My turn for a motor build thread
- Thread starter duramax hd
- Start date
Time for an update:
Motor is now in the truck. Last week we thrashed on it and didnt let up until it was in and started. Some long ass nights and lots of beer consumed with this project. Couldnt have done this with out my two buddies Doug and Ryan for their countless hours/blood/sweat in this thing, and my girl Erin for constantly handing tools to us and picking up food! Holy sh*t guys do I owe you big time for all the help.
It went from long block, to shortblock in two days. I even got my father in on this as he helped torque the head studs and clean up the valve covers for RTV. I even had to chase the UPS guy in my car to get my injectors I overnighted the day before thanksgiving.
A lot of our mistakes were self inflicted. One night I was a little intoxicated, and distracted by said woman above, and tried to put all the fuel lines on. Long story short, didnt tighten 5 nuts on the fuel dist. block and on the front and back on the rails. That resulted in an hour of cranking and no start and 2 gallons of diesel on my driveway. Lesson learned there. Next was me not thinking far enough ahead and not getting my ECM reflashed as I have 2 LBZ pumps now. That resulted in a late afternoon emergency run to the Moonshine mans house. Big thanks Tony for that and all the tech support you've helped with this week and flashing my ECM on sunday. Then after the ECM was reflashed, there was so much air in the fuel system, and no way to bleed it out as there is no more factory fuel filter, I have to crack a bunch of lines to get fuel to the CP3.Lastly, I have/had a huge draw on my electrical system followed with the dreaded P0380 glowplug code. I think we have that sorted out as I have a wire that pulled out of the glowplug module from the back of one of the connectors and we are hoping that when I reconnect it, hoping it'll be the reason there is such a draw on the battery and will now run run for more then 20 minutes but I wont know for sure until tonight when I can work on it again. Now for pics of the build:
Motor is now in the truck. Last week we thrashed on it and didnt let up until it was in and started. Some long ass nights and lots of beer consumed with this project. Couldnt have done this with out my two buddies Doug and Ryan for their countless hours/blood/sweat in this thing, and my girl Erin for constantly handing tools to us and picking up food! Holy sh*t guys do I owe you big time for all the help.
It went from long block, to shortblock in two days. I even got my father in on this as he helped torque the head studs and clean up the valve covers for RTV. I even had to chase the UPS guy in my car to get my injectors I overnighted the day before thanksgiving.
A lot of our mistakes were self inflicted. One night I was a little intoxicated, and distracted by said woman above, and tried to put all the fuel lines on. Long story short, didnt tighten 5 nuts on the fuel dist. block and on the front and back on the rails. That resulted in an hour of cranking and no start and 2 gallons of diesel on my driveway. Lesson learned there. Next was me not thinking far enough ahead and not getting my ECM reflashed as I have 2 LBZ pumps now. That resulted in a late afternoon emergency run to the Moonshine mans house. Big thanks Tony for that and all the tech support you've helped with this week and flashing my ECM on sunday. Then after the ECM was reflashed, there was so much air in the fuel system, and no way to bleed it out as there is no more factory fuel filter, I have to crack a bunch of lines to get fuel to the CP3.Lastly, I have/had a huge draw on my electrical system followed with the dreaded P0380 glowplug code. I think we have that sorted out as I have a wire that pulled out of the glowplug module from the back of one of the connectors and we are hoping that when I reconnect it, hoping it'll be the reason there is such a draw on the battery and will now run run for more then 20 minutes but I wont know for sure until tonight when I can work on it again. Now for pics of the build:
Attachments
Last edited:
Nice! These pictures give me motivation to tear into my engine and figure out where I'm losing compression. If its not a valve issue a build will be in my plans as well 
Does the belt have to be ran like that because of the dual CP3?
Looks good though! Great motivation to get mine torn out tomorrow.
Looks good though! Great motivation to get mine torn out tomorrow.
yes, mine is routed the same way. if you have a PPE centrifuge, the routing changes again lol
Awesome kris! those distractions can be killers at times
Im almost for sure his truck is put away for the winter. That beauty of a truck hes got almost never sees the salty roads during this time.
Has anyone heard from Kris? His threads have been quiet since he got the motor in
Rod,
My trucks up and running, but like James said, winter set in and I got VERY little seat time before the roads got all f'ed. I hadn't update this thread because of my own stupidity and mistakes I inflicted and was to angry for over looking it. I will say, I had a lot of good buddies working long hours, and people answer the phones at all hours willing to answer quesions when I had my theorys. My truck would have been burned to the ground if I didnt have these guys hiding the matches.
Basically what it came down to, after all the trouble shooting, is the powder coat on the altnernator bracket. The bracket wasnt grounded to the block...and now it makes sense why the thing wouldnt charge. Everything else was little stupid stuff like a few leaking fuel lines and some tuning that needed to be changed.
