Duramax in a 1st gen S10
- Thread starter DieselS10
- Start date
This build looks great. I have always wanted to do a diesel in my crawler but that idea never came to fruitation.
So a few questions, how are you powering the air system? Why are you going so close to the trans for cooling, instead of going back farther (I am assuming you are keeping the bed functional and that is the reason for not putting the cooling in the bed?) What is your Final (or let's call it next) tire size, gear ratio?
So a few questions, how are you powering the air system? Why are you going so close to the trans for cooling, instead of going back farther (I am assuming you are keeping the bed functional and that is the reason for not putting the cooling in the bed?) What is your Final (or let's call it next) tire size, gear ratio?
Thanks Lee!
I am using a Easy Street by Airlift Co digital system, it's clean and easy to use/install. I had absolutely no experience with air-ride when I did this and that setup looked simple to figure out and came with everything. I will be adding a York compressor to the D-max at some point and getting away from the noisy compressor.
Yes on the bed, I'm building it to do everything well instead one specific purpose, so the bed stays as a bed. It will still be used as a truck 80% of the time, so nothing but a tool box, trailer plug and removable gooseneck ball will be in it. The tranny cooler is mounted there because that's literally the only place left to put it. From there rearward to the axle has the canti-lever suspension/bags and from the axle back has a 32 gallon fuel tank from a '94 C&C Chevy diesel, plus the 4" exhaust had to make it's way through everything.
On the gearing and tire size, I wanted to keep it really happy at 65-75 mph, so I went with 4.10's in the axles and the tires that are on it are 38's. Then I built a 241/241 doubler that I mounted to the Allison so that it has plenty low enough gearing (to low probably) for playing in the rocks on the weekends. I also picked up a set of H2 wheels and some 1/2 used 35x12.50/17 Pro-Comp A/T's for highway trips and I got a set of 395/85/20 (46's) Military tires that I'll throw on there for parades and car shows just for fun. I built the suspension so that the castor and rear pinion angle stay good throughout 95% of the suspension travel so that it can be driven at about any height as long as there is some degree of up and down travel left for bumps. It will typically be driven on 35's to 38's though.
With no experience on airbags, I feel I should share some experience with them. They ride amazing, but because they are so soft, your truck will roll like a bobble head. The ride will be stable, but will scare you. Huge sway bars a must. I recommend getting a used front sway bar off a Jeep wrangler TJ (96-06) they are quite cheap (Heck, I have 2 just sitting around) and would be the minimum you would need. You can look into the sway away kits, they are adjustable, and come in different lengths to better sute your space needs, but you will want to do something. I recommend the TJ sway bars as they are extreamly thick and stiff, yet with a low roll axis still offer good flex.
That kit you posted, I am not familure with it, but by the instructions, they seem overly complex. The last air bag only system I have experience with has only 3 position switches, one per corner. When on a side hill, being able to air the "scare" out of a situation is very nice, but only if it can be done quickly. Perhaps I am not reading enough into what that system is capible of, perhaps it can be faster than I am thinking. Not saying you won't like it, just a bit more information for you.
The York is a great idea. Look into a company called Vair. You can get a pressure switch from them to work the clutch. You can have a on off switch running very few amps and have a fully automatic system. This is what I am familure with, and it is a great system. I highly recomend the York oil gally mod though.
I would love to see pic's of the canti lever system you are using. I wanted to go that rout with my jeep, but finally gave up due to lack of room. I am very interested in how you did this.
The tranny cooler, I would turn the fan around so it blows down rather than up. Trust me, you don't want anything creating heat on the passenger compartment. And even if your mounting a massive skidplate there for the trans and xfer case, it would be easyier for you to make a filter for the top of the rad to keep debres out of the rad.
And those are some very conservitive tires. Should be extreamly streetable. The extra low gears should allow you to maintain an engine braking on the downhills with out the hassle of a full on reverse manual valve body.
