I rebuilt all the suspension, steering, driveshaft and rear pinion seal so hopefully it will be reliable.



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You are making quick work on this conversion. Looks great

Awesome progress. I have thought about doing this exact project before. Should have good power and great MPG's. Please keep us updated!

I got all the cooling system connected up and air bled out. I had to pressurize the system through the puke vent and then bleed the air off. While running I noticed something spit at me, and determined it was from the pressure side of the turbo. It is a used K03 off of ebay. Do i need to run an oil restrictor or is the oil seals bad in the turbo.The cold side is not hooked up yet so it is not pressurizing the motor.


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As far as I know oil restrictors are mostly used in ball bearing turbos. how much oil is coming out of the turbo? if the oil drain is too small that can cause oil to back up in the center section, and then leak past the seals. So a little oil in the compressor side might not indicate a bad turbo. How does the bearing feel, end play wise ?

I have a 5/8 hose for my drain with no obstructions. I measured end play the best I could, hard to get a good solid fixture. Looks to be 20-25 thousands of end play. How much is to much?


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I ordered a new center section or "cartridge" for the turbo. In the mean time I finished up the exhaust with the exception of the rear hanger.


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pretty.

where did you get the upper radiator hose adapter with the sight glass?

I found it here:

Stealth Conversions V8 Cooling System Parts - Coolant Sight Glass

Any updates? Hows the truck coming?

Its been hot and progress slow. I have replaced the turbo, installed the intercooler. I have started it up and drove it around the yard. Just need to do all the wiring now for everything from the key switch to lights to the intercooler pump.


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Cooling issue or Questions. While idling it seems to get a bit hot, and like to puke into the over flow tank. So I wire the temp sender that came with the engine (reefer engine) to the trucks gauge. A quick google search leads me to believe both (kubota and GM) use decreasing resistance with increasing temperature so the gauge and sensor should be compatible????? the gauge never moves though as the engine heats up. Does the Temp sensor get hot if the thermostat is stuck closed? I checked the gauge and it shows full scale with a short and less than a 100 with an open.

Anybody got part numbers for the thermostat and temp sensor that I could use at a local auto parts store?


Jason

You need the one from the original engine. I am sure you can get a replacement. Check out rockauto.com. for part #. I have found that site as a great resource, and good prices

GM uses a 3/8 NPT, is this the same thread in the Kubota head? Curios as most stuff thus far has been metric.


Jason

Probably not the same but an adapter can be found

most of the Kubota plumbing I have worked on is British standard pipe, or metric o-ring,/ crush washer. I 2nd. the idea of running the temp sender from your truck not the Kubota, and make sure the sender is in good submerged water flow. my jeep stays pretty cool, at start up, but after a few minutes it goes up to 180F and stays there. it will creep up to 190-195 when pulling uphill in 2nd or 3rd going very slow.
you should have a lot of reserve cooling capacity. the jeeps radiator is double the size it needs to be for the Kubota.
looks like you are really coming along. let us know how you like the W to Air intercooler?

I pulled the sensor, it looks to be 1/4 inch NPT, but is probably 1/4 BSP. The GM one is 3/8 npt. I'll see if there an adapter I can find locally tomorrow. As far as thermostat, a quick search reveals a Napa THM215 should work.

I have an exhaust leak before the turbo and it looks to be the ultra fine threaded studs that came in the kubota manifold won't pull down tight enough. Looks like i'll have to remove the manifold and drill out the studs and replace with 3/8 bolts.


Jason

Sam at Leanards diesel in CA has Kubota stud kits

Are you trying to use the cooling passage at the pax rear side of the block? I just corked that. There are other places you can use your bigger GM sender, like your air vent fitting or a different style thermostat neck.

Yep trying to use that passage, I had hoped i could get away with using the kubota sensor but mine is dead.

I replaced the thermostat and came up with an adapter for the sensor this morning. The thermostat seems to have solved the over heating issue. Gauge still doesn't work. The adapter may not have down in the water enough or the dash gauge may just be broke. I may just go with an external gauge and its sensor.


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Quick question not about the truck. Is that a diy cnc router so similar you are using for a work bench?

yep it is a diy cnc router and it does like to collect the tools. hopefully one day it will be a diy cnc plasma cutter, if i ever get around to getting a plasma cutter.


