Chevy to Cummins conversion

[Tom Brown]

Bob, I believe we have officially crapped on your thread, and you have my apologies for that.

Bob's not here. He's busy grafting a set of gills into his cat to populate his new fish tank.

 

[Hatenwinter]

I didn't have pics on my Ipad..

I recognize your truck, Camarillo right?

 

[Tom Brown]

I resemble the 7.3 remark, too

That is fantastic looking, Jeff.

Mine is a work truck. It's straight but the black paint has chalked pretty bad. It's more of a gray truck now and the interior is not that of a new truck.

... but it tows like a mo-fo with the turbo diesel and manual transmission.

 

[DaveC]

This is why you are not a "job creator" Brown. At the first sign of wear you would have traded that thing in on a new F350.

Come on, we all need to do our part to stimulate the economy.

That is fantastic looking, Jeff.

Mine is a work truck. It's straight but the black paint has chalked pretty bad. It's more of a gray truck now and the interior is not that of a new truck.

... but it tows like a mo-fo with the turbo diesel and manual transmission.

 

[rivermobster]

Mine's a 99. Just got smoged. It has an aftermaket air intake kit, 4" exh front to back, and its chiped.

Cost me $50 bucks for them to look at it. I should be happy it passed? Fockers.

 

[bunkrepair]

i think this swap would cost about 20k take 3 to 4 months if you worked on it everyday and be a headache

id sell the truck and buy a duramax its a buyers market right now

 

[Flyinbowtie]

Tom the earliest DI engines, the 94.5 and 95 were improved in 96 and 97 through electronics only, the early PSD's had forged rods, and the latter 7.3's had powdered metal ones. I think that change, not a good one, took place in 2000 My friend had a 94 non DI turbo diesel, the turbo was patterned after the ATS aftermarket unit and would not produce alot of boost. My 97, bone stock, would run away and hide from it.
The 97 7.3 was rated at 215 HP, the 99, the next model year was 230. The big change was the addition of the aftercooler and a repositioned turbo, along with a switchover to an electric fuel pump. Stock, mine had a mechanical lift pump in the manifold valley.
That system is going to be gone soon on mine, replaced by a regulated return electronic fuel system.
The IDI was a good, solid platform, but by 1996, at the at the latest, the DI engine was well beyond it.
Thanks for the complement, Tom. I bought it new on May 15 1998. The only new vehicle I have ever purchased. She is almost wore out now.
93,000 miles on the clock...

 

[Flyinbowtie]

That is fantastic looking, Jeff.

Mine is a work truck. It's straight but the black paint has chalked pretty bad. It's more of a gray truck now and the interior is not that of a new truck.

... but it tows like a mo-fo with the turbo diesel and manual transmission.

Mine gets worked too, but not beat on.

This is at 20,000lbs, ready to leave home at 1900 ft and climb over Donner Pass at 7144 ft.

 

[HolyMoly]

She is almost wore out now.
93,000 miles on the clock...

Ah....they are so cute when they are babies!

 

[Tom Brown]

The IDI was a good, solid platform, but by 1996, at the at the latest, the DI engine was well beyond it.

Well beyond it? :hmm

My first diesel truck was a 99 SuperDuty F250 PSD/6-speed. It took a long time to find it because trucks have crazy high resale around here. Even old ones. About three weeks later, I came across a crazy deal on the 94 F350/DRW IDI/5-speed from a farmer buddy. I wasn't all that interested so I low balled the hell out of him and he accepted. I thought about just not returning his calls. lol!

The 94 was twice the truck the 99 was... in terms of price.

I kept the 94 but not because it was a better truck. I'm certainly not saying that. I would say, however, the difference between the two trucks was not all that significant, in terms of power. Neither were all that impressive empty, IMO.

I never had a chance to test the 99 with much of a load. The only thing I towed was my small track hoe to the tune of about 7K pounds. It was definitely noticeable. Empty, I would start in 2nd gear but with the trailer, 1st gear was required.

I put the 99 on Kijiji at a slightly higher price than I paid and it sold that evening.

If you subtract the money I made off the 99 from the smoking deal I got on the 94, my total outlay is unbelievably low. To be fair, that puts me in a wonderful disposition regarding my truck so maybe I'm not all that objective?

I've pulled 14K pounds out of the gravel pit with a dump trailer without too much trouble and I don't see the Duramax/PSD/Cummins guys doing any better. There are undoubtedly better trucks out there by various measures but I don't see them doing a better job than my old POS Ford.

