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In late 2018 I bought the Jeep/truck combo I'd always wanted - a 1969 m715 military truck. They made about 30k of these things during the height of the Vietnam war from 1967 to 1969 to replace the very cool and good Dodge M37, however it was a bit of a failed experiment. These things were the first attempt to bring costs down on military trucks by using existing commercial vehicles as a platform to modify, called Mil-COTS. Very few M715s made it to Vietnam, a bunch made it to korea/europe and they were fairly unreliable and underpowered and bad. Cool but bad. Interestingly the Korean military still makes a modern version of an m715 made by Kia, an unfortunate name for military use. A lot of these trucks, once sold off from boring military duty, became brush fire trucks, as mine was. It entered service in California as a bright yellow Borrego Springs brush truck in an M726 configuration (the bed was a maintenance service bed). The previous owner was the first civvie owner of this truck and replaced the bed with a 715 bed from a donor. So here we are again back at the end of 2018 and I've apparently just paid too much for this truck as the lady at the DMV reprimanded me for, but as happy as can be! When it breaks down for the first time on my way home:  Fun fact I probably learned from these forums, but only vehicles in 1969 can have "69" in the license plate here. Quite Nice. Plate was from previous owner. At this point it had a stupid custom bumper and winch, hard top with cool running lights, untrustworthy 37" hmmwv tires mounted to 4 custom made rims for the old weird 60's bolt pattern, a different spare wheel with ND tire. It's got an automatic C6 trans behind a Ford 351w apparently from another govt. police interceptor (I think the fire dept. did this change) and an NP205 transfer case. It has dual fuel tanks, the stock 26Gal under the bed and a 50Gal tank in the bed. I wonder why it needs 76Gal of fuel? Oh because the 351 gets FIVE miles per gallon. Garbage:  Wonderful milspec interior:  Original data plate showing the fire dept. yellow:  It turns out it only broke down because, well, it ran out of gas. Once I got it home I left it for a bit but one of the coolest things about this truck is that it's actually a convertible! To heck with this tin roof, off with its head and thus began the start of many many fabrication projects. I couldn't find any soft top frames for sale so after buying a JD2 tube bender, a mig welder, some metal, some buttons and an after market soft top I ended up with something close enough.  This is my driveway, most pictures will be from within this driveway.  Some time after this I also remove the 50 year old gas tank under the bed and use the modern 50gal only. No pictures but I'll try to use 1000 words to explain it instead: It was fire season in socal and in smoky air with 95f temperatures - I am half soaked in gasoline trying to re-plumb the gas lines. Awful job. So now armed with a cool soft top and a short reliability record of driving it on my small commute, I decide to take it to a friend's bachelor party in Lake Arrowhead where it decides to break down even harder. The engine starts surging and dying on the freeway (gas line issue maybe?), so I pull off and when I go to park right after the turnoff I hear a loud Ping! and the steering gets very weird. The steering box snapped off the frame... At 5mph instead of 65. AAA membership starting to really pay off:  The filthy, oily steering box area with shiny crack where the welds broke (I had to wire wheel a lot to get it this visible):  Look at this garbage rear end area to try and get into to weld. It sucked. (replaced motor fan with electric fan during this)  Added a gusset to the underside of the plate the box is mounted to.  The rag joint driveshaft was wrecked and bent out of shape during this so it was all replaced with a collapsible double D ujoint setup. (these cost far too much)  While the truck was having surgery I also decided to replace the horrendously offensive aftermarket front bumper and winch. This truck doesn't need an extra 200lbs hanging off the front of it. For some reason, 4x4 people love to overbuild bumpers. I picked up some cheap construction steel beam and cut it in half and welded it back together again following the body lines.  Much cleaner  Around this point I start considering what my real plans are for this truck instead of driving it around with 50 year old drum brakes, 3 gears, its slow, cant offroad gud, etc. gently caress it. Let's spend some real money. In part 2 just below.
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Jun 25, 2021 06:49
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Okay, let's prioritize this a bit. Tires are dangerously dry and bad, but fortunately the wheels they're mounted on are 16.5" which is a rare size for tires these days, and even more fortunately the lug nut pattern is some ancient size that time forgot and you can no longer buy wheels for any longer. Maybe I can get new hubs for the axles, shouldn't be so bad as the front is a Dana 60 and the rear is a Dana 70. No - the front is a 60's closed knuckle passenger side drop Dana 60 with the strength of a modern Dana 44 and drum brakes. The rear is a 60s Dana 70 with the strength of a 60's Dana 70 but also drum brakes and it has a detroit locker in it that locks up the entire axle if I turn at a stop sign. Both axles are extremely wide with a WMS to WMS of roughly 72" so replacing it wont be as convenient as I'd like. Changing the lug nut pattern is almost impossible on the front axle and just quite rare and annoying to do on the rear. New axles it must be. Thanks to another vehicle from Mil-COTS, and basically a modern version of the m715, the CUCV happens to have super wide axles with passenger side drop, a convenient and common swap for m715 owner. So I get myself an old CUCV front Dana60 that has been sitting in Satan's colon for about 20 years. """VERY NICE"""  I dont have a lot of pictures of it, but it was fun trying to get a 600lbs axle out of the truck bed with no hoist. So after actually buying a hoist weeks later, a HF 20ton press, new brake rotors, new calipers, Yukon locking hubs, 5 gallons of Evapo-Rust (amazing stuff), some high steer double-sheer kingpin arms, seals and rebuild kits for all sorts of things, lots of gloves, grease, wire wheels, flap and cutoff wheels, a stiff diff cover and a few cans of paint, I put them all in a preheated garage at 425 for a few months and this emerged.  So shiny  Welded together some leaf perches  Had to make 2 custom stout dollies to wheel these axles around and position under the truck.  Some heim joints and quater wall DOM tubing make it really simple to fab up a tie rod/drag link. Front's good, time for the rear. I spent a lot of time refurbing the front axle and I hated every minute of it, so the rear being cheaper I opted to just buy a custom made brand new one. ECGS 14 bolt with ebrake discs, 1/2" wall tube, 4.56 gears, ARB air locker, custom width, 1410 ujoint. 3 Months later this arrives.  Cool.  So now the axles are set, I buy some extremely cheap 40" mtr/k tires off facebook to test clearances and some 2" spacers to test backspacing on some procomp steelies for when I order the real wheels. A test fit looks good as the wheel wells on this truck are fortunately huge and will only need minor trimming. Great, not only do I have 4x 37" tires taking up valuable garage space I also have 6x 40" tires to deal with.  Time to buy some cool wheels! Actually... Maybe not yet. I started prioritizing things and ended up doing an entire axle swap before I even got to the second item of a list. So let's make a list: -I want a Diesel motor and an automatic transmission with overdrive that also fits the NP205 transfer case I have. -AC unit as I live in SOCAL. -40" tires on beadlocks because I live in SOCAL. -Suspension needs to work offroad. Softer, bigger leafs or 4link the entire thing (TBD). -Rollcage with modern seat belts and seats for safety. -Rock sliders and skidplate protection for offroading. -Front and backup cameras as the hood is huge and I can't see poo poo. -Probably many more small things not worth listing. So that brings you all up to speed on this build/project. I'm currently working on the rollcage because I know it would take me time and I had to save up for the other goodies.. and it's a lot of fun! Fabricating things for this truck is the real hobby here, which is why buying wheels can come later.
