Chevy1925 (James) Truck/motor build
- Thread starter Chevy1925
- Start date
Looks beautiful James!
New shoes on the limo. I’ve wanted these tires since I lifted it back in 06, just never seemed to work out. Made it happen this go round and love how the 13.50s fill the truck out more. I was expecting it to turn harder at a stop but noticed no difference thus far. See if that changes as they wear
Truck looks really good! How do you think those tires will wear under load from your trailer in the heat of the highway?
I can't speak for Arizona heat but they hold up very very well as long as you take care of them. I have multiple customers with over 30k on them on diesel trucks
Like Corbin said, they should hold up very well. These have a higher load rating over my BFG (4300lbs vs the 3600lbs BFG) and are an E over the D load range BFG. I know of many guys who get lots of miles out of these tires even towing so I’m not worried. I’d get 30k out of BFG’s before they were shot so if the same or better, I’ll be plenty happy
Funny you say that your set is a E range while my same tire size but in 18" are a D range with a 3525 load rating. No E range for those in 18 in the 37's. Nonetheless, they do the job pretty well towing 20k and rides smooth. Find me a set of Walker Evans and I'll sell my current wheel set lol.
I don’t want your junk lmao. If I would have bought the 12.50s, they would have been load range D for a 17. They do make a load range F now for 20” wheels and 37s. They had to step it up with a lot of these new trucks needing such a large load index tire
Limo got more love last night. Been hitting 90's the last couple days and sunday i noticed the a/c wasnt blowing very cold. checked pressures with my gauges and she was low. unclip gauges and the leaks were clear. my 2001.5 service ports were no longer sealing :roflmao:. Off to napa where i got the wrong 32 dollar service port kit and 23 dollar cans of r134a. seemed overly expensive but i was in a rush to get a vaccum on the system before dinner once i got back. didnt get the pump hooked up, ate, then realized my issues. Napa closed by then so went to Advance and saw r134a for 7.99 a can. Give me that shit! service port kit, 8.99 and the correct ones. Got a new orifice tube and accumulator as well to stick in there. Pulled the old orifice tube and well, its a little packed up
Compressor is quiet as can be and still makes great pressure and hoses were replaced in 2012 IIRC. we will run it and go from there! Vacuumed down for 30 min, no leaks, charged and blowing ice cold again
i also found the hot side interecooler pipe was trying to self eject from the turbo boot. explains the vibe and and rattle i was hearing from the tube hitting the frame. Still love how quiet this LLY top end is over the LB7
Compressor is quiet as can be and still makes great pressure and hoses were replaced in 2012 IIRC. we will run it and go from there! Vacuumed down for 30 min, no leaks, charged and blowing ice cold again
i also found the hot side interecooler pipe was trying to self eject from the turbo boot. explains the vibe and and rattle i was hearing from the tube hitting the frame. Still love how quiet this LLY top end is over the LB7
I hate Terra’s off road you might as well have street tires. They do get good mileage and they are quite.
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so i FINALLY got out of town this past weekend. Have not had a vaca since Feb and was going crazy from the heat. Loaded the trailer up minus toys (no tracker or sand car), loaded momma and brooklyn up and headed off to meet my buddy at an intersection just outside of town. he has a 2012 dodge dually with a small tune and deleted. hes the one that basically drove me into hopping the limo up cause he kicked my ass in an old 12v of his years ago in college. Anyhow, he has a 38ft trailer very similar to mine and was only carrying a golf cart. We head up the hills and its really the first time ive gotten to compare my truck to someone else towing similar. first two big hills out of phx, truck is staying semi cool in 95* heat. peaked 235* on coolant at the tops but i was getting drug down to slower speeds and acceling back up to 60-65 pretty quick. I would pull away from him each time, then i got cocky....
last long ass hill to flagstaff from camp verde, i let the truck just lug along in 5th gear pulling the decent grades before the big hill instead of trying to keep it cool and slowing a bit on them. totally forgot there was no downhill before hand to cool the truck down. went into the hill with 240* oil temp and 210* coolant. When oil starts creeping up beyond 240*, coolant starts going with it. had to drop to 50mph and 3rd gear at 3k case i was at 240* coolant and 260* oil...... and here comes my buddy..... he cruises right around me at about 65 and a brand new dodge with a little smaller trailer follows suit. i was PISSED! literally cruised the rest of the hill at 50mph and 240* coolant temp but i started pushing the bitch half way up at a little plateau to see if i could maintain 60-65. no dice. actually hit 250* coolant at the very top of the hill.
