My First Hook For 09

[durallymax]

Well its official, i just sent the entry fee and paperwork in to whats smokin promotions for the 1st annual Hoosier invitational indoor pull in cloverdale indiana.

Entry fee was a little steep at $150 but payout is good and I want to do an indoor pull. Its also a good excuse to get the truck done and get a hook on it to see what it does with the new setup.

the 150 isnt so bad, this pull is gonna end up costing me over $500 when it is all said and done. I have $300 invested into my special indoor stack which ill have to get pics of when it is done. It has to stand 10' off the ground and end at my hitch. Kinda goofy looking as it bends from the stock single stack location over to the middle of the truck and up 3' and back at the same time and then it bends straight and heads back over the bed. Then there is the big brace 3' from the end.

Im booking a hotel right now.

My hook is on thursday march 12th. If I make it to the finals I have to stay down and hook again on saturday.

The class I am in is a 2.8 turbo Super Street 4x4 8,000lb Diesel class. There is also a 3.0 class.

Now for the fun part. I have thousands of dollars worth of parts in the mail and it all has to go on and work right before this pull. I am waiting for the torque converter to show up for that truck on friday, and after I fix an employees Transfer case on his F150 my truck is going on the lift.

The firs tthing going in is the E- Locker as it will be here on friday as well.

Still left to do is mount up my new BFG pulling only tires

Build New traction bars, blocks, weight bracket, hitch, driveshaft loops, and bump stops.

I have to put on the reese tow beast and remove the Curt Mule

I have to get the roll pan and denali front clip and have my buddy paint them and my mirrors and handles

build the stack

order my firesuit and helmet

Swap fuel rail fittings and plug banjo bolt.

And mount up my new S400 turbo with the PPE install kit and also build the intake with the ED air shutoff and rigging for that


Then I still wanna get some dyno time for tuning and may head down to St Jospeh again for that.

And pray it all works together right

theres still a lot of little things too and probably stuff I forgot.

Its gonna be a lot of late nights.

 

[durallymax]

Took a little while to find one, but was able to get a room at the days in. If I make it to the finals we may be sleeping in the truck.

 

[BoostN]

Good luck Vinny.

Keep us updated on the progress.

 

[durallymax]

so far its going at a steady pace.

obviously the stack is done but needs to be painted

My driveshaft loops are here and material for my traction bars is here, anything else i just have to go up to work and make so not a big deal.

My E-locker got here on friday and we got the front end out last night, took all of 30 minutes.

My turbo, supplies for intake plumbing and PPE GT42 series install kit will be ready at the end of the week.

Air shutoff should be in by the end of the week also.
Jim has a BD manifold and diamond eye front pipe in the mail

tires are still up in the air, i was doing bfgs, but toying with Dueler 695s for sponsorship reasons, i still have a month to decide.

And last night we started removing the turbo. This morning I called the guys at st joseph diesel to ask about dyno fees(which we will be going down if time allows) and after a little bit of chat decided i was going to pull me motor.

the Reason for pulling my motor is to make it easier to work on the upipes and downpipes, they are just a pain when in the truck and mine have been exposed to extreme heating and cooling.

In addition I decided since the motor will be out that I will add a set of ARP head studs. Since i will have a little bit more holding power I am sending my CP3 down to St Joseph to have the regulator modified and the back cover modified. This may help a little bit.

Im also adding the ported fittings and plugging the banjo bolt since it will be out and easy to work on. And also deleting the stock fuel filter

We made a lot of progress tonite with the entire front clip and radiator stack gone as well as the tranny out of the way. Tomorrow night we just have 3 grounds to disconnect, the two fuel lines and the harness connects. A couple other little brackets then 4 bolts to take it out of the truck. These things arent very hard to take out.

If we have a few extra minutes tomorrow night Ill drop my rear axle so I can take it up to work to weld the tubes solid.

Essentially my entire drivetrain will be gone tomorrow night.

 

[durallymax]

Made good progress tonite. Got the heads torqued down which isnt fun. for those who havent done their own ARP head studs, for my truck I have to frist torque them 50lb, 90lb, 125lb. Then wait 15 minutes, loosen them to finger tight, then torque straight to 125lb and repeat this 3 more times for a grand total of 5 times torqued per side. Then you have to install the 4 little 8mm bolts and torque to 25lbs. The worst part was that my torque wrench only had an 18" handle and we have the motor kind of sitting on the ground as we were too lazy to build a cradle for it. My back and shoulders are killing me to say the least. Not too mention all of the coolant on the floor made for some interesting slips and falls that entertained the rest of the people standing around drinking and laughing at me.