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Jun 25, 2021 06:52
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I have recently decided to get more of a hussle on when it comes to working on this thing, unfortunately the timing could've have been worse as we enter summer months with 90-100+ temps and rising. Grinding and welding in these temps wearing welding jacket, gloves, cap, hood and respirator is as you can imagine, just bucket loads of fun. I mean sweat. But here we are just get on with it and make progress. I've seen a number of cages on m715s online before and I quite like aspects from a few of them so I've become a great artist and stolen designs from them all. I've also just come to terms with the fact that this cage isn't a race cage, its slow rollover protection and I have limitations in garage space for tubing lengths so some tubes will have to be mated. It is not as triangulated as you'd expect from a track car but strength is made up for in other areas and some bits of tubing will need to be sleeved and butted/plugged together to form longer main loops. I've been told this butt/plug thing will work out well with a little reaming. The plan for the cage is: -2" .120 wall DOM -Basic 4-point cage tied to frame. -Seats tied into cage. -3pt seatbelt + 5point harness for seats. -Rock sliders welded to the frame tie-ins. -removable for painting + final welding. I started with the base plates so I know where to aim all the tubes at. Of course nothing is easy and the rear plates had to be some custom shape and the front plates needed a bunch of trimming of the cab in this hot rear end weather. Didnt have a drill press so I decided to pie-cut existing base plates as it was less work than dealing with my trash rear end drill (ive since upgraded). Anyway its good welding practice and itll be fine, I hope. Rear base plates.     Front showing the trimming of the cab stiffener channel.  For my JD2 tube bender I have it mounted to a post on some wheels so I can make the most out of the space in the garage. Because of this I couldn't use the default lever-arm as that requires mounting into concrete, so I stole an idea from my mate who bought a $30 trailer screw jack and welded mounts onto it for the bender. You simply attach a drill and it works pretty drat well. Here's a video of him demonstrating the setup https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdpqTnTy5IA This worked well for me on HREW tubing for all my practice and furniture project but once I switched to the DOM tubing my electric drill just didn't have the torque for 2" tube. After huffing and puffing about it for a while the only solution was to buy an entire air compressor, air piston and SWAG hydraulic JD2 converter. This setup is now fuckin baller and I don't know why I didn't get into air tools sooner. So after a few wasted lengths of expensive DOM I ended up with this for the front hoop. 6 bends and buttplugged together in the middle. I'm using some tube couplers here because with the kickers in for leg room the cage wouldn't be removable and I wouldn't be confident welding in some very tight areas. I believe the cage will be stronger with good welds all around even with a few couplers.  Speaking of reaming earlier - I was mistaken, I would actually need to turn down the 1.75 DOM inner sleeve tubing using a grinder for it to fit. I just think the white shiny metal looks cool. It was plug welded in a bunch of spots and the 2 main outer tubes butt-welded with about a 1/16th gap then ground down flush, etc.  The main rear hoop was more of the same, just simpler. Today I was able to make the top tubes and get a good feel for what itll all look like and how much headroom there will be (plenty) Cage fits within the removable soft top frame.  Outer top tubes will be pushed further outwards onto or near the bends when tacked on (they're just resting here for now)  And 'the look' from the front. 
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Jun 25, 2021 07:50
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Raluek posted:yes yes yes yes! i love the M715. shame about the powertrain, both present and future. put a 401 in it! Haha why do you hate diesel? This truck is never going to work as a high horsepower machine, it's too heavy and offroading is basically all about going 5mph. I'm (disappointingly) hoping to put an R2.8 in it, which may disappoint many but we can discuss it. Raluek posted:are you going to shorten the truck any? it looks huge as hell (which imo is fine for a truck, but maybe not super practical for offroading) No plans for that yet. I've seen the bobbed beds done but I don't want to rush into that. We'll see if it is an actual offroading problem once it's running again. This is something to tackle after engine/suspension changes. Raluek posted:do the legs of the front hoop block the windshield latches? that seems like a problem. maybe its just the angle of the photo Good eye, they do! When I take out the cage to weld/paint I will be cutting those off and putting new ones in where they don't interfere. I'll also have to clearance the glovebox a bit. There were some packaging issues with that front hoop where I had to balance the latches vs the window winders on the doors, so they're inbound a lot more than you'd expect, but winding down windows is important for both me and mcdonalds drive-thrus respectively. Krakkles posted:I love this truck and want to work on it and wheel with it. Hell yeah let's gently caress.