I told the wife, "thats it, we are buying a new truck. Im done with this thing". :rofl: She gave the green light..... after my daughter starts preschool in a couple years. :baby:. So i decided id try something i never thought id try or even wanted to do in the last 7 years.... TURN THE TOW TUNE DOWN IN POWER. yes ladies and gents, its a sad sad day. i spaded the old girl and dropped power out of it to see if i could get temps to stay down and just hold the bitch WOT up the hills without worry.
Dropped my tune from 1150uS (im on 100% overs) to 850uS and about 10* of timing at 3250, about 8* at the cruise area in 2100-2300. There was really only 1 main hill on the way back down but its not nice.
Finished out the weekend in some beautiful weather and headed back down with the masses. leaned into it on the high way and she still gets up and goes more than i expected. Get all the way down to the hill that now heads south out of camp verde (there is a hell of a grade going out of camp verde in either direction). traffic is f**king nuts at this point. im stuck to 40mph up the hill with oil around 235* and coolant at 210*. it stayed that way till we hit the 3 lane and i hammered down to pass another dmax and some truckers. went from 30mph at that point to 55mph and by the top, i never saw over 235* coolant with a/c going the whole time (on the way up, i turned the a/c off at every grade to keep heat soak down). Oil was around 245-250 max. i was pretty damn happy with that. Even got to race another loaded up LML up another small grade before heading down black canyon city hill. wizzed right by him and his was singin!
So anyhow, i just flat out cant keep her cool and im tired of testing my nerves and head gaskets. Im going to pull a bit more out of the tune if the truck will still run right and may even drop back to stock injectors. May play with timing some more too as its pretty conservative. Get her to cruise the next couple years without issue and then either buy a low mile L5P or see whats out then. after towing in that dodge, i know i will be happy in the GM. Ill keep the limo and keep it as a toy or occational tow rig, dont really know yet but my wife and i both agree i cant sell it.
some pics. Jumped a few Does in the golf cart but not much else all weekend.
my buddy running his derby car. 80's el dorado 500 big block fwd lol. got 4th on Saturday and it was too hurt for the finals on sunday. we only went Saturday
Brooklyn and i cheering him on
about 2 sec before she decided to take every toy out of that basket and make a mess lol. We played outside from then on (too nice not to).
last long ass hill to flagstaff from camp verde, i let the truck just lug along in 5th gear pulling the decent grades before the big hill instead of trying to keep it cool and slowing a bit on them. totally forgot there was no downhill before hand to cool the truck down. went into the hill with 240* oil temp and 210* coolant. When oil starts creeping up beyond 240*, coolant starts going with it. had to drop to 50mph and 3rd gear at 3k case i was at 240* coolant and 260* oil...... and here comes my buddy..... he cruises right around me at about 65 and a brand new dodge with a little smaller trailer follows suit. i was PISSED! literally cruised the rest of the hill at 50mph and 240* coolant temp but i started pushing the bitch half way up at a little plateau to see if i could maintain 60-65. no dice. actually hit 250* coolant at the very top of the hill.
I told the wife, "thats it, we are buying a new truck. Im done with this thing". :rofl: She gave the green light..... after my daughter starts preschool in a couple years. :baby:. So i decided id try something i never thought id try or even wanted to do in the last 7 years.... TURN THE TOW TUNE DOWN IN POWER. yes ladies and gents, its a sad sad day. i spaded the old girl and dropped power out of it to see if i could get temps to stay down and just hold the bitch WOT up the hills without worry.
Dropped my tune from 1150uS (im on 100% overs) to 850uS and about 10* of timing at 3250, about 8* at the cruise area in 2100-2300. There was really only 1 main hill on the way back down but its not nice.
