Bought a Sierra as Donortruck - now he stay

[Phoenix-LH]

Thanks for let me join the community

Bought a Sierra 2007 as Donortruck.
He should be the Donortruck with his LBZ for our M1008
But after drive him home about 3 hours and 400 km couldnt we kill him. We have here many restriction on Engine Swaps and Customizing. In the M1008 only 280 HP in Stock condition allow and any single HP about this result in stronger testing like a Prototyp in Roadapproval. I know it exists nothing similar in the USA.
We have all in double-package (2 cats, 2 volvo Cars, 2 Drafthorses, 2 Trailer) so why not 2 Pickups

The Engine Swap for the M1008 should be about the underpowered 6.2 Diesel but now he will got his finish in remanufactoring as complete historical Truck which bring him much more Value than swap a powerful engine in or do Lifts or other changes. Now he got a remanufactored 6.2 Engine without Turbo - the only "customize" will be a 4L80e Transmission. With this the history registration and the increase of value is safe.
With a swap on the Duramax Engine had we never got a registration as History vehicle and also not the value on an Oldtimer



All other customizing will go on for the Sierra. And we found already a lot of nice Goddies...
He will got the same remanufactoring from the sandblasting of bare frame to rebuild on all worn out parts.



and the situation here for parking is like everywhere the same in Germany
Made for Mini-Pickups like Toyota, Nissan, VW and not for a Fullsize-US-Pickup Neighbours start immediatly complain about our parking on the bicycle Line ...
In fact it is not allow and will punished with a fee.

 

[2004LB7]

wow that was hard to read, I assume English is not your first language so I'll give you a pass

oh, and welcome to the forum

 

[Phoenix-LH]

wow that was hard to read, I assume English is not your first language so I'll give you a pass

oh, and welcome to the forum

Sorry - and yes english is not my first language and beside this i am not more 20 but you are the first who said it is hard to read well be sure i will do my best to improve my english

 

[Chevy1925]

considering you are from germany, ya did damn good for typing out english!

sweet build, keep the updates coming!

 

[Phoenix-LH]

considering you are from germany, ya did damn good for typing out english!

sweet build, keep the updates coming!

Until now i got exact all for the M1008 what i ordered from USA as in Germany the most spareparts are not available or much more expensive as importing them myself. Typing work well for me but dont ask about order by phone

 

[Phoenix-LH]

A first intensive assessment of the frame and chassis then took place yesterday on the lifting platform. A lot of surface rust but no holes. 15 years in the German climate leave their mark. However, its overhaul will not begin until the M1008 is finished. We don't have the space to store two trucks disassembled. We expect the same costs and material exchange like on the M1008.





We will start a build thread at launch. Until then, I'm reading through relevant posts about our rebuild

 

[Phoenix-LH]

The whole family wants street legal for the Sierra until the M1008 is ready. But I'm not sure I'm going to do that. The engine has been serviced regularly, which is not common for cars this old.

Still, it needs love and care to keep running safely and without damage.

The first impression of the "state of health" from the engine will bring a compression pressure measurement.
Since this happens more often with us, we have purchased an appropriate device. The delivery is still pending.
Most of the chassis, suspension and brakes will be replaced anyway, so if there should be any age-related failure, it would not be a big misfortune. But if the engine would be damaged just because we didn't check it thoroughly, the whole project would be in danger. Even the whole family understands that

Seems the preowner had fear marten - found this device in the enginecompartment
Never had such a damage since more than 40 years ... but ultrasonic work i know this about mouse ultrasonic repeller in our house. The house cats dont solve that problem (also not the reason for it as they have no free go out and come in)

 

[Dozerboy]

So why are you building US trucks instead of ones that are common in your country?

 

[Phoenix-LH]

Simply as only American can build real Pickup Trucks in Combination with powerful V8 Engines...

 

[Phoenix-LH]

Startet on the Sierra disambling for a complete rebuild to save him and it seems about the hidden rust it is really necessary

removing that bedliner is really hard but necessary.
The complete disambling is much more time consuming than the chevy about all the plastics around, which should not be damage be removing.

all metal gone through sandblasting - goodbye chrome


Engine still sit in as we want finish the compressiontest first to see if we go also on a big engine overhaul. Unfortunately the original batts are completely down. We needed to buy new or use adapters to connect both batts from the chevy 100 Ah 830 A - Jumperconnection will not work on bad batts and the chevy batts dont fit on the connections.... so we will build a durable and save adapter to connect the chevy batts as we want not now buy new batts which we must maintain a whole year before the Sierra is back on the road

first parts back of sandblasting



gone but fortunately available as sparepart

The goal is to have him down on the frame in four weeks for sandblasting.