For the record, a close buddy of mine has a 78 F150 with a 86 Ranger cab on airbags, it performs very well. He is using bags off a cement truck on the rear, and something he ordered from firestone on the front. Having switches only, he can fill the bags up for jumping it...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwB6v0FgDeA
And ride on a few inches for around town. I'm sure you will get better milage than his 407 stroker is doing, but it will be a head turner for sure.
I also hope you are doing some form of full cage.
That kit you posted, I am not familure with it, but by the instructions, they seem overly complex. The last air bag only system I have experience with has only 3 position switches, one per corner. When on a side hill, being able to air the "scare" out of a situation is very nice, but only if it can be done quickly. Perhaps I am not reading enough into what that system is capible of, perhaps it can be faster than I am thinking. Not saying you won't like it, just a bit more information for you.
The York is a great idea. Look into a company called Vair. You can get a pressure switch from them to work the clutch. You can have a on off switch running very few amps and have a fully automatic system. This is what I am familure with, and it is a great system. I highly recomend the York oil gally mod though.
I would love to see pic's of the canti lever system you are using. I wanted to go that rout with my jeep, but finally gave up due to lack of room. I am very interested in how you did this.
The tranny cooler, I would turn the fan around so it blows down rather than up. Trust me, you don't want anything creating heat on the passenger compartment. And even if your mounting a massive skidplate there for the trans and xfer case, it would be easyier for you to make a filter for the top of the rad to keep debres out of the rad.
And those are some very conservitive tires. Should be extreamly streetable. The extra low gears should allow you to maintain an engine braking on the downhills with out the hassle of a full on reverse manual valve body.
For the record, a close buddy of mine has a 78 F150 with a 86 Ranger cab on airbags, it performs very well. He is using bags off a cement truck on the rear, and something he ordered from firestone on the front. Having switches only, he can fill the bags up for jumping it...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwB6v0FgDeA
And ride on a few inches for around town. I'm sure you will get better milage than his 407 stroker is doing, but it will be a head turner for sure.
I also hope you are doing some form of full cage.
Thanks for all the input, but I should have been more specific. I actually built all of the suspension, added the 1 tons and stretched the frame for the extended cab several years ago when I installed the 1st diesel, which was a 6.5/4L80e combo. I drove it for about a year and half like that and was totally pleased with the ride, handling and load carrying ability. Everything worked exactly as I had hoped except for two things, one being I was still wanting more power and the other being exactly what you mentioned above, the leaning with the sway bar disconnected!
I am running a sway bar up front that came off of a '97 2wd Suburban. It bolted right into the factory S10 frame mounts and allowed the link to the axle to mount to the inside edge of inner C while it perfectly misses the drag-link and bags. I will also be adding one to the rear, it has way more than enough flex. Let me run something else by you too, I have been thinking about building some longer sway bar links that would mount the end of the sway bar in the center of the link vertically where it would pin and have smaller perfectly fitting coil springs that are above and below where the sway bar pins so that the pin could be removed and allow the sway bar to give, but be progressive in the amount allowed up until the spring on the link fully compresses and then you get the full effect of the sway bar itself. It would obviously take some fine tuning with the spring choice and over all link length, but in my mind it would drastically improve sway/leaning when offroad while still allowing enough articulation. Plus I think I could make it pin above and below the sway bar end on the link so that I could unpin only the top or bottom and have it even more aggresive if needed. Thoughts???
Here is how the sway bar clears everything:
The Easy Street system allows for individual control at all four corners, has an all up and all down button as well as a "instant ride height" button. It also automaticlly goes to a set height on start up if you arm and set that feature. I'm pleased with it so far. Oh and when I first installed it and tried it out it scared me, lol. With the 1/2" manifolds and lines that it came with, the 3200lb (front) and 5200lb (rear) medium duty bags front and rear and 175 psi it would just about jump off of the ground. I ended up going with 3/8" lines up front and 1/4" for the rear for a balanced control/speed.
I think I have the fan mounted as you're describing too. It will be pulling through the cooler and blowing down away from the body. I'm totally with you on keeping the heat out, don't want the A/C working to hard!
