Hink
Overkill Is Underrated
So, about nine years ago a buddy of mine told me about all this research he did on converting to and burning veg oil. I knew the concept works since the diesel engine was originally designed to run on veggie oil, peanut oil specifically and I was in school at the time after taking a 53% pay cut so I needed to find all the money savings that I could. $600 a month fuel bills were kicking my ass. Only problem... I didn't own a diesel.
I had driven my brothers GMC a few years back and loved it, so totally kidding I said to him "you want to sell me your truck?" and to my surprise he said "sure!". Then I was REALLY yanking his chain when I said "I can only pay you $3000 for it" (that was the max on my credit card). And he said "OK". Which floored me as low blue book at the time was about $9000.So, we converted my buddies Excursion first and then did some improvements on the design and converted mine. My fuel bill went from $600/month to $50-$100/month which paid for the conversion and eventually the truck itself fairly quickly.
Now, regardless of what everybody says about a stock 6.5, this one ran plenty strong but knowing veggie has ~10% less energy than diesel and therefor power, I set about getting a bit more power out of her.
You always need to know your vitals so you don't burn her up (stock or modified, it's a must) and no mods will work if she can't breathe so EGT and boost gauges went in with 4"exhaust. Then about a quarter turn on the fuel screw married to a turbo master boost control woke her up quite a bit. A whole new truck, really. I needed a better air filter (that should go on with the exhaust) but I didn't know that the K&N already on it sucked at that time so I ran it.
I ran it like that for many years and about 80,000 miles. I don't have any specs or numbers, but I didn't have anything to compare it against either, all I knew was that it would flat scoot down the road for an 8000lb truck and tow anything that I ever needed to and that's all anybody ever really needs, until...
I knew that this truck had been rode real, real hard and not been taken care of at all and it was really showing. The power was there but it used oil, leaked oil, had bad blow by and I knew its days were numbered. So in 2014, I was working a job that allowed me to justify the cost and I started planning my motor build. I spent most of my time on this forum learning from everybody. Leroy, ak diesel driver, Ferm, War wagon, DieselCash, TurbineDoc, Dennis, 6.2 Turbo, Will, n8in8or, Fellow Traveler, JayTheCPA, tanman, bowtiebutler, GM Guy, Paveltolz, sctrailrider, turbovanman, JiFaire and a whole bunch of others have taught me most of what I know about my truck and how to get reliable horsepower out of it. (So if she blows up, it’s your fault! : )>)
I started first with the idea of a rebuild. I love the idea of going through every part of my motor and making it just the way I want and knowing every part of it. But with all the time and work involved in freshening up a worn out motor and you still end up with a freshened up old motor, I decided to take my chances on a Teds Optimizer and am very glad I did. I may never go back to a stock block again. As long as Teds is providing the Optimizer at such a good price (I think it was a little over $3000 for mine plus shipping), that’s what I’ll be sticking with I think.
So, the motor arrived looking all brand new and painted. I wanted to get into it a little bit to put in ARP head studs, match port the intakes and put in .010 head gaskets. Originally, I was going to go with an 18:1 compression motor but am glad I didn’t. There are some cold weather starting issues to deal with and easing the load with an ATT turbo and holding her together with ARPs pretty much gave me the reliability that I was looking for with putting more power to her without having to lower the compression for more turbo PSI. I made one mistake… I left the square stamp precups in the heads instead of changing to diamonds. Kind of a major deal, power wise but not a deal breaker. I’ll be changing them out in the future. With that done, liking the performance benefits and the idea of a lifetime change, I added a DSG timing gear set, Bosch Duraterm Glows and then dual block heaters.
Then I started bolting stuff on. The old (only a few years old) 4911 DB2 IP went on with a maxed fuel screw and FTB mod, the FFM with FTB, high volume water pump and 20” fan, Fluidampr, Leroys OPS extension and Teflon stainless steel oil cooler hoses and A-Team Turbo, PT Wiring solutions glow plug harness and I had Bosch guts put in my injectors and matched pressure @ 2300 psi on rebuild. I also wrapped my manifolds to keep as much heat in as I could to help in spooling the turbo.
