New engine for the family truckster!

[njsteve]

We have touchdown at 10:00 AM EST! And the wonderful wife gets credit for the assist as she helped hold the engine in place as it kept trying to twist out of flightpath as it touched down. The motor mount bolts just slid into place, too.

[Lynn]

Nice Steve. I really like the smooth sided pickups and Suburbans from the 90's.

Don't think you will regret this move.

[Chris KH2PM]

Nice upgrade. Those 2500 Suburbans are nice. I actually spotted one not too long ago going down the road.

I had a '94 Chevy Silverado K2500 6.5 turbodiesel. Bought it new and drove it about 70K miles over 6 years. Loved the smooth power and the sound. And it rode great too with that long wheelbase.

Later I bought a new 2001 GMC Yukon XL 2500 4x4 with the 496 and 4.10 gears. Now that was a towing beast!

[njsteve]

Nice truck!

[njsteve]

Got everything in, on, and back together working form 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM today. I left the inner fender off for leak checks, etc. The battery cables are still hanging (actually, the ends are soaking in baking soda and water to remove the trace of "battery crust" I found on them). I will try to start her up tomorrow. I have the laptop ready with the Scantech program for setting the injection pump.

[njsteve]

Well, after the usual BS of finding out that my brand new AC/Delco fuel filter/water separator leaks like a sieve out the bottom, and having to reinstall my formerly grungy old one, all went well.

I didn't remove the glow plugs and crank it for a while to prime the injectors, like most guys recommend. All I did was prime the non-leaking fuel filter assembly by jumping the fuel pump relay and verified there was no air in the system. I then turned the key and waited for the glow plug light to go out. Instantly running! no coughs, no hick-ups, no drama whatsoever! Amazing!

I then let it warm up to 185 degrees so i could use the Scantech on my laptop hooked to the OBD1 port and set the TDC on the injection pump. I was close to the factory installation spot but a hair off so the advance was giving a DTC-88 fault code. I had to then use the pair of bizarrely pretzel-shaped injection pump wrenches that I paid $90 for (and now am happy I did) in order to move the pump half a millimeter to the passenger side. It's a nearly impossibly feat given that all the injection pump steel lines are bolted down into brackets and the pump would barely budge. (imagine trying to remove that spider creature that locks on your face from the movie ALIEN and you can imagine how hard it is to move that pump). Oh, and by the way, the injection pump is located underneath the intake manifold.

I eventually budged it enough to reset the timing and clear to fault code.

That's when I noticed my original fuel filter canister was leaking. Ugh.

I replaced it with the new one again after checking all the fuel lines and replacing the clamps. And....it leaked even worse than before. So I removed it and tried to pull the filter out to see what was wrong. That is when I discovered that the brand new unit had its plastic collar so tightly torqued on that I had to put the thing in a vice and turn the housing with a pry bar. Once I finally got it unscrewed, that was when I learned that the idiots who assembled it, neglected to install the all important sealing O-ring for the lid. Luckily I had an extra filter laying around. I took the O-ring, installed it in the housing and hand tightened it. After the third reinstall, it finally worked. No leaks.

I then went for a ride to return some of the tools I borrowed from my buddy - truck jack stands, wobble sockets, 1-3/8" socket for the oil filter adapter, etc. The truck starts on the first crank of the key and runs very nicely.

There's a noticeable difference in power above 50 mph - really starts pulling and wants to go fast(er). I have the boost is limited to 9 psi for the time being I'll turn it up a little more after I put some miles on her. No leaks or drips at the moment. This weekend I'll put it up on my buddy's lift to retighten everything.

So in the end it took nine full days to get old engine out, transfer all the reusable parts to new engine, install new engine and get it running. I lost five pounds of weight in the process! That's better results than nine days of Crossfit.

Now I can drive the truck back to the gym again.

The next project is pulling the oil pan off the old engine and seeing whatsup with the bearings.

[Tommy]

congrats Steve. That was a big job. I hope that new engine gives many years of service. You are right, its hard to find anyone that can properly work on those trucks and equally hard to find anyone willing to work on them. I am curious why you have the aftermarket air filter though Steve. Have you seen the temps of the air you are drawing into the turbo with that setup? The air temp under acceleration will go above 250 degrees. Put the stock unit back on and the temps immediately go back to outside air temp.

Tommy

[njsteve]

That's not what I run. That is just the air filter itself stuck on there to keep the critters out of the turbo as the truck sat overnight.

The entire filter fits inside the later model K47 air filter box which routes air from inside the fender. Here is the actual setup in place. I modified a piece of ABS toilet plumbing pipe from Home Depot. It cost all of $3 to replace the unobtainable and uber-fragile, thin-walled ABS duct piece that is unique to the 6.5 diesels used from 96 to 99. All I had to do was heat it with a propane torch and squeeze it in a vise until it became an oval shape that matched to rubber bellows that connects to the turbo. The round end of the tube fit tightly inside the K47 filter element that you saw in my previous photos.

[Tommy]

very cool!


Tommy

[njsteve]

Flows like a good running toilet should flow!