 

[Phoenix-LH]

So why are you building US trucks instead of ones that are common in your country?

here is the best example why we dont use a common Pickup of Europe
Nissan Navara (Neighbour) ./. Sierra
Need no more words...

 

[TheBac]

Did not realize this thread was in Introductions. Moved to Repower/Transplant area. Looks like you're moving right along. Good luck.

 

[Phoenix-LH]

Did not realize this thread was in Introductions. Moved to Repower/Transplant area. Looks like you're moving right along. Good luck.

Thanks for moving, to be honest - i dont wanted start another thread
The Chevy is now since a year and about 1500 hours in work with a complete renew, he will pass 2000 hours for finish complete drivetrain and electric still to do - we are crazy enough to start the second project as well with the Sierra and it seems the same amount on work

We cursed a lot during work as we are spoiled of the chevy which was much faster in disambling, here a bolt, there a screw and down was fender, bumper, cab and bed all around
The Sierra have so much little brackets and plastic and a fullfilled enginecompartment
Alone compressiontesting is a adventure by necessary removing hosing and brackets which cover the glowplugholes specially on the driver side, maybe we need also remove the steering - we will see next weekend.
The first cylinder was going through 23,4 bar = 339,4 psi before test failure of batt after 4 strokes. This will say nothing as that just this cylinder seems to be good.
Hopefully he is in a good condition.

 

[Chevy1925]

Nicely done Phoenix!

 

[1FastBrick]

How un fortunate that the second battery tray is rotted through on the passenger side. I just threw one in the scrap pile that was in nicer shape than that with only surface rust.

Is it hard to source spare parts like that in your country?

 

[Phoenix-LH]

How un fortunate that the second battery tray is rotted through on the passenger side. I just threw one in the scrap pile that was in nicer shape than that with only surface rust.

Is it hard to source spare parts like that in your country?

We are able to customize a tray but it is not necessary as we can import from USA like we done with all parts on the Chevy. And the tray is available.
But you are right here is it difficult to got parts. You cant go to an usual shop like for example autozone and just purchase parts. Some rare us car shops are located in germany but usually much more expensive than import myself.
And we have no scrapyards where you find us cars. Scrapyards become here an industrial character. The cars will disambled, good parts go in used car parts offer and the rest will be recycled. You find today only rare scrapyards where you can go through a line of cars to choose parts and disamble yourself. This time is gone here.
But today it is much easier to purchase international. We own since more than 30 years US Cars.

 

[Phoenix-LH]

so after a lot of cursing in preparing the engine for measaurement... needed to remove steering, brackets and heat proctection plates on the driver side was it able for us to got our measurement

Here ist the result:
1 Cyl 443,67044
2 Cyl 445,99104
3 Cyl 447,00631
4 Cyl 425,8308
5 Cyl 442,22006
6 Cyl 450,63225
7 Cyl 442,94525
8 Cyl 443,8155
Testing on cold engine
Seems to be good, nevertheless the TM said 300-350 psi is a normal value on that engine no information about hot or cold engine.
I know about different opinions about testing with hot engine or cold engine.









Now we can pull the engine out and go on with disambling.
I will have soon a talk with the enginebuilder about the testresults and a possible conversion on supercharger instead turbo

 

[2004LB7]

those numbers look good especially for a cold engine. 300-350 is a little on the lower side but consistency between numbers and how well the engine runs is more important

 

[Phoenix-LH]

those numbers look good especially for a cold engine. 300-350 is a little on the lower side but consistency between numbers and how well the engine runs is more important

Thanks for share your expierence. Engine run great during testdrive and the long way home inspite his lack on care.

I cant understand why an owner dont exchange such hoses which are not costs that much...

 

[2004LB7]

Thanks for share your expierence. Engine run great during testdrive and the long way home inspite his lack on care.
View attachment 111202
I cant understand why an owner dont exchange such hoses which are not costs that much...

that looks more like a bad expansion bottle / reservoir cap then bad radiator hose. if you loosen the cap does the hose return to normal?