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Episode Transcript
(Marc)>> You're watching Powernation!
(Eric)>> Today we're starting a whole new project. So if you like duallies, diesels, and old Dodges you're gonna want to stick around.
(Joel)>> We're plucking the Cummins out of this old workhorse and shifting it into a full blown powerhouse. We don't want to give too much away. You're just gonna have to wait and see what happens here on Music City Trucks. [ Music ] Nothing cooler than an old pickup, am I right? [ Music ]
(Eric)>> Underneath all this dirt there's probably a pretty good truck. ♪
(Joel)>> Hey guys, welcome to Music City Trucks. It's a beautiful day here in Tennessee and we're on the hunt for our next project. It's been a while since we've done a diesel truck build but we're looking to change that today.
(Eric)>> What we've got here on this little farm hiding in that barn up there isn't necessarily a barn find but we did find it in a barn and I think you're gonna like it. Let's see what we got. [ Joel whistles ]
(Joel)>> I don't know about you but I love these old first gen Cummins.
(Eric)>> You can't beat them. As an engine in a work truck it's about as good as they ever got. It doesn't matter where your allegiance lies when it comes to trucks it's definitely a great truck to have around. The first gen Cummins is undoubtedly one of the greatest engines of all time.
(Joel)>> First ballot hall of famer if you will, and it's a '93 right?
(Eric)>> Yep, last year of this body style. I've got a feeling underneath all this dirt there's probably a pretty good truck.
(Joel)>> Did he say why he wanted to sell it?
(Eric)>> The guys said it does run pretty good. He said he bought a new truck and this one spends most of its time sitting save for the occasional day of work and driving to church on Sundays. He said he's ready to see it move on. Let's take a look under the hood. [ Music ]
(Joel)>> There she is my friend. The crown jewel!
(Eric)>> You could definitely tell this thing's been around here for a while, but based on the outside I was expecting much worse under here.
(Joel)>> What I like about these is just the bolt on mechanical horsepower. So easy to work on, so simple. I just love these things.
(Eric)>> You can't beat them. You drop it in pretty much anything. I think this is a great base for what I'm thinking.
(Joel)>> My grandpa always said that you could start an old Cummins with a screwdriver and a ball penne hammer, and he wasn't wrong. Arguably these Cummins are to diesel dudes what LS' are to hot rod guys.
(Eric)>> Let's see if we can get this thing started.
(Joel)>> Did he give you the key?
(Eric)>> No, but if I know farmers.
(Joel)>> Got it!
(Eric)>> Moment of truth. [ engine starts ] [ engine idling ]
(Joel)>> I love that sound!
(Eric)>> Just like that! [ engine idling ]
(Eric)>> Let's get this thing out in the sunshine. [ Music ] Bring it on! Look at that!
(Joel)>> Needs a bath. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say this thing is straight piped.
(Eric)>> Sure sounds like it. Now that it's out in the daylight.
(Joel)>> Not a bad looking truck is it.
(Eric)>> I don't think this guy knows what he's selling.
(Joel)>> There's a lot of aftermarket support on these things. We can go pretty much any direction we want.
(Eric)>> Up, down, fast! We've got a lot of decisions to make here. Based on how it sounds it's definitely been taken care of.
(Joel)>> Let's get her back to the shop.
(Eric)>> Looks like he about lived in this thing.
(Joel)>> Is that a cricket? Don't it. Well we've got our old dually back at the shop. Time for a day at the spa. If you ask me it's well overdue. [ Music ] What is it with these ranchers? They just throw everything in the bed of the truck.
(Eric)>> Hope you got your tetanus shot.
(Joel)>> One of my first jobs out of high school was detailing used cars at one of those cheapo car dealerships. Like Big Jim's Auto Sales or whatever. You wouldn't believe some of the nastiest stuff. I think one of the worst was I was doing a van and I was digging behind those pockets that are behind the front and passenger side seats. Inside one of them was a used diaper, like soiled. It had been there a while.
(Eric)>> Sounds like that was a pretty crappy day at the office.
(Joel)>> Eric was right. After hitting it with the pressure washer underneath all this grit and grime was a true dually diamond in the rough. [ Music ] There's no signs of any corrosion and the paint still has a little bit of shine to it. That definitely makes it easier to pull off what we have planned for this Cummins powered colossus.
