[Russ McLean]

Stpackard, on your power steering/vacuum pump combo be sure you install the support brace. Without it the wings on the vacuum are likely to break. That standard VE injection pump brace is part 3905313. It is the same for a 4bt or 6bt without the vacuum pump. See 1st photo below. The one for the 6bt with the vacuum pump is part 3918949 shown in the 2nd photo. That one has the vacuum pump brace attached but it is a separate part number 3919619 shown in the 3rd photo.

I made a power steering bracket out of a scrap piece of angle iron.

Bottom view

Side view

NOTE: The hidden view has the angle iron clearanced around the pump casting. It has held up for about 10 years and 37 states.

Russ

 

[char1355]

Yes, they are proud of those 2 brackets and lots of guy make their own. It you took the standard brace shown in photo #1 and added a piece to the bottom and bore and tap a hole you'd have essentially that longer brace. There is actually one that looks like that but I haven't found the part number for it. That tab up top was for bolting on some accessory on the Dodge truck. That little bent piece of metal which is the pump brace is crazy expensive for no more than what it is. If you had one for a pattern a shop could probably bend that thing for $10. It would be a matter of getting the angle just right. The high price is probably due to the fact that those parts were seldom replaced because they didn't break.

 

[Levis]

I’m pretty sure you will find that little bent brace from the dodge will not fit. I tried it before making one out of angle, similar to Russ’s but not as beefy.

 

[Russ McLean]

I’m pretty sure you will find that little bent brace from the dodge will not fit. I tried it before making one out of angle, similar to Russ’s but not as beefy.

I am absolutely sure that little bent brace from the dodge does not fit. I bought one, not even close.

Russ

 

[stpackard]

Thanks for all your replies. You all have helped inform the project up to this point and I am very grateful for your input. I'd be a babe in the woods on most of this without your knowledge and experience. Russ, I appreciate your good pictures, did you pay someone to croon up in there to take those pictures? Lighting and angle is perfect. I would probably blow the seat out my pants trying to take that picture with the motor in the vehicle.

I have the same bent piece of metal with the round pump screw bracket that attaches to the block with the two bolts. I was surprised I didn't have to grind on it to fit the pump, it just went right in there. I see you use lock washers. Loosening the famous 18 lb/ft fasteners even with blue lock tite, seems they would come loose. Wondering if anyone has had any bolts loosen up even with blue loctite.

Always good to hear of people fabricating parts that get crazy expensive if bought.

Update, tore the motor all down to the block after double checking deck flatness, .003 easily fit under the Starrett straightedge lengthwise / diagonal lengthwise between cylinders 2 and 3. That really bummed me out but am glad I'm going to do it right and machine the deck since I'd be running the 200HP recipe with maybe a little more boost. At the max spec .003 so I figure I'll be out gaskets/seals and the shop labor expense. Here's an instance where I trusted the machine shop owner's advice that it didn't need decking. Am going to take it to a different shop to have this done.

I'm getting pretty good at taking this thing apart. Will bag everything until it's a little warmer out. I'm a day job worker - teach orchestra at 3 schools so I get home from work and try to fit some work in on the project after my family is in bed. Country fiddle player myself, but the last few years been a slow down - not many gigs because of covid. One of the last gigs with a particular band, 'Doodly Squats' was a September 11 "Never Forget" 2020 honky tonk show at an Eagles Club. Many retirees came to see the band that night, and it was a mostly unmasked hotspot event where a large number of the older population had to be hospitalized and a few passed away from exposure that evening. I had it the first time following that event. Ever since that event the group has slowed down. Anyways, I used to play alot of Friday and Saturday nights, now I mostly have that time at home with the family or to work on projects. 👍

 

[eggman918]

I treat the 4BT like I did 2 stroke bikes and I blue Loctite everything except turbo and exhaust bolts which get copper anti-seize, you will get the best results with Loctite when you clean the holes and bolts with brake clean just be sure everything is dry before installing.