After Leroys Energy Suspension urethane motor mounts were installed and new stock clutch was bolted up, the motor went in, his lift pump relay harness installed, S&B intake put on and all the other peripheral motor parts. With the Duraterms I could really run the glows if I needed to so I wired in a Peninsular glow plug timer with manual activator.
With the motor in, I was ready to fire her up. I started to purge the air from the fuel lines one at a time and while cranking for the third line, that wily rascal started right up on just two cylinders and with one disconnected. So I just tightened her down and let her burp and fart and smoke till she smoothed out and she’s been running like a dream ever since and does she ever go like a mother. The first real run that I put the hammer down I was going up a pretty good grade and just slammed the pedal down in forth and the clutch started slipping! So I called Ryan at Southbend clutch and had them send me their Kevlar model. Problem solved.
Moving forward a year or so brings us to today. With the need to tow an RV to work sites around the U.S. with an increasingly worn out NV4500, I started the next phase of upgrades with a Midwest Transmissions rebuild with a cast iron extension housing and Genos Garage coolers.
When she’s rolling again (hopefully by next week), I’ll put in the copper core/brass tank radiator sitting there staring at me and the much needed Walbro FRB-5 ip. And hopefully by spring I’ll have the AEM water/meth kit installed and dialed in.
With all that done, I have just a few more things that I’d like to get done. A moose pump will get me all the fuel that the ATT needs and a turbine diverter valve will change the dynamics to make it a bit peppier from a light, an oil bypass system will protect and extend oil change intervals, changing all bulbs out to LED will make her bright and pretty and adding a high amp dual alternator set up will go with my bed mounted inverter and 8D battery to provide all the 120 volt power I’ll ever need anywhere I may be. On the idea of pretty, a white bed liner paint job with white pearl ghost flames and home-made Road Armor style bumpers will finish her up real nice.
Now this was a condensed version and trying to draw from more than year old memory but that’s the way I remember it and I’m sticking to it. I may even add to it if anything else comes to me.
As I read through the forums, I see a lot of questions that new people ask about “what can I do to my truck for more power?” so I hope my version all condensed here can help answer some of those questions.
Now I know that there are many different ways to get power and some may not agree with the way I went about it, but I tried to learn the best things to do from you all and this is just the one way that I came up with to git ‘er done.
I had driven my brothers GMC a few years back and loved it, so totally kidding I said to him "you want to sell me your truck?" and to my surprise he said "sure!". Then I was REALLY yanking his chain when I said "I can only pay you $3000 for it" (that was the max on my credit card). And he said "OK". Which floored me as low blue book at the time was about $9000.So, we converted my buddies Excursion first and then did some improvements on the design and converted mine. My fuel bill went from $600/month to $50-$100/month which paid for the conversion and eventually the truck itself fairly quickly.
Now, regardless of what everybody says about a stock 6.5, this one ran plenty strong but knowing veggie has ~10% less energy than diesel and therefor power, I set about getting a bit more power out of her.
You always need to know your vitals so you don't burn her up (stock or modified, it's a must) and no mods will work if she can't breathe so EGT and boost gauges went in with 4"exhaust. Then about a quarter turn on the fuel screw married to a turbo master boost control woke her up quite a bit. A whole new truck, really. I needed a better air filter (that should go on with the exhaust) but I didn't know that the K&N already on it sucked at that time so I ran it.
I ran it like that for many years and about 80,000 miles. I don't have any specs or numbers, but I didn't have anything to compare it against either, all I knew was that it would flat scoot down the road for an 8000lb truck and tow anything that I ever needed to and that's all anybody ever really needs, until...
I knew that this truck had been rode real, real hard and not been taken care of at all and it was really showing. The power was there but it used oil, leaked oil, had bad blow by and I knew its days were numbered. So in 2014, I was working a job that allowed me to justify the cost and I started planning my motor build. I spent most of my time on this forum learning from everybody. Leroy, ak diesel driver, Ferm, War wagon, DieselCash, TurbineDoc, Dennis, 6.2 Turbo, Will, n8in8or, Fellow Traveler, JayTheCPA, tanman, bowtiebutler, GM Guy, Paveltolz, sctrailrider, turbovanman, JiFaire and a whole bunch of others have taught me most of what I know about my truck and how to get reliable horsepower out of it. (So if she blows up, it’s your fault! : )>)
I started first with the idea of a rebuild. I love the idea of going through every part of my motor and making it just the way I want and knowing every part of it. But with all the time and work involved in freshening up a worn out motor and you still end up with a freshened up old motor, I decided to take my chances on a Teds Optimizer and am very glad I did. I may never go back to a stock block again. As long as Teds is providing the Optimizer at such a good price (I think it was a little over $3000 for mine plus shipping), that’s what I’ll be sticking with I think.