(Eric)>> Give the people what they want. A little bit of magic you know. Up next, we shift our thinking and develop a dream for this dually build.
(Joel)>> We've christened this new diesel powered dually dynamo as Project Nightshift.
(Joel)>> Well guys here it is, our latest project, a 1993 Dodge Ram W-350 first gen Cummins. One of the most popular and sought after truck models on the market today. When you step back and consider anything and everything a truck guy loves when it comes to benefits and features this thing has got it all. For starters this truck has what I call the intimidation factor. Its aggressive stance and wide load exterior grabs your attention and makes a statement when you see it coming. This dually's also rocking two heavy duty Dana 60 axles that can haul anything from hay bales to dumb bells. And with this truck having four wheel drive you'll conquer rough terrain with ease. Underneath the hood you have pure turbocharged Cummins power with plenty of room for future growth potential.
(Eric)>> That's right, and Dodge might not have made a very big impact when they entered the diesel market but they showed up in a big way in 1989 when they redesigned the engine bays of their three quarter and one ton trucks to accept the 6-BT Cummins engine. Since then people have been putting this and its little brother the 4-BT in just about anything and everything that you can think of. One of the most popular Cummins builds to come out of Powernation has to be the Super Dually. She's a 1979 Ford Crew Cab that we hauled out of a junkyard and chassis swapped with a Cummins powered second gen Ram.
(Joel)>> Plus we replaced the stock rear axle with a dually Dana 80 and grafted in some rear fenders to complete that classic look. For all of her good attributes she was definitely purpose built as a work truck and not a show pony. We're not looking to get that extreme but we do have big plans for this old Ram.
(Eric)>> That's right, we are keeping this body and we are gonna keep the engine on this chassis but we are definitely gonna take it up quite a few notches. We're gonna transform this Dodge W-350 from a dream work truck into a working man's dream truck. First we'll give the engine a turbo boost along with bigger injectors and all new hardware to double down on torque and horsepower. It's also gonna get a fresh paint job and engine dress up kit to match its new exterior.
(Joel)>> On the underside she's getting all new suspension, including a front coil over conversion and rear four link. We're also going to update all the axles and supe up the stopping power with a rear disc brake conversion. What kind of overhaul would this be without some new shoes? So we're throwing in a new set of custom wheels and tires for a matching stance to the style.
(Eric)>> Next we scrap the stock look and hit it with a dark two tone black and gray metallic coat of war paint with a pencil thin red pinstripe. As far as the bright and shiny stuff goes we're adding a custom grille along with blacked out front and rear bumpers.
(Joel)>> Then we'll swap out those old trucker lights with some state-of-the-art l-e-ds, and for the interior we've got custom seats, door panels, a new dash, and tricked out digital gauges. We've christened this new diesel powered dually dynamo as Project Nightshift.
(Eric)>> With only 172,000 miles on the clock a lot of you guys would say that this truck is just barely getting broke in, and in most cases you'd be right, but in our case we just got it and we have no clue what its maintenance history looks like. Which is why we gave our buddies over at Hot Shot's Secret a call and had them send us some products that are gonna give us the peace of mind to know that our engine and our fuel system are nice and clean. First thing we did was add some Diesel Extreme fuel treatment so we could make sure we weren't dealing with any injector issues or had deposits that could cause further wear and tear. We'll be using Hot Shot's Secret diesel products to ensure this dually is running and riding as good as it looks.
(Joel)>> Whether you're adding power to your diesel engine or just using it as a daily driver it's not a bad idea to know exactly what's going on inside your crank case. I've got some Hot Shot's Stiction Eliminator that I'm gonna dump down into the engine. That should clean up any excessive carbon build up as well as drown out any noises in the valvetrain. Stiction occurs when a sticky residue forms inside the combustion chamber from carbon buildup. Using Stiction Eliminator will help break down or prevent that from occurring, or in our case help diagnose a problem you may need to fix.
(Eric)>> This thing is actually really nice. For being a dually, especially one that's this old it rides real good.
(Joel)>> Can't go wrong with a first gen Cummins.
(Eric)>> I'm not even a Dodge guy but this thing is just great.
(Joel)>> How are your gauges looking? Everything seem to be circulating alright?
(Eric)>> Yeah, oil pressure's good, temp is good.
(Joel)>> It does seem to be running better overall since we put that Hot Shot's in it.
