detroit Diesel 638 Engine swapped 1985 chevy K10 custom Deluxe

[CHOPPIN_CHEVYS]

Starting a thread on my build.
Here are the initial pics when i bought it

 

[usanumber1]

this will be a pretty cool truck. I support weird diesel swaps.

 

[MrMarty51]

I`m a watchin.
And here I thought that enjun`d be too long and too heavy for a smaller size truck, well, a truck other than an over the road type a semi unit. LOL

 

[CHOPPIN_CHEVYS]

SOME MORE ENGINE PICS

 

[CHOPPIN_CHEVYS]

HERES THE 6" SUPERLIFT SUSPENSION INSTALL, NEW LOCKING DIFFERENTIAL, NEW BEARINGS, NEW CALIPERS, REAR AXLE WAS SANDBLASTED AND POWDER COATED, 37" WRANGLER MT "MILITARY OZ" TIRES

 

[CHOPPIN_CHEVYS]

CLEANED OUT THE GAS TANK AND RAN NEW FUEL LINES, NEW "CHAMPION" RADIATOR, INTERCOOLER CAME WITH THE TRUCK, PULLED OFF THE EXHAUST MANIFOLD AND TURBO. GOT THE TURBO RE FABED, WAITING TO SAND BLAST AND POWDER COAT THE EXHAUST MANIFOLD ALONG WITH POWDER COATING THE TURBO

 

[MrMarty51]

That 638 appears to fit quite nicely in that engine compartment.

 

[Will L.]

I like most of what I saw/ heard. A tiny concern is powder coating the turbo. I’ve heard more negative thermal effects than positive- but not major issues so no biggie.

I run the same tires, so not picking on them.
The big concern is the 37s (or 36 based on brand). A blow out or just fairly quick loss of air at hiway speed puts a lot of trucks on their tops. Tons of family and friends that played that game from the 1970’s till now. I hate 20’s and larger is worse by looks to me. I am still used to 15” rims. But soft sidewall tires that have that much flex and the truck nose dives to a corner. Rear tire just goes fishtailing and withstraight axle it isn’t to bad. But the front tire dives and all to often your truck just changed 1 or 2 lanes without your permission.
Hummers/hmmwv with the 4 wheel independent suspension is even worse. Too many flipped hmmwvs because they run those tires without the run flat in them.

dealing with the runflats is annoying. People that never tried it say you can’t deflate for more traction with them- they are wrong as can be. I run mine @7-8 psi all the time and get full patch width. Even did a comparison with a guy that didn’t have them. Same width and infact in the dunes mine did better because getting so low pressure you get the W effect where the middle of the tread starts flexing upward but the runflats hold it perfectly- the engineers knew what they were doing, and did it well.
I’ve lost friends and family as well as severly injured friends and family to flipped or just crashed pickups and hmmwvs because of tall sidewall collapse.
I nearly lost it in my hummer on a right front because the aluminum rims and no runflats that came with it when I bought it. Luckily no one in the lanes next to me at the time and I went through some extensive driving classes where they blow out tires at high speed on purpose. If not for the training and the luck of no one around, I’d probably be dead.

Please seriously reconsider using runflats with those tires.

 

[Husker6.5]

I ditto @Will L.'s experience with Military Wrangler M/T's with the run flat insert from my experience with the M998 series of vehicles when I was flogging a few around in the Army back in the mid-late 90's.

 

[CHOPPIN_CHEVYS]

TURBO, EXHAUST, & INTAKE MANIFOLD POWDER COATED BLACK.
FABRICATED AN ALUMINUM INLET FOR THE INTAKE MANIFOLD ELIMINATING THE AGR.
3D PRINTED A BUSHING TO FIT A 2" SILICONE COUPLER.
GONNA CUT THE PIPE SHORTER WHEN I GET ALL MY SILICONE COUPLERS.
3" PVC FOR SNORKEL SETUP
FULL INTAKE SETUP TO COME!

 

[CHOPPIN_CHEVYS]

Got the manifolds and turbo back on.
Here are some photos of the intake setup. 3" aluminum pipe
Still waiting on a few couplers, a 45degree pipe, and the air box.

 

[DieselAmateur]

What kind of IP is on the motor? Think I read somewhere that most came with a ve-style electronic one, but there were some mechanical ones too. If you have the electronic one how do you tune & time it?

 

[CHOPPIN_CHEVYS]

What kind of IP is on the motor? Think I read somewhere that most came with a ve-style electronic one, but there were some mechanical ones too. If you have the electronic one how do you tune & time it?

What is the IP?
There is a Bosch CPU or something installed.

 

[DieselAmateur]

IP is short for injection pump

So it sounds like it came with a ecm/ computer to run the injection pump?

 

[CHOPPIN_CHEVYS]

IP is short for injection pump

So it sounds like it came with a ecm/ computer to run the injection pump?

I haven't looked into tuning the injection pumps but I'm pretty sure it will be taken care of through the computer with a tuning program.
If anyone has any recommendations for a tuning program or software for this engine please share.
Engine is a VM Motori 638LIEO

 

[CHOPPIN_CHEVYS]

Hey all, how's it going? I'm fired up!!!
Looks at this intake setup right here I finished up last night!!!!!
I'll be driving her soon!

 

[CHOPPIN_CHEVYS]

Finally uploaded some videos to youtube.

- The engine running when I first got the truck.

- Moving the truck back and forth a bit (video is still processing when I posted so you may get an error)

 

[MrMarty51]

I like that. A couple of bugs to work out but really a nice clean install.

 

[Will L.]

Gotta love when those milestones show up.
enjoy!

 

[blksmith]