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A military rebuilt 6.5

I like your idea Leroy, rear suspensions are overrated anyway! ;)

Wow that's a light 33' trailer! This 26 footer weighs 6500 itself.

I'm not super pleased with this tune but I think I've made this truck too much of an oddball for a tune to be easily developed. I do plan to datalog still so I can get the full throttle issue taken care of. I think part of my issue is the cam I'm running. If I remember correctly, the grind has more overlap than stock which I believe would drive the EGTs up. Also after I had it ground I found where someone entered the grind into one of those dyno programs and it looks like it gives up a fair amount of power down low but gains a little up top. I'm looking into getting a stock cam now.
 
The pull home went much better for some reason. The ambient temp was about the same (low 80s), but everything was happier temp-wise. On the way down the ac was having trouble keeping up and my IATs and EGTs were higher, but on the way back the ac was fine and my IATs were about 30 degrees cooler consistently. My EGTs would still get up to 1100 when I was accelerating but it didn't concern me the rate at which they got there. I also let the transmission do the shifting most of the time as well.

One difference was that when we went down on Friday, the trip started out with a bunch of stop and go driving whereas on the way back we could get on the road and run at a steady speed for a while. So it's almost like it got heat-soaked to start on Friday and it just never had a chance to cool off the whole drive down? Not really sure.

I drove 180 miles this weekend and 118 of that was towing. I averaged 10.43 mpg, which I know isn't great, but I think I'm my own worst enemy here. When I'm in traffic I like accelerating the same rate as traffic because I hate holding people up, so that certainly doesn't help my mileage. And then of course on the way down I was in 3rd gear a lot trying to keep temps down, so that didn't help either. So this mileage isn't really indicative of anything, it just is what it is. When I get the intercooler on and can get on an open road so I can hold a steady speed I'm sure the mpg will go up.

I started working on the intercooler last night so I will be started the other thread in the Performance section very soon.
 
Update: I was planning on pulling the engine this month to put a stock camshaft in but a fragged flexplate forced me to pull it a couple weeks early. I was tired of the shaking/imbalance that I can feel while driving this and the cam seemed like the biggest wild card so I figured I'd swap a stock one back in. Also I found out later that this cam likely isn't giving me more power and may in fact be costing me power down low....so much motivation to try a stock cam. This afternoon I finally got it torn down further. I noticed that most of the exhaust pushrods had been rubbing on the heads due to the 1.6 ratio rockers. I really didn't want to disturb the head gaskets but I am going to do it right and pull the heads to clearance them rather than risk getting metal in the engine. I really was curious to see in the chambers too to see if all was ok with the precups. Yup the precups seem ok, but wasn't ok was the pistons!! Apparently I've been getting contact between my intake valves and pistons!!:eek::mad: Also the edge of #8 is partially melted. So good thing I tore it down the rest of the way. New pistons and intake valves are now on the shopping list. I guess despite me checking piston to valve clearance the 202 cam and 1.6 rockers are NOT compatible. I'm really starting to regret ever having the notion to put this cam in. Regarding the melted piston, I got an injector pop tester so I'm going to see what that injector is working like. It's probably just getting too hot from the junk manifold design but we'll see if there's more going on. image.jpgimage.jpg
 
Dang man! Better you pulled it now rather than what could have been real soon.

Make sure to check valve springs also.
 
Thanks guys.

bowtiebutler956 said:
Wow! I'm really sorry to hear that Nate. I didn't realize you had been having any trouble with it. The melted piston is really wild. :eek:

Matt
Click to expand...

I haven't really had "trouble" really, it just wasn't all I had hoped for so I wanted to try to improve it and a cam swap seemed like the place to start.

Will L. said:
Dang man! Better you pulled it now rather than what could have been real soon.

Make sure to check valve springs also.
Click to expand...

Yeah I will at least replace the intake springs. I wonder if I floated the valves and that's why they kissed the pistons? Delta told me the stock springs would be ok, but maybe not with the 1.6 rockers?