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Jun 25, 2021 08:32
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Raluek posted:mainly i just hate how they smell, how they sound, and if it was me i woulda wished it was a V8 every time i drove it But I've already made the thread title! Seriously though, I like the diesel sound for offroading vehicles and I do believe the characteristics of a diesel will work better: cons: -heavy -low HP -vibration and noise (caveat -flat faced vehicle already gets wind buffeting at about 60mph and shakes a lot because it's old.) -Mandatory large, shiny Cummins badge on the side will attract terrible people. pros: -simple(r) -good low rpm torque (turning 40" tires at low speeds with only a 2:1 transfer case) -more fuel efficient in a heavy vehicle. Going with something like an R2.8 the vibrations wont be as bad as something like a 4bt (also less engine height for suspension travel packaging), itll be easier to install for me, a lazy dumbass, and the gas mileage seems better. A big thing about offroading is that you have to actually drive 100s or 1000s of miles to reach the destination. The hypothetical plan now is an r2.8 / 6L80E. I'd love to hear all opinions, though. Anyway, since the exhausts are off entirely for the rollcage build, I'll record the the V8 sounds because it's ridiculous. [e] I'm sorry I forgot to mention this thread will also heavily feature cat pics. 
tuna fucked around with this message at 11:10 on Jun 25, 2021 |
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Jun 25, 2021 11:07
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Merry Friday - It wasn't an especially productive day today. First of all, friday cat:  Today was largely spent staring at 4 tubes and asking myself "do I like these tubes?". The answer is always somewhere between "dunno" and a squinty look on my face as I consider the cost of wasting even more DOM tubing on bad ideas. So this is essentially the final look of the cage for now, pretty similar to the previous images of it but now they're tacked into place and have had some finer fitup grinding done.  This weekend I hope to be able to tack in the base plate cage tie-ins. (Ignore the couplers they are just there as friends)  Also look at this absolute nonsense:  My loving welding hood broke its dimming glass somehow. All I did was reach in to adjust the brightness and it cracked? I'm actually not a huge fan of this hood, despite it being pretty spendy and highly regarded (by idiots!!). The head strap/attachment part is overly complex, uncomfortable, slides off all the time and I can't tighten it up without pulling my drat hair. The mask refuses to stay in the upright location and the friction screws constantly loosen, and the adjustment controls are really hard to reach unless this is your hand anatomy. While it is very clear and nice when it's not dimmed, I still can't quite get the right balance of brightness for seeing the weld pool. I knew I should've just gone with a Lincoln Viking. cursedshitbox posted:Pleasantly surprised its not getting a 6BT. Cummins needs to get their stupid poo poo together and sell a 3.8 crate motor. Dare me to order an ISF3.8 from Alibaba in protest? The 2.8 is a bit underpowered for the weight/size of this vehicle but what choice do I really have? None! No choice! On the plus size, the low weight over the axle is nice for longevity and there are 200hp/400ftlbs tunes out there to be had. I haven't ordered the 2.8 yet so if there is a better suited diesel for this truck I'm all ears - It just needs to not be huge and tall, because I do need axle articulation. tuna fucked around with this message at 05:52 on Jun 26, 2021 |
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Jun 26, 2021 05:47
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Thank you all for motor opinions and ideas. I'm reading them and will do research on everything, although I don't have much to reply about them right now as my head is currently in fabrication mode. For context about me: My current daily driver is a Jeep JK with a 3.6 pentastar 4.10 gears and 37" tires and I love it. I was once in Colorado and I felt like I needed more power at that altitude but other than that I have never cared for sending this thing past 85. It's been to 100, but it's not cool. On the trails I do it has more power than you could ever want, and you'll break something if you use it all. I have a feeling AI's opinions on power are in a different league to what I'm used to or care about, but it's worth noting. Small Japanese diesels, Duramax, etc. are all interesting to me and I'll look into them. As a I hear you, gas V8'ers. It's not off the table but it's unlikely. Then again I could always bump my head and have a change of heart. I do like their lightweight and compact form factors, but low RPM is where this truck needs its guts.
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Jun 27, 2021 05:07
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Today's update is being kicked off by a CAT VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnM0MduIBEs Anyway, box thread!  What could it be? What's in there? Is it an r2.8? An LSX? Even better? Probably! Exciting reveal! An Chair.  Get tae gently caress! (I'll miss the folding though):  After removing the original seats, lap belts and center console that has always just been floating around in there unbolted, we end up with a nice clean cab. I only had to grind off 3 weird mounts of dubious origin. It's like moving into a new apartment with endless feng shui possibilities. There are an awful lot of random holes in this cab though from previously mounted furniture. I'll have to weld all of these up once the cage is out for full welding.  Now that all the chuff is out, I have to make sure that the cage is actually removable for final welding. A long hour later and I find out that it is, I can basically squat press this thing out and get a good workout while doing it too. I didn't take any pictures of this incredibly boring wrenching job, but it seems like the cage can split in two and be wedged out of the cab and also reinstalled and bolted all back together without anything wonky happening. Cage is only tacked for now but you always want to make sure it hasn't warped in any weird fashion. I will be tacking existing pieces a bit more before final removal to really make sure warping isn't an issue during the final welding process since there will be gussets and a lot more heat going into this thing. I then proceeded to do a terrible job of documenting my progress on the cage but I cut and notch the ground tubes between the A and B pillars adding a coupler inbetween so that whole front quater can still be disconnected. Then I add a dash-bar between the A pillars.  I'm actually really hyped for that dash bar because I can mount all sorts of things to it for convenience.  Seat testing time!   I'm going to need a smaller steering wheel aren't I? And maybe removable? AND probably a tilt column (any recommendations that arent $1000?). Stupid cab, why isn't it bigger? I really like the feel of the seat when it's racked back at more of an angle, but it tends to poke out the back window when that happens. Because it's a soft top this isn't really a huge issue, but there are packaging issues for the B-hoop cross bar/harness strap bar and any potential triangulation on that hoop I'd be able to do. Why do I have to solve so many clearance issues on a truck this size? Maybe the solve is to just bend all those internal B-hoop tubes so it all sticks out a few inches and add some weather proofing for the soft top to accommodate... I'm going to have to get a lot better at tube bending and notching for this. So I went with a basic Mastercraft Rubicon seat because 1) PRP take 7 weeks to deliver a seat 2) it was cheap 3) had a pretty good balance of bolstering but ease of access for a daily driver. The headrest is a good height for me and the harness strap locations too. Overall I think this seat is gonna be fine. I was expecting the seat to come with little rollcage tabs for horizontal bolts but it came with vertical bolt mounts instead so I'll be welding on my own tabs for mounting - which is going to be its own series of problems to solve. A problem for future-me, not current-me.  It's also worth noting that this cab has TWO gloryholes. I don't mind but why are they faced down? Glory hole design has come a long way since the 60s and I intend on improving this.  It was like 97f today and because its cage work I had no shade - wearing a welding jacket, gloves, full face respirator and hearing protection for a decent chunk, I was hot as gently caress. Do any of you have fitness watches that track heart rate and calories while wrenching? With the heat and fairly active wrenching today my watch thinks I sprinted a marathon.  Bookending this post with another video of the 351 with no exhaust. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zKmBxBEmz4
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Jun 27, 2021 05:14
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bennyfactor posted:Based on your photos, it doesn't look like you need much of a "column" part of the steering column, since it doesn't stick out far from the dash. This 12" tilt column is $387 at summit: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/idt-1120120010?rrec=true. There's one that's less shiny but it's 200 bucks more so, I dunno, maybe can of black rustoleum instead? Hell yeah, thanks. Didn't know they sold just the tilty part.