(Eric)>> You can definitely tell that it's smoothed it out. With the fact that we did buy it used, and we don't know for sure what the maintenance history looks like.
(Joel)>> For the amount of power we want to put in this thing we've got to make sure it's right.
(Eric)>> I could do this all day every day.
(Joel)>> Unfortunately we should probably get back to the shop and yank the motor so we can get the ball rolling.
(Eric)>> Let's do this.
(Joel)>> Cummins up! Call me crazy but I don't think Dodge ever intended anyone to have to pull one of these things. We drag this diesel engine out of our Dodge dually.
(Eric)>> Now that we have our gameplan it's time to get started on tearing this thing apart, and the first step is gonna be to pull this power plant because that is gonna be the biggest piece of this puzzle.
(Joel)>> These old Cummins definitely have some weight to them. So after we're done unhooking everything up top we're gonna lift the truck up and drop the transmission and the transfer case just to lighten that load up a little bit. [ Music ] I don't know what kind of a Ya-hoo puts a Ford battery in a Cummins. That man should be put in prison. [ Music ]
(Eric)>> I don't know who puts a radiator drain in such a bad spot, but that guy needs to go right along with him.
(Joel)>> Call me crazy but I don't think Dodge ever intended anyone to ever have to pull one of these things.
(Eric)>> If you take care of them you probably never have to.
(Joel)>> You ever set down pliers or a ratchet and you just go, where did I put that? Been right in front of your face the whole time.
(Eric)>> Only after searching around the shop for ten minutes trying to find it. [ drill humming ]
(Eric)>> Now that we've got room for the bolts to come out we night have to spin it over.
(Joel)>> You ever wonder about the first dude who ever did a Cummins swap?
(Eric)>> I'm willing to bet there was quite a bit of liquid motivation behind that one.
(Joel)>> That's where most good ideas come from.
(Eric)>> Your liquid motivated ideas must be better than mine. [ Music ] When you go to pull your front driveshaft out the easy way to do it is to make sure you put your transfer case into four high or four low before you get under here to try and get it out, but if you forget take that pry bar and just put it right inside the yoke and break right loose. Oh no, it's a little stuck! Fixed it! [ wrench clanging on the floor ] [ saw buzzing ]
(Eric)>> Yeah, get that out of here! [ Music ]
(Joel)>> It's an endeavor ain't it.
(Eric)>> There's not easier way to do it.
(Joel)>> Might have to pivot.
(Eric)>> We're hitting on this exhaust a little bit too.
(Joel)>> There we go!
(Eric)>> She ain't caught on nothing no more.
(Joel)>> That wasn't so bad.
(Eric)>> Not at all! Easy day! [ drill humming ] [ Music ]
(Joel)>> She free?
(Eric)>> Watch your head.
(Joel)>> That's a yes.
(Eric)>> We didn't need that anyways. [ ratchet clicking ]
(Joel)>> There we go. [ Music ]
(Eric)>> Give her a shot right there. There we go!
(Joel)>> She's pretty much in a bind still.
(Eric)>> Hitting anything?
(Joel)>> Nope, good, send it!
(Eric)>> Out she goes!
(Joel)>> Good news is that was not a pain in the butt.
(Eric)>> Hit that lever and drop her down some. There you go! Now that we got ourselves cleaned up a little bit let's get dirty all over again actually getting this thing out of here.
(Joel)>> Let me get out of here.
(Eric)>> You don't want to ride it?
(Joel)>> Don't tempt me!
(Eric)>> I'll just put a ratchet strap around you and you'll be fine. Now for the fun part. That should be good and loose right?
(Joel)>> So far so good.
(Eric)>> Definitely a good bit heftier than what we usually deal with.
(Joel)>> That little crane's going uhh right now. Spin her a little bit.
(Eric)>> You got eyes on.
(Joel)>> Just gonna have to wiggle her out a little bit.
(Eric)>> Neal McCoy style, hold on. There she goes! How you looking?
(Joel)>> So far so good.
(Eric)>> How you looking?
(Joel)>> Still good.
(Eric)>> Nothing attached?
(Joel)>> I'm gonna get out of here. Don't stand underneath it. It's got 1,000 pounds right there.
(Eric)>> Oh yeah! [ Music ] [ mechanical humming ]
(Eric)>> Well I guess now gotta get this thing cleaned up and torn apart after we clean ourselves up again.
