You still need the doghouse. You just turn it around backwards and run the hose off of it to your filter/catch can.

I'd avoid painting the inside of the exhaust ports too.

not to be a smart-ass, Nate, but why is that its still needed? if my catch can has a filter on it, then does it really matter if air is sucked into the crank case?

and yes, i did do that. probably hard to see, i but i bought some rubber stoppers - like from high school chemistry class and jammed them in the exhaust ports during the whole cleaning and painting process. worked quite well.

the cv has 2 holes in it. The easiest way to connect it to a catch can is with the doghouse. Plus the filter in the doghouse will help to catch a lot of the oil putting it right back into the cc. The filter is more for keeping oil in then dirt out. Most motors push gasses out rather than suck in, or at least all of mine have anyway. I think you would be in trouble if you had one that sucked lol

The doghouse is how you connect the hose to the valve cover. Otherwise there are just two big holes in it.

simple answers to a dumb question. thanks for setting me straight, guys :-)

There's no dumb questions here. Unless maybe you asked how to get more power out of a cummins. That might be frowned upon here. ;)

Yeah, I wouldn't suggest that one...

No problem JP. Keep up the good work. I really like that paint you used. It looks oh-so-nice with all the new parts! :-X06

thanks, Nate - yeah, i'm liking it, too. i'm thinking it'll look pretty good with all the black stuff bolted to it as well - valve covers, plenums, manifolds, fuel regulator, accessories (assuming i still have the motivation to paint them), etc.

so, while continuing to wait on my springs to come in from Clay, i got impatient and pulled the springs on cylinder 1 and 4 (which are at top of their stroke at the same time). the advance auto valve tool, a rubber mallet, a piece of 1/4" rubber hose, and a magnetic probe (an absolute necessity for the job) made pretty quick work of the removal.

i then used this micrometer (ProformParts.com - 66902, TALL VALVE SPRING HEIGHT MICROMETER. RANGE 1.600" - 2.100") check my valve heights and found something quite interesting. all 4 of the valves i checked were reading significantly higher than what the stock spring installed height shoudl have been (according to this link: ProformParts.com - 66902, TALL VALVE SPRING HEIGHT MICROMETER. RANGE 1.600" - 2.100") so unless the valves or head seats were compressing over time somehow, something was wrong with the measurement - or that quoted number.

after thinking on it and staring at parts a while, it finally made sense. the way our spring caps are shaped, they are beveled at the outer edges and actually sit down into the head of the micrometer by ~0.030", whereas the springs themselves ride more toward the center of the cap, such that you have to discount that 0.030 from the micrometer reading to get an accurate number. if not, you will have overshimmed your springs. the only effect of this is getting a stronger seat force than you want - unless you want a high seat force and you overshoot the solid height of the springs - which would then bend all your rods (or worse) as soon as you turn the engine over...

Darin and Glen - does this make sense to you guys based on your experience (below)? did you use the same micrometer? i can post some pics if needbe, but it was tough to get good zoomed-in pictures with my iphone.

also, once of the 4 springs i removed was definitely sagged in uncompressed height compared to the others by at least an 1/8"

And - one of my valve seals was completely shot. lots of oil down below it and all the inner ribs that contact the valvestem were gone. So, thanks for the replacement ones, Nate! and the are spot on replacements for the stock ones. the rubber on yours is green compared to black on the stock ones, but otherwise, they're the same dimensions all around.

Ya, that is the micrometer I used, or at least one like it anyway. Valve seat issues do happen, so if you come up with a measurement that seems a decent amount too high it could have a bad seat/sunken valve. It's not very common with these motors, there isn't a lot of spring pressure, and the cam ramps aren't designed to slam the valve back closed unlike what I mostly build.

Glad to help a brother out, JP. And for what it's worth I'm waiting on the snail mail from Oregon too....

I hate waiting for parts...

Gotcha, Darin. All of my heights have come up within .015 of each other so far though, so I guess that's good. 2 bad seals out of 10 so far though.

;-). Mine showed up today! I had to spread some wood chips around the swing set ahead of my daughter's 4th bday party on sat, but got right to work installing the new springs. Got 8 in before running out of steam. Didn't help that my advance auto compressor fell apart twice. Luckily I had replacement circlips!

Finished up all the valve springs, then put in the new injectors from Jim, then pushrods and rocker arms. Then re-ringed the oil cooler I had cleaned up last week. Then hung it and some other parts for paint. I was cruisin today! Felt good to finish up a bunch of jobs in one day. (I'll post pics in a few days)

I must say that those valve springs were one of the most physically demanding jobs I've done on this truck so far! Sure, busting some big rusted bolts loose is tough, but working that spring compressor 32 times and fiddling with all this retainers was tough work. I found myself thinking I wished I had a 6-banger instead of an 8! That thought passed quickly, though...

I'm hoping to get my 3" plenums and weld-in oil dipstick adapter built this week. Then I can paint all the black engine parts at once.

I'm getting dangerously close to ripping the truck apart!

Still interested in that dipstick adapter.... ;)