I've been looking around and I found the pistons I want - you can get pistons from Mahle that are .010" shorter than stock and have anodized tops. If I did that with the +.010" head gaskets then that should get me around 19.5-20:1, which will help me with my future fuel and boost plans, but still start in the cold ok. So this will be an upgrade from what I already had, I'm just getting a bit tired of sinking more and more time and money into this thing.
 
Look at it this way. It took Edison ~2,000 tries to find the proper filament for the light bulb. Seems that learning what combination of rockers / cam does not work after just one try is ahead of the game (even though it is painful).

n8in8or said:
. . . I'm just getting a bit tired of sinking more and more time and money into this thing.
Click to expand...

Pick your poison. A 6.5 that you can disassemble, or a DMax. I personally would have considered a DMax except it only comes in A/T and emission controls are making the system *way* too complex. Even with all the 6.5's 'issues', it is still the lower cost platform in the long run.
 
JayTheCPA said:
Look at it this way. It took Edison ~2,000 tries to find the proper filament for the light bulb. Seems that learning what combination of rockers / cam does not work after just one try is ahead of the game (even though it is painful).



Pick your poison. A 6.5 that you can disassemble, or a DMax. I personally would have considered a DMax except it only comes in A/T and emission controls are making the system *way* too complex. Even with all the 6.5's 'issues', it is still the lower cost platform in the long run.
Click to expand...
That is true, and I do recognize that...I just have to keep telling myself that. Maybe I'll paint that on the ceiling over the bed so it's the last thing I read at night and the first thing I read in the morning :)

I do think I'm getting close to having a good combo, I just need to push a little bit further. And sometimes you have to go backwards before you can go forward. Having new pistons will be an upgrade from where I was before for sure.
 
Man talk about Murphy following I hope you get it all sorted out. I've been out of pocket 54 days in ICU but home now rehabbing. Good luck!
 
FellowTraveler said:
Man talk about Murphy following I hope you get it all sorted out. I've been out of pocket 54 days in ICU but home now rehabbing. Good luck!
Click to expand...
It sounds like Murphy has been following you more closely than me :confused:. Parts are on order to get me back on the road....HUGE thanks to Leroy!:D Welcome back FT.
 
Finally making some progress on the reassembly of the engine. Last night I got the main bearing clearances measured (all good even after having the crank polished again) and the mains torqued. I also got the STOCK cam installed to replace the Delta cam. Then today I had a package from Leroy waiting on the step when I went home for lunch. The new pistons sure are pretty! Between the anodized piston crowns and the .010" shorter compression height, I think my combustion chambers are going to be much happier. Oh and the piston top says "0.100", but I measured and they are just 0.010" shorter. Now that I have all my parts it's time to get this thing back together.

Crank in 1.jpg Crank in 2.jpg Piston.jpg
 
Noticed the K style oil filter adapter. Now is a good time to do yourself a *HUGE* favor by calling Leroy and buying a remote oil filter kit.
 
I've been a little too inward focused of late and hadn't stayed up on this thread. Hate it that you had the issues with motor.
I considered the Harlands with my build too but was warned off by the 1.6 incompatibility with the cam as well. At the time, Harland wasn't offering a 1.5 soooo.

Enjoying the header thread too. Keep up the good work and thanks for the photo journey.
 
JayTheCPA said:
Noticed the K style oil filter adapter. Now is a good time to do yourself a *HUGE* favor by calling Leroy and buying a remote oil filter kit.
Click to expand...

Oh I didn't know he had a remote oil filter kit. Hmmmm

Paveltolz said:
I've been a little too inward focused of late and hadn't stayed up on this thread. Hate it that you had the issues with motor.
I considered the Harlands with my build too but was warned off by the 1.6 incompatibility with the cam as well. At the time, Harland wasn't offering a 1.5 soooo.

Enjoying the header thread too. Keep up the good work and thanks for the photo journey.
Click to expand...

Thank you sir. I just had some fun this morning catching up on your resto thread as well. I always forget about the Projects forum but when I do there is usually some good stuff to look at on there.
 
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