97 sonoma om617 diesel swap
 

starting a thread on my sonoma swap, 97 swb 2wd sonoma+83om617+95ax15 so far I have the benz diesel on the stand and am workin on cleaning the motor up before installing it also fabing brackets for the gm alternator and posably making some for stock ac compressor and gm ps pump. i have ordered the trans adapter from koch and a new clutch from ebay. found a new stock benz down pipe that i am going to chop up to fit. diecieded to paint the cam cover to match the truck since it was off to change the gasket. as soon as i figure out how to post pics i will have some up of the progress.

some pics
 

i found the problem with me loading pics is that my new camera pics wont load to the site so ill start posting some from my phone till i figure out whats wrong with the camera.:argh: I got a pic of the 2wd jeep trans donor. and the motor on the stand before i painted it. Ill have to get new pics with my phone tomorow.

You can mount your alt to the factory alt bracket just drill it out and add a spacer to thr front and get a v belt pulley VetteAttachment 20779

corvette74 thanks for the alternator pic. I had my alternator on the motor but didnt think about using a turnbuckle to adjust it, thats a whole lot easier than the contraption i had plannned on welding up. could you maybe send a pick of your oil pan in comparison to the steering? today i got the cam cover put back on the motor and started cutting and drilling some 3/8 plate for the motor mounts, also spent alot of time cleaning the trans and related components. I found degreaser wouldnt do anything to the caked on oil on the trans:argh: but after a while testing other tactics I found gasoline in a windex bottle will degrease a trans quite well. Here are some pics of the progress.Finally got my new camera working so I can post picture :jump: YES

looks great get rid of the egr you don't need it keep us posted

I have not mod my oil pan work just the way it was close but cleared the steering.
I dont have a picture of the pan but all I did was drop the sway bar down 1 1/2 in down
Vette

Redneckvette
I had to machine off the front v pulley on the crank it was to close to my rad.
I ran 1 belt to the alt 1 to the ps and 1 to ac work well so far have over 500 miles and counting. VetteAttachment 20826

just got my adapter kit today from koch, I test fit them and they should work out great.:jump: I am going to paint the adaptor plate before putting it on the motor since it is shipped plain steel but the whole kit is very nice and well done. plus came with a bronze pilot bushing installed. instructions and hardware needed were also included. hopefully pulling the motor from my truck when I get back from automotion in the dells in two weeks. I should have no problem having all the "known" needed parts by then. are most running a 4.3 radiator? that is what i am going after next. My 2.2 rad has the outlets on the wrong corners and i think it is a bit insuffitiont.

last nite i started getting out the old 2.2. It was ironic I had planned monday for the start date to pull the motor and sunday the clutch line blew out. oh well pull the motor. i had some other stuff to finish up before i could start tearing into it this were i got last nite.

got the motor and trans out last nite now the fun part starts. fabbing the the motor mounts

Not sure if you would like to see my mounts but here is a picture.
Vette.Attachment 20956

Attachment 20957

the first problem im running into is finding an adapter for the oil pressure sensor. i tried making one but welding to galvinized pipe is leaking all the way around. any suggestions. i went to all the local auto,hardware stores and nobody has an adapter from 12x1.50 to 14 npt

drill it and tap it

I ran the factory plastic hose to a fitting that will fit a coupling that worked for me.Vette.

corvette 74 were is this line located i cant figure out witch line your refering to. got the frame all cleaned up last nite and the motor propped & sitting were it should. got a start on the motor mounts also got the flywheel from the machinist and bolted on the adapter plate and flywheel.

On the side of the oil filter housing there is a brass fitting with a plastic line that went to oil gauge on the mb I just took part of that line to a brass fitting that screwed in a pipe coupling and put oil sending in it and good to go. Vette
If I am not clear on what I am saying let me no and I will try to get a picture of it for you if I can see it to get you one Hope this helps I will say I think U will be happy with this swap I sure have been.

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redneckvette
Look at your oil filter housing I can not get the lid off mine I am going to have to move it.
Vette

On the 300sd's they had electrical senders, so just take the sender and cut off the sender part from the base, and then drill out the center and tap it with a 1/4 in pipe tap, then thread in the Jeep sender, Done.

ok i ordered some fittings from autometer to convert the mertic threads in the oil filter housing to npt and hopefully they will be here soon also the clearance for the oil sending unit will likely be a problem as it points directly at my trans adapter. till the adapters get here i wouldnt be able to tell anything. i nfinally have some time to work on this project with the holiday weekend and got pretty far on my motor mounts last nite.

I had to use a 90 to clear the bell adapter.

Its hard to tell from your motor mount picture, but it appears you used the motor mounts that fit in the P-30 bread vans with the cummins 4BT? I hope so as I've purchased those for my repower. Again its hard to tell from your picture but it appears the rubber is mounted vertical such that it could shear instead of horizontal where it would compress? I've read where the rubber portion of the mount should only be in a compression position but I've seen other mounts where the rubber portion is at somewhat of an angle?