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Jun 27, 2021 06:45
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CAT INTERCEPTOR posted:Just as a small point, a kinked rollcage front leg like that is not a good idea (it's a point of potential collapse) but you can alleviate with a gusset to the intrusion bar. Yeah the cage has some compromises. A lot of compromises. I will be gusseting most joins because of the lack of triangulation overall and it's me welding. I also have this in mind for that area as bends in tubes are weaker and not ideal in an A pillar.  Disgruntled Bovine posted:This is the first build topic I've been excited about in a while. I don't know poo poo about off-roaders outside of what I've picked up on here over the past several years, but it looks like you're going all in on this and that's awesome. Hog wild. Thanks, the mall parking lots near me wont know what hit'em.
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Jun 28, 2021 02:00
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I absolutely hate grinding and welding while awkwardly laying under a vehicle in 100f temperature and today was just one of those days. At first I tried to put it off by doing fun fabrication instead where you're measuring and bending and using cool specific tools to make the work easy - bending 1.5" tubing for mounting the seats to the cage. I started off by making a rear cross bar:  Then a right angle piece to create a sort of square under the seat. I don't have any 1.5" couplers so I can't complete this piece today at any rate, but it was really useful for me to be able to see this and visualize how this piece will absolutely not work and go back to the drawing board.  The passenger seat side of the transmission channel isn't the same as the driver side so that is also a very cool thing I'll have to design around. I really don't want to lock myself into any bad decisions regarding the seat mounting situation so I will order a new PRP 13" wheel a tilt column and I'm looking at wheel quick disconnects too, for security. Fun fact - this truck has no locks! I accept my fate and realize I must start to do the annoying part of installing the frame tie-ins for the cage. Welding prep and clearancing some of the body for the rear:  Same on the front:  The front mount has to be modified a bit to be smaller to fit into the area it has to live on the frame:  Rears can stay as they are, just some weld prep  Out of position welding is always scary and tricky and that is made a lot harder when you can barely fit the gun in to aim and your arms are hovering above your head and the mig sparks rain directly down onto you. I don't want to completely gently caress this up so I spend a few hours welding on test coupons. In the chat thread recently there have been a few welding discussions and here is where I stand by my recommendation to just buy pre-cut coupons for welding practice/tests. Yes, I can buy a large 1/4" plate for cheaper and spend a bunch of time and energy cutting it up into my own coupons but it's 100f out, I've been rolling around on the floor for a while grinding a disgusting frame clean again and I'm nervous about getting the welds as good as I can - the last thing I want is extra work. After an hour or two of testing settings, practice welding, I arrive at my settings and get to work on the real pieces. Rear:  Front:  Not the prettiest welds in the universe but I believe they're burned in good enough for me. A quick rattlecan and they're set. And that's about all I got today and I'm glad that part is over.
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Jun 28, 2021 02:53
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Krakkles posted:You convinced me, not least because I'm in the same weather Nice! Some of their welding kit projects look quite fun too. Good birthday gift ideas honestly. They'll really challenge your fit up skills (and you'll realize you need 20 more clamps and obscure squares). While I sit and wait for components to be shipped I guess now is a good time to do some engine research. cursedshitbox posted:R2.8 dims: The Duramax option is definitely worth more research and I'll have to do a bunch of measuring. The thing I like about the r2.8 is that it's a complete crate engine so there aren't so many hidden costs associated with it. The more I look into buying a Duramax the more confused I become, what is the best way to go about getting one of these where I'm not hunting down hundreds of individual components and computers that a long block doesn't come with? I'd like to see what the ballpark price is going to be at the end of the day. A donor vehicle is one avenue I suppose but I might be waiting a while for the stars to align on that.
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Jun 29, 2021 02:11
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Powershift posted:Saw this and thought it might interest you. powernation is swapping a SBC for a duramax. Oh nice, thanks - some interesting information here on what likely would need to be cut. I got the free week of Powernation to watch the rest lol (their web player fuckin sucks). It's interesting to see that the complete engine is coming in at almost 1000lbs. Worryingly, the Allison's own oil pan looks like it sticks down an unacceptable length below his frame rails, that plus the skid plate and stiffener to protect it all would add another inch or two below that and then you're just asking to get caught up a lot more, so I'll have to measure more to see how bad that might be. My own measurements show that I currently have ~30" between the closed hood and the top of my front axle pumpkin. Axle tubes are about 4.5" lower than the top of the pumpkin and the pass. side axle tubes to the frame is 5-6". Pumpkin to motor mount is roughly 5" but they are weird mounts and that could be improved. When I attend to the suspension I think this will benefit from a small 1-2" lift. I'd like to be limited by the frame rather than the oil pan. I've been doing some research and apparently there have been no Duramax m715 installs documented on the internet ever. On m715zone, the legend is told that one user got quite far into it but scrapped the idea after it would require too much surgery. Mainly the fitting of radiators and computers was becoming an issue in the length of the engine bay (?? I'm going to measure for this tomorrow to figure out what the issue is). Second the Allison is a very tall trans and would require a lot more tunnel modification (also shown in Powernation). I'm not really worried about cutting the cab floor too much. I also believe the Powernation oil pan modifications will have to be done for suspension clearance. I've never TIG welded before but I do have a multiprocess welder and just like any other problem in this stupid truck, throwing money and time at it will likely solve it. One thing I've not been able to find so far is actual dimensions of a LB7/LBZ Duramax. I only ever see that "Height: approx 32", etc." being thrown around and I don't trust it at all without a dimensional drawing like this of a 6bt . 
