Well, had some nice weather today and I’ve been hearing noises the last two days. And feeling things. My front end has a bit of a grind when turning at low speeds, say into a driveway. Ugh. There’s only one part I didn’t replace: wheel hubs. So, jacked up each side and I have a small amount of play in both front wheels. I guess not bad for the old boy at ~297K. But, winter is “here”, and now I’ll get to change them in nasty weather. Anyone have a feeling one way or another on the Timken units? Rock auto has them cheaper than any place else, so I’ll get them there. Any added value in the motor craft version? They’re a bit more expensive, but not terribly so.

Also, I hooked up Forscan to program my new keys and realized I forgot to get the extended license. So, hopefully they approve me in the next day or so. Otherwise I’ll have to wait until next year.

 

I know they are cheaper on Rockauto, but don't forget shipping...which I am guessing will be pricey due to the weight of the units. I got mine at O'Reilly's for about $205 per side. Something to think about anyways.

 

Yep! Thanks! I looked at the local auto parts stores and no one seems to have the timkens, even for order. I’ll check again. RA has them for $168 each, so as long as shipping is less than $60, I’m in. Bad thing about RA too is they take for freakin ever to ship. I’ll dig some more on the locals. Smyth carries Timken in stock so I may be able to snag a pair there.

 

+1 for the Timkens. I've changed the hubs twice, once on each of my excursions, and am very happy with them so far after ~15K on the first and ~5K on the second set.

 

Went ahead with the Timkens form RA. Shipping for Thursday delivery was only $13, so still cheaper than anywhere else I could find them.

Also, got to digging around under the font to find out that it appears that my motor is either shifted, or I didn't leave as much clearance as I thought between the oil pan and crossmember. So, this coming weekend will be a teardown of the front to replace the hubs and potentially movement of the motor mounts, or more likely another cutback of the crossmember. I need to go back through pictures to see what I have the clearance at. right now it's not much over 1/16", and that's not good.

 

I did Moog cause I needed one quick. Seems to work fine but the sensor is installed 5 point screw instead of a hex. So I am sure that will become a pain in my *** one day....

 

Was able to get my front unit bearings swapped out this past weekend with new Timken units from RA. They included the o-rings and new studs with the bearings and ABS sensors. I filled them with grease using my trusty FTE grease gun adapter prior to install. Overall, it went swimmingly as I had just had them off during the build. Now, no more grinding at slow turns. I think probably the passenger side was the only bad one and the drivers side was probably still ok. Small price to pay for peace of mind though. Brakes look good still, though I'll have to keep an eye on the drivers side as I'm seeing a bit of brake dust on the wheel again. I rebuilt those while I had it torn down with new seals and pistons and slide pins, so hopefully they don't start sticking again. The drivers side had a bent pin when I tore it down.

From there, I had noticed that my oil pan was awful close to the crossmember last time I was under the truck. Once I got into the pit, the motor looked as though it was not level. The bolts in the motor mounts (for the crossmember) were not as tight as I thought they should be and it appeared that the drivers side had shifted a bit upwards (direction of rotation under torque). So, jacked it from the oil pan and loosened all 6 nuts holding the mounts to the crossmember. I was able to raise it and get it rotated around even. From there, I made shims for the passenger side to go between the mount and crossmember to hold it off right at 1/8". Tightened everything back down and it still sat pretty close between the crossmember and oil pan. So, I got my big boy pants on and shoved a 4" grinder up there and cut away some more of the crossmember to clearance it. I was super worried about getting into the oil pan, but the X gods were smiling on my cold hands and I didn't mess up. Whew!

Not many pics, but here are a few! Still have to work through getting my clutch line changed, but I can nurse that and keep an eye on it for better weather.





Shims made out of 1/8" thick washers

Clearance on the crossmember. Still will keep an eye on this.

 

Welp, trouble free miles came to crashing end this weekend. Took a trip up to South Bend, In to visit some extended family. About 4.5 hours from us each way. Clifford did really well on the way up. No issues at all, and the ride was pretty nice with a carload of kids, dogs and luggage. Was headed back and in that stretch of road between South Bend and Indianapolis (in the middle of nowhere basically), I noticed a huge cloud of steam coming from behind me. Puled over and popped the hood and I was missing a freeze plug. UGH!!! Luckily, my brother in law was just ahead of us and I was able to find a NAPA just 10 miles away. Called them up and thy had a block heater in stock, which worked perfectly. There's no way I was gonna remove the turbo and all related accessories to ty and drive in a new freeze plug on the side of the road in 30 degree weather with the wind blowing snow around. So, picked that up and we were back on the road in short order. Unfortunately, in my haste, I didn't pour coolant in the top radiator hose and she air locked on me in short order. Pulled over, popped the hose off, dumped in the coolant (and the thermostat opened), shoved the hose back on, and filled the remainder into the overflow tank. Crisis averted. The remainder of the trip was uneventful.

