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Yeah I certainly want to see how this turns out. I'd love a diesel in my truck but don't want just another cummins so this'll be neat to see
Yeah, I don't do alot of Cummins or "Fummins" swaps anymore, myself I have done a few of them in the past but always like the fit and finish of the IDI, and with prefering Mechanical Injettion over Electronic, so being a choice between the 12v and IDI I take the IDI just for the fact I'll spend as much on the Cummins as I would in the IDI, and sadly everyone thinks their Cummins Motor is worth Gold prices so I'll wind up with more invested in the end. I dont much have a preference one way or the other too much but I tend to find i find the IDI for pretty cheap and easily anymore.
Now to get to fitting the Donor Truck's Motor mount plates now that you have centered and leveled the motor, now as you can see the plate will be curved towards the top for the Passenger's side and will have a dip and angle added on the Driver's side. Now since the Passenger's side is usually the easiest to make I like to start with it so I can be better prepared and "warmed up" for the Driver's side later. Take the moun before installing it and flatten it out by either placing it on a strong and flat surface and punding it flat with a 4lb hammer, or through whatever means you can find without heating the mount with a torch. I usually just pound it flat on the welding table.
All the mounts and mount plates are 1983-1994 6.9L and 7.3L Truck mounts, none of the original mounts for the gas engines are used.
The only time I use the Van mounts is when making 2wd swap mounts, the difference is covered in my 2wd swap build thread linked in the begining of this write-up. You COULD use van mounts but honestly the truck mount has a better fit.
I will update tonight when i get back to the shop, I apparently had not taken enough photos of my Mount plates and how I went about marking them so I'll need to flatten out another mount and mark it for the next post to move on.
Will do! Sucky thing is remembering all of this from having built these particular mounts 4 months ago lol. I make these alot but don't usually share in this much intimate detail.
So I finally managed to get some shop time in and get totaking photos of what I had apparently not with the Motor Mount Plates, so on with the write-up!
So to work with the Motor Mount Plates you must first bend them flat (this is a little more difficult with the Driver's side than the Passenger Side so I will cover the Passenger first), I did this by clamping the Mount on the short side of the bend and literally pounded it out with a 4lb hammer until it was mosly flat, then used the same hammer to flatten it the rest of tge way on the flat surface of the Welding Table.
Then after making sure the Plate was flat I poceeded to secure the Motor Mount to the Mount Plate and clamped it using the Factory nuts, making sure the mount was seated properly and square to the mounting holes, I then traced out with a permenant marker the outline of the Mount and measured out 1/4" from the edge of my mark which will correspond with the back edge (transmission side) of the Mount. When removing the Mount you will be left with a near perfect cutting outline of which to trim the Plate with.
Now to get around to making the actual towers for the Mounts, what you need here is some high quality Cardboard and a good razor knife and after making sure your engine and chassis haven't shifted out of place mount up your Motor Mount Plates and get to figuring out your towers, I almost always start with the Driver's side since the pieces are the smallest, work out the proper shape of the carboard (this may take a few pieces) and be sure you leave some overhanging the Chassis Mount Plates so you have some metal on the top to add some rigidity. As a great fabricator old me, if you can't work out something in Cardboard, you can't work it out in Metal.
Here is the forward plate, keep in mind to have enough gap to allow for the bead to fill the welds.
Here you can see the Front Plate made from the outline of the cardboard mounted and Welded, don't worry if the Plates look crooked or not square, that's how they should be. I like to also square my tower plates to the Engine mount plate using a 90 degree Square or Protractor then keep it in place with a good welding magnet as shown below.
Repeat the same steps for the rear plate and you have most of your Passenger Mount made.
After that make sure to make a Rear plate and top plate to square up the 2 tower plates and you are all set. The angles on these plates will be a bit off since the Towers are angled a bit.
Now to get around to making the actual towers for the Mounts, what you need here is some high quality Cardboard and a good razor knife and after making sure your engine and chassis haven't shifted out of place mount up your Motor Mount Plates and get to figuring out your towers, I almost always start with the Driver's side since the pieces are the smallest, work out the proper shape of the carboard (this may take a few pieces) and be sure you leave some overhanging the Chassis Mount Plates so you have some metal on the top to add some rigidity. As a great fabricator old me, if you can't work out something in Cardboard, you can't work it out in Metal.
Here is the forward plate, keep in mind to have enough gap to allow for the bead to fill the welds.
Here you can see the Front Plate made from the outline of the cardboard mounted and Welded, don't worry if the Plates look crooked or not square, that's how they should be. I like to also square my tower plates to the Engine mount plate using a 90 degree Square or Protractor then keep it in place with a good welding magnet as shown below.
Repeat the same steps for the rear plate and you have most of your Passenger Mount made.
After that make sure to make a Rear plate and top plate to square up the 2 tower plates and you are all set. The angles on these plates will be a bit off since the Towers are angled a bit.
Yes you should consider making/selling these mounts. Or, sell a copy of the templates.
I've actually been kicking this around, and after making these mounts I've been fabricating up a small frame Jig to acompany a 1978 f250 4x4 frame section that I have from a trail trailer I made not long ago, but the catch is really until I move to CO over CA next year it would make the mounts too expensive to build. While it cuts down my fabrication time down alot to have the jig it does cost alot for 3/16" plate and 75/25 Gas here in California. So I may explore making these next to my 2wd Swap mounts and marketing them, that along with my HD Dual battery Trays.
The way they sit these mounts would cost me about $450 a set to produce here and make any money off them. Though that us also with my time put into them. Once I have a Plasma CNC that may change.
sadly as you will see later in this post my Welder burned up the PC board and I had to send it in for repairs. Still waiting on that.
I've actually been kicking this around, and after making these mounts I've been fabricating up a small frame Jig to acompany a 1978 f250 4x4 frame section that I have from a trail trailer I made not long ago, but the catch is really until I move to CO over CA next year it would make the mounts too expensive to build. While it cuts down my fabrication time down alot to have the jig it does cost alot for 3/16" plate and 75/25 Gas here in California. So I may explore making these next to my 2wd Swap mounts and marketing them, that along with my HD Dual battery Trays.
The way they sit these mounts would cost me about $450 a set to produce here and make any money off them. Though that us also with my time put into them. Once I have a Plasma CNC that may change.
sadly as you will see later in this post my Welder burned up the PC board and I had to send it in for repairs. Still waiting on that.
12-24-2016, 09:02 PM
