The 396-6.2 swap project

[glenn]

Use a 5 gallon can of diesel fuel with a hose in it and hook it to your mechanical fuel pump inlet. Run engine and see if it dies. This will tell you if its your trucks fuel tank, lines, etc or something you swapped in with the diesel engine.

[Barrman]

I was thinking about that too Glenn.

I pulled the filter base and installed a bleeder this morning.


while I was doing that, a pair of students were welding in the muffler. It came out pretty good I think:


I just need to put a 3" 45° and run some pipe out the passenger side rear.

Then we got stopped because the concrete pour was going on and they needed help. 5 hours and 14 yards later, we put the truck back on the ground and the filter base back on. I turned on the electric pump and started bleeding the filter. I am pulling air from somewhere, because I never got solid fuel flow.

I went ahead and cranked to get fire so I could hear the muffler. It wasn't that much quieter inside the cab, but I only had it running about 10 seconds before it died. I had to get the students back, so that was it for the day. We will pull the tank tomorrow and see what we see. If nothing else, new hose will go on down there.

[Barrman]

We dropped the tank this morning to check out the suction tube and sock. All looked good. Of course, one of the strap bolts snapped off as the student was trying to tighten it up. "Mr. Barr, does this mean I just got fired?" Why? "I just broke something." What did you break? "A bolt." No problem, 4 of these trucks have been in this class and this is the only one without one of those bolts breaking off yet. Don't worry about it.

We did have to drop the tank to drill out the bolt though. While the student was installing it for the second time, I pulled the line off the electric fuel pump I have mounted to the back of the under bed tool box. I heard a slurping sound. Looking at it closer revealed a crack in the metal filter mounted to the electric pump. I FOUND THE AIR LEAK! was all I was thinking. I pulled the filter, put a barb on the pump instead and hooked up the line with the pump hanging from the wires to test it out.

I then crawled up on top of the lift while the student was still working and started bleeding the spin on filter. It took forever, but by the time they were ready to put the lift back down, I had solid liquid and no more air at the bleeder.

We put it on the ground and I went through the crank 10 seconds, wait a minute, crank 10 seconds, wait a minute routine for 5 cycles until I got it to wind up. It died right away, but the next time it wound up and stayed running. I kept it at a medium rpm for a minute or so and then let it down to see if idle would hold. It did.

I had 7 psi fuel pressure, 50 psi oil pressure, no volts because the alternators aren't hooked up, no fuel because the students didn't get the ground correct on the tank install, no rpm's because I don't have a tach sender and no temp because it was still cold. I opened a door and gave a student the infrared thermometer to watch the cross over pipe and watch the temp in case the gauge didn't work.

I got out to look things over, no leaks from the injectors and great air flow from the cooling fan through the radiator. About the time I was thinking things were good, the engine dropped speed. The high idle had kicked off.

It took forever to get any temperature in the system. I guess 5 gallons will do that. It was also putting out a fine blue smoke and eyes were starting to water. I opened another door, turned on the evacuation fans along with the some cooling fans. I also got the camera out to shoot a video of it running:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPL5pTNCGhs

I let it get up to 185˚ and stabilize before I turned it off. We were out of time for the morning. I tried an hour later and it fired up in less than a second. I turned off the electric pump this time and let it go for 4 minutes with the fuel psi never getting below 6 psi. All is good. I am staying home the next two days to help Colton get RED painted and fix a bunch of roof damage on our house from some crazy 60 mph straight line winds a week ago. That means next week will be busy doing the finishing touches.

I still need a tailpipe, alternator wiring and brakes next week and then it should be ready to trailer RED to the SS Rally in 9 days.

[Flingarrows]

That sounds real good Tim. Next video should be a test drive. Also looking forward to seeing pictures of Colton's truck painted

[Barrman]

Thanks George. I am hoping to get him throwing paint tomorrow afternoon.

[k8icu]

Tim,

Is the CUCV a normally vented system? If it is not then the venting isn't your problem. If it is then I'd say your on the right track adding the venting.

[jeeper]

That sounds real good Tim. Next video should be a test drive. Also looking forward to seeing pictures of Colton's truck painted

Ditto ↑

Still love the sound of a diesel.

[Barrman]

Joe, the CUCV fuel system is closed and so is my M715 system. I was grasping at straws the other day. I found the air leak with a cracked metal filter on the electric pump. All is good now. Thanks for the insight.

[k8icu]

Sorry, I missed the rest of the thread when I posted otherwise I wouldn't have looked so dump. Must have been the stomach bug I got this week...lol. Truck sounds good. Glad you found the problem. Of course having a bleeder on the filter isn't a bad thing to have. When you change the filter it will allow you to get air out quickly so that's not a waisted step.

[Pineyguy]

Sounds good, Tim. I like the fender mod for the batteries. I remember porkchop did something similiar but with an ammo can.

I wonder what I did different mount-wise. Our radiators look similar in depth, but I'm over an inch too far forward to use the mechanical fan. I ended up getting a Taurus fan, just have to figure out how to make it work pushing without reversing anything.