In between torqueing of the heads we decided to mount the turbo. The pedestal is not a bolt up deal I learned. I spent a lot of time grinding it down to get it to clear the intake manifold. Then i had to grind another peg to clear the block. I then cleaned out the ports a little bit with the die grinder as they were left a little rough. Once that was done I had to drill the threads out of it in order to attach the 3" riser block as PPE sent me the pedestal for the 40 series instead of the 42 series. Finally that was done and we were able to get the riser bolted up only to find that it too and the gasket hit the manifold, so out came the grinder again.

Finally time to bolt up the turbo, we got it partially bolted up and realized that we forgot to attach to oil return pipe. We attached it only to find out there was no way to get it to attach to the block. we called it a night there, but i decided to finish the torque sequence on the heads. While waiting I decided to try installing the return pipe first before the turbo. Hey that worked. Now it was just a PITA to get the bolts in but I did, only to find out that i had to split the turbine housing from the rest of the turbo to gain acess to one of the nuts which meant removing the return pipe bolts again. After some wiggling I was able to get in there to tighten the turbo down. Now I was able to hook the oil lines up, however the return line gasket was kicking my arse so I gave up. Remind me that I need to install that incase I forget.

I finished the torque sequence of the heads an reinstalled the exhaust manifold as you have to remove it so the pass side head will clear the dipstick tube.

I was on my way to have all of the front brackets back on until I found a gash in a coolant line that gets tucked behind the fan pulley. its the first part that has to go on before anything else up front can go on, so that put a big dent in the progress. Fortuneately I can get a new line tomorrow.

The biggest setback right now is that I found out It is highly suggested to replace the injector return line bolts as they tend to leak if reused. I have to install the return line before I can reinstall the injector harnesses and valvecovers. and of course the valvecovers have to be on before I can stay putting all of the stuff back on top of the motor.

another set back is that I have to wait for my FPR and CP3 rear plate to come back from SJD as they are being modified. This also puts a dent in it as I have to leave the fuel system partially together and cant install the wiring harness and intake bridge. Im expecting these on wednesday or thursday. Once they come in and we get them installed the motor can go back in the truck.

until then we are going to get as much motor work done as possible and get the E Locker installed and the front diff back in the truck.

The only worry I have now is that I dont have a good way to lift the motor. Yes getting it out was easy as the chains on my engine leveler for my cherry picker were just long enough. however the new turbo sits 8" higher than the old one so a longer chain is needed. No big deal but I dont know if my cherry picker lifts high enough to cget my motor set in place.

I also learned that if you let your trans sit, the fluid will settle into the pan and puke out the dipstick tube hole leaving a big puddle on the floor.

Still hoping to fire this thing next weekend. Then all we have to do is build the intake with air shutoff and the truck is road worthy again.

 

[durallymax]

one little mess up we have is that we didnt have the BD mani lined up perfect so one of the bolt holes got a little messed up, ill grab a tap tomorrow to clean that out.

We also mounted my new tires today. Ended up going with Bridgestone Dueler 695s 315/70R17 on my H2s. They look like they should have a decent bite around here.

Ive got plenty of pics and when I get time I get them posted up.

I did run out of money though. Ive actually int he whole quite a bit right now. two of my sponsors are getting me checks early next week but ill still be in the hole. Ive been running around looking for other sponsorships with no luck yet so if anybody wants to sponsor me, hit me up. My buddy thats been helping me might cover the costs once he gets paid for some parts from his pulling tractor.

As of now the exterior goodies, denali clip, roll pan and painted mirrors and handles, but those will hopefully be on before the actual pulling season. For now I will have no rear bumper

I do need another boost gauge for monitoring drive pressure, but as I said Im outta money.


More later

and and did i mention torqueing head studs suck.

 

[durallymax]

I just want to get this thing running, kinda wanna drive it around with the new setup. Really wanna hear how that turbo sounds and responds on the street.

Still planning on heading to St Joseph to tune it on their dyno if its done it time which it looks like we will be able to so far.

 

[durallymax]

Heres some thumbnails just click them to make them bigger.

 

[tracker954x4]

Nice Vinny. Looks and sounds like you've been busy.

 

[mmangels22]

Good luck Vinny! That turbo looks sick!:rockon:

 

[durallymax]

ya its a lil bigger.

Got the entire turbo install done last night. Exhaust manifolds, upipes, heat sheilds, downpipe and oil lines were what was left.

