to swap the DLD for a 241HD case seeing I would be sled pulling and had some major HP going thru the drivetrain.

I started with the rear axle then and bolted it up to my GM springs...there were 2 things that were wrong. #1 was that the spring mounts would have to be moved inward because the springs were on an angle. #2 the front suspension set the frame up 4" higher than the rear did. So I went back to my driveline guy and got a set of stock 4x4 rear Dodge lift blocks...BINGO the suspension now sat 1" high in the rear...perfect!

With the drivetrain winding down and now having a rolling chassis I decieded to start looking into the interior. I wanted so bad to update the stock ugly red cloth to something else. Knowing how good the 95-99 GM interior looks I wanted to go to that style. I asked around at all the local wreckers and they all said that a full interior would be $2000 if not more...that included the dash/cluster and computer and everything. I stopped back my now well known drivetrain/ wreckers and told him what I was looking for. The next day I get a call to stop by. Turned out he had a 99 crew-cab (diesel) in that was hit hard in the front pushing in the firewall beyond repair but the interior was in great shape and was grey with Leather! just want I wanted. He said I could have the whole cab and frame (came with the diesel tank which I need also) for $1500:rockwoot:

On my drive home from there I saw a Crew-cab GM drive past me and got to thinking about how great the crew-cab would be to have again. (the truck before I had the reg-cab was a 97 Crew-cab GMC with a 6.5. I sold it because of an engine I was sure would blow up anyday!!!) it had major problems!

The truck from the wreckers was totalled and would be in possible to put back on the road bye switching cabs due to the new rebuilder laws up here in Ontario. I brought my buddy who does body work to look at the cab and he said...here is an idea!!!

Do it the total legal way and safe way!

Cut your firewall and half the A-pillar from your reg-cab and splice in into where the smashed firewall is on the crew-cab. He said it would be easy to do and that all the Unibody cars are done like that all the time! We then looked at my frame and the frame from the Crew-cab (the front was smashed hard but only the front section) turned out that GM has a two piece frame and the joint is right below the firewall. he said use the front section of your frame (already setup for the cummins) and the rear section of the crew-cab. Upon looking into this further it would work great and the two frames overlapped each other about 8" making it very strong.

It took me one weekend to grind apart what I needed and weld everything back together. I also boxed in the area with 1/4" plate to make it even stronger and to give it a good base for my trailing arm brackets!

I now had a crew-cab frame! I then sent it out for sandblasting and it came back and I sprayed it with POR15 chassis black (best paint ever for a frame!) turned out great!

The next winter (this past) I started to work on the body. The splice turned out great and I re-enforced the A-pillars and it worked amazing! I then stripped my entire body down and started the body work. with the crew-cab I had got 3 good solid doors and only had to buy a front pasenger door because it was hit pretty good in the accident.

I also at this time got to looking at the front clip and relized that it was cheaper just to buy new fenders/inners and a hood than it would be to strip what I had and deal with the rust. I got genuine GM fenders and picked up a 3.5" Goodmark cowl hood.

Then I started on the rear fenders/box...they were ALOT of work but fixing the glass was cheaper than buying new ($800 each).

Once I had the body stripped I started to spray the primmer. Once I had everything primed I went and picked up my base/clear paint in a custom black!

At the time I wanted to do all of the work on the truck as I had so far!!! I started to spray the base/clear and realized I just coudn't do it in my shop.
I have done ALOT of finishing before and am a cabinetmaker and have a large booth. But my woodshop is above the booth and I just couldn't get the dust out of the shop! its easy to hide dust when spraying a cabinet with laquer but spraying black base/clear is another storry.

I talked to a local finisher in town and he said to bring it over...$1200 later he had it painted and turned out great and better than I could have!

Nice. I was looking at your pictures the other day as a matter of fact. What kinda power are you looking at. You did a really nice job on the build. Major thumb up. :ylsuper:

Preformance!!!

Last fall I was really going all out with the conversion and was at the Truck Pulls constantly and knowing I could really compete in my class with a mild tune up (bombing)

At the end of the season they had a meeting for my class (which I missed) and the topic came up about conversions and they passed a rule that none of the Pro Street class could have conversions...I was pissed to say the least:rules: :rules: :rules: :stab: :stab:


In January I got a call from one of the head guys in the Diesel class saying they were going to start a new class called Pro-Modified (same rules as Super Street in the DHRA)

I read the rules (conversions are allowed) and read all the other mods that could be done and figured this was my chance to go all out. I spent enough $$$ on the rest that I needed some major HP!

I talked to a few engine shops up here in Ontario and didn't get good vibes from any of them about working on a diesel and what I wanted to have done. At that time the CDN/US dollar were almost the same (a year earlier I would have paid $1.65cdn per $1 US !!!)

One day I called up Haisley Machine about the clutch I wanted and I guess you could say that my mods escalated from there!

Before I knew it I had a full blown engine build that would be perfect for my class I was getting into!

