1996 Suburban Cummins Swap!

[Crummins]

I have received a lot of PM's asking me about my swap so instead of posting a link to another forum, I will just start a new one here:

The Suburban is a 1996 GMC and was a 454 Vortec truck when we started. We used the original transmission 4L80E with a controller. We ended up putting a 1" body lift on to make life easier although it wasn't required.

This entire swap was done without discharging the Air Conditioning.

Most all of the swap parts were from Autoworldmt.com - they were great during this entire swap. They supplied the motor mounts, trans controller, A/C mount, alternator mount, transmission adapter and tachometer drive.

Transmission was move back 3" to accommodate the longer Cummins engine. We moved the transmission coolers to underneath the truck, we used the factory cooler and a cooler from Derale with a fan on it.


Here is the engine, it is from a 1993 Dodge:

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Another engine shot:

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This shows what we had to cut from the core support to use a 1994-1998 Dodge Truck Intercooler, we did end up cutting more than what is shown but not much:

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Here the engine is sitting on the mounts in the truck:

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Another in truck shot:

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Here is a clearance picture with the stock IFS and the Cummins Oil Pan. It doesn't touch but it's close. We have to countersink a few of the bolts:

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Originally we tried to use the stock dodge manifold but ran into clearance issues since this Suburban has dual heat and A/C:

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We ended up using a 2003 Dodge Manifold which is a lower mount and cleared everything:

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[Crummins]

Here is a shot of the engine with everything wired (but the wires aren't loomed back up yet), most of the intercooler piping and the radiator hoses are done:

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Here is is with the wiring more complete and this was after we drove it:

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Here it is with the intercooler, radiator and condenser installed:

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Close up shot of the driver side intercooler:

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Here is the truck after test fitting the grille:

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[Crummins]

Here is how I made the parking light fit:

This is the stock parking light:

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I cut it down like this with an air powered cut off wheel:

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This is how it fits:

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Bulb in it -- I had contemplated leaving it like this with just one bulb:

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But I decided to drill a 1" hole and put some notches in it with an air saw (couldn't find a file that worked well enough). It is a little ugly but it works:

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Now it has 2 bulbs in it:

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Finished one more project on it:

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I am going to cap this with some sheet metal but I didn't have any scrap in the shop that would have worked but this works for now.

 

[Crummins]

We finished up the exhaust. It turned out really well. Directly on the turbo is a 3.5" pipe (the adapter is from Autoworld), the downpipe is 3.5" and then adapts to 4" pipe. It was all done with mandrel bends. Here are some pics:

Downpipe:

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Here is just immediately after the downpipe, it comes up a bit to clear the crossmembers and adapts to 4" here:

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4" V-band clamp is here. This is the perfect spot as it allows the exhaust to be removed completely if it is needed in the future:

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We used a big Magnaflow muffler:

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Over the axle:

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Tailpipe:

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I am very pleased with the sound, I didn't want it too loud since it is a Suburban, a pickup truck would get away with louder exhaust as they have the back of the cab and the bed to deaden the sound.

All of the exhaust work and fabrication that we were not capable of was done by Stainless Brain Fabrication (www.stainlessbrainfab.com), if you are in the Seattle / Tacoma area and need any sort of fabrication, this shop does phenomenal work!

 

[Crummins]

Hood Latch

Since the condenser moved out the width of the intercooler, the safety catch for the hood would have dug itself directly into the condenser. We modified the catch so the hood was no longer facing front to back, it was now side to side.

Hood pic - you can see the stock insert that is not used. We used the other insert and the other, just drilled a hole and used a bolt:

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Here is another shot of the latch:

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Here is a shot of the striker we welded onto the factory piece, I just had to cut 1/4" slit out of the grille:

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Here is just the striker:

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Hood closed and latched:

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[Crummins]

My most recent modification involves the Air Conditioning System. I didn't like the 2" cowl hood I had on there so we re-located the A/C to the passenger side (where we could get it lower) and used a Sanden A/C compressor with a GM style back and was able to use the factory A/C hoses (off of the same year truck with a 350):

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Stock Hood Back on!!

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We were also able to put a factory upper Cummins hose on it instead of that flexible one in the earlier pics.

 

[Crummins]

Here are my pillar gauges:

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[ChrisAU]

Thats pretty awesome!

 

[94Sierra4x4]

Sick rig dude. So clean too. Like it better with the stock hood as well, got any videos of it?

 

[97PROSHOZ71]

That is killer! How long did it take to do the swap all together?


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