I am currently rebuilding a 05 cummins common rail, ultimately this engine will be going into a 1993 Chevy Silverado 3500 6.5L dually. I need to make some room under my hood for that big cummins, either by switching to a solid front axle along with with a 4" lift kit or by just finding a 4" lift kit for my current IFS. I just don't know which would be better for what I'm trying to achieve. If you have any ideas or advice please let me know, thanks.

 

straight axle is the only way to do it. save yourself a ton of time and headache and just do it at the beginning. all i gotta say is good luck and save your money. most guys doing these swaps are along the 10-15K dollars line, mine was even more costly than that

 

X2 on the solid axle swap.

 

Thanks for the help, I'm planning on putting about 10K into this project and I have about two years to do it. Do you have any suggestions on a front axle, I found the conversion kits online but it looks like you need to buy the front axle separately and I haven't had too much luck finding those for sale?

 

use a dana 60 obviously nothing smaller. depending on if your using a passenger or driver drop transfer case, your either going to want a 73-87 chevy dana 60 or a 78-79 ford HP dana 60 (figure 1500 bucks at least for that axle). and remember those so called "kits" arent even close to everything to do the swap. your still going to need springs, brake lines, axle, steering, drop pitman arm, yada yada yada. itll probably cost you 5K or so just on the solid axle swap to do it the right way and not monkey hack it together like some people do.

heres somewhat of a parts breakdown what i payed:
axle:1000
front brackets/shackles: 500 (built them all myslef)
steering: about 1000
springs: 100
brake lines:100
and about 1500 or so into my front axle new rotors calipers pads bearings etc etc etc. i wasnt about to throw a 30 year old axle under the front of my truck when my and my kids lives are in the truck

plus miscellaneous odds and ends that add up, nuts bolts etc

 

Thanks for the parts list, I'm kind of worried about it costing 5K just to do the axle swap but will see.

I'm a little foggy on how all this is going to effect the height of my truck, I get the impression from a DieselPower magazine article about this subject that you have to lift your truck pretty high just to fit the axle underneath and all I really want 4 inches total lift.