I did get two days with it and have about a tank of fuel threw it after Tony had a little seat time to play with the tuning, and holy shit does the thing move! If he wants to chime in, hes more then welcome, but he was impressed with how wicked the triples spool in this setup. As well as the setup worked with a stock sticked truck, it just works that much better with the supporting fuel. I did have my buddy that now has my old twins on his truck drive it, and come march he will be getting a divorce because his truck now "feels like a 170hp cummins" comapared to it and we will be building his motor so he stands a chance at seeing my tailights.
Haha yea the things been sitting for a little over a month now. It absoluty kills me too. Especially when a buddy lent me a twinned duramax to rock for a day while he was on vaca, and I got to taste 400hp again
I'm glad to hear its running :woott: I am EPR Green with envy but very happy that it's working out for you.
There is another triple kit for sale on here but we know where that leads, I'm weighing all options for a build; LB7, LLY, LBZ next winter.
Did you get many final pics of the project? I guess we'll have to wait for the video
I bet your Dad can't believe what has become of his old truck. That is great you got him involved again :hug:
There is another triple kit for sale on here but we know where that leads, I'm weighing all options for a build; LB7, LLY, LBZ next winter.
Did you get many final pics of the project? I guess we'll have to wait for the video
I bet your Dad can't believe what has become of his old truck. That is great you got him involved again :hug:
I am surprised the coating didn't chip off the bracket putting the alt back in. That's a tight fit. Every truck's electronics are finicky in their own ways i guess, because I've never even thought twice about that possibility that the alt bracket or jump start bracket don't ground well enough after coating and I've done a few of em
I'm glad to hear its running :woott: I am EPR Green with envy but very happy that it's working out for you.
There is another triple kit for sale on here but we know where that leads, I'm weighing all options for a build; LB7, LLY, LBZ next winter.
Did you get many final pics of the project? I guess we'll have to wait for the video
I bet your Dad can't believe what has become of his old truck. That is great you got him involved again :hug:
Thanks Rod, greatly appreicated. Im pretty happy with how everything turned out and im itching to get more seat time. I saw that triple kit on here and saw you posting up about it....we DEFINITELY know where that road leads! Thats a really nice kit though and should make some good power. I even thought about that kit just to get the ihi out of the equation.
I would really consider doing an lly/lbz conversion. I thought long and hard, but at the end of the day, my truck is doesnt get the miles to justify. That setup would be really sweet and it doesnt seem that difficult. Especially with the knowledgable people an on this site.
Man you wouldnt believe the thigns out of my fathers mouth after driving his old truck with all this new found horepower. When Tony tuned it, he told me to bring it right down to my dad and he wants to hear what he says. When he rolled into the throttle through a long 55-60mph sweeping corner and drifted the thing out the rest of the way, he was like 'holy sh*t thing thing is stupid'. It was cool just to have him be apart of the build. He'd never done anything major like one of these motors, so it was cool to learn a little together, and he took care of all the tedious jobs that I have no patience for.
Any progress on your project with your son? That truck is pretty cool and I've been following along.
Tim, I chased this freakin thing for over 3 weeks loosing my mind trying to find it. Not to help matters, half the time troubleshooting, I have a painted alternator on the powdercoated bracket, and even went to autozone to have it tested, and even helped the guy scrape the paint off one of the fins to get a good ground! I didnt even think twice when it tested to be "good". Still bought an alternator to rule it out because I was so frustrated. Finally I was drawing the schematic on a napkin for one of my buddies that builds mustangs, and he asked where the ground strap is for the alternator....Instant light bulb went off. I left work immediately, mid morning, ripped the bracket off, sanded it, and started it. Charging volts came right up, and ran perfect! You are right though, these things have a mind of there own sometimes. I appreciate all the help and advice along the way man.
amazing build i am doing exactly what you were going to do for your original build have have all the parts but going to be doing lly heads instead just because i don't have heads for this motor yet. Would you recommend main studs and billet caps whats your opinion on this i to have triples little bigger than yours be over 1k hp when i am done. nice work though what part of CT do you live in i am in columbia near uconn.:thumb:
We are driving the K1500 4.3 and it is working great. Will has had a few driving lessons on the farm. The wife likes it to grab groceries and keep her car clean, I like it because it is WAY easier on tires than Blackie
I updated the thread earlier today.
Cheers and I'm looking forward to some vids this spring
No numbers yet buddy. I had my second cp3 fail and blow a glow plug out the side of it. I have it running on a single cp3 now and can only hold rail in the small tunes. Trying to work it all out to hopefully get it to the track soon. Hows your project coming along?