(Joel)>> That'll take a couple of hours.
(Eric)>> Coming up next, engine stand won't hold it we'll show you how to make your own. [ torch hissing ]
(Eric)>> With our Cummins diesel displaced from its home in this engine bay it's time to get it set up on a stand so that we can clean it up and tear it down before we start throwing new parts at it. Unlike our last inline six that we dealt with in here the shear weight of this thing is a serious consideration.
(Joel)>> This thing is in the neighborhood of 1,100 pounds. So it's gonna present a serious safety concern if you even remotely try to put it on your standard old engine stand because you're already at capacity. So what are your options? Well you could go out and get you one of these bad boys, an industrial strength engine stand specifically designed for diesel engines. This particular model is set up for a Duramax, but you can go out and get the adapter plate for a B-series Cummins. One thing to consider, between the adapter plate and the stand itself you're knocking on the door of about $4,000 bucks. For those of you at home who understandably may not want to shell out that kind of coin there's always Plan-C.
(Eric)>> In the case of this plan "C" stands for custom. What I have in front of me here is actually a body cart that's meant to have the frame or the body of a truck put on top of it whenever you're doing any kind of work on stuff like that. We're gonna be using our Forney cutting and welding equipment to fabricate our own type of adapter so that we can put an engine on here instead of a frame or a body. Now the first step to doing that is gonna be to get everything lined up because all of these uprights and these two crossbeams right here are completely adjustable. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna get these four posts in line with each other, and then take some square stock and cut some beams to go across here. Once we have a beam on both sides we're gonna take our engine and rest it between the two. Then we're gonna put some uprights on those and use those to mount to the original motor mounts on the engine itself. A couple of options to support the front and rear of this engine would be to have these adjusted right to the edges of our engine block and put individual supports on either side and bolt those in, or we could actually tighten them up and do some V-shaped supports on this central beam that holds these two together and bolt those to either side of the block. But we're not gonna be making that decision until we get some cutting and welding done to get our main supports made. Now I know what you're thinking, we already mentioned cost as being an issue with the diesel engine stand but that's not really the case with this. This cart, to buy one brand new is actually under $1,000, but if you don't feel like spending that much money you could just buy the tubing and build it yourself because it's a really simple design. The first step to actually building our custom apparatus is gonna be to cut some of this wide tubing that is gonna serve as our crossmembers on the uprights. Now I've already gone ahead and marked this at 40 inches because the engine block itself with the accessory drive removed is 32 inches from front to back. That means that our uprights are never gonna be further apart than that. So we're gonna cut this a little bit long to make sure we've got plenty of it and that we don't have to worry about it shifting front to back and falling off. [ Music ] That one does need to come out just a little bit. [ Music ] Looks pretty good. With our main supports cut it's time to roll this over to our engine and see how it fits in the middle. Now that we've got our main support beams on to our cart we're gonna do some measuring and get some angles set up for the actual engine mounts. Now the engine mounts in the truck sit at a perfect 45-degree angle, which makes this quite a bit easier. So with our angle locator setting on our support beam right here we're just gonna use that to kinda judge where the engine mounts on the engine side have to sit before we weld our brackets on. We're gonna build one side and use that so that we can get the other side built, and everything's gonna sit level and be accessible once it's set up on here. [ Music ] [ metal clanging ]
(Eric)>> Once we've notched our beam we'll tack and weld these together to make one solid piece. Then we'll go ahead and drill a hole so that we can bolt in to our actual engine mount. Let's see what we got.
(Joel)>> Today we started a new build that's been a long time Cummins.
(Eric)>> I don't think this guy knows what he's selling. I think we should lift it a lot. Add another inch or two. We kicked the tires and scraped off all the years of dirt and grime that comes with a barn find to reveal that we had ourselves a dually diamond in the rough.
(Joel)>> Then we gutted the underside of these ride and yanked the engine and transmission out so we could prep it for a one off custom paint job. About 1,000 pounds right there.
(Eric)>> Down we go. With our engine mounted up on this custom Cummins stand we are just about ready to get it cleaned up, sprayed with some fresh paint, and start bolting on our power adders.
(Joel)>> And we're pretty excited about this project and all of its potential. When you step back and consider everything we've still got to do to this thing the fun's just beginning. For right now we're just gonna keep on truckin'!