Jason

Very cool. I am build a cnc gantry router with travels of 50x30x15. All the ballscrews are from a haas vf5. Frame is 8x4x.25 stainless tubing. Table will be 48 x 28 x 2.0 aluminum and running a bt40 spindle. I have built numerous smaller machines and this will hopefully be my last. ..once the frame is filled with sand it should weigh in excess of 2k lbs

this one has a working area of 48x48x8. It is rack and pinion with a gear reduction on the x and Y and a ball screw on the Z

I ordered a exhaust stud replacement kit from leanords diesel with a couple of extra studs for the turbo side, hopefully they are the same size.

Just a side note on the overheating issue, seems like you solved it but for all the others out there, if you use the by-pass hose for the heater core like most of us are doing, make sure that it is an open loop so coolant always flows. On my new truck it wasn't and the factory set-up was to close off the flow when not on heat. I solved it by swapping out the valve that when the flow is stopped to the core, it re-routes it back in a loop to the engine. The motor requires an open loop to circulate coolant before the t-stat opens.

Well went to go get plates today, so I could start working out the finer details. Come to find out Maryland changed their rules regarding historic plates. As of Oct 31 the vehicle must be 30 years old to qualify for historic plates instead of 20 years. I'm at loss as what to do. Find an older truck? Part it out? try and sell it as a uncompleted project? Not sure just really P***ed off right now that I did not put plates on it sooner as I would have been grandfathered.

wow that sucks. We don't have to worry about this sort of thing in texas too much. but I did ask to have my registration changed to diesel there was no problem. that said and I don't have any real advice to offer
there should be some type of workaround? register as normal and pay a penalty for failing emissions, or some such, or penalty registration, farm register, out of state register, is the engine newer than the truck? there should be some way to move forward
good luck

FWIW: Maine is a non-resident registration state. I think you can just mail in a power-of-attorney with the appropriate paperwork. (Though, I think that it is 25 years...)

Awesome build! Sorry to hear about the emissions thing. Jersey just did away with that cause it's too expensive for them to test OBD1 stuff now.

How do you like the govenor spring you put it? That's a .062 x .437 x 2, right? I'm going to be making a run to the hardware store to pick up some cables and ring terminal connectors to make battery cables. I have the exact same problem as you; tried to start my engine last weekend and it cranked over way too slow. I guess old jumper cables aren't the way to go, even if they're decently think.

Good luck with getting it registered. Maybe try and get the title switched over to diesel. I know of someone up here that did that with a 4bt conversion.

Joe

I like the spring ,it has worked out well. It seems to lost some of its temper and may have stretched a little, I need to investigate. It probably was stretched when I was building the throttle assembly and determining travel, while the engine was not running. Or it could be a Chinese spring.

Still no luck on getting it registered Maryland started requiring a "Safety inspection" upon initial tagging of historic registered vehicles that are less than 30 years old. I've taken it to a couple of "accommodating" inspection stations and have not had any luck. Once they see the big aluminum plate inbetween the transmisson and engine they start asking for documentation that the engine is the same year or newer as the truck. that along with several other difficult but fixable write ups, like check engine light that does not stay on but comes on momentarily when the key is cycled, and reinstalling the ABS on the back brakes.

At this point I'm lookng for another truck, one that I can get through inspection before pulling the motor, or possibly an old 30's truck to plate as a hot rod. If I don't find something by spring, I'll probably part it out.

Jason

Sorry to hear of you're troubles! On the ck engine light issue, an easy fix is to use an oil pressure sender for an idiot light wired to the ck engine light. I use one from a 1972 Chev Vega that has duel purpose, idiot light for the ck engine and the other two terminals are a switch intended for the fuel pump that I use as an engine protect wired to the fuel solenoid in case I loose oil pressure. Paint the adapter plate to keep the stock appearance, also you're motor should have a build date on the valve cover.

I think I have decided to try and sell this as an unfinished project. If there is no interest I'll begin the part out procedure. I have lost forward momentum and the registering problems have got me down. It needs the fueling adjusted, gauges finished up, and general shake down that an initial project goes through. The truck itself is a beater but the whole front end is new along with stainless brake lines and such. One concern is the driveshaft, when I replaced the U-joints it appeared as though the PO had buggered up the aluminum recess for the cir-clips. I cleaned them up the best I could but had planned on looking for one in the junk yard.


Jason Robb

Do you have family in a state where no emmisions is needed. Can you get it regestered there and title changed to diesel? This sucks. If you did find an 87 and older everything would swap over pretty easily but still a huge amount of work.. keep us posted

Ken

tach
 

search ebay for diesel tach tiny tach is one i have a tach that picks up from alternator pulses on my 96 tracker with vw 1.6 turbo hope im of help