Satisfied customer

Rx7man · January 26, 2016, 10:17:34 PM

Well, a guy I've known for decades wanted a little more power out of his truck, especially since he just put 3.55 gears in it... Apparently it had been to BD diesel and dynoed at 267hp.. I think all they did was loosen the star wheel and put injectors and an exhaust on it...

So he bought 3K governor springs and I installed them today, and put in my old #10 fuel plate at halfway.. timing seemed OK so I didn't mess with it.. revved clean at 3500 and didn't stumble. I didn't do it the way the BD instructions say.. I didn't remove the air horn, or replace the springs through the top, I find it much safer to remove the shutdown solenoid arm and access the springs through the plug that's meant for the job... no risk of dropping a shim or nut down in the pump.

Well,.. for his first test drive I forgot to hook up the AFC boost sense.. and he said it felt like before.. so I went digging.. yeah.. I found the problem, hooked it back up, and he drove it again.. He came back with a big smile... roads are slick right now, but it was all over the place, while before it was just a dog.
I followed him for a little ways into town, it doesn't smoke much at all either, 32psi peak boost, EGT's are good. Oh, yeah, BD installed the pyro after the turbo.. I fixed that.. he had the 3 piece BD manifold, but the plugs were seized in so tight even heating it red with the torch I couldn't back them out.. they didn't put any never-seize on anything.

Then I took him for a spin in my truck.. he's guessing I'm in the 500hp range.. I think that's a little optimistic, but if his truck was 267 with no gov springs and stock fuel plate, I may have more than I figured (I figured mid 300's-400).

I'm starting to doubt the kind of work BD does... That's 2 trucks that have come through my hands now from BD where they weren't really happy with it.. the first is the Chevy with a '91 Cummins in it.. it just makes smoke and no power, and now an injector quit.. the guy probably spent $8000 easy there (new head, studs, install, pump mods, injectors) and it was still a dog. I managed to make it smoke a little less (except for the bad injector part of the smoke) and he's getting better mileage now, it was totally overfuelling.

I'm getting a bit of a name in town here as the go-to guy for the 'hard problems'.. I'm making a couple bucks at it now, mostly because it's all friends coming in, but as I get more knowledge and mad skills I'll have to raise the price a little... Kinda like BD does.. the 3k governor springs were $277 with tax!!!

65fpvmustang · January 28, 2016, 03:34:37 PM

enjoyed reading.

Rx7man · January 29, 2016, 03:55:04 AM

And one more truck came in and out of the shop today... my friend had to put a new front axle in his truck... 8 hours of work, 2 backs thrown out, but he has 4x4 again...

Next week I may be doing the front cover to block gasket on a 24V cummins.. 16 hour book time job.. it's a misery to do, but I'm about the only guy around who can do it... rad, intercooler etc have to come off... valve rockers, cam and lifters come off, injector pump, power steering pump also have to come off... it's really not much fun... I quoted $1000 plus parts.. we'll see if he goes for it

hakcenter · January 29, 2016, 08:13:31 PM

you want to do my head gasket, pretty sure I finally blew it last week

Rx7man · January 29, 2016, 11:52:35 PM

Never done one on a 24V, but the 12V takes about 5 hours or so..

No I don't want to do it, you don't have money

Is yours the famous 56 block that cracks? What are the symptoms?

hakcenter · January 30, 2016, 12:26:23 PM

I've had gurgling heater core for the last month or so. No matter the time of day, its always an hour after shutdown its there.
Last week it finally starting bellowing white smoke just while cruising around.

It'll do it out of gear just revving up. I took it to 4k mashing for some smoke, and the white went away for maybe a minute and steadily came back.

I dunno I don't want to do it, unless its a couple bolts and no major everything has to come off. If the cam has to come out and the front case and all that jazz, I think I'll wait until it won't start lol.

I'm going to try to get it to smoke later today or tomorrow and go through injectors to see if maybe its a bad injector.. but I'm sure its the HG

Rx7man · January 30, 2016, 02:19:06 PM

Try and see if it's more smoke or steam.

Head gasket is a LOT easier than the gear cover gasket.. cam doesn't need to come out...

Here's a rundown of it.
Remove air horn, injector lines, fuel filter, valve cover, Unbolt exhaust manifold and let it roll to the side, turbo can stay usually... Drain coolant, remove top rad and heater hoses, remove rocker pedestals (not quite sure how 24v's are), lift out pushrods, undo head bolts and lift head off.. Installation is the reverse of removal, check head for flatness or pitting, resurface.. check valves for play or wear.. use new gasket and torque to specifications listed in the beginning of this chapter.

Engine hoist can help installing it, but i've done it with an 8' 2x4 and a couple guys helping too.

hakcenter · January 30, 2016, 02:57:39 PM

That's what I was hoping for, I've done my DSM like a million times, I'm pretty sure I did one within an hour on that car too.

I imagine I need to redo valve lash after final install ya ? Cause the rockers are like what 25ft/lbs ?

Rx7man · January 30, 2016, 03:06:42 PM

You will definitely have to reset the valves after, regardless of but especially if you mill the head.. On a 12V it's .010 intake and .020 exhaust, though I usually set them a smidge tight... Unlike most people though, I check my valves at least every 50,000 miles... Only takes an hour so might as well.
I don't know what the rocker pedestal torques to.. on the 12V there's a head bolt through one side of it, when using ARP studs (recommended) that goes to 140 ft lbs... When I was doing my buddy's head gasket, I found out that 140 ft lbs is "torque to fart".

Oh, and to lift out the #6 pushrods, there are 2 rubber plugs on the bottom side of the cowl that pop out so you can lift them out high enough...

65fpvmustang · January 30, 2016, 09:54:11 PM

that's cool about the rubber plugs in cowl.
but dam solid lifters on a engine that will never see 5,000 rpm.
That's one big head. probably is as heavy as a dsm engine.

Rx7man · January 30, 2016, 10:22:23 PM

It is intimidating the first time... but it's not that bad... excessive coolant, especially if it gets down in the crankcase can wipe out your bearings.. they really hate antifreeze.

Solid lifters because you can't afford the possible pump-up of hydraulic lifters when you have NO clearance between the piston and valves... it's gotta be accurate. If you want, I can weigh a 12V head for you.. I figure about 100-130 lbs... I can carry one around with a bit of grunt... You will need about a 2 ft piece of 3/8th chain and a couple shackles to hook onto the lifting eyes.

65fpvmustang · January 31, 2016, 08:40:58 AM

130 lbs not bad.
at least it's along time between adjustments.
at 50k i'll probably be doing a valve job with the boost i run.

Rx7man · January 31, 2016, 09:11:35 AM

I know of a lot of engines that probably went 500K with no valve adjustments.. it's just easy to do and a cheap tuneup.

Meanwhile the guy went for the quote on the gasket replacement.. be about 2 weeks before I get the truck.. I"m going to buy stocks in Castrol Superclean.. that engine is a MESS from that leak.. the fan blew the oil all over the place, including into the radiator.