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Well, it’s been a while. Clifford is still going strong, but I gotta get this swap going. UPS man brought me some goodies today and the 12V is coming out of the barn this weekend to get torn down. Decided to go ahead and use an auto trans from a 97 Dodge 3500, which I believe to be a 47RE. More on that this weekend as well. Still waiting on my 3M panel adhesive and gun, then it’s time for the rear rockers.
Got the 12V torn down yesterday. Overall it went pretty well! This motor supposedly has 250K on it and you wouldn’t know it based on the internals. All bearings look really good with just a little wear. Front of the crankshaft has the tiniest bit of wear. #5 piston had a little junk in it but other than that they all slid out easily by hand. The only real issue I had was the exhaust manifold bolts broke off, well most of them. And as an added bonus, my youngest learned that she really enjoys the crap out of using an impact! The harbor freight 2000 pond engine stand works fairly well except for the standoff’s on the brackets aren’t quite long enough to rotate the engine all the way around. This week, it’ll go to the machine shop where a 75 year old guy will take his 60 or so years of experience to task checking EVERYTHING over. After everything has been checked, it’ll get a valve job, check for cracks, hot tank, the works. Then it’ll come home for paint and assembly. In the mean time, parts will be ordered, I’ll rebuild the turbo, clean up everything that didn’t go into the tank, and send out the p-pump and injectors for evaluation. It’s on!!
Well, it’s been a while. Clifford is still going strong, but I gotta get this swap going. UPS man brought me some goodies today and the 12V is coming out of the barn this weekend to get torn down. Decided to go ahead and use an auto trans from a 97 Dodge 3500, which I believe to be a 47RE. More on that this weekend as well. Still waiting on my 3M panel adhesive and gun, then it’s time for the rear rockers.
where your front rockers ok? I need to replace both front and rear. Looks like the front is the same for all SD and excursions so it should be okay to get a set for a SD right?
where your front rockers ok? I need to replace both front and rear. Looks like the front is the same for all SD and excursions so it should be okay to get a set for a SD right?
For now they are...I'll have to strip them down all the way to be sure, but I believe they are. As far as using SD fronts on the X, I can't say for sure. I would think they'd be pretty darn close.
Running boards removed, and some inner rocker rust to deal with. The area where the front mount for the running boards was rusted pretty bad, but the rest is still ok. Anybody have a feeling as to whether it would be sufficient to grind all the rust in those areas and then just cover the hole with new metal?
Also, spent some quality time with parts cleaner and the bench grinder cleaning up some parts for the Cummins while I wait to hear back from the machine shop...fingers are still crossed, but I may have an issue with my block.
Heard back from the machine shop and turns out #2 and #5 cylinder walls are pitted to the point of needing sleeves. I got a line on another 12V for $100 and went out yesterday to get it. The head was off of it, and it was covered, but the cylinder walls were pitted worse than mine. So, instead of a complete engine, I got a set of injector lines with return (mine were junk), good hx35 turbo, intake elbow, fan hub (mine just had an idler), and a complete head that looks to be completely rebuilt. It even has a warranty tag on it. The guy said it’s cracked, but I’m wondering why in the world a shop would put all that work in it. Checking for cracks would be the first thing on the list I would think. Anyway, it’ll get torn down and checked as well. Overall, super happy with the purchase as I definitely got my money’s worth. Slowly but surely, it’s starting to come together. Now I’m just hoping we’re getting early fall instead of early winter. Anybody else notice the leaves started changing 2 weeks ago? At least from the Ohio valley down to north GA they are. Ugh.
The $100 head is fully serviceable and in great shape! No cracks, all new valves that are good and tight, overall great condition. Block is bored 40 over and no sleeves were necessary. Not super happy about being maxed out on the bore, but I'm not adding fuel so should be fine. All the other parts are being hot tanked and the exhaust manifold will hit the mill and be straightened out. Should be able to pick everything up on Friday. The other head is also done as I had to have the broken exhaust studs removed on a mill. It'll be mothballed and placed in storage should I decide to use it on another project or for some reason need it for mine. Turbo is completely disassembled pending some drilling and tapping of bolts that broke in that, then it's off to paint everything, clean it up, and start the engine assembly.
Speaking of paint, I'm leaning heavily on Klass Kote for the engine, as recommended by @Oldguyfl Now, I just need to decide which color. Anybody want to help me pick??? I'm partial to the red, however, I do like the idea of tan. I'm thinking the "Tile Red" will match the Torreador Red of the X. Any input or opinions welcome! Time to get this build on!!!
Got the motor back last Friday and out of the back of the X on Saturday. Raining quite a bit here these days and my garage is constantly open so I coated everything down with a nice slather of ATF. Once I pick an engine color I’ll get it painted up and hopefully start the build process! Super excited! For now, she sits and waits...
Well, I was able to get one of my rear rockers replaced this weekend. There are a few lessons that I learned while doing this.
1. Don't wait. This time last year, I noticed they were getting bad so I ordered the rockers and some body panel adhesive. Then I sat on them and didn't do the replacement. Don't! Inside a year, they rusted all the way through and the inners got bad enough that I had to cut some away.
2. The harbor freight spot weld cutter works pretty good, and is pretty cheap. The only real downside to them is that they are a bit long if you're using a regular drill up next to the door hinge. A trip to harbor freight for a "close quarter" drill worked fine since I don't have an angle drill. Clean off the area and maybe grind it down flat with a flapper wheel if the metal is warped. Hit it in the center with a ***** punch to get a dimple. They run through pretty good with medium to high speed and light pressure. If they get caught in the metal, the teeth on the cutter will break. They are double sided, but I found that after I broke one side I couldn't unscrew it to use the other side, so I bought a couple more. Assume they are one sided.
3. Pay attention to where you paint the new rocker if painting before installation. I taped mine off along the edge but then painted them on the ends. Had to scrape the new paint off and then sand the area for the panel adhesive. You want a nice clean surface for that stuff to bond well.
I've never done body work in my life, and this was easy but a bit time consuming. Overall, it took me about 5 hours by the time I was done. But, it's fairly easy to do if you have the right tools and a little patience. On to the pics... Inner rocker is toast Before ***** punch and spot weld cutter Dimple for spot weld cutter Broken spot weld cutter You can sort of eyeball how deep to cut. The panel will start to pop off once you get all the way around it. A small prybar helps. New toy...Close quarter drill All the nasty More nasty Most of the way cleaned up with most of the rot cut out.
I got a line on another 12V for $100 and went out yesterday to get it. The head was off of it, and it was covered, but the cylinder walls were pitted worse than mine. So, instead of a complete engine, I got a set of injector lines with return (mine were junk), good hx35 turbo, intake elbow, fan hub (mine just had an idler), and a complete head that looks to be completely rebuilt. It even has a warranty tag on it. The guy said it’s cracked, but I’m wondering why in the world a shop would put all that work in it. Checking for cracks would be the first thing on the list I would think. Anyway, it’ll get torn down and checked as well. Overall, super happy with the purchase as I definitely got my money’s worth. Slowly but surely, it’s starting to come together. Now I’m just hoping we’re getting early fall instead of early winter. Anybody else notice the leaves started changing 2 weeks ago? At least from the Ohio valley down to north GA they are. Ugh. 