As far as the extra low gearing goes, yes it should hill hold quite well. What I don't like about it so far (which has barely been tested) is that in either low or double low it is impossible to stop the rear tires from spinned when in drive with it 2wd only. Obviously when it's locked in and the front brakes are helping out I should be able to stop it, but I still want to address this issue. I have read about different stall options on the triple disc converters, so I am hoping that I can I figure out a good option on a stall converter that will make it easier to stop in low without negative drivability issues??? Definately open to opinions on that thought also, lol.
Here is the canti-lever setup. With the front up and the rear down it makes it very easy to put my quad in the bed with a 29" tailgate height.
And a very short video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jIjrWEwArA&feature=g-upl
Here is a little of what I do with it when I'm not changing something.
And in it's former life as a gas powered 1/2 ton.
I am running a sway bar up front that came off of a '97 2wd Suburban. It bolted right into the factory S10 frame mounts and allowed the link to the axle to mount to the inside edge of inner C while it perfectly misses the drag-link and bags. I will also be adding one to the rear, it has way more than enough flex. Let me run something else by you too, I have been thinking about building some longer sway bar links that would mount the end of the sway bar in the center of the link vertically where it would pin and have smaller perfectly fitting coil springs that are above and below where the sway bar pins so that the pin could be removed and allow the sway bar to give, but be progressive in the amount allowed up until the spring on the link fully compresses and then you get the full effect of the sway bar itself. It would obviously take some fine tuning with the spring choice and over all link length, but in my mind it would drastically improve sway/leaning when offroad while still allowing enough articulation. Plus I think I could make it pin above and below the sway bar end on the link so that I could unpin only the top or bottom and have it even more aggresive if needed. Thoughts???
Here is how the sway bar clears everything:
The Easy Street system allows for individual control at all four corners, has an all up and all down button as well as a "instant ride height" button. It also automaticlly goes to a set height on start up if you arm and set that feature. I'm pleased with it so far. Oh and when I first installed it and tried it out it scared me, lol. With the 1/2" manifolds and lines that it came with, the 3200lb (front) and 5200lb (rear) medium duty bags front and rear and 175 psi it would just about jump off of the ground. I ended up going with 3/8" lines up front and 1/4" for the rear for a balanced control/speed.
I think I have the fan mounted as you're describing too. It will be pulling through the cooler and blowing down away from the body. I'm totally with you on keeping the heat out, don't want the A/C working to hard!
As far as the extra low gearing goes, yes it should hill hold quite well. What I don't like about it so far (which has barely been tested) is that in either low or double low it is impossible to stop the rear tires from spinned when in drive with it 2wd only. Obviously when it's locked in and the front brakes are helping out I should be able to stop it, but I still want to address this issue. I have read about different stall options on the triple disc converters, so I am hoping that I can I figure out a good option on a stall converter that will make it easier to stop in low without negative drivability issues??? Definately open to opinions on that thought also, lol.
Here is the canti-lever setup. With the front up and the rear down it makes it very easy to put my quad in the bed with a 29" tailgate height.
And a very short video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jIjrWEwArA&feature=g-upl
Here is a little of what I do with it when I'm not changing something.
And in it's former life as a gas powered 1/2 ton.
I don't think I am following here. You are considering basicly a variable sway bar, or a progressive rate sway bar? The idea with the springs, is that to allow the swap bar to function as it is now, then allow more flex but still be connected and function at a lesser rate than when pinned? Am I reading that right?
See, that system sounds perfict. The way I was reading the instructions it was sounding overly complex. And my buddy with the ranger did the same thing going with smaller lines for better control over the inflation and deflation of the bags.
I would look more at the brakes here than the transmission. 90% of people who have done an axle swap screw up on the brakes. It looks like you are running a chevy front disk brake on the rear. If this is the case, I'm betting you are not getting a good braking force. Have you set up a proportioning valve? Or is it simply controlled through the MC? If the later, please tell me it is not the stock master cylinder... I have seen the single piston chevy calipers installed on the rear on quite a few rigs, and this is not the first time I have heard of this issue. Good news is the trans is strong right?
