Ive been so busy I haven't been on here forever! But anyway, im not in auto tech school and in January I start a three semester engine building class. I can choose virtually any engine I want to build. So ive been looking into small block stroker for my 64 falcon sprint but now im thinking 12 valve cummins to build and save for my highboy down the road. IS there a certain year id want or so on? I know a guy who gets them every month to sell as running motors for $2500 and that's everything but a intercooler I believe. Kinda steep but still ill work on him about price later. He says a has a 94-97 one. Just trying to figure out what year id want ultimately and then ill go over the cummins build threads on here to see what everyone has been doing.

 

personally for a swap the easiest is going to be a 89-91.0 because of the lack of intercooler and fully mechanical with an external voltage regulator. but other wise anything up to 98 is basically mechanical and are great engines. You cant go wrong.

 

Is having a intercooler that much better?

 

its helps if you plan on doing any towing or if you plan on adding hp over stock.. im in the process of building my 73 F350 SCS 4x4 with a cummins and i will be adding an intercooler to my engine. I have a 90 model 5.9 with an HX35 and pump work and slightly bigger injectors. The intercooler basically just cools the hot pressurized air and turns it into cooler pressurized air to feed the cylinders. Makes good sense.

 

It depends on how much boost you want to run, if your towing hard etc. That intercooler realy helps the egt's. Non intercooled is simpler for sure, but when you get into the 94-97 engines you get the better injection pump.

If your buying a 94-97 and have a choice stick with the 96 or 97. Those two years have an upgraded injection pump and also put out the most power. If you buy a 94-97 buy an engine from a manual truck. 96-97 autos are 180hp manuals are 215hp.

 

Tougher? - maybe

Better? - that is more a matter of opinion

 

True, by better I'd I mean it's a simpler design. The p7100 is built like a small inline 6 and doesn't suffer a lot of the fuel starving failures of the other rotary pumps. Either way neither are bad pumps. However given the choice I'd take the p7100 due to the aftermarket support and redily available rebuilt and new pumps.

 

Good to know. If I wanted to go with a auto tranny I could still use the manual engine yes? Id like to build a high hp one too if money allowes

 

On somewhat of a tangent from your first post:

There are more options than just buying a Dodge truck. It's been done a lot, so there is a lot of information on it, but there are a TON of industrial and commercial applications that have the same block and various accessories that may work better for you.

Ford medium duty trucks sometimes came with these engines, as well as several day-cab trucks in the 2-5 ton range. My engine came out of a 91 Bluebird bus that had been rolled down a hill.

It had a belt driven vacuum pump (which I still need to remember to try to sell...) and an air-to-water intercooler, which was somewhat of an unexpected bonus to me.

Also, if you haven't thought about it, you may want to consider making a log book for your truck. It's VERY handy 8 years down the road to be able to see WHAT you've done to your fuel pump, where you got your accessories from or what starter you put on there. It's also nice to have a catalogued way to store your receipts for those life time warranty parts; notes on how you fixed your starter by removing corrosion from the solenoid or changed from stock contacts in there; maintenance manual pages with notes....all that good stuff can go right into your log book.

 

Why are injection pumps so dang expensive! Never looked one up before till now. My god its the cost of a entire used engine haha

 

Is it possible for me to rebuild the injector pump myself? Seems like a lot of money to go diesel.

 

Who says the injection pump needs rebuilt? If you find a lower mile engine, it should be just fine, shouldn't it?

 

It is possible but there are a lot of special tools involved. You also need to have it balanced. By the time you get the tools and have it ballanced it's cheaper to buy a new pump. Pensacola diesel sells new pumps for the price of some rebuilds.



Just make damn sure the rack isn't stuck on a p7100. Nothing wrong using a used pump as long as you check it out first. My rack was jammed that's why I bought a brand new pump. You should also prime a pump that's been sitting. You have to pour oil into the afc housing to prime it. Really easy.

 

Hmm lots or foreign language here haha ill have to do some research on cummins and diesels in general

 

Best would be get the 215 hp engine. That is going to be a manual transmission truck. Pump number will end in "913" Next best would be the auto transmission truck with "911" pump. Run a #10 fuel plate, 370hp injectors (note all 370hp injectors are not equal) 4K governor spring kit, and an afc spring kit.

With the 913 pump you are a little over 400 hp and 850-900 ft/lbs torque.

Kill the dowel pin while you are there.

Run a big intercooler (2nd gen Dodge or late 90's PSD with metal tanks) and 4" exhaust and a 16 cm hot side housing if you are keeping the Hx35 turbo.

If you go with the 91.5-93 180hp engine, you can get to about 210hp then it gets expensive. The earlier non intercooled engines tended to have head cracking issues around the injectors.