Show Full Transcript
(Eric)>> Today we're starting a whole new project. So if you like duallies, diesels, and old Dodges you're gonna want to stick around.
(Joel)>> We're plucking the Cummins out of this old workhorse and shifting it into a full blown powerhouse. We don't want to give too much away. You're just gonna have to wait and see what happens here on Music City Trucks. [ Music ] Nothing cooler than an old pickup, am I right? [ Music ]
(Eric)>> Underneath all this dirt there's probably a pretty good truck. ♪
(Joel)>> Hey guys, welcome to Music City Trucks. It's a beautiful day here in Tennessee and we're on the hunt for our next project. It's been a while since we've done a diesel truck build but we're looking to change that today.
(Eric)>> What we've got here on this little farm hiding in that barn up there isn't necessarily a barn find but we did find it in a barn and I think you're gonna like it. Let's see what we got. [ Joel whistles ]
(Joel)>> I don't know about you but I love these old first gen Cummins.
(Eric)>> You can't beat them. As an engine in a work truck it's about as good as they ever got. It doesn't matter where your allegiance lies when it comes to trucks it's definitely a great truck to have around. The first gen Cummins is undoubtedly one of the greatest engines of all time.
(Joel)>> First ballot hall of famer if you will, and it's a '93 right?
(Eric)>> Yep, last year of this body style. I've got a feeling underneath all this dirt there's probably a pretty good truck.
(Joel)>> Did he say why he wanted to sell it?
(Eric)>> The guys said it does run pretty good. He said he bought a new truck and this one spends most of its time sitting save for the occasional day of work and driving to church on Sundays. He said he's ready to see it move on. Let's take a look under the hood. [ Music ]
(Joel)>> There she is my friend. The crown jewel!
(Eric)>> You could definitely tell this thing's been around here for a while, but based on the outside I was expecting much worse under here.
(Joel)>> What I like about these is just the bolt on mechanical horsepower. So easy to work on, so simple. I just love these things.
(Eric)>> You can't beat them. You drop it in pretty much anything. I think this is a great base for what I'm thinking.
(Joel)>> My grandpa always said that you could start an old Cummins with a screwdriver and a ball penne hammer, and he wasn't wrong. Arguably these Cummins are to diesel dudes what LS' are to hot rod guys.
(Eric)>> Let's see if we can get this thing started.
(Joel)>> Did he give you the key?
(Eric)>> No, but if I know farmers.
(Joel)>> Got it!
(Eric)>> Moment of truth. [ engine starts ] [ engine idling ]
(Joel)>> I love that sound!
(Eric)>> Just like that! [ engine idling ]
(Eric)>> Let's get this thing out in the sunshine. [ Music ] Bring it on! Look at that!
(Joel)>> Needs a bath. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say this thing is straight piped.
(Eric)>> Sure sounds like it. Now that it's out in the daylight.
(Joel)>> Not a bad looking truck is it.
(Eric)>> I don't think this guy knows what he's selling.
(Joel)>> There's a lot of aftermarket support on these things. We can go pretty much any direction we want.
(Eric)>> Up, down, fast! We've got a lot of decisions to make here. Based on how it sounds it's definitely been taken care of.
(Joel)>> Let's get her back to the shop.
(Eric)>> Looks like he about lived in this thing.
(Joel)>> Is that a cricket? Don't it. Well we've got our old dually back at the shop. Time for a day at the spa. If you ask me it's well overdue. [ Music ] What is it with these ranchers? They just throw everything in the bed of the truck.
(Eric)>> Hope you got your tetanus shot.
(Joel)>> One of my first jobs out of high school was detailing used cars at one of those cheapo car dealerships. Like Big Jim's Auto Sales or whatever. You wouldn't believe some of the nastiest stuff. I think one of the worst was I was doing a van and I was digging behind those pockets that are behind the front and passenger side seats. Inside one of them was a used diaper, like soiled. It had been there a while.
(Eric)>> Sounds like that was a pretty crappy day at the office.
(Joel)>> Eric was right. After hitting it with the pressure washer underneath all this grit and grime was a true dually diamond in the rough. [ Music ] There's no signs of any corrosion and the paint still has a little bit of shine to it. That definitely makes it easier to pull off what we have planned for this Cummins powered colossus.