Looks nice. Looks like the bags have plenty of room so they don't bind or pinch. Keeps everything out of the bed, and looks like you can make it sit lower (looks like your limit is the tires.) One thing though, I can't see much triangulation in the rear links... I don't see a track bar, and maby it's just the pictures, but are the lower links triangulated as to not force side load on the bushings?
When pinned it will function exactly as it does now when hooked up, when it's unpinned it would be working against the coil springs. To assemble, the link would have a stop at the lower end, then a coil spring that fits snug from the lower stop to the sway bar end/slide that slides on next. Now add the upper spring, then a threaded cap. In my mind it would allow the sway bar to slide on the link, with progressive resistance, until the coil binds, then I would have what little the sway bars allows until it completely resisted articulation. The amount of progressive travel it would allow would be determined by the length of the links vs the amount of coil compression there is until they bottom out. With the thick Suburban sway bar and it being located at the outer edges of the axle it allows VERY little articulation when hooked up, which is great on road, but disconnected I can scrap my elbow on the ground when I turn. It may not work or be to complicated, but I'd like to give it a try.
I'm very pleased with how it works and would recommend it, plus it displays the pressure in each bag, voltage and pressure in the tank right there on the control unit.
You could very well be exactly right here and it may be better now anyway, but I haven't been able to check yet. I did some checking because it never really felt like the brakes were as strong as they should have been and I found that the setup under the dash of the S10 had the pivot pin for the master cylinder considerably further from the upper brake pedal mounting point/pivot than the '94 1 ton Chevy that it came from was and the over all length of it wasn't as long as the 1 tons, so I was't getting nearly as much leverage against it as it should have been. I have since completely rebuilt the pedal to very similar proportions to what the MC/Booster came from. Gotta try like it is now.
And as you read above, the MC, booster and PV is from the '94 1 ton Chevy, so I'm sure it needs attention there, I have just never taken the time to educate myself as good as I should have on that area of little importance.
I am definately open to your ideas with the braking system. The trans feels strong, but it always was in low or double. With the 6.5/4L80 it would force the truck to lean hard one way when in drive and the then slowly shift over the other way when I'd go to reverse while holding the brakes, so that is part of the reason I was wondering if a stall would help there???
Yes it sets lower in the rear. I set it up so that the internal bump stops in the bags stop the travel when the tires get 1/8" from touching the lower edges of the Bushwackers just for the low load height. It was a real PITA to load my quad in it when it was pre air-ride.
The rears are triangulated, but not nearly as much as they say you must have. Triangulation was a concern when I built the rear setup, but I was willing to try it first to see if I could pull it off without a track bar and during the year and a half I drove it there was never any sign of bushing deflection or any side to side movement. Even with 12,500lbs of broken concrete in that goose neck dump bed there was no sign of any side to side movement and I actually pushed it around corners intentionally to see how it would handle it.
It rides like a dream in the rear though, even with the loaded goose neck you literally can't tell when crossing rough rail road tracks. It just floats like a town car in the rear. It typically drives around with 24-26 psi out back, but with that load it required 50-51 psi to level it out.
I think I see where your going. And I think your over thinking it. That is a great deal of extra work and money for what I would think would be very little gain. I think you need to look into a different style of sway bar. As stated, sway away, or curry would be worth looking into. Example...
Take this, now this is a replacement for a Jeep, but this should give you a great example on why I would recommend looking. See those 5 holes, you can pick how much force is involved. I believe the 2nd from inboard hole is equal to a Stock TJ sway bar, so you can go in more for a tighter sway bar, and then you have 3 looser settings available. You would still have the option to disconnect, and have more adjust ability for street driving. These have more flex than factory sway bars yet still have great body control. They can be made to order as well to fit in what locations you have to work with as well.