So, the motor arrived looking all brand new and painted. I wanted to get into it a little bit to put in ARP head studs, match port the intakes and put in .010 head gaskets. Originally, I was going to go with an 18:1 compression motor but am glad I didn’t. There are some cold weather starting issues to deal with and easing the load with an ATT turbo and holding her together with ARPs pretty much gave me the reliability that I was looking for with putting more power to her without having to lower the compression for more turbo PSI. I made one mistake… I left the square stamp precups in the heads instead of changing to diamonds. Kind of a major deal, power wise but not a deal breaker. I’ll be changing them out in the future. With that done, liking the performance benefits and the idea of a lifetime change, I added a DSG timing gear set, Bosch Duraterm Glows and then dual block heaters.
Then I started bolting stuff on. The old (only a few years old) 4911 DB2 IP went on with a maxed fuel screw and FTB mod, the FFM with FTB, high volume water pump and 20” fan, Fluidampr, Leroys OPS extension and Teflon stainless steel oil cooler hoses and A-Team Turbo, PT Wiring solutions glow plug harness and I had Bosch guts put in my injectors and matched pressure @ 2300 psi on rebuild. I also wrapped my manifolds to keep as much heat in as I could to help in spooling the turbo.
After Leroys Energy Suspension urethane motor mounts were installed and new stock clutch was bolted up, the motor went in, his lift pump relay harness installed, S&B intake put on and all the other peripheral motor parts. With the Duraterms I could really run the glows if I needed to so I wired in a Peninsular glow plug timer with manual activator.
With the motor in, I was ready to fire her up. I started to purge the air from the fuel lines one at a time and while cranking for the third line, that wily rascal started right up on just two cylinders and with one disconnected. So I just tightened her down and let her burp and fart and smoke till she smoothed out and she’s been running like a dream ever since and does she ever go like a mother. The first real run that I put the hammer down I was going up a pretty good grade and just slammed the pedal down in forth and the clutch started slipping! So I called Ryan at Southbend clutch and had them send me their Kevlar model. Problem solved.
Moving forward a year or so brings us to today. With the need to tow an RV to work sites around the U.S. with an increasingly worn out NV4500, I started the next phase of upgrades with a Midwest Transmissions rebuild with a cast iron extension housing and Genos Garage coolers.
When she’s rolling again (hopefully by next week), I’ll put in the copper core/brass tank radiator sitting there staring at me and the much needed Walbro FRB-5 ip. And hopefully by spring I’ll have the AEM water/meth kit installed and dialed in.
With all that done, I have just a few more things that I’d like to get done. A moose pump will get me all the fuel that the ATT needs and a turbine diverter valve will change the dynamics to make it a bit peppier from a light, an oil bypass system will protect and extend oil change intervals, changing all bulbs out to LED will make her bright and pretty and adding a high amp dual alternator set up will go with my bed mounted inverter and 8D battery to provide all the 120 volt power I’ll ever need anywhere I may be. On the idea of pretty, a white bed liner paint job with white pearl ghost flames and home-made Road Armor style bumpers will finish her up real nice.
Now this was a condensed version and trying to draw from more than year old memory but that’s the way I remember it and I’m sticking to it. I may even add to it if anything else comes to me.
As I read through the forums, I see a lot of questions that new people ask about “what can I do to my truck for more power?” so I hope my version all condensed here can help answer some of those questions.
Now I know that there are many different ways to get power and some may not agree with the way I went about it, but I tried to learn the best things to do from you all and this is just the one way that I came up with to git ‘er done.
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nice looking pics. Out of curiosity why is there a hose clamp on your alternator?
