1994 Chevy C3500 Crew Cab Long Bed Build Thread

[JScott23]

Heres some more photos of the truck..

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[JScott23]

And so i had a chance to take the truck out last night, headed to the grocery store to get some quarters for a car wash... and while i'm in the store waitin in line a mechanic comes up to me, looks like he just got of work. He comes up to me and says, "hey is that our diesel out there?" I say yep, just got it running again, he goes on and we have a conversation for 3-5 minutes while waiting in line about how clean it is, and how good it sounds. We talked about the truck for a few minutes, i explained how it's sat for a year and i just swapped a 93 mechanical injected diesel in it. He went on to talk about his that has some head gasket problems and he's waiting for some money to rebuild it.

It was just nice for someone to come approach me about how clean the truck is... Really means i'm doing something right. in a town where there's always jacked up trucks, duramax's, powerstrokes and cummins, it was really nice to hear. It's all about keeping a old truck classy.


As for today, i have to work 8:30-5. So after work i will be heading to advance auto parts. Since the engine swap the glow plugs haven't ever really worked right, sometimes they flick on and off, and sometimes they won't shut off. Mainly if someone else was driving the truck i'm afraid they'd leave it on and burn up the glow plugs.

So i plan on using a ford glow plug or starter relay to run my glow plugs. Basically the GM glow plug harness is fairly simple.

Basically the stock GM relay has two threads and a plug in at the top. The left plug goes to the glow plugs, and signal light. The right plug goes to power. The plug at the top goes to the PCM which tells the glow plugs how long to stay on based on how hot it is, engine temp etc.

The ford relay has two studs, and a stud in the middle that can be used for a single wire push button or switch to function. I plan on using a push button relay to run my plugs. The studs will be wired the exact same. 1 for power, 1 for the plugs, the push button will activate the relay to provide power to the plugs when i want. Should be a simple swap that i can get done in our shop in a hour or so.

The 6.5 project's just rumbling along!

 

[JScott23]

Just stopped by advanced over lunch, picked up the ford glow plug controller, and a push button! The only other thing i think i'll pick up is a fuse, just to make sure that everything is safe.

 

[JScott23]

So there is that... Manual Glow Plugs Installed.. You push a button glow plugs work, factory light and all. All i'm out is $26 bucks, and 30 minutes of my time. That was the easiest thing I've done to this truck so far.

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Next Up:

Fix Speedometer
Install 4" Diamond Eye (No Muffler )

For down the road...

Boost Gauge
Tachometer
Fuel Pressure Gauge
LED Turn Signals

 

[JScott23]

Okay so today was my first real day to get the truck out and run it. Found out a couple of things..

First off when i put the motor back in, i realized that i did not get the dipstick for the oil back in the pan all of the way. It looks like it's in, but i needs to be twisted roughly 30 degrees to the left so it will slide all the way down in the pan. I didn't really notice this right away until i drove it into town (about 15 miles) finding out that it was blowing oil out of the oil pan..

A few adjustments and that will prevent that. I was getting a little oil blowing and i think that's why if air is getting in the pan which could have caused issues...

Just a simple adjustment, also we're losing coolant somewhere, i think the lower radiator hose is leaking, easy fixes.

We'll see.. i have another radiator hose so all will be well...

Push button glow plugs sure are nice that's for sure.

 

[JScott23]

Okay so we have some bad news... i've been driving the truck for about a week now, and i am noticing that we are having some blowby, and loss of coolant issues. Now i the oil is not liquidy so i know my brand new headgaskets aren't blown. My guess is the rings. Now this motor has 267k on the bottom end, and 50k on a top end rebuild. It should be good to go another 100k. Now the blowby is a little concerning, i know a lot of diesel's have it. The sad thing is the rings were replaced the same time as the heads..

We'll see, i'll keep on top of the maintance but it very well could be a terminal issue.. the oil is off to Blackstone Labs for testing..

 

[JScott23]

Looky Looky what showed up today!

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Unfortunately i won't be driving the truck until i fix a leaking injector, and until i find out where this thing is blowing oil out of... must be a seal in the dipstick, or the dipstick must be bent. Or there is a seal on the oil cooler lines... mhm. Also the lifters are quite noisy, not sure why since they're brand new.. a little blowby as well..

 

[4thesporty]

This engine has new rings?

Have you done any break in to seat them properly yet? This will show as blowby till they are seated well. I would hook a trailer up and drive around for a while getting some load on the engine.

The oil cooler does not have a seal that leaks, but the lines often leak around the crimp.

Sent from my primeco phone

 

[JScott23]

Yeah i'm going to try and find the oil leak, i saw it is oozing out of the dipstick, the tube must have gotten bent so it's not sealing right. Injector #1 is leaking, needs a new seal or whatever little copper ring is in there.

Other than that the truck's running well.

And no the ring's are not brand new, they were replaced about 50k ago when the engine was rebuilt. Stock crank/pistons. Whole top end including the IP were done 50k ago at the same time as the rings.

 

[JScott23]

So tonight i got the 4" diamond eye straight pipe kit installed, tell you great kit. I had a little bit of trouble getting the pipe how i wanted it over the rear axle, but other than that the kit went in very easy.. Still have a little work to do, need to really clamp all the clamps down really good and tight, but i tell you, overall the kit installed well.

Having the straight pipe is awesome, you really can hear the turbo whistle even when your idling. You can tell you get a lot of flow with the 4" pipe, especially over stock. My dad's 93 6.5 has the stock downpipe into the 2.5" that turns into a 3" straight after the soot trap would be, this kit sounds better, and has better flow. True performance exhaust.

Just make sure you be careful cutting the pipe to fit, i cut my intermediate pipe right at the minimum. I had to split the difference to in on the 3 pipes so that it would overlap like it should. It won't hurt anything, it's clamped it, won't go anywhere.. first time exhaust installer, plus it was late i got into a hurry... BIG mistake. Luckily it didn't hurt.

Overall the kit is the cheapest on the market, but you do not lose a penny on quality. Good thick tubing, good bends, everything installs very easy.