So, moving to the absolute top of the list is billet freeze plugs, and some digging as to why on earth I'd blow a freeze plug in the first place. Looking at the other two on the side of the block more closely, I'm noticing that there's a bit of seepage around them. I did buy a freeze plug kit from a reputable seller, but I'm wondering if they were maybe a touch out of spec or if I possibly put that one in a little crooked. Generally, the 12V will spit freeze plugs in high HP/RPM applications, and generally it's the rear plug that blows. Speaking of which, I'l have to pull my motor or transmission in order to change that rear plug out. And I'm not super happy about that. I'm neither high HP or high RPM. If anyone has any theories, I'm all ears.

I also seem to have a high exhaust smell. Driving up, the brother in law said he could smell my exhaust when following me. I'm not hazing at all in the cruise speed (70-75 MPH) and I'm holding about 3-5PSI of boost in that speed range. So, looks like I need to tune it for real so I'm not pushing fumes out all over. If it's burning all the fuel (no haze), I'm not sure why it would be that strong. Could be that neither one of us can see it going don the highway at that speed. Not sure. More to come.

 

Hi Keith, I can't recall if you went HE351CW or stock HX35, but then again I ALWAYS smell diesel when following one no matter how well it appears to the naked eye to be tuned. If I recall you're running the factory cam, but did you bump the timing up at all on the p-pump, and what DV's are in it?

It all sounds like growing pains to me. Likely the freeze plugs are not to exact spec, especially if it wasn't the one in the back of the head that popped. If you go factory, these guys have been good to me: https://d-b-sales.com/shop?olsPage=p...-12v-3922072-3

As for your height of mounts issue earlier, check out Regan Swan on FB. He made my custom mounts for my Ex and their a serious piece and also reuse the factory 2nd gen snail mount. I know you like to weld, so maybe he can help with the cut pieces and you can weld them up. If you talk to him tell him I sent you. PM me if needed. Regan also carries a number of OEM Cummins parts for our projects...and he has an Ex he's converted also.

 

Thanks for the info on Regan! I'll check him out.

I am running the HX35 (and I'm closer and closer to calling Crazy Carl back for a compound setup). 5x0.12's, whatever DV is in the 230 RV pump (11mm barrels), and timing is set to 18 right now. The cam is the factory configuration for that ESN, but I don't believe it's the same configuration as the Dodge version. I missed out on measuring it before I put it in, which I wish I would have done so that I knew what it is. It certainly isn't aggressive.

 

HE351CW with a new cartridge in it are around 300 on fleabay. They need a plug and boost elbow (for the solenoid area in the housing) to be of good use, or you can use a spring wastegate. They run MUCH better than an HX35, spooling faster and bringing down EGT's.

The same guys that sold my rebuilt turbo cartridge for my 89 Daytona Shelby (and Donovan races on these with tons of boost regularly and without one single failure), are the ones I got my HE351CW from.

Factory cam is just fine, especially now that your engine is installed (who wants to remove a front clip to replace it now?!). If it's ever out again there's a few cam recommendations but I wouldn't do something like that unless it has to come out again for some reason.

Most cam upgrades will drop EGT's and increase torque though alot of guys view them as 'too much money' and I can see their point...easy to kill the trans with a better cam which costs plenty more $$$

 

Yeah, there's no chance for a different cam at this point. And to be honest, I don't really think I need it. I checked out the 351's and that's tempting. When I visited Crazy Carl, his take was just to throw a s472 on with the 35 and be done with it. I'll shoot him a message and see what he says. With the setup I have now, I really want to get that boost elbow in there and tune it to hit 35 PSI so I see where I am. My EGT's are around 700 cruising and if I'm really into it getting on the highway, I can hit 1000. It's not common though. I think the highest I've seen is 1100. I was putting off all the "major" tuning until spring but now I may have to go ahead with it. I'm still a bit concerned that I have enough pressure to blow a freeze plug, so I'm gonna grab a Mity Vac and pressurize the system and see what happens. I have an extra head that will need a trip to the machine shop to be in working order, but hopefully that's not the issue. I'm not making oil or coolant, don't have any real leaks to speak of, and my exhaust smell is just that, diesel exhaust smell. So, I'm a little less freaked out than yesterday, but I still have some digging to do.

 

PM'ing you two links so you can compare options. Should have mentioned in my PM that if you go the boost elbow route tapped into the solenoid plug, you can remove the lower sealing o-ring on the plug and use the fitting on the housing to measure boost. Should have also mentioned make sure you're measuring egt's/pyro at the manifold before the plenum split on the cylinder 4/5/6 side of the manifold (but you probably already are).

