88GMCtruck's 98 Silverado Towpig Build: "Black Fox"

[Old77]

I agree. @DanteGTZ has done a great job with the Fox and taking it to that next level. Nicely done, sir

 

[frito-bandito]

This thing was already amazing, it’s somehow even better now!

 

[Thatlowchevy]

The Fox belonged to @88GMCtruck. Mine is darn similar but it is a 6.5/4L80E. @DanteGTZ is doing exactly what I would've liked to have done with Pearl but it just wasn't in the cards quite yet. That being said, I like the Fox in it's current configuration. The only change that I would've considered otherwise would be a NV5600 6 speed.
I've had a ridiculous number of vehicles and what is odd is that I rarely see them for sale or in person. I did recently see our old 00 Denali and was disappointed in how thrashed the interior was.

Maaannnn I was trashed and typing [emoji23] I knew the Pearl was similar


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[Supercharged111]

Maaannnn I was trashed and typing [emoji23] I knew the Pearl was similar


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I've been there a time or 2 myself.

 

[DanteGTZ]

I've been tackling a couple of the smaller issues recently trying to get the truck ready to go back into service for us. One of the big items on my list was air conditioning.

So what I did was actually pretty simple, but took me a while to figure out how I was going to do it. There are multiple ways to go about this Air conditioning conversion, but since everyone's swap is a little different, I figured a way that worked for me.

Dave had replaced the air conditioning compressor with a Sanden unit which turned out to have some usable parts for the swap. The advantage of running this type of air conditioning compressor is interchangeability of parts. As it turned out, the Sanden compressor for this truck and the compressor for the Dodge Cummins trucks is the same series (SD7H15). The biggest difference is the compressor head on the back of the unit where the lines of connect.

I was able to remove the compressor head from the GM compressor and install it on the Dodge unit. No modification, it was a direct swap. This allowed me to bolt my factory lines on to the Dodge compressor. The only modifications I needed to do to the lines were remove the big expansion tanks and shorten them. I did all of this myself, but any competent hose or AC shop should be able to do the same thing. By reusing my GM parts and just making some changes to the hoses, all of my pressure switch connections and fill ports were identical to the way they were on the 454.

If someone wanted to do the swap in the future but didn't already have the Sanden compressor for the GM application, you can buy just the compressor head itself. This head is a GT style head.

With the physical connections done, I ran cleaner through the lines/condenser/evaporator, installed the new orifice tube, drier and added oil and refrigerant. I had the compressor manually switched on during the charging and the air conditioning is ice cold... well, 40*F.

I still need to figure out how to switch the compressor on inside the truck. Without a signal from the crank showing the engine running, the computer won't trigger the relay. I'm still working on that and there a couple of fixes I can implement but at least the system itself works. I just figured I would put this out there in case anyone ever needed the info in the future. It seems like there are many different ways to accomplish air conditioning on a swap like this but this used parts I already had, with minimal modification and it seems to work great.

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[Supercharged111]

Can't you trigger the relay off of the AC switch output from inside the cab? I.E. trigger it off is something AC related and not crank rotation related?

 

[DanteGTZ]

I am not entirely sure yet. As I understand it, people generally go about switching the AC one of two ways: Bypass the computer and use the AC button as power for the relay (which then requires rewiring the pressure switches in series) or getting the computer to switch the relay like it did originally.

In order to get the computer to turn on the relay, the computer needs to think the truck is running. From what I understand, the only way to do that successfully is to use the crank position sensor to pick up crank rotation from a reluctor ring. They computer is looking for a square wave signal. There are a couple companies that sell a kit to do this. This method has the added advantage of helping to get the tach working like it did from the factory. There is another method for getting tach signal, but it requires a Dakota Digital box to calibrate it correctly.

Ultimately, I may end up just bypassing the computer altogether and rewiring the system so that it works off of the AC button. I'd like to keep the AC system reasonably stock (at least operationally) but I guess it's not a huge deal either way.

We had a camping trip planned for the weekend so I ran a temporarily relay and used the cycling switch to get the AC to work while we drove.

The trip was about 80 miles each way and the last 7 miles was a constant, uphill moubtain road. I was a bit anxious to see how the truck would do and this was a great test. Aside from being a but loud in the cab, it did great. On previous trips up to this campground the 454 not happy pulling the 8000# camper up that climb. WOT in 2nd gear was about the best it could do. With the Cummins I was able to climb the same mountain in 3rd gear, easily, with power to spare. I kept an eye on the vitals and the EGTs never got above 1100* and coolant never exceeded 192*. Very happy with those results. All in all, I'm super happy with it so far. It still needs multiple items addressed but I'll be working on those over the next few weeks.

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[Supercharged111]

I was not impressed with the output of the stock 454 Vortec myself. Blower and a tune helps tremendously. Basically what you observed, climb a hill in the next higher gear not balls to the walls. Nice to hear yourself think.

 

[DanteGTZ]

Still putting some miles on the swap and am really happy so far. The truck pulls trailers effortlessly. The mileage is probably double what it was before.

I'll be putting a new pair of front tires on tomorrow. I went with the same Cooper Discovered ST Maxx tires. The rears are still good but the fronts were fairly out of round and would hop a bit around 55-60. Between the new idler/pitman, tires and alignment Im hoping the ride will smooth out a bit.

I'll be looking to replace the shocks before too long as well. The Rancho 9100s are ~$450. The Bilstein 5100s are ~$320. Curious what yall think between the two. I realize these Ranchos have seen some decent heavy use between Dave's camper/trailers and the use Ive put them through but I'd have expected them to last a bit longer, based on the low-ish mileage put on them. The truck is very bouncy whether loaded or unloaded. Im open to suggestions.

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[Supercharged111]

The 5100s are for a 4-6" lift, the 4600 for a stock or cranked truck. My dually at stock height is a peach with the 4600 shocks.