(Eric)>> Give the people what they want. A little bit of magic you know. Up next, we shift our thinking and develop a dream for this dually build.
(Joel)>> We've christened this new diesel powered dually dynamo as Project Nightshift.
(Joel)>> Well guys here it is, our latest project, a 1993 Dodge Ram W-350 first gen Cummins. One of the most popular and sought after truck models on the market today. When you step back and consider anything and everything a truck guy loves when it comes to benefits and features this thing has got it all. For starters this truck has what I call the intimidation factor. Its aggressive stance and wide load exterior grabs your attention and makes a statement when you see it coming. This dually's also rocking two heavy duty Dana 60 axles that can haul anything from hay bales to dumb bells. And with this truck having four wheel drive you'll conquer rough terrain with ease. Underneath the hood you have pure turbocharged Cummins power with plenty of room for future growth potential.
(Eric)>> That's right, and Dodge might not have made a very big impact when they entered the diesel market but they showed up in a big way in 1989 when they redesigned the engine bays of their three quarter and one ton trucks to accept the 6-BT Cummins engine. Since then people have been putting this and its little brother the 4-BT in just about anything and everything that you can think of. One of the most popular Cummins builds to come out of Powernation has to be the Super Dually. She's a 1979 Ford Crew Cab that we hauled out of a junkyard and chassis swapped with a Cummins powered second gen Ram.
(Joel)>> Plus we replaced the stock rear axle with a dually Dana 80 and grafted in some rear fenders to complete that classic look. For all of her good attributes she was definitely purpose built as a work truck and not a show pony. We're not looking to get that extreme but we do have big plans for this old Ram.
(Eric)>> That's right, we are keeping this body and we are gonna keep the engine on this chassis but we are definitely gonna take it up quite a few notches. We're gonna transform this Dodge W-350 from a dream work truck into a working man's dream truck. First we'll give the engine a turbo boost along with bigger injectors and all new hardware to double down on torque and horsepower. It's also gonna get a fresh paint job and engine dress up kit to match its new exterior.
(Joel)>> On the underside she's getting all new suspension, including a front coil over conversion and rear four link. We're also going to update all the axles and supe up the stopping power with a rear disc brake conversion. What kind of overhaul would this be without some new shoes? So we're throwing in a new set of custom wheels and tires for a matching stance to the style.
(Eric)>> Next we scrap the stock look and hit it with a dark two tone black and gray metallic coat of war paint with a pencil thin red pinstripe. As far as the bright and shiny stuff goes we're adding a custom grille along with blacked out front and rear bumpers.
(Joel)>> Then we'll swap out those old trucker lights with some state-of-the-art l-e-ds, and for the interior we've got custom seats, door panels, a new dash, and tricked out digital gauges. We've christened this new diesel powered dually dynamo as Project Nightshift.
(Eric)>> With only 172,000 miles on the clock a lot of you guys would say that this truck is just barely getting broke in, and in most cases you'd be right, but in our case we just got it and we have no clue what its maintenance history looks like. Which is why we gave our buddies over at Hot Shot's Secret a call and had them send us some products that are gonna give us the peace of mind to know that our engine and our fuel system are nice and clean. First thing we did was add some Diesel Extreme fuel treatment so we could make sure we weren't dealing with any injector issues or had deposits that could cause further wear and tear. We'll be using Hot Shot's Secret diesel products to ensure this dually is running and riding as good as it looks.
(Joel)>> Whether you're adding power to your diesel engine or just using it as a daily driver it's not a bad idea to know exactly what's going on inside your crank case. I've got some Hot Shot's Stiction Eliminator that I'm gonna dump down into the engine. That should clean up any excessive carbon build up as well as drown out any noises in the valvetrain. Stiction occurs when a sticky residue forms inside the combustion chamber from carbon buildup. Using Stiction Eliminator will help break down or prevent that from occurring, or in our case help diagnose a problem you may need to fix.
(Eric)>> This thing is actually really nice. For being a dually, especially one that's this old it rides real good.
(Joel)>> Can't go wrong with a first gen Cummins.
(Eric)>> I'm not even a Dodge guy but this thing is just great.
(Joel)>> How are your gauges looking? Everything seem to be circulating alright?
(Eric)>> Yeah, oil pressure's good, temp is good.
(Joel)>> It does seem to be running better overall since we put that Hot Shot's in it.