Also got the valves adjusted, Good thing I did this, they were WAY off from the thicker gasket. Also noticed partway through that one of my valve bridges wasnt seated on one of the valves. That couldve been a problem.

Off to the auto parts store now on my way back from school to get some 3/8" hose to fix my little rip so I can get the whole front of the motor back together. Then off to the stealer to get some seals so I can get the rest of the motor back together tonite and just wait for the CP3 parts from SJD.

I also figured out how to neck my turbos 3.5" outlet down the the 2.5" silicon hose. The PPE kit comes with a really nice aluminum reducer that goes from 3.5 to 3". off of that i will put a small 3" silicone boot that connects to a 3" to 2.5" exhaust reducer whcih will slide into the IC tube and connect with yet another clamp. So all in all 4 boost clamps to get it down to the ic tube. plenty of things to go wrong there, but it will have to work for now till we get bigger IC tubes.

I also found out that the PPE downpipe has a 3.5" flange and I believe the front pipe Jim sent me will have a 3" to connect to a factory downpipe. Fortuneately PPE sends an extra 3.5" flange that can be welded on so well have to do some fab work there too.

should have this thing ready to go in by then end of the night.

Tommorrow night we are doing the E Locker and getting the front diff installed since there is a lot more room without the motor in there.

Havent decided but if we have time we may get the motor set in if we think it wont be too hard to put the CP3 parts on once its in. This way we can get the tranny and everything back in and make good progress and maybe even fire it before saturday.

 

[durallymax]

getting ready to drop it in now, just waiting for a buddy to get here.

The day started out with nothing going right for me. first the front diff was confusing me so i gave up and set it to the side, then As I was hooking the motor up to the cherry picker i noticed something. The oil temperature wire is supposed to be routed behind the coolant bridge. So off came the power steering bracket and the alternator bracket and the coolant bridge and everything connected to it all to route one wire.

Ill get the motor bolted up and all of the drivline parts in tonite (tranny, t case, shafts)

and then work on attaching everything to the motor again. I think ill get everything hoolked up except for the front stack and clip. But well see maybe things will go more smooth than I thought.

 

[durallymax]

Well tonite we got the new weight bracket mostly done. It looks 200 times better than the old one.

We still have to weld on the recovery hook so that I can be towed off the track and back to the trailer when i break stuff.

My buddy, whos trailer we are using all year, is going to be getting a really nice top of the line Warn Winch with remote to mount on his trailer so we can pull it up when I break stuff.

We also started the driveshaft loops.

We got the intake planned out and the shutoff is here, gonna be getting the stuff for it tomorrow so we can work on it this weekend.

I got some tracer dye and a blacklight to look for my coolant leak so we will do that tomorrow night.

I also designed my hitch and well be doing that and my traction bars next week.

A couple more sponsor checks just rolled in which helps out. Ill be ordering a Banks Hot side intercooler tube tomorrow to eliminate my cobble job.

As long as that leak isnt the headgasket well be going at a good pace, but if it turns out to be the headgasket we will be pushed for time.

 

[durallymax]

Well were getting there slowly. Not even a week left anymore.

Found out some more info on the pull too. Starts at 6PM on the 12th. Pro street is one of the first classes. They are running two tracks, two sleds. One is the smoker sled the other is non smoking. Both tracks are a full 300' and then some. There is room for over 200 pulling vehicles inside the building. Its a big place, its the Crossroads USA horse arena. just under 200,000 square feet. Total purse is $108,000. Pro Street purse is $2,000(top ten), and $1650 for the finals(top 3 or 5 cant remember). Currently there are 13 trucks in my class, pro street 2.8 turbo. One is a Ford, me and wesley are the Dmaxes and the rest are Cummins.

A breif update of whats left to do.

The Driveshaft loops are done but need to be mounted and painted

Weight bracket needs paint too

I need to build a different set of adjustable suspension stops.

Need to build my new traction bars (olds ones flexed)

Need to build receiver, pulling hitch and bump stops.

The intake is mostly done, it is at the neighbors place now. he runs a small metal fab shop that does a lot of TIG and CNC work. hes making a bung for the MAF and welding it onto the pipe and everything so I dont have to dink with it. Tomorrow when I pick it up I will finish the welds and grind them smooth then paint it. I Still need to run the cable to the E.D. shutoff too. We did have to dent the pipe to clear the coolant pipe which I decided to weld shut as I didnt have a plug easily acessible. The missing piece of the intake is the 4-5" adapter I just ordered today. had issues finding one.

I need to remove my downpipe once again to stick the heat sheild insulation to the firewall, and also need to wrap the A/C line.

