Considering buying a 99 Crewcab for a Cummins 12V conversion. Should be doable but Im not exactly sure if I have all the skills do do this.

Any tips, knowledge, or advice would be appreciated before I jump in with both feet.

 

Y not keep the 7.3L I love my buddys I want my duramax and a 7.3 just so I can switch trucks every week

 

because Im looking to find one with a ragged out engine so its cheap.

 

If I could do mine all over again (aside from having to rebuild due to a melted motor ), I'd butcher the crossmember, box the frame, and make my own REMOVABLE crossmember...and I would definitely encourage this in a newer body style truck. Turns out, the height of the motor makes pulling the motor a pain, and in-frame rebuilds would be soooooooo much easier with a drop out crossmember. Just my two cents though...

Other than that, with a mechanical motor, you're pretty much just motor mounts and simple plumbing away from your very own Fummins. If I can do it, anyone can.

 

Exactly the kind of info I am looking for. Thank you sir.

 

yeah, it's tight all right. I cut a section from the upper firewall and it still scraped the pan on the crossmember. once it's in there though, there's a ton of room under the hood. The superduty is a great conversion because the radiator support comes off easy and there's plenty of room in the engine bay

 

I went through the tight fit and the scraping fresh paint, then I added a 2 1/2" body lift. I'm not real fond of a body lift, but it sure made life much easier.

 

Look for one with the 351 gasser 5spd . They will have the small bell bolt pattern on the ZF, so all you need is the ford bell adapter they used behind the 4bt in the bread trucks. The gasser crew cabs out here are going cheap!

 

the only problem with a small block ZF is they use a small clutch, 11 inch, which just isn't big enough to handle the cummins torque, even with the South bend ceramic clutch i have!

 

Why not try to find a gasser with a popped or tired motor? These seem to be much more common.