(Eric)>> You can definitely tell that it's smoothed it out. With the fact that we did buy it used, and we don't know for sure what the maintenance history looks like.
(Joel)>> For the amount of power we want to put in this thing we've got to make sure it's right.
(Eric)>> I could do this all day every day.
(Joel)>> Unfortunately we should probably get back to the shop and yank the motor so we can get the ball rolling.
(Eric)>> Let's do this.
(Joel)>> Cummins up! Call me crazy but I don't think Dodge ever intended anyone to have to pull one of these things. We drag this diesel engine out of our Dodge dually.
(Eric)>> Now that we have our gameplan it's time to get started on tearing this thing apart, and the first step is gonna be to pull this power plant because that is gonna be the biggest piece of this puzzle.
(Joel)>> These old Cummins definitely have some weight to them. So after we're done unhooking everything up top we're gonna lift the truck up and drop the transmission and the transfer case just to lighten that load up a little bit. [ Music ] I don't know what kind of a Ya-hoo puts a Ford battery in a Cummins. That man should be put in prison. [ Music ]
(Eric)>> I don't know who puts a radiator drain in such a bad spot, but that guy needs to go right along with him.
(Joel)>> Call me crazy but I don't think Dodge ever intended anyone to ever have to pull one of these things.
(Eric)>> If you take care of them you probably never have to.
(Joel)>> You ever set down pliers or a ratchet and you just go, where did I put that? Been right in front of your face the whole time.
(Eric)>> Only after searching around the shop for ten minutes trying to find it. [ drill humming ]
(Eric)>> Now that we've got room for the bolts to come out we night have to spin it over.
(Joel)>> You ever wonder about the first dude who ever did a Cummins swap?
(Eric)>> I'm willing to bet there was quite a bit of liquid motivation behind that one.
(Joel)>> That's where most good ideas come from.
(Eric)>> Your liquid motivated ideas must be better than mine. [ Music ] When you go to pull your front driveshaft out the easy way to do it is to make sure you put your transfer case into four high or four low before you get under here to try and get it out, but if you forget take that pry bar and just put it right inside the yoke and break right loose. Oh no, it's a little stuck! Fixed it! [ wrench clanging on the floor ] [ saw buzzing ]
(Eric)>> Yeah, get that out of here! [ Music ]
(Joel)>> It's an endeavor ain't it.
(Eric)>> There's not easier way to do it.
(Joel)>> Might have to pivot.
(Eric)>> We're hitting on this exhaust a little bit too.
(Joel)>> There we go!
(Eric)>> She ain't caught on nothing no more.
(Joel)>> That wasn't so bad.
(Eric)>> Not at all! Easy day! [ drill humming ] [ Music ]
(Joel)>> She free?
(Eric)>> Watch your head.
(Joel)>> That's a yes.
(Eric)>> We didn't need that anyways. [ ratchet clicking ]
(Joel)>> There we go. [ Music ]
(Eric)>> Give her a shot right there. There we go!
(Joel)>> She's pretty much in a bind still.
(Eric)>> Hitting anything?
(Joel)>> Nope, good, send it!
(Eric)>> Out she goes!
(Joel)>> Good news is that was not a pain in the butt.
(Eric)>> Hit that lever and drop her down some. There you go! Now that we got ourselves cleaned up a little bit let's get dirty all over again actually getting this thing out of here.
(Joel)>> Let me get out of here.
(Eric)>> You don't want to ride it?
(Joel)>> Don't tempt me!
(Eric)>> I'll just put a ratchet strap around you and you'll be fine. Now for the fun part. That should be good and loose right?
(Joel)>> So far so good.
(Eric)>> Definitely a good bit heftier than what we usually deal with.
(Joel)>> That little crane's going uhh right now. Spin her a little bit.
(Eric)>> You got eyes on.
(Joel)>> Just gonna have to wiggle her out a little bit.
(Eric)>> Neal McCoy style, hold on. There she goes! How you looking?
(Joel)>> So far so good.
(Eric)>> How you looking?
(Joel)>> Still good.
(Eric)>> Nothing attached?
(Joel)>> I'm gonna get out of here. Don't stand underneath it. It's got 1,000 pounds right there.
(Eric)>> Oh yeah! [ Music ] [ mechanical humming ]
(Eric)>> Well I guess now gotta get this thing cleaned up and torn apart after we clean ourselves up again.