 

[Russ McLean]

.... Russ, I appreciate your good pictures, did you pay someone to croon up in there to take those pictures? Lighting and angle is perfect. I would probably blow the seat out my pants trying to take that picture with the motor in the vehicle. ....

I was about 10 years younger

 

[stpackard]

Took my wife out last night for dinner and had a bit of time for a bit of an update tonight since our val’s day was last night..

Block decked, .006 removed. Found some stedeals on genuine cummins pistons 3908815 pistons and rod/main bearings, couldn’t figure out why piston protrusion was all over the place. Difference was .007 from highest to lowest. Brought rods and mahle wrist pin bushings to a Cummins tooled shop and they’re going to have the rods done later this week. C-c on the rods should hopefully be consistent, before I believe they’d been honed by hand. Didn’t want the engine running rough because of a possible botch job on the wrist pins not having proper tooling so revisiting this a second time. Oh well..

Front axle time, does this gear pattern look ok?

Pattern is a bit near toe with BL in spec but am unable to center pattern between top/root AND heel/toe keeping BL in spec, so this one seems the best of the trade off. Made setup bearings and moved the pinion out and carrier in/out gradually to arrive at this setting.

New gear set / limited slip carrier. Old carrier had .007 runout and limited slip was $150 more.

 

[stpackard]

Happy spring everyone. Time for a few updates. Changed stock front springs out for super duty springs. The battle born brakes bracket bolted in with no hitches, cleaned mating surfaces, Masterseries paint, then bolted them in. Took springs apart, drilled center pin out for a centering bolt (used a carbide masonry bit), painted them with graphite slip plate.

Dana 60 bolted in, 'old' dana 44 calipers and front drag link bolted in. Went to put the cleaned up hubs on and noticed outer bearing race spun in the hub, so had a Dana 50 TTB hub sent speedy delivery. Have I mentioned that every step has a hitch involved, and there's always something?? Cleaned it up, painted, roter pressed on. Dana 50 ford hubs are the exact same hub for the 78-79 dana 60 except they have 9/16" studs. I'd already drilled the good original hub for 9/16"

BBB sells front-rear longer shackles.

D60 steering arm reamed from the top for chevy 1 ton adjustable tie rod (ES2027L, ES2026R, ES362S). Received good advice on FTE to run it this way to keep drag link parallel.

 

[stpackard]

Update #2,

FE390 is out..

I don't need no stinkin $200 transmission jack...

 

[stpackard]

Update #3,

Finally finished the attic so that the carpet company could install. My wife is a painting machine! This is all part of the truck project!

Engine put back together and sealed up so far. Still have to make some injection line brackets as the old ones don't fit right with the slightly thicker intake manifold and dodge intake horn/riser. There's always a hitch to every step...



Had rods rebushed at a cummins equipped shop, piston protrusion varied from .028 to .030, so ran a size up head gasket. While the everything was out, found genuine cummins main and rod bearings. McBee probably would have run fine but OCD was kicking in and bearings aren't too expensive. Set TDC using the factory manual method. When block was bare, I redid the 4 bellhousing to adapter plate alignment pins, indicated it off the crank, used the drill press this time!!

Found the 4bt arp studs as an open box item on amazon for $264. Was about to send old rockers off to be machined and sure enough they were out of spec. Have I mentioned that every step always has a hitch?? I'm sure you all know this? So..... ordered 4 new rocker assemblies, member eggman machined them for the studs. A+ job, thanks to him. Used a bottoming tap in the block, didn't need to drill the counterbore. Followed the instructions and torqued them down. Before initial start I'll torque them again.

Was able to get clutch/trans installed and a test fit. Had to remove trans cover to install.

It's easier to see what's going to work at this point. The hoist balancer is a must have.

High mount turbo hood clearance is going to work! Will try to sit the engine as low and back as possible. Divorced NP205 input is at 5°. Will copy with the trans output.