 

Took advantage of the nice weather this past weekend to get a few items taken care of. Being that I blew a freeze plug, I needed to change those out and decided to go with the billet plugs. Ordered up a set form Amazon and it includes the 3 on the side (one is taken up by the block heater), and the rear. They went in pretty easily but unless you have hulk strength in your fingertips, it's best to run the bolt in and out of the retaining block in the back a few times with oil to get the threads moving well. Process is simple, assemble the freeze plug, insert into block, press the plug into the hole, and then tighten the bolt. But, since the retainer is flat, you have to hold out on the bolt while turning it. Pretty simple. Filled up the cooling system again, and fired it up to find the oil leak at the turbo. Turns out it was the gasket where the drain connects to the bottom of the turbo. I had several iterations of gasket left over from the gasket kit and the turbo rebuild kit, so I was able tp use on of those. For whatever reason, I didn't use any sort of sealant on the first one, so this time I used the copper spray. I love that stuff! Installed that and let it sit over night, no more oil leak! Woo! Also, while I had everything apart, I went ahead and installed my boost elbow. While the boost elbow isn't really the fix to my low boost numbers, I figured what the heck. I also checked my waste gate and noticed that the rod just flops around. So, my wastegate is trashed. It was tight when I installed it, but it's old. I'll order up a new one and install it the next nice day I have. Hopefully, I'll be able to get it changed out without removing the turbo. That little C clip is not going to be fun, but I may be able to get to it from the bottom. But, in order to set up the wastegate properly, I need to apply compressed air to it and use a dial indicator to set the amount of travel at a certain pressure. that will likely require removal. We'll see when I get to that point.

I did manage to smack myself with a metal flashlight several times while working on the oil drain. That was fun.


Rear plug tapped for a coolant bypass

Side plug


Found my blown freeze plug lodged in the turbo

this is actually warped from installation. I vaguely remember this happening when I built the motor. Probably why it popped.

Cleaned up the holes with emery cloth prior to install.

Boost elbow installed

 

This past weekend was pretty nice, so I took a bit of time to update a few things.

Still running and driving great and no complaints with the exception of the clutch line is still leaking. I really ned to get on dealing with that. I may do it this coming weekend when I change my oil and transmission lube. This oil change will be the first that I'll not use ZDDP and will start using oil analysis to drive changes. I also started tooling around the idea of getting my reverse lights hooked up properly and my manual 4WD shift lever hooked up properly. I'l need the reverse circuit for hauling the boat as the trailer has hydraulic brakes with a switch that turns hem off when backing up. I'll need that for my driveway as it's slightly uphill. I'll also want the 4WD to back the camper into tight spots or up hills in campgrounds. Not many of those, but it's nice to move slow sometimes. I also would like to make a spacer out of wood or PVC for underneath my carpet in the area of the transmission shifter. The carpet is a little bunched up, and its a pain to remove the screws for the shift boot, which I'll need to do every time I change the lube in the transmission because I'm using 2 quarts over the fill requirement. That's standard practice for the G56 as it's a noisy bugger and the counter rotating gear sets don't have a center support, so they like to try and walk over each other under torque.

On to the mods I was able to complete. I had scavenged a parking brake release lever from the yard because mine was broken here the cable connects. So, removed my old one and replaced with the "new" one. Super simple job just removing the fuse panel cover, and then the plastic fuse cover. 10mm open end wrench in there and loosen both at the same time. there's not much room, which is the only hard part. Also went ahead and installed my new LED lighting under the hood. Simple to wire up and they give off a bunch of light! Also finally got my passenger side parking brake adjusted. Haven't been able to test it quite yet, but the parking brake goes don halfway now and not all the way to the floor like it was.

Other things still on the short list:
1. Redo the lower dash wiring for the gauges and switches to clean up the wiring. If anyone has a bus bar they like for that sort of stuff, I'm all ears. I'd like to be able to place one for power and one for ground and then run short wire to it instead of multiple wire through the firewall for everything. I think I'm also going to switch to the maxtow double vision for oil pressure and temperature as I like the way they look.
2. Rocker panels. I had replaced one last year, but i really need to do the others. I already have the full length ones for front and rear, so I'll gather the rest of the materials and get going on that. I really need to do some more sheet metal work as the pillar bottoms are getting nasty as well, along with door bottoms. Time to learn how to weld in metal and do paint! Well...this summer anyway...
3. Fuel filter housing. I need to replace the check valve and associated gaskets. I'll probably go ahead and change the filter while I'm in there.
4. Clutch line and 4WD shifter
5. Full length tool drawers for the back cargo area. I've actually already started that, more later.

On to the pics!

Old broken handle

10mm bolts that hold it in

Cable installed in the new handle

Lights for under the hood

All connections were made up with solder shrinks and heat shrink

don't mind the 6.0 burned hood liner. I'll grab one next time I'm at the yard for replacement. Light installed.

End of the pigtail to plug into the hood light switch

Daytime light

Lighting at night in the engine bay. Works great!