(Joel)>> That'll take a couple of hours.
(Eric)>> Coming up next, engine stand won't hold it we'll show you how to make your own. [ torch hissing ]
(Eric)>> With our Cummins diesel displaced from its home in this engine bay it's time to get it set up on a stand so that we can clean it up and tear it down before we start throwing new parts at it. Unlike our last inline six that we dealt with in here the shear weight of this thing is a serious consideration.
(Joel)>> This thing is in the neighborhood of 1,100 pounds. So it's gonna present a serious safety concern if you even remotely try to put it on your standard old engine stand because you're already at capacity. So what are your options? Well you could go out and get you one of these bad boys, an industrial strength engine stand specifically designed for diesel engines. This particular model is set up for a Duramax, but you can go out and get the adapter plate for a B-series Cummins. One thing to consider, between the adapter plate and the stand itself you're knocking on the door of about $4,000 bucks. For those of you at home who understandably may not want to shell out that kind of coin there's always Plan-C.
(Eric)>> In the case of this plan "C" stands for custom. What I have in front of me here is actually a body cart that's meant to have the frame or the body of a truck put on top of it whenever you're doing any kind of work on stuff like that. We're gonna be using our Forney cutting and welding equipment to fabricate our own type of adapter so that we can put an engine on here instead of a frame or a body. Now the first step to doing that is gonna be to get everything lined up because all of these uprights and these two crossbeams right here are completely adjustable. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna get these four posts in line with each other, and then take some square stock and cut some beams to go across here. Once we have a beam on both sides we're gonna take our engine and rest it between the two. Then we're gonna put some uprights on those and use those to mount to the original motor mounts on the engine itself. A couple of options to support the front and rear of this engine would be to have these adjusted right to the edges of our engine block and put individual supports on either side and bolt those in, or we could actually tighten them up and do some V-shaped supports on this central beam that holds these two together and bolt those to either side of the block. But we're not gonna be making that decision until we get some cutting and welding done to get our main supports made. Now I know what you're thinking, we already mentioned cost as being an issue with the diesel engine stand but that's not really the case with this. This cart, to buy one brand new is actually under $1,000, but if you don't feel like spending that much money you could just buy the tubing and build it yourself because it's a really simple design. The first step to actually building our custom apparatus is gonna be to cut some of this wide tubing that is gonna serve as our crossmembers on the uprights. Now I've already gone ahead and marked this at 40 inches because the engine block itself with the accessory drive removed is 32 inches from front to back. That means that our uprights are never gonna be further apart than that. So we're gonna cut this a little bit long to make sure we've got plenty of it and that we don't have to worry about it shifting front to back and falling off. [ Music ] That one does need to come out just a little bit. [ Music ] Looks pretty good. With our main supports cut it's time to roll this over to our engine and see how it fits in the middle. Now that we've got our main support beams on to our cart we're gonna do some measuring and get some angles set up for the actual engine mounts. Now the engine mounts in the truck sit at a perfect 45-degree angle, which makes this quite a bit easier. So with our angle locator setting on our support beam right here we're just gonna use that to kinda judge where the engine mounts on the engine side have to sit before we weld our brackets on. We're gonna build one side and use that so that we can get the other side built, and everything's gonna sit level and be accessible once it's set up on here. [ Music ] [ metal clanging ]
(Eric)>> Once we've notched our beam we'll tack and weld these together to make one solid piece. Then we'll go ahead and drill a hole so that we can bolt in to our actual engine mount. Let's see what we got.
(Joel)>> Today we started a new build that's been a long time Cummins.
(Eric)>> I don't think this guy knows what he's selling. I think we should lift it a lot. Add another inch or two. We kicked the tires and scraped off all the years of dirt and grime that comes with a barn find to reveal that we had ourselves a dually diamond in the rough.
(Joel)>> Then we gutted the underside of these ride and yanked the engine and transmission out so we could prep it for a one off custom paint job. About 1,000 pounds right there.
(Eric)>> Down we go. With our engine mounted up on this custom Cummins stand we are just about ready to get it cleaned up, sprayed with some fresh paint, and start bolting on our power adders.
(Joel)>> And we're pretty excited about this project and all of its potential. When you step back and consider everything we've still got to do to this thing the fun's just beginning. For right now we're just gonna keep on truckin'!