Here is a list of the mods I had done

-Custom Haisley flycut pistons
-15:1 compression
-block & head were fire ringed
-block recieved 14MM haisley studs instead of the stock 12mm bolts
-engine had a full ballanced job/blue printed
-14mm main studs
-Haisley agressive truck pull cam
-valve/head job
-girdled the bottem end
-fluidamper harmonic ballancer
-5x18 Haisley Injectors
-custom set of Haisley stainless injection lines
-Water injection

-Haisley Machine dual disk Competition Truck pull clutch

AND a whole bunch more!!!

I also had the P-pump built up here in Ontario
here are the mods for it

-13mm Plungers/Barrels
-Piers custom truck pull grind camshaft
-4000gsk with a piers lighted govenor (spins to 5500rpm) detuned to 4500
-191 delivery valves
-100 plate (0 plate for pulling)
-increased rack travel and AFC mods
-full balanced and blueprinted

I am also running a set of custom twins. The small charger (currently by its self in the pictures) is a High Tech Turbo Sled Puller 66/14.
The large turbo is a Big Brother

This setup should work good with my current fueling needs!

Other engine details-

One major thing that took alot of time to figure out was what I was going to use for an Intercooler. I landed up using a unit out of a 2004 Duramax. It suprisingly worked with the 6.5" radiator that I had but had a hard time making room for it in my engine compartment.

What I had to do was cut the rad support up and fit it inside of it. This took ALOT of work and got a major headache from doing it (most thinking of the whole conversion) the problem was that if I pushed it out to far it was touching the headlights. I landed up taking a look at the adjusters on the lights and fliping a few things around and it worked!

When the intercooler is in the truck you can't even see it! I wanted to make this conversion look 100% stock as if it came from the factory and having a Ford IC or even a dodge unit didn't look right in my eyes...the D-max one was just perfect!


At this time I am still trying to figure out what to do for a battery box. Seeing the truck won't see much use as in hauling things in the box I think I might just put the batterys in the box and make more room for my twins and air filter!

One thing about the twins...I am going to be putting them side by side and running the stack up thru that nice cowl hood! that is why the batteries were giving me problems!

One other major thing I had to deal with was drive shafts. I called around up here and no one wanted to build them over 60" long and I wanted a 1 piece shaft for pulling. I talked to Patty Haisley and she said...NO problem! a few weeks later they were bolted on the truck...great service!!!

The truck came to almost 100% compession in mid June of this year. I worked almost a month straight on it to get it done for a very important dead line I had set 3 years prior!

I was getting married on July 17th,2006 and it had to be in the wedding!!! and my bride knew how much it meant to me that it was in there and amazingly she let this be my main priority before the wedding!

At 11pm July 16th (friday night...the night before) I had rolled it out of the driveway under its own power for the first time!!!! I had some issues with the clutch but it was fine to drive to the church and back to the house!!! I just couldn't shift once moving but for what I wanted to do it was okay and being able to rev to 4500rpm really helped!!! (more on the clutch later)

The next morning(day of the wedding) I finished a few things like putting the tailgate on and the fuel filler neck. But it was ready to go. I just had enough time to wash and wax it up and put on the wedding pom poms and stuff!!!!!! (I didn't pick the pink ones!!!)

It was a great day. Got married to my new bride, she got to ride in the truck for the first time and so did by best man who helped me moving alot of parts around so it was very pleasing for all of us!!!!!!!

I wanted to put on a good show for everyone (burnout) but was unable to with the clutch acting up but my brother in his 97 Cummins did a great burnout and I layed down alot of coal also leaving the church!!!

As I have more time I will update my pictures. I have alot of the complete truck in my picture file for those that want to see!!!

Thanks for taking the time to read this lenghty post!

RyanB

Holy crap, that's a long post LOL
Nice work on the conversion Ryan

Great pics and Writeup Ryan! Your truck Friggin Rules! :woohoo:

More pictures of it complete!!!

And a few more

Damn... that's pretty fine. Super Nice job. And well executed.

I have ALOT of pictures on actual film yet and I will have to scan them and post them also. Alot of when I was actually putting the suspension and engine together.

Doing a project is hard like this and trying to remember to take pictures all the time!

Here are a few pics of my Super Stock pull truck I sold to get some extra $$$ for the Crew-cab....wish now I would have thrown a cummins into that sucker seeing I could run the diesel now in the 4x4 Mod class. I sold the rolling chassis to a couple in northern New York state.

Props on the truck man. Truly amazing what you accolmplished!!

How have you done pulling with it?


C-ya

No pulling as of yet...really only got it finished at the end of september and figured I would break it in a little and there was still some preformance things I wanted to do to it. Its in the shop for the winter and the twins are being put together for it and a bunch of other stuff. I have decieded to ditch the intercooler and just use a ton of water so that will give me more room in the engine compartment also.

RyanB

you own my dream truck, great job on it