 

[dego_red]

Tom, my old '88 F250 with the banks turbo kit got 21-22 mpg all day. You got something wrong. My '95 with 4:10's and a 5sp gets 20. The 97 F350 still gets around 15 in town and 19 on the highway. All empty mind you.


red

 

[Tom Brown]

That's impressive fuel economy. :thumbsup

I don't have any telemetry to tell me what I'm getting at any given moment. I calculate by the odometer divided by the fuel to fill. It's pretty much all bull pulling out of gravel pits and what not. The truck isn't used for personal transportation as I have a VW Golf for that.

It's probably worth mentioning that the DRW trucks have really low gear ratios and my truck has the huge cab and an 8 foot box so it probably weighs quite a bit. I don't know what my axle ratio is but my red line speed in top gear is probably around 130kph.

Anyway, I'm not complaining about the fuel economy. It does a great job and that's all I care about.

 

[dego_red]

With a top speed of 130, you most likeley have 4:10's. How much you paying for diesel out there? It's 122.9 litre here...My latest PSD is another 97 crew cab just like the black one I used to have only white. Took 2 years looking to find it in Prince George of all places.


red

 

[dego_red]

Hang on to that old IDI and keep it in nice shape, they are getting scarce and going up in value like you would'nt believe. All the old body style F-series are going up in value especially the diesels.


red

 

[Tom Brown]

Hang on to that old IDI and keep it in nice shape, they are getting scarce and going up in value like you would'nt believe. All the old body style F-series are going up in value especially the diesels.

I'm embarrassed to say what I paid for it. It was reasonable, by my standards,... so that's supremely cheap. lol!

This thing is going to be a pile of rust colored dust when I'm done with it in twenty years.

Apparently, diesel is going for 112.9 here.

It was a lot higher than that when I last filled but that was a couple of months ago.

 

[HolyMoly]

That's impressive fuel economy. :thumbsup

I don't have any telemetry to tell me what I'm getting at any given moment. I calculate by the odometer divided by the fuel to fill. It's pretty much all bull pulling out of gravel pits and what not. The truck isn't used for personal transportation as I have a VW Golf for that.

It's probably worth mentioning that the DRW trucks have really low gear ratios and my truck has the huge cab and an 8 foot box so it probably weighs quite a bit. I don't know what my axle ratio is but my red line speed in top gear is probably around 130kph.

Anyway, I'm not complaining about the fuel economy. It does a great job and that's all I care about.

Tom, I get almost 20 mpg with my 2002 7.3. Granted, I drive like an old man...stay off the turbo as much as possible. I keep it under 65 on the freeway. I love setting it on cruise control at 1700 RPM. :thumbsup

Towing my 34' triple axle toy hauler and the complete rig is just north of 20,000 lbs, I get 15 ish. I tow at 55 in CA and around 60 outside CA. When i tow at 65+, the mileage goes down close to 11 mpg. I also take it easy on the grades since I bought this with 100K + miles. But I still do 45 mph up most freeway grades. It is nice to cruise at 45 on a grade and have some throttle left for passing when needed. On grades, I'm usually on the turbo, but it is not fully spooled. I do NOT use the cruise control while towing - that tends to hammer the mpg when it tries to speed up 2 mph and sucks the pedal to the floor.

It does have a banks power pack and I think this has made it more efficient. It does not smoke like some of those chips do.

I don't have any telemetry....I do the math at the pump. the test I do often is round trip to my company head quarters - 130 miles (130.1). The best I have done is 6.6 gallons - and that includes streets and some stop and go/slow and go traffic.

I've got a new camper shell and have not done the math on it yet.

 

[OCMerrill]

I'm embarrassed to say what I paid for it. It was reasonable, by my standards,... so that's supremely cheap. lol!

This thing is going to be a pile of rust colored dust when I'm done with it in twenty years.

Apparently, diesel is going for 112.9 here.

It was a lot higher than that when I last filled but that was a couple of months ago.

Cheap. LOL

 

[bonesfab]

I recognize your truck, Camarillo right?

Yea been here way too long..

 

[Zaairman]

the early PSD's had forged rods, and the latter 7.3's had powdered metal ones. I think that change, not a good one, took place in 2000

The change was mid 2001. :thumbsup


And Bunkrepair, the only way this swap will cost $20k is if you pay somebody to do it for you with a brand new motor.