Project FRANKENTRUCK 2nd Gen Ram / Cummins

[dbrannon79]

Welcome to the forum @Frankentruck That's a really nice build there. from how it came to you to what you turned it into, lots of blood sweat and tears, nice work!

 

[dbrannon79]

I like the design of your steering with the solid bar across from spindle to spindle and then back to the gear box. I wish this type of system would fit on our 88-98 2x4 GMT400 trucks. it would do wonders eliminating the dreaded idler arm on the drinkers side. I do know both this model Dodge and our Chevy's share the same gear box. makes me curious and a little adventurous to venture out to the pick a part yard for some measurements just to see if it would work.

 

[J_dude]

VERY nice, man! That’s a super stubby truck! Lol
How many degrees timing are you running?
Edit: Also, which P pump?

 

[J_dude]

Ok wait, I just saw your other post. HOW (and why) are you running THREE HE351’s?! I need moar pics!

 

[Will L.]

Ok wait, I just saw your other post. HOW (and why) are you running THREE HE351’s?! I need moar pics!

First thing I noticed! I been waiting for those pics.

 

[J_dude]

First thing I noticed! I been waiting for those pics.

I saw this thread before I saw his post in the frankensquare thread, so I was a bit late on that. In fact was going to suggest an HE351 in place of the HX35 he mentioned dynoing it with

 

[Frankentruck]

VERY nice, man! That’s a super stubby truck! Lol
How many degrees timing are you running?
Edit: Also, which P pump?

The current timing was set for the 5x.013 injectors at 17.5 degrees due to the 155* spray angle. I just installed a set of DDP stage 4's with 145*. They fuel equivalent to 5x.018's. It needs more timing but I'm waiting to make adjustments until i get time to install the Maxed 180 Pump built by Seth Farrell. The current pump is the factory 160.

 

[Frankentruck]

The next project was to build and install a set of compound turbos to learn from. They consisted of the stock HX35w with a modified wastegate, under a Borg Warner S369sxe (because I found a reasonable deal on it). While this was going on I had bought a neighbors Jeep. fixed it up, Traded it for a 1995 Corvette, and Traded that for a 1998 Ram 2500 that would run and move but had driveability issues..... "Parts/ mockup Truck". It comes in real handy when building Turbo setups making sure they fit and not having to have my truck off of the road more than a couple days when upgrading.

 

[Frankentruck]

There are things I would do differently now when building a Compound Twin Turbo Piping setup, but this is what I did...
The FRANKENTRUCK name came about when a good friend saw the evolution named it that. He passed away from Covid. I kept the moniker and formed an llc by the same name. I also sketched around for several years to come up with my Frankentruck logo ..

 

[Frankentruck]

Had a friend laser my logo on some of the piping.

 

[Frankentruck]

Not wanting the hot side to look all rusty after a few weeks I became an applicator for, and modified a self cleaning oven to cure, Hi Temp Ceramic thermal barriers and other spray on thin film coatings. The Ceramic is good to 2000*f.

 

[Frankentruck]

Welded a separate turbo drain fitting into the pan and installed a coolant bypass while the exhaust was out.

 

[Frankentruck]

Made and installed billet freeze plugs.

 

[Frankentruck]

After driving it a couple months, the low end spool was great, it came on strong, but as soon as boost started over 55psi the boost to drive pressure ratio went really bad. Drive pressure ratio would be in the 1.2:1 range until boost hit 60psi. Then boost almost stalled and drive pressure shot to the moon. It would bury a 100psi gauge hard so i'm guessing the DP ratio was over 2:1.
I ordered a 67/76 10 blade turbine wheel, built a fixture and bored the HX housing to fit the bigger turbine. It lost some of the quick spool but drive pressure was now 80-85 at 65psi of boost.

 

[Frankentruck]

The inside got attention as well. Stereo, custom console (that was ok but a pain to work around) gauge console etc.

 

[jrsavoie]

Great workmanship

 

[Frankentruck]

Lift pump and Fuel tank sump.
Made an Injector fuel return T block to combine the returns from the P Pump and Injectors going back to the tank.
Also made a Fuel pressure gauge fitting to splice into the Pump feed line.

 

[Frankentruck]

Started building the Triples which evolved over the better part of a year. During that time I picked up powder coating. There are so many color options, and it's durable. Originally started to use a HE351ve for the manifold charger, but switched gears after having drive pressure issues with the first setup. The same 67/76 turbine is in the manifold charger of the triples as is in the HX.
There were several iterations and changes in order to make everything fit with enough clearance for exhaust and hood clearance.

 

[Frankentruck]

Powder coating & ceramic coating

 

[Frankentruck]

Semi Final assembly of the Triples.