Well, I figured I'd take a minute to give an update on the truck. So far it's been a great truck. I've put over 10,000 miles on it since buying it in the winter and it's been great... well, mostly.
The 454 is a bit of a gas hog for our purposes as a tow rig. With our ~8000lb camper in tow, we are lucky to get 6mpg and acceleration is laughable. I talked a while back about doing a Cummins swap on this thing and it is officially happening. It's what this truck needs to be a competent tow rig, at least for our purposes here in the mountains and hills where we live.
A few weeks back I picked up a Ram 2500 donor truck and yanked the engine from it. I will be reusing the GM NV4500 with a Dodge clutch, bellhousing and input shaft. I'll retain the rest of the running gear for now, although it will likely need to be regeared but we'll see how it does with the 4.10s, at least to start. I also have a 79 Dana 60 to go in, but that's a different project for the future.
So in addition to doing the swap itself, I will be upgrading the Cummins to get more modern power potential out of the truck. In early November, I won a contest put on by power driven diesel, in which I entered my dad's 2005 Ram 3500 to have its horsepower doubled. We drove out to Utah and got to talk with the guys at their shop and I got a lot of good information on what to do for my swap. I picked up one of their 500 horsepower packages which included injectors, delivery valves, Governor Springs, they're AFC live kit, and a host of other goodies. I picked up a larger Turbo and a Southbend clutch setup. Although I doubt the truck will make 500 horsepower, based largely on its smaller 160 injection pump, it should still make significantly more horsepower than the 454 to the wheels, and have two or three times as much torque. We'll have to wait and see.
I'm going to get the donor engine cleaned up, and going through. I want to make sure that it's in good shape, cleaned up, and resealed before it goes in the dually. Once the engine and transmission are ready to go in the truck, I will begin to remove the 454 and Associated parts. I'm sure this process is going to take me a few months, but I can't wait. I just figured I would share as it had been a long time since I had really posted any updates.
I'll try to document the process, as I go, to continue the truck's story.
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