Would like to have a bit of adjustability for the engine/trans mounts. If using the Dodge mounts at 45°, there would not be the ability to adjust up/down side to side. Using the round style mount could allow for shimming up/down, side to side. Also, I believe the 2698 are a fluid filled.

Any thoughts on this motor mounts design? Mounts would be on the front of the motor. Would like to not weld on to the frame.

 

[char1355]

The Anchor 2859 is the closest to the Lord model. Nothing is exactly the same as those because they make aircraft mounts. The fluid type will transfer far less vibration to the chassis than the angle style.

 

[Levis]

Looks great! Where did you source the springs from, and do you know what code/ how many lbs they are rated for?

 

[stpackard]

Thanks Levis! Not too knowledgeable about the code background but they are from a ‘99 Super Duty gas. Wish I would have known to look for the later years around ‘94 as those had a different design where the upper leaf wraps without the clearance between the lower. Not a big deal, ended up putting a Ford anti squeak pads kit that goes between the ends.

Ride is noticeably improved over the stock 6 leaf. Front end had a bit of a rake to it before, gained an inch higher, trying to maintain stock height.

Looks great! Where did you source the springs from, and do you know what code/ how many lbs they are rated for?

 

[stpackard]

Char1355, I had considered those Lord aircraft mounts but read of anchor’s quality and decided because of price. I suppose aircraft industry is the gold standard because you can’t just pull to the side of the road and get towed in. Thanks for the suggestion on using those for better vibration dampening.

 

[char1355]

Yeah, aircraft stuff is nuts in price. I've been watching a guy who's working on a twin engine plane he plans to restore. It has 2 6 cylinder engines. A set of spark plugs is near $400. It has 24 of them. He mentioned to rebuild each engine will cost $50,000.

 

[eggman918]

Yeah, aircraft stuff is nuts in price. I've been watching a guy who's working on a twin engine plane he plans to restore. It has 2 6 cylinder engines. A set of spark plugs is near $400. It has 24 of them. He mentioned to rebuild each engine will cost $50,000.

There was a quote from the golden age of aviation " Flying is easy, all it takes is money and airspeed"

 

[Levis]

I for one am glad to see all the attention to detail that you have put in. I regularly take too much time to finish my projects, only to regret the things I didn’t address when I had it all apart.

 

[stpackard]

Shadetree mechanic style going on around here. This is a 110 year old garage with crumbling asphalt in the driveway and some uneven concrete in the garage. So, spent an hour leveling the truck side to side in the rear and in the front. Have a wood planer so made some 1/8" shim pieces to stack under the wheels until side to side front/back was nearly level.

Front to back for engine tilt and transfer case input, using a digital magnetic angle gauge. Mounted, I set it to O°, then it's used on the transmission output/engine front to get engine tilt. Used a rod between trans output and transfer case center hole and it appears as though the intermediate shaft is ~2°. Tom Wood video says 1-2°, spicer says 1-3° to keep u-joints healthy and not get brinnelled.

Please let me know if there's any issues with this method.

Frame is 1/2" narrower at transfer case than at transmission crossmember, so to avoid any mismeasure, used the lazer level to run a line from transfer case input shaft.

laser unit is a bit in front of 205 on the ground

Since frame is a bit wider as mentioned and it splays out in front of front engine crossmember, went off the transmission mount center bolt hole and fe390 crank center line

Transfer case is within 1/4\" in line with transmission center bolt hole and engine CL

Looks like the 3 are pretty much in line, will copy

Bought a piece of 6x6 .25" x 24" at midwest steel, mount pieces are in there, waiting to be released.

Got frame side mounts ready for a fabrication shop to finish weld. Tacked welds just hold together.

Slow going but ready for finish weld

 

[stpackard]

Mounts finish welded, pfheww!... pulled a few 2AM nights, come home from day job, play/hang out with the kids and my wife, then spend the night in the garage.

Still need to trim and fit mounts, they moved after welding heat.

Made Bolt hole centering pins.

DR Mount still needs trimmed fit and drilled for mount

PA a little tighter over here