The Banks hot side pipe is in the mail. The Place where I bough the turbo from has some nice flanges they have machined for them, it clamps to a 3.5" v band clamp but is set up to weld a 3" pipe to it, so I think this will work out slick.

I guess UPS lost my dipstick tube, so mike sent me another one while UPS is still trying to find the other one. Thanks mike.

A guy up at work is doing the e-locker install for me, however he found more worn out parts than we expected so it kinda turned into a full rebuild and hes waiting on parts.

I still need to install me fuel door

Stack needs paint

And I need to change my oil.

Heres some random pics.

 

[MVAgustaracer]

that is one nice looking truck. good job on all the work make suck you get some good video of your pull so i can see it!!

 

[durallymax]

Its crunch time now. We have a lot of work to do.
UPS guy didnt show up with the parts like I had hoped. Im waiting on my intake adapter, banks pipe, and dipstick tube.

And my front diff wasnt done like I had hoped.

But we stayed busy all afternoon. Got the hitch done and some other little things.

Whats left is finishing my driveshaft loops, finsihing the intake. Installing the Banks tube Installing the front diff, replacing the gasket on the cover on the rear housing. And running the cable for the air shutoff.

were getting there, tomorrow night will be longer and were hoping to get out and drive it around to make sure that it does indeed move. Once we find no more further issues it will be a relief.

Heres some pics.

 

[Max Attitude]

Nice work. Thanks for taking the time to post all of this.

 

[xxRes1cuexx]

Damn you know your shit, i follow your threads pretty close, being a big fan of farming and pulling, but what you going to do for a farm truck.?

 

[durallymax]

We have two other Dmaxes, a suburban, a 98 3500HD stakebed, an S One Oh and some semis.

Dont really need my truck for the farm. Bought it with the intention to use it for the farm but that didnt last long.

Really not much for our pickups to do anymore, haul cattle, sometimes bales and small equipment but thats it everything else has gotten too big and is taken care of by the semis or tractors.

 

[durallymax]

Well Today was steady and at the same time not fun.

After class I ran around with my list getting the things I needed. Coolant, gasket for rear housing plate deal, front diff, flange to weld to banks IC pipe, cable for shutoff and a few more pieces of steel.

Then i decided to get my EFI Live working and for once had success, it seemed as though the day was going to go well.

But then I decided to call about my parts that were supposed to be in the mail.

First I called SFX performance to ask about my 4-5" adapter for my intake. I guess it was on backorder and they neglected to inform me of this. They said they could have me one by friday. I stated i needed it tomorrow. He was going to try and overnight one but didnt sound too ambitous.

Then i got a call from Jim@UDP about my banks IC tube. Turns out Banks never processed the order. Good thing I called Jim yesterday and told him to check up on it. They are overnighting it to me.

Then I called Mike, and bugged him about my trans dipstick tube again. I guess it will be here tomorrow or thursday. Im gonna work on other parts of the truck tomorrow as much as possible but If I dont see it by the time Im done with those things, I will be bending up my old one to get by.

What was accomplished tonite:

The hitch is 99% done. I built the bump stops and got them attached, and finished up the loop, however I left the loop tacked as we have some trimming to do yet to get it to line up in all of the positions.

The Front end is finally back together. I just need to do the wiring tomorrow. Ill do a nice finished job in the engine bay, but in the cab the switch and extra wires are going to be thrown in the cupholder.

I replaced the gasket on the little cover on the rear housing. I decided to not drain the block to do this and thought maybe I would be fast enough and wouldnt loose much coolant. 4 or 5 gallons later I was finally tightening it down. hopefully this fixes the coolant leak, but with my luck I have my doubts.

Driveshaft loops are done but still need to be mounted.

And some other little things.

What we have left?

Still need to attach the driveshaft loops. This is the first thing I will be doing tomorrow.

Need to hook up the shutoff cable, also one of the first things I will be doing.

Need to refill with coolant.

Need to attach the entire exhaust and cut stack to the right length, possibly modify the A-frame to get it the right height.

A few tweaks need to be done on the hitch.

Bars and blocks need to be installed.

Banks IC pipe needs to go down to the neighbors to have him TIG the flange on.

Intake has a few things left to be done If I do get an adapter. otherwise I will finish it anyways, and see If I can get one overnighted to the pull site and pick it up when i get there.

Trans needs to be filled up.

Bars and blocks have to be installed.

Tires need to go on

And then I have to go try out the tune to see if It will hold desired rail pressure.

Then its time to load it up, strap it down, take a power nap and hit the road.

Here are a couple pics from tonite.