Tried to get one now but it's too darned dark.. They're from a 1985, all grey cloth which matches my interior perfectly, the side bolsters are perhaps a little high, mine is getting a bit ripped from sliding in and out. it wasn't too hard to remake the mounting for them either, I scrapped the dodge sliders as well.

 

The mounting is a little interesting. It is close. My truck is a single cab and the seats are out of an extended cab. Dodge ran a stepped flor in the single cabs in them days and chevy's 5th gen trucks use a flat floor in the ext cab trucks.

So I took the bracketry off the front of the dodge seats wjhich allows them to mount a flat tracked seat on a stepped floor. It's just a trapezoidal bracket they rivet to the seat rail.

I took that off, drilled a couple of holes, and mounted it to the chevy rails, into the OEM dodge cab holes (again, surprised it lined up, or came close).

The rear mounts are a little different. they are off by about a half inch or so. I've got something figured out for that but I need access to tools I don't have at home.

 

Sounds like a bunck of fun .. I will weld my stuff together .. But I'm looking now .. thanks for the inspiration ..

 

so cummins western canada sold me 4 sealing washers instead of 6, and 2 of them were the wrong size for my filter housing.

so now I'm pissing fuel everywhere.
f*** Cummins Western Canada. Oh, and they charged me 25 bucks for those 4 washers that shoulda been 6 and half of them are wrong.

On the upside,




Dunno when it'll go in for machining. I need injectors and a clutch and to re-seal the front of the engine first (that's a good 3 day weekend once everything is bought. . .it's just. . .1200 bucks worth of stuff during slow season now.

It'll probably take a year for me to get this engine done, but when it's done my truck will be.

 

I know the feeling you get when dealing with Cummins.. Note, for many parts, go to Kenworth instead of Cummins, same genuine part, less money! (go figure!?),... Saved $200 on a complete gasket kit that way.
Those copper washers are VERY expensive.. I know I got 2 sets of injector washers and it was $70 or something. Meanwhile in my rebuild kit I have about 2 dozen of them that I can't use anywhere.
I've had good success (in a pinch) of not using any washers on the fuel filter housing,.. better than bad washers at least. You can also cut them out of gasketing material as long as you don't strongarm it when you tighten it.

It took me a helluva long time to build my engine, I had it pretty much completely assembled in mockup stages several times to check clearances, etc... I figure it was about a month of evenings spent on it.
What are you going to do to this engine? I would recommend a stg 3 cam and clean up the port bowls at least.. When you put this much time and effort into something you might as well do it now!

 

I have no idea what I'll do with it, or where I'll go. Was thinking 400hp at the crank and any supporting strength mods it needs to do so. But I don't think the NV4500 will hold that, so that's a problem.
what do you mean by stage 3 cam? port bowls?

It could be a really wasteful thing as this mill has no cam/valvetrain/head. it's a block and rotating assembly. However, I need my truck, so I can't just pull the stuff I don't have off of my current engine. meaning that minus fuel system/clutch/accesories, which is easy to switch over, I need to buy everything that isn't there. Timing gear drive case, all the hardware, everything.

so for this mill, I have a head, valvetrain, cam, headstuds, oil pump, pistons, all the hardware for the bottom end (as I don't want to be re-using bolts from a potentially high mileage mill) and more other **** to buy. I already know how it'll go. I'll get this machined, get the crank ground and the bottom end bearings, along with the hardware for the bottom end, and it'll sit for about 6 months while I collect cash to go about buying a head (which will have the oiling and cooling updates for cyl. 6 done. must research further), a valvetrain, pistons, and a cam.
then that'll go together and it'll be another couple months waiting for more small ****. like I said, it's gonna take a year in all likelihood.

 

Are you sure you need to grind the crank? I had one that came from a forklift with HUGE hours on it and it just got polished.. If it didn't spin a bearing from getting antifreeze in the oil it's pretty rare for them to need a regrind,... The machine shop will know anyhow.