I can't in any way say your idea is bad, I just don't see a performance value adding so many moving parts to a system inherently full of stresses. I could point to a picture on mine that made it into four wheel off road, with a broken front sway bar. My Jeep currently has too much flex, the front axle will drop so much the springs will fall out. I figured I would leave the sway bar connected to control my droop. It worked for the first few hours, till the sway bar failed. The 700 mile drive home from that trip was... Interesting...
You could very well be exactly right here and it may be better now anyway, but I haven't been able to check yet. I did some checking because it never really felt like the brakes were as strong as they should have been and I found that the setup under the dash of the S10 had the pivot pin for the master cylinder considerably further from the upper brake pedal mounting point/pivot than the '94 1 ton Chevy that it came from was and the over all length of it wasn't as long as the 1 tons, so I was't getting nearly as much leverage against it as it should have been. I have since completely rebuilt the pedal to very similar proportions to what the MC/Booster came from. Gotta try like it is now.
And as you read above, the MC, booster and PV is from the '94 1 ton Chevy, so I'm sure it needs attention there, I have just never taken the time to educate myself as good as I should have on that area of little importance.
I am definately open to your ideas with the braking system. The trans feels strong, but it always was in low or double. With the 6.5/4L80 it would force the truck to lean hard one way when in drive and the then slowly shift over the other way when I'd go to reverse while holding the brakes, so that is part of the reason I was wondering if a stall would help there???
That leaning is your suspension. The rear brakes are not holding, and the rear axle is being driven in either direction slightly causing that twist/flex feeling. Your links could use more angle on them, but switching to poly bushings or hemi joints would help greatly to tighten everything up. As for the brakes, gotta get those right. First need to find out if the MC is pushing enough fluid for those rear calipers, remember, most MC's push most fluid to the front. More fluid is needed up front cause that is where %70 of the stopping is done. But the fluid that is sent to the rear must be enough to apply the same braking force that the front is using.
Here is where it get's complex. Most stock MC's are set up to run a disk front drum rear brake assembly. Drums require more pressure, but roughly 1/3 the fluid to operate. If the MC was built to run a disk/drum brake system, that system will never work properly. My current rear disk upgrade was easier as a newer version of my jeep was offered with a rear disk option, so I just got a newer MC. For your rig, I am afraid I do not know what MC style to recommend. I believe the fallback all disk brake upgrade MC is the corvette MC. I know a number of people that run them, and am looking into one for my new ton upgrade with all dual piston calipers.
Rear triangulation goes farther than most people know. On stock Tj wranglers, you can remove the rear track bar will little issue. The trick is how you arrest movement. Rubber bushings are barely adequate on stock applications. As I said, you would likely be better served by a poly or solid heim joint.
Overall though, a fascinating build. I like it.
I think I see where your going. And I think your over thinking it. That is a great deal of extra work and money for what I would think would be very little gain. I think you need to look into a different style of sway bar. As stated, sway away, or curry would be worth looking into. Example...
Take this, now this is a replacement for a Jeep, but this should give you a great example on why I would recommend looking. See those 5 holes, you can pick how much force is involved. I believe the 2nd from inboard hole is equal to a Stock TJ sway bar, so you can go in more for a tighter sway bar, and then you have 3 looser settings available. You would still have the option to disconnect, and have more adjust ability for street driving. These have more flex than factory sway bars yet still have great body control. They can be made to order as well to fit in what locations you have to work with as well.
I can't in any way say your idea is bad, I just don't see a performance value adding so many moving parts to a system inherently full of stresses. I could point to a picture on mine that made it into four wheel off road, with a broken front sway bar. My Jeep currently has too much flex, the front axle will drop so much the springs will fall out. I figured I would leave the sway bar connected to control my droop. It worked for the first few hours, till the sway bar failed. The 700 mile drive home from that trip was... Interesting....