Thanks again for the details of your build and I hope some of the feedback you receive is helpful.

the mounts i used were for a 68 nova v8. if i have a problem they make high performance ones. the high performance mounts werent in stock,they had to be ordered and i needed mounts to get the motor in.

here is a picture of the truck with the motor mounted. i have the mounts for the ps done motor mounts are done trnas mount is done and i chopped the stock harness to fit the new motor. my newest problem is i cant get a slip yoke to fit into the back of my ax15 trans i think there might be some thing wrong with bushing in the tail shaft i have three diffrent slip yokes from trucks with the same spline count all of them only go in half way. otherwise the swap is going well

here is the pic

Ok I got my truck running and every thing is good exept it runns like crap and throttles up and down in the lower rpm's also doesn't really idle. I got the donor car in pieces so I never heard it run in the car. It had no injectors or injector lines when I got it I got them from the same year car and bleed them all. any idea's?

sounds like air in system to me or sucking air somewhere.
Vette

motor is junk
 

I think I have a bad injection pump! I have been doing a lot of looking around on benz diesel sites and every body says that these pumps are indestructible and never go bad but I think mine is junk. I am getting fuel from the low pressure pump to the filter and from the filter to the IP but I am only getting fuel from the # 5 injector line and very little from the # 4 line absolutely nothing from the front 3 I have tried to bleed out air,also used the prime pump for extended periods of time and cranked the motor till the batery is dead and still nothing to the front three lines. I have disconnected the vaccum lines to the shut off and that had no effect. all my fuel lines are air tight and there is no air getting into the fuel system. can someone please help me:argh:

the solution I found to my problem is another motor. I found one for three hundred and could no pass it up considering the injection pump for these are going for 200 plus. my plan is to pull the motor and replace it with this new motor known to run. later I can change the injection pump on the engine stand after I find one that doesnt cost as much as the motor itself. sucks pulling out the motor that I just put in but atleast the truck is set up for the om this time, should hear it in the truck soon. aiming for this weekend. also gives me a chance to pull the trans and try to figure out what is wrong (outside the truck) with the tail shaft and why it wont accept any yokes.

I admire your determination. I'd probably have to take a break from the project for a few weeks if I put in a defective motor.

Hang in there! I had to swap out motors in mine at the begining as well, but worth it.

:humm:it also looks like the cam timming is off on the first motor. I cranked the motor over till the cam marks lined up and the crank pulley was a 27* btdc. I looked on the internet for info on cam timming but nobody shows anthing about what to line up the crank with. it would be my assumption you would want it to line up with tdc. correct? thanks

With cam timing, you set the crank at TDC and the cam gear will line up with a notch on the cam tower. 25*btdc is the factory setting for the IP.

ok today I got the first om out and all the parts that I need for the new motor transfered over.(what an oily mess) I have family in town tommorow so I will most likely have to wait till sunday to put it in the truck, also got the trans problem fixxed. the trans shop told me I was screwed so I figured I got nothing to lose so I made a reamer for the tail shaft bushing with a extra yoke I had and a grinder now I can use my stock gm driveshaft yeehaw ill post pics of the progress soon.:s:

From my readings on the MB site, there are off-set keys available to compensate for timing chain strech that will allow you to reset the timing to factory specs without replacing the timing chain.

truck rocks
 

got the second motor in lastnite and runs great took it out for its first ride and i am really happy. the motor fired up after about 25 seconds and runs wonderful. i was able to bolt in my stock drive shaft also woo hooo. i dont have a fan on the rad but the motor stayed well below 210 so tonite i have to finish up a few small details and she will be out and about. has any one tried hooking up a speedo on an ax15 to an s10/sonoma?

a pic of it smoking up the garage. (doesnt normally smoke that much,did that for the pic)

Are you still running the ecm on the truck I had to run it for my gauges to work right.
Vette

Attachment 21065



This is the ecm on mine

i still have my ecm hooked up mine is in the same place just mine isnt painted black it is natural aluminum all my gauges work exept the speedo cause i havent hooked it up yet

I have about 100 miles on it now and it seams to run better every time I start it. all the reading I did that talked about the alda made it sound like all it did is controled smoke on take off, I adjusted mine out 3/4 turn today and what a difference it made in the lower rpms. the truck still doesnt smoke at all exept on start up but much more lower rpm torque. I also adjusted the fuel rack as far as it would go when I had the motor out. I didnt feel like going threw the risks and trouble of removing the rack limiter. the only thing I have yet to figure out is the alternator belt sqealing every time I start it and the speedo. i have adjusted the alternator a few times and it doesnt help i think i have the wrong width belt.

Redneckvette
All so you might want to try a less amp alt.
Vette