I think 400hp at the crank is a reasonable number for the NV4500 if you don't go for bigger torque numbers below 2000 RPM, where the 6cyl has a lot of rotational vibration (that's the tranny killer)
I got my camshaft from Colt Cams, they're in Abbotsford (somewhat local). If you can get at least the timing cover , then you're able to get it mostly together... since you can't put the cam in before the cover is on.
I went with a higher compression piston (from a non intercooled application), and shaved .010" off the top to make up for the deck of the block being milled so I didn't need a thicker head gasket. The higher compression makes them start a little easier in the winter, and also is good for fuel mileage.
I have oodles of used head bolts (stretch gauge says they're just fine) if you need them, but I'd recommend head studs of course.
Here's an approximate price list of what it cost me to build my engine
I found a sleeved and machined block, with a rebuilt head and polished crank (pre-94 style timing cover), with a new set of Mahle pistons for $1500 (I couldn't resist)
Reground camshaft with new lifters and retainer plate $700
Complete Cummins gasket kit and oil pump ~$1100
Complete bearing set ~$300 (Clevite Mahle)
Head studs ~$500-650 depending on brand and where you get them
I think rebuilt heads are about $600, then I spent about 12 hours porting mine.
If you want to rev much over 3000 RPM OR use a jake, add $160 for valve springs
That will get you an engine that's ready to be put together, Might still want other injectors, governor spring kit, and a clutch, but all that can be done after the engine's together.

I have about 4000 kms on my new mill, and my last trip to Kamloops and back it seemed to start to really be broken in, with my 4.10 gears I'd nicely do 110, it only needed about 7psi boost to do it, and I put 520 kms and still have over a 1/4 tank.. That's really good for my truck, especially when I wasn't driving slow.


What are these oil and cooling updates on the head?? I haven't heard of them. Another option you have is to put a 24V head on it and get new injector lines to still use the P pump!

 

the NV4500 Will take 600 all day .. no worries there .. ( big input and DD lutch and you will be fine ..

Porting the bowls is smoothing out the cumbustion bowls of the pistons ( mirror smooth helps the flame front move more rapidly and gets a cleaner burn

Stage 3 cam will help with low end power and spool twins/Compounds faster and help MPG as well .. need to check /Verify Piston to valve clearence and all that though to make sure the pistons dont assist the valves in closing ..

 

Firstly, replacing the input counts and having to deal with the transmission, to me. when I say an OEM NV4500 I mean one with stock sized shafts and bearings and whatnot. Clutch is a given.

SecondlyL
This one has at least 1 good score mark in it, as I recall. The bearings all have heat marks. methinks she was started at about -45 with 15w40 oil in it and ran without oil pressure for a few minutes. There is an exterior water jacket crack below the frost plugs (well, it looks like one, my machinist will check it. I doubt it's actually cracked as the frost plugs aren't pushed out. Looks like a casting mark to me)

I didn't really think a guy could keep the big torque numbers down low with a single turbo anyway.
Abbotsford is much more local than most places I've been checking out. by that I mean that they are actually part of Canada. What kind of temp rise did you see from the higher compression?

I could use a 24v head w/ 12v injector lines?
seriously? hm. . .

I'd already have injectors. the engine I currently have in the truck needs injectors. It came with 5x.009s and I'm going to 5x.012s I think. they're 500 bucks from thoroughbred or industrial diesel. If they'll fuel it well enough with proper tuning to the fuel pump I'll use them rather than buy a second set for no good reason.

I luckily already have the block. The machinist I use is good, and cheap for little guys like me. I don't know if he has all the tooling, being an independent, to do the block machining though. I don't know if I NEED new pistons, but I'm probably gonna get em anyway.

Edit: for the rebuild kit, I was thinking something along these lines:
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Dodge-Cummins...1b3db6&vxp=mtr
Truthfully I am completely in the woods about this. Never done an engine rebuild. Hell I'm a carpenter, I pound nails for a living, and don't get paid enough to do it.

 

I have no experience with Victor head gaskets (I did have a cummins one fail and wipe out my engine though). The rest of the gaskets from Victor would be good, and same with the bearings. I find the price (by the time you get it here) is uncompetitive to what you can get it for from Kenworth though for genuine parts, if that matters to you.

Honestly, with as much as you're going to have to do to that block you have to get it going, I'd look for another complete engine.. I found a complete running '93 with 200,000 kms for $1200 on craigslist... I believe the 5.9 was used in a lot of combines, etc, and since you're in the best place to look for one!

When I was speaking of porting the bowls, I didn't mean the piston bowls, I meant the valve bowls, which are under the valves, the castings are quite miserable there and there's a lot to be gained with just a little bit of work.

Yes, abbotsford is local to anyone in Canada If you have a good machinist, I'd skip buying the cam gear retainer from Colt ($100) because it's a glorified washer that your machinist can make in a few minutes.. It just won't be stamped "Colt Cams". They have reground cast cranks (what I have), or billet cranks (a bit more money).. I am not going to rev the snot out of my truck, so I'm OK with the cast one.. New lifters are essential though, but they do regrind those as well... They were out of stock when I wanted them so I just got new ones.