I looked at that type sway bar for a long time during the build trying/hoping to figure out where/how it would fit this application up front. The problem is that the bags require so much room, then the upper link mounts are just inboard from there, so all of the area under the frame rails for about 16"s is already used. I have the area in the center of the axle, which is useless, and basically the inner edge of the knuckle where it's mounted now. All I was able to find in that style had the straight arms that connect to the bar, with my situation the bar would have to be long enough to get out there to the knuckle and then the tires would hit the bar when turned, so I wasn't able to figure out how to make one work.
Now I do think I can squeeze one of those into the rear suspension without to much trouble.
The funny thing is that it only does the leaning when in 4wd and the front brakes are helping...
The reading that I have done on this situation pointed to a lot of guys running a '79 T/A MC that had factory 4 wheel discs. I actually have a new one in the box setting in the bed that I am going to try out, fingers crossed.
It has poly bushings through out now, very, very large ones for the upper link/truss, lol.
I also want to thank you for taking the time to discuss all of this stuff, I've really enjoyed it! And as you can probably tell from the build itself, I have a tendency to dive into stuff that I may have limited knowledge on, but I'm willing to figure it out and learn. I had literally never even so much as checked the oil in a Duramax when I decided to stuff one in it, much less have the first clue how to wire it up so that it would actually run. It has been very fun and I have learned a ton in the process.
I understand the space thing, trust me. As I said, give those sites a good going over, as you can get a sway bar built that matches the dimensions of the current one you are running. And you don't have to tell me about how much room those bags take up... LOL.
Then it is the front axle that is moving slightly.
Glad to hear you have something. Like I said, I don't know what style to recommend. Switching to any MC that is set for all disks will give you plenty of improvement though.
And I thank you for sharing. There are several things I love to see people build. Most of the time people take the cheapest possible course, or the most expensive rout. It is when a person builds exactly what he/she wants that really grabs my interest. And the airbags, I really love that idea for offroad use. My buddy's ranger performs flawlessly, and the control he has is unmatched. And I have always had a special place in my heart for diesel's, so now your just putting icing on the cake. A truly spectacular build.
Little bit of an update, been picking away at all of the nagging little unseen stuff like heat sheilds, securing tranny lines, wiring, etc. and though it isn't "road ready" yet, I drove it out of the shop under it's own power a few days ago just to say I did, lol.
Terrible video, but here is a little proof...
Terrible video, but here is a little proof...
Thanks Dirty!
To nice on the body question. I've done paint and body for 20 years and did resto's for about 5-6 years of that time. When it is ready to be driven daily I will build the rear bumper, sliders, a removable Exo over the cab (used only in the rocks), and finish the interior out with the post '98 S10 stuff, then I will start on the body work. When it's all ready to spray I am going to tear it back down to the bare frame and make it show quality from top to bottom including the frame, suspension, etc. with the body being Synergy Green and the bumpers, sliders and flares being a satin graphite like the racing stripes on the Synergy Green Camaro's.
Then I'm going to carefully use it for everything that I have built it to do.
To nice on the body question. I've done paint and body for 20 years and did resto's for about 5-6 years of that time. When it is ready to be driven daily I will build the rear bumper, sliders, a removable Exo over the cab (used only in the rocks), and finish the interior out with the post '98 S10 stuff, then I will start on the body work. When it's all ready to spray I am going to tear it back down to the bare frame and make it show quality from top to bottom including the frame, suspension, etc. with the body being Synergy Green and the bumpers, sliders and flares being a satin graphite like the racing stripes on the Synergy Green Camaro's.
Then I'm going to carefully use it for everything that I have built it to do.
Ok guys, I drove it around the shop a little more today to get it up to operating temperature so I could check the engine out a little because it has a very slight miss and a faint knock at rpm and I would like some opinions.
First, the balance rates are HORRIBLE. I don't have the exact #'s in front of me, but I give you an idea until I get them. 4 cylinders were right around 5.9, 3 were -0.1 to-0.3 and cylinder # 6 was 15!
Then the actual frp was just over 9,000 while the desired was 4,500ish.
I've already got a bottle of the injector cleaner that I will run through it when I get time as I've read that could help. Could the fact that this engine has been setting for around 5 years and having only been started once about a year ago until recently be contributing to this?