Finished out the weekend in some beautiful weather and headed back down with the masses. leaned into it on the high way and she still gets up and goes more than i expected. Get all the way down to the hill that now heads south out of camp verde (there is a hell of a grade going out of camp verde in either direction). traffic is f**king nuts at this point. im stuck to 40mph up the hill with oil around 235* and coolant at 210*. it stayed that way till we hit the 3 lane and i hammered down to pass another dmax and some truckers. went from 30mph at that point to 55mph and by the top, i never saw over 235* coolant with a/c going the whole time (on the way up, i turned the a/c off at every grade to keep heat soak down). Oil was around 245-250 max. i was pretty damn happy with that. Even got to race another loaded up LML up another small grade before heading down black canyon city hill. wizzed right by him and his was singin!
So anyhow, i just flat out cant keep her cool and im tired of testing my nerves and head gaskets. Im going to pull a bit more out of the tune if the truck will still run right and may even drop back to stock injectors. May play with timing some more too as its pretty conservative. Get her to cruise the next couple years without issue and then either buy a low mile L5P or see whats out then. after towing in that dodge, i know i will be happy in the GM. Ill keep the limo and keep it as a toy or occational tow rig, dont really know yet but my wife and i both agree i cant sell it.
some pics. Jumped a few Does in the golf cart but not much else all weekend.
my buddy running his derby car. 80's el dorado 500 big block fwd lol. got 4th on Saturday and it was too hurt for the finals on sunday. we only went Saturday
Brooklyn and i cheering him on
about 2 sec before she decided to take every toy out of that basket and make a mess lol. We played outside from then on (too nice not to).
Have you thought about putting a water misting system in front of the cooling stack and your 2nd oil cooler? I saw a Pikes Peak race truck a few years back, he had a misting system on it and claimed close to a 30° drop in temps from it over the entire climb.
Looked easy to build, had 10-12 misting nozzles with a 3 gallon reservoir and pump.
Looked easy to build, had 10-12 misting nozzles with a 3 gallon reservoir and pump.
1200*. with the 1.15 a/r on the 483, the small turbo never goes beyond 20psi more than what the big turbo is putting out. i dont ever see over 1300* when ran hard up the hills and ive been at 1300* for miles at a time before, not that that helps the situation.
And yng, you name it, i probably have it. Mishimoto intercooler (japanese one, not the chinese), ron davis dual pass radiator, Mikes trans cooler, big 40 plate derale oil cooler and 1600cfm spal fan, b&m 35 stack plate fuel cooler and 1000cfm jegs fan, modded IHI with bullseye s483, solid fan hub, fan shroud sealed to radiator, new trans heat exchanger in radiator, new thermostats, just put new dexcool in, heater hose ran to upper rad hose instead of the coolant y-bridge to keep trans temp down when grade braking (that actually worked well), and im sure some other things im missing. Oil cooler is not in the cooling stack and fuel cooler is under the cab.
yeah aint that no shit! tried to text you the next morning if you wanted to meet us at C-host for breakfast but my signal went to shit.
tried that a couple years ago. it helped but not to the extent i hoped. i rigged up a temp setup with a 5 gal bucket in the bed full of water and a little window washer fluid, a e2000 fuel pump dead headed to 100psi, mister nozzles from sprinkler world and some 1/4" tubing. i had a total of 6 or 8 nozzles all zip tied behind the grill to cover the entire cooling stack. i turned it on from the time i hit the highway till i got to camp. used 3 gallons over 1.5 hour drive time. doesnt sound like much but it would cover the engine with water when the fan kicked on and everything was still very hot. i had pulled over to make sure it was working lol. I still hit 240* on coolant easily and oil temps were 260-270. the new oil cooler and fan actually made a bigger difference.
realistically if i wanted to do this, i would need to ditch my front bumper, build a new one or run an old school type stock bumper setup prerunner guys use to do back in the day on these model trucks, run an decent sized aux radiator and a second oil-to-air oil cooler. thats another 1-2k and that may not be enough. i have 2k in the new radiator setup i have and it helped but didnt make near the dent i expected in temps for the cost. there is a point i draw the line and im about there. dont get me wrong, im miles ahead of a stock truck and running what i would say is 450-500rwhp tune while keeping things that much cooler points to that. Im just getting tired of the same old "stare at the coolant gauge and lets see if the 150ft lbs on these A1 head studs keeps gaskets together" is wearing on me trying to make 600hp work.
Come dune season (next month), temps are a non issue cause outside temps are 90* and lower and hills are far/few between. only 1-2 grades that are just 1-2 miles long. those are 70-75mph in 5th gear, 1200* and 40-45psi every time.