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Jun 30, 2021 10:13
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Haven't accomplished a ton so far this week. You probably can't clearly see the branding enough but I ordered a smaller PRP PRP!!! branded steering wheel to see if that would help with where I ideally want the seat. It gave me a bit more clearance but I'll definitely still need a tilt column. I found a few that are full columns for simplicity and aren't $1000, so it's not as big of a deal. I started the task of removing the front grille, starting with the radiator and brush guard.  There was a lot of annoying handywork previously done to the inside of the grill, where it usually is easy to unbolt and remove (~32ish bolts? [e] 24), it was now welded in multiple spots, with radiator mounts welded in that block other bolts from being removed like a catch-22. The opposite of Nik Blackhurst worked on this thing before. In a good turn of events only 1 bolt broke! HOURS LATER  You can see where the previous owner cut out some gussets to fit the steering box. I'll have to revisit this area properly. I'll also modify the grille so it goes in and comes out again much easier. A present to future-me. The rest of the front clip seems unmodified and should come off easier if needed later on. CommieGIR posted:Personally I'd stick with an inline turbodiesel, makes it easier for overhauls down the road and fitting turbocharger and accessories than a V8 turbodiesel. cursedshitbox posted:Pleasantly surprised its not getting a 6BT. The duality of goons. I'll never please everyone. Especially not cursedshitbox because my current conclusions are: Duramax is too complex, too expensive, history of not fitting in a 715 (especially if I still need to fit AC etc.). R2.8 is a bit underpowered, also expensive. The inbetween option, and one that I think is going to have to be it is: seen-it-a-thousand-times-be4bt. Boringly they've been done to death, but that's also going to help with information and resources. The 4bt is a bit on the heavy side but nothing like a 6bt. The numbers I see from those things are actually pretty drat impressive and being all mechanical is a huge plus for tuning. The downsides are that it's gonna be a rattly ride but 
tuna fucked around with this message at 00:49 on Jul 2, 2021 |
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Jul 2, 2021 00:42
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casque posted:This is so cool! Where do you get those couplers for the roll cage? Thanks! Ballistic fabrication and TMR customs are where I've bought mine from so far. They only sell carbon steel couplers, other brands will sell chromoly for the chromo cages.
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Jul 2, 2021 01:41
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Happy 4th of July all.  I got my new welding hood in and it's great.  I was finding that the wireless bluetooth signal for my cage to frame tie-ins was really weak and probably won't work well in a rollover, so I did what inevitably had to be done and converted them to steel. This took a bit longer than expected as nothing was quite as square or straight as I thought.  IOwnCalculus posted:2.8 or Duramax? Haha I did do a bit of poking around about this motor but it seems like it would be a really complex swap and there's not a lot of information out there about it. Sourcing an engine + gubbins would also be difficult. This would be a cool swap but I think it's only likely to happen if you just happen to be in possession of an orphaned one. cursedshitbox posted:Sorry I've been offline for the week. Welcome back! Don't bother with a 4bt? Uhho, might be too late.. We'll see.. I'm not a fan of the 6bt because of the weight and the extra size isn't helping anyone. A 4 is already quite heavy, that front axle and suspension setup doesn't need hundreds more lbs over it. The 4 can also seemingly get to the power band that interests me, 200-250hp will give you 400-590ft/lbs which sounds great to me! I do understand that they're kinda boring as the swap has been done a million times before. tuna fucked around with this message at 20:53 on Jul 4, 2021 |
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Jul 4, 2021 20:49
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I have an increasingly large amount old parts laying around taking up all the space in the garage so I bought myself a fuckin lightsaber off amazon to take care of it! (one of the lovely cheap ones that I fully expect to not turn on tomorrow). Yesss. Vanish you stupid gaudy 4x4 bumper that has no purpose in life.  ARRGHHHHAHAHA  Today's yield. Perfect for future gussets, brackets and all sorts.  Work is getting busy again so besides receiving my tilt steering column and a bunch of doodads I've not touched the truck itself. Tilt column is important because I'd like to figure out the ergo of the seat and then get to finalizing the rear main hoop triangulation of the cage, which I can't do until the seat is at least tacked in because I think it's going to have to poke out of the cab a bit. THEN I can take the cage out and burn it in properly. Been watching youtube and reading swap forums lot for research though. I'm a complete noob. RIP Paul Walker posted:I have a car with an engine swap that this describes, and I consider it a huge plus. A car that runs is far better than one that doesn’t. Agreed, and given whatever limitations you have sometimes, it just has to get done. poo poo can always be improved in the future! I've not talked about this yet but this isn't the only truck I have to get road worthy again, so I can't wait around forever.. 
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Jul 8, 2021 08:22
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Another one of those boxes showed up. Could it be another seat? A new lathe? My repressed emotions? [img]https://i.imgur.com/cpyjGEO.jpg][/img]  Pee pump, supposedly better than ve pump.  Holset HX30 of some sort.  Lots of missing parts still to source (Alternator, starter, steering/vacuum pump, AC compressor).  Unfortunately I'm going to be away at work all next week + next weekend so I won't be able to do anything for a little while and this thread wont get much content for a little bit, but it might give me some time to decide on a transmission to match with this. [e] bumper update: This is all that's left! HAH! 
tuna fucked around with this message at 01:50 on Jul 10, 2021 |
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Jul 10, 2021 00:35
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CommieGIR posted:Eh, VE pumps are fine, I prefer em because you don't have to lube them with engine oil, but the motor looks great! Yeah, totally. There are a few other benefits to the VE pump that make them a nice option, and it's not like I'm going to be tuning this thing to 400HP where you absolutely need a P pump. I was actually fairly certain I'd end up with a VE so all my research went into them, then the engine I ended up getting came with a P, so now I have to re-learn everything. They do look cooler though! cursedshitbox posted:Ohhhh poo poo! Thats some baller repressed emotions you got there! Thanks, the red paint adds 5hp. Also as a noob this is my life right now 
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Jul 10, 2021 20:34
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Another day another bucket of sweat offered to the sweat gods. Decided to treat myself and refresh my gloves. These barely lasted a month, but I overuse them for welding and the plasma cutting probably took its toll too.   When bolting the passenger cage floor plates together, the rusty corner area seperated a bit, not surprising as the plates were kinda stretching and flattening all the sheet metal.  Wire wheeled it to get down to bare metal and even more fell away.  I put a small plate behind it to weld onto that area and built up a bunch of lovely looking weld material.  And did a half arsed grinding job just so it wasnt quite so embarrasing to look at.  When the cage is out for full welding, I will have more access to this and will clean it up more. There are other rust holes and unused bolt holes I will need to patch too, so that'll be its own project.  Speaking of getting the cage done, I cannot do that until I have figured out this seating situation, and to figure that out I need to fix the steering column situation! So I removed the old steering column and started mocking up the install of the new one!  Unfortunately I wasn't able to mount the steering wheel onto it as the stupid splined steering wheel adapter wouldn't go on for some reason.. I mean.. they're the right size..   New column is a bog standard 36 spline GM so this should work. Why the hell isn't it going on? Agh what the gently caress is this 40 spline nonsense?  OH WELL. I was really hoping to make some progress this weekend as I won't be home for a little while, I mean I even put on brand new gloves for this. O'reillies and Autozone didn't have any install kits in stock so I'm just going to have to order and wait, probably a quick release hub.
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Jul 11, 2021 02:15
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cursedshitbox posted:Now, why the vacuum pump? For brakes? Yeah the brake booster I have now is a vacuum one. I honestly hadn't considered hydroboost but it sounds like they're better in every way so that's interesting, thanks for the suggestion! I doubt anything is drop in for this vehicle but what sort of unit should I be looking at for a 6500-7000lbs truck? I can fab brackets myself. I think a hydroboost steering pump will actually fit better too, I've seen some builds where the steering/vacuum pumps have some clearance issues with the P-pump.
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Jul 11, 2021 02:18
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cursedshitbox posted:Run whatever GM booster on a saginaw pump if you can... or whatevers on the 4BT. I'm about 5 thousand pounds heavier than 7k-lb truck and a 1T GM unit stops my poo poo on its nose*. My supply pump is the groan-o-matic ford one. it does the job just fine. The ford SuperDuty/Econoline boosters are good too, just the GM ones are way more common and dirt loving cheap. (there's like one supplier for the whole market for the working end, the firewall end and pushrods vary) Great, looks like the Ford / GM used complete hydroboost setups are pretty cheap and plentiful. Not sure which one I'll go with yet. I already have a master brake cylinder but I'm not sure how compatible it is with each hydroboost unit so I might just avoid that headache and can sell the entire vac boost setup. Saginaw pump with 2x return lines + gear, adapter, seal, seems more expensive than an original with vac unfortunately, but it's not outlandish. Smaller too, which is nice. Good brakes are good, awesome to hear this setup still holds up well on a 12k truck, drat.
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Jul 11, 2021 04:42
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CommieGIR posted:Hey id that an electronically actuated P pump or is that just the cold start advance solenoid? Where's the throttle lever? That's the fuel cutoff solenoid. The actual throttle lever is roughly here: 
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Jul 12, 2021 02:31
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BACK! After a wonderful work week on set we had someone test positive for covid (symptomless and was vaccinated) so the flight to visit the in-laws was re-scheduled to protect the immunocompromised and I get to self-isolate inside the garage until I can get tested on Monday. I'm all vaxxed up like a motherfucker so I'm not too concerned. I loving HATE figuring out seat mounts. There's something so offensively tricky about tweaking your seat position on janky wooden blocks over and over again. Any time it fell off the blocks I'd want to shoot the loving thing. Anyway sorry for the negativity, I'll start the never ending picture dump now. Cat tax. (you can probably skip the rest).  After faffing around with the seat on blocks for a while, trying to figure out how the seats could be not only mounted in the specific position I liked, but kept adjustable just in case I'm an idiot. It looks like hot mess right now, because it is.  This is what I've settled on for the cage so far (missing the bar connecting the driver/passenger seat loops). I will need to make the front right tab once the cage is out of the truck so I can get at it from underneath. It'll be a lot easier. I may also double up the tabs if I find time to stop by the metal supply place that makes them.  So overall it kinda looks like this now, except the seat-side brackets will get some lovin' later on so they don't look so, uh, redneck? I mean it's still pretty redneck but I will try and hide that fact. As you can see it's all adjustable, I've got up/down, tilt angle and slide front/rear. I will probably have to slot the front tabs so they work for all 3 rear holes, but we'll see if I ever even use all 3. I positioned what I liked to be the middle. Also pictured is the overly-shiny, non-tactical, tilt steering column along with one of the only security features that'll ever make it onto this truck, the steering wheel quick release!  After removing the old steering column there's a few large holes in the firewall that I'll want to get the new column into and shore up to keep weather the HECK out. (don't stick your dick in that)  I bought some bits and bobs from "Ididit", even though technically they did it, that I thought would make my life easier to clamp in the new column, along with the old firewall mount that I cut off the old column. The new bits and bobs can squeeze together around a seal + o-ring to create a nice seal around the column. Thanks, "Ididit".  Here's how I want this to work. Hope it makes sense because I'm not gonna explain it. Also it looks like this right now because I've not cut or welded anything yet, so give it some time and I'll make sure it looks even worse.  Finally I get to start fabbing stuff up again, the fun part! I'm loving the plasma cutter, it makes cuts like this easy febreezy. This is the original firewall column mount that I cut off from the old column because it has a multi-part specific shape and bolt pattern I don't really need to recreate.   (ooh a part number: 45157)  I'm going to weld one half of the sandwich plate to the original mounting bracket to keep it all water tight.  You can really see where I got my welder dialed in on the circle. Shame It took me 180 degrees to figure it out.  And for the top of the sandwich I will need to adapt it to use the bolt holes that already exist, so I cut off the crusts and weld on bigger crusts then I cut the crusts to look fancy and OEM.   Perfect! I finally Did It™. It'll be our little secret that this part is a phony!  Except I'm a big stupid bumblefuck and made it for the wrong drat mounting holes...   So I did it™ all over again and now we have 2 little secrets we won't tell anybody about.  And that just leaves the 2nd gigantic hole in the firewall, where the clutch pedal used to live. It has a curve to it to fit into the firewall shape so I'll keep the original ring and just weld in my dad... Uh, I mean the bit that isn't there for me.   bit ugly but whatever.  And finally everything gets a coat of paint, ready for some more high octane action tomorrow. (Of course I forgot one of the parts during the painting) 
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Jul 18, 2021 07:01
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snugglz posted:Oops I Did It Again ™ Nah I'm in nerdy game cinematics, mocap/pcap sets. If you want an m715 I say go get one, save it from a redneck who's gonna spring over swap and put 50" mud boggers on there and let it rot away in a field.
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Jul 19, 2021 04:13
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Oooh, it's a gettin' toasty again. Perfect temperature to wear my welding outfit in the sun. To finish off the steering column mount, after the paint had dried I started on the next logical step of immediately acetone'ing it all off of one piece so I could finish welding parts onto it. This is the real assembly of column firewall parts, just waiting to be tacked into place. I did a really poo poo job welding it together and it looks ugly but welds are insanely strong inside. It's what's on the inside that counts. Also welding onto thin stamped steel is really slow, annoying and difficult because I was impatient.   Steering and seating situation is mostly in place so now I can start making some fuckin moves. The cage needs a sideways'y bit for potential harness in the future and it needs diagonal'y bits to stop the up/down'y bits from going diagonal in a rollover. Sideways bit, fairly easy just a 9ish degree notch at either side and tiger uppercut it up until it wedges in and that's that:  The bottom triangulation is a little bit more complex for notching, but not too bad. If you invoke the dark and ancient methodology of mathematics, the answers lie within. Or just use google, which is what I did. Made a test first so I didn't waste my expensive and ever shrinking pile of DOM tube, and the angles seemed to be good.  Google demanded an angle of about 63ish degrees and my notcher only goes up to 50 for some reason? I just kinda threw the notcher somewhere around where I think 60ish would be. Why stop at 50? I could've measured with one of my angle finders on the notcher itself but ehh.  Triangulating the top section will be a bit more complex because the headrest of the seat actually pokes ever so slightly outside of the cage. I want to make sure that the tube doesn't press into the seat or slightly more worryingly, my head, in a crash, so I compromise again and decide to have a very slight bend at the top so it gives me a bit of clearance. Because this bend connects to the node on another bend, the notching is too complex for me to calculate so I decide to entertain the neighbors with the music of my people and carve out the notch with an angle grinder and some beer. The electrical tape is structural.  Here is what it looks like from the side, to show the clearance.  Some joinery (I will have to notch or otherwise persuade the green part of the cab to get the tube to fit in its final position.  And now I want to leave this post with a question for you all... Which is better? Option number A:  Option number B: 
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Jul 19, 2021 05:33
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Thanks, that's good to know. I was leaning towards B myself. Option A even looks a bit weird, and now we know why (you don't see cages do that).
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Jul 19, 2021 06:26
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 Sort of a milestone today. All (except one) tubes are cut, bent, notched and fitted together ready for final welding!Today I made the passenger side seat tube and some triangulated door tubes and it looks like this. Ignore the wonky steering wheel setup.  The door tubing.  I notched the cab a bit for the lower diagonal tube. It's a bit hard to see but... That's the point.  This is the tube I still have to do, it connects the two seat tubes for stiffness and will be a nice place to mount any center console I make.  Just look at how intense the passenger side node is. 
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Jul 20, 2021 00:29
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Progress has slowed while I'm waiting on a lot of parts to arrive. I'm looking into Vintage Air A/C now and I can probably order that or just the compressor to build the mount for now. I think I found a place that is selling a used 6l90e 4wd not too far from me, so I'll call them about that next week. Also waiting on a few bolts to arrive so I can actually stick the engine on an engine stand to better help me tetris the garage around and make room for the cage to weld and paint it. I did finish that last single tube to bridge the seat tubing, though. Shiny one in the middle. 
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Jul 25, 2021 04:42
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Let me know if I'm doing this right...  I'm about to mount the engine to the engine stand, I bought some nice new m12-1.75 bolts and had to modify 2 of the mounting arms by drilling a new hole in it so it could reach some of the bolt holes without hitting the crank flywheel thing in the back. Once I pick this up with the hoist and put it into the engine stand it's not just going to.. tear out those bolts is it? Haha, I've not done this before and the engine seems so heavy for just 4 measly bolts, but what do I know?
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Jul 28, 2021 03:01
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cursedshitbox posted:Almost 800lb on an (assumed small) engine stand? I wouldn't without bracing and extending the stands legs. It's a 1500lbs stand. I'm just checking to make sure 4 bolts is good for the almost 800lbs
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Jul 28, 2021 03:51
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cursedshitbox posted:The bolts are good for it. sit it down on the stand slowly with the crane still attached and heehaw on it... If it feels sketch, don't do it. Okay thanks. I was planning on treating it gingerly for sure. Might still add some more gussets to the stand because, if anything, it would get rid of some of this scrap metal I have everywhere.
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Jul 28, 2021 04:17
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Thanks all. I have no plan to rotate the engine at all since I'm just bolting on some accessories and springs. The stand has 4 wheels, but I will see if I have some scrap that can be used to support the front of the engine too. I mostly need the stand so I can move it around a bit easier. It's taking up too much drat space in the garage.
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Jul 28, 2021 18:39
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A few accessories have arrived so I can actually work on the truck again.. Waiting for parts is boring  Previous engine's alternator now with 8groove pulley, power steering pump with hydroboost return lines and a RAM 3500 hydroboost unit from ebay.  The first thing I want to fix is actually the KILLER DOWEL PIN. Apparently just a small dowel pin that can vibrate out of its home and destroy everything you see here:  Zoom.. Enhance.. This is the little fella right here.  A very easy fix. Glad I'm able to do these mods while the engine is out:  The power steering pump bolts right on nice and easy.  I removed the old vacuum assisted brake unit.  And drilled new holes and mounted the new one in place for now, it's not really finished though. Only 3 of the 4 bolts can get a nut on it because of clearance with the pedal hinge assembly. I'll probably cut off one of the stud screws (top left in this pic) and use a bolt in the opposite direction.  For those with hydroboost, I have a question: What is the rough stroke length that the brake pedal needs to push the rod in? I think my current brake pedal can push it enough, but until I finish modifying the push rod to work with the new length I can't be certain.
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Aug 1, 2021 01:08
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Krakkles posted:I’ve got a hydroboost mustang, I’ll measure whatever you want if it would help. Movement of the mount point of the rod at the pedal when pedal is depressed? Thanks Krakkles. Yeah the travel it needs to fully brake.  Distance of A. I'm sure yours will be limited by the brake pads actually touching the rotors, but it would still be helpful.
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Aug 1, 2021 02:20
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Krakkles posted:So, from start to an estimate of braking to a stop casually, I measured 3/16". Standing on it, 1/2". Interesting, that's not very far at all. For reference, with it bolted on and completely unplumbed and empty, the pushrod will move 1.5-2" at least, I just can't be sure of the ending of it due to the current pedal setup. Maybe it won't need much travel at all once there's fluids in there then? Thanks again for going through all that for me, much appreciated!
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Aug 1, 2021 05:44
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Some light googling suggests that 1/2" travel for a mustang is about right, though.
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There's a small part of this truck which I will try to keep, and that part is the np205 tcase (np stands for "no problemo"). I'm gonna take that baby out and try to ID it so I know how to adapt it (hopefully) to a 6l90e. There are GM, Ford and Dodge versions of this tcase. This one is either a GM or a Dodge because it's a passenger side drop and it needs an adapter to bolt up to the Ford C6 currently in the truck. The only downside to this tcase is the uninspired 2:1 ratio it puts out, but otherwise these are popular and pretty stout units for offroading. Transmission tunnel has a nice big manhole cover. Thank you, old truck designers.  Currently it's held in by phillips head screws and super bespoke captive screw thread thingies which I will be replacing instantly. Of course there's always one who thinks they're gonna win this war and stay in place. gently caress you I will crush your rebellion.  An angle grinder later and hello there, C6, and just out of shot behind it, np205 top bolts.  This thing is a fuckin' filthy pig, but I got it out despite it weighing in around, best guess, 8 trillion tons. I have no idea how I'm ever gonna get this back onto a transmission.  I liberally sprayed it with engine degreaser and made it somewhat approachable. You can see here it's a 6 bolt, not a figure-8, so that rules it out from being a '71-'84 GM model.  Back of the case, dates say 85? This lines up with the bolt pattern. It's as old as me! It's in great condition for its age, just like me! It weighs a ton, just like me! Am I a transfer case?  The input shaft is clearly an aftermarket 31 spline to fit up to the C6, so I can't use that to help me ID it.  Front output shaft is a 32 spline which is what is used on Dodge models, so maybe this is from a Dodge?  I couldn't get good photos of the rear output spline count because all of this oil kept coming out? Who broke into my truck and oiled it.. Check out this intense adapter ring used to clock it correctly onto the C6. Hopefully someone will find this and the input shaft useful for their own project.  Ultimately it doesn't really matter if this thing came from a GM or dodge truck, but I do now know that advanced adapters sells a kit with adapter plate and input shaft to bolt onto a 6l90 yay.
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Aug 2, 2021 03:27
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StormDrain posted:The NP205 is the heaviest most awkward chunk of metal I've ever had the displeasure of moving. The stripped case was fine to deal with, and each piece I put back into it changed the balance and made it more awkward. When it was back together on the workbench, I was only able to lower it down to the jack, it took all I had to get it back up. It's nice to hear I'm not alone in the np205 movers community. I'm going to leave this fuckin thing on the floor where gravity compels it to be until it's time to do the input swap. When moving it around it was the weight combined with the rounded, greasy, non-grippy shape that really made life suck. I ended up using the pallet that the 4bt came on to drop onto, then slid that out and wiggled it onto one of my DIY dollies that I've been using to move random heavy truck poo poo around. StormDrain posted:I put it back in using a transmission jack and some stock to orient it correctly. Yeah this makes me want to invest in a really good, deluxe, adaptable transmission jack. I still have the C6 to take out, but something really awesome and nice to use is definitely in order.
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Aug 2, 2021 06:09
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cursedshitbox posted:drop it on your chest, its only 150lb. Oh, you're not 20 anymore. Uh yeah grab the welder and fashion up a bracket that mates the awkward bastard with your standard floor jack. Haha I spent some time thinking about this today. I have the standard but great HF jack and took off the rubber pad in the contact plate thing, its just a small allen wrench to secure the plate down but it took a 2ft breaker tube to undo it, insane. Well it had no good mounting options so I'd have to make my own. Anyway I had the engine pallet as a convenience so ended up using that. Looking at fancy-pants transmission jacks I am considering buying another jack to weld my own poo poo to it so I can uno reversal that poo poo later on and have 2 good jacks. The problem is it really does need 4 casters so it can be moved around as needed, so I might just end up with a trans jack. cursedshitbox posted:I'll do a pedal travel check when I have the truck running next. I did it on the accumulator and its almost an inch of travel shoving the pedal with my arm. Thanks, more info is always welcome. I assume travel distance in hydroboost is less than the original unboosted, especially with Krakkles' measurements. The original pedal has about 2" of travel to give (to its original unboosted MBC) but the hinge position would be a real pain in the rear end to modify. Also there are spiders up in that area now so what can I even do about it?
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Aug 2, 2021 07:24
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I'm taking the cage out this weekend for final welding and therefore I'm a few weeks out from ordering a transmission! The plan has always been some sort of auto, but I'm starting to have some doubts about my top contender.. A 6L90e is a perfectly good trans that can support the torque since I'm not towing or hauling rear end, however the only way to get this thing to work is with a TCM-2650. I'm not sure if the CIA made this or not because finding out information online about it literally impossible. There's one video on youtube of some guy getting it to work (poorly) with no resolution, and only like 1 company that sells it in any real supported way. I'm going to contact them to find out why the gently caress literally the only (not)controller of the 6l80/90 has exactly 1 customer online and what it even needs. Anyway it's a huge cloud of doubt over this product, so I'm looking into the alternatives. Auto alternatives: Allison - Too big?  Expensive too, I'd need to research this a lot more but it doesn't sound promising yet.6R80 - Good controller available, no adapter for 4bt?  4l80 - Weak, poo poo gears, easy controller.  Manual alternative: A manual trans isn't my first choice because I honestly think offroading with an auto is a delight. Tonight I am entertaining this idea but tomorrow it might be off the table... However my best option here is the Tremec TR-4050  because it's current, good and has a good gear range. I think it'll even let the np205 directly bolt onto it? Not entirely sure yet, but it has bellhousings for Cummins. Also cheaper and no electronics to leave me stranded in the desert again.Anyway, just an update on my current, but ever-changing thoughts about transmissions. I'd love to hear what anyone has opinions on with regards to either the mythical TCM-2650, Tremec bolt patterns, or anything really. Got opinions on 29.97 vs 30hz? Let em' fly. This is a rules abiding, opinion free zone*! *Subject to local enforcement and regional opinion police.
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Aug 6, 2021 07:26
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