Any thoughts?
First, the balance rates are HORRIBLE. I don't have the exact #'s in front of me, but I give you an idea until I get them. 4 cylinders were right around 5.9, 3 were -0.1 to-0.3 and cylinder # 6 was 15!
Then the actual frp was just over 9,000 while the desired was 4,500ish.
I've already got a bottle of the injector cleaner that I will run through it when I get time as I've read that could help. Could the fact that this engine has been setting for around 5 years and having only been started once about a year ago until recently be contributing to this?
Any thoughts?
Update time:
I've stayed after this ugly turd, wrapping up a lot of the little boring parts of a build of this nature and last night I finally got to drive it home for the first time! :woott:
Still got a lot of little stuff to wrap up before it sees enough road time to make sure I didn't mess anything up, then it will be time to make it pretty, lol.
Oh and it's STRONG,, more so than I expected for the engine being basically stock other than intake and exhaust mods. I think I blew an intercooler boot on the way home, gotta check that out.
I've stayed after this ugly turd, wrapping up a lot of the little boring parts of a build of this nature and last night I finally got to drive it home for the first time! :woott:
Still got a lot of little stuff to wrap up before it sees enough road time to make sure I didn't mess anything up, then it will be time to make it pretty, lol.
Oh and it's STRONG,
, more so than I expected for the engine being basically stock other than intake and exhaust mods. I think I blew an intercooler boot on the way home, gotta check that out.
could be, I would check for blow by and see if it is pushing anything into the coolant also
Wow, just..... WOW. As far as your rear brake issue, I am dealing with the same issue on my M1028A1 I did the rear disk conversion and it stops worse than it did with the drums. In the tech section of pirates someone did a long and detailed write up on MC and diffrent brake setups, basically you need more volume to properly work the rear disks. The nice thing about Chevy is they are like AR's and Legos, most stuff will interchange! After looking at the setup on my D'Max, I may try a MC off one. Hope you get it all figured out. This truck is SICK! :thumb:
Ok, fixed the noise today, it was the EGR block off whistling.
Plus I weighed this PIG on the very scale that I weighed it on before the Duramax/Allison swap and it was 5760 lbs. Besides the engine/tranny I added the 2001 dash, insulation, sound deadening material and mass loaded vinyl. I changed ALL of the wiring throughout the entire truck to the '05 stuff, added a fuel cooler and a "larger than it had" tranny cooler, but eliminated the 6.5 oil cooler.
Soooo, what does it weigh now with 3/4 of a tank of fuel (32 gallon tank)??????
And thanks That1028guy, I got the brakes working better also, but not as good as I would like. I modified the ratio between the pivot point, the pin and the over all pedal length. I also read that a MC from a '79ish T/A with factory 4wd disc is just the ticket, so if I ever unbox it and install it I'll let ya know if it helps.
Plus I weighed this PIG on the very scale that I weighed it on before the Duramax/Allison swap and it was 5760 lbs. Besides the engine/tranny I added the 2001 dash, insulation, sound deadening material and mass loaded vinyl. I changed ALL of the wiring throughout the entire truck to the '05 stuff, added a fuel cooler and a "larger than it had" tranny cooler, but eliminated the 6.5 oil cooler.
Soooo, what does it weigh now with 3/4 of a tank of fuel (32 gallon tank)??????
And thanks That1028guy, I got the brakes working better also, but not as good as I would like. I modified the ratio between the pivot point, the pin and the over all pedal length. I also read that a MC from a '79ish T/A with factory 4wd disc is just the ticket, so if I ever unbox it and install it I'll let ya know if it helps.
In my research for my 1/2 ton, I came across information that the brake pedals are actually different between a vacuum boost and a hydroboost brake setup. I guess they have different "throws". Also, you do need the larger HD master if you are using the larger HD-type rear disc brakes.
S10, your truck is great! Keep at it! :thumb:
S10, your truck is great! Keep at it! :thumb: