Helping JimT out with an inframe ...

[74bassman]

Looking good

[Mattman]

How about got it back on the road yet?

[Rawze]

(09-16-2020 )Mattman Wrote:  How about got it back on the road yet?

I think he put the front structure back on it earlier today. Thing looks pretty good with all the fresh paint. Of course, there is the edges of a hurricane bearing down on us and it started raining today. Not sure how much that will slow him down.

[Mattman]

They say it has done some raining over Alabama's way.

[JimT]

Finished up all the odds and ends and left Rawze's place yesterday. Currently half way back home to pickup my trailer and get back to making money. Not too much noteworthy about the reassembly process. Spent a lot of time cleaning, prepping and painting parts, looking up torque specs and applying a lot of anti-seize to everything. I'll write up a larger update once I have some free time.

----------

Rawze: A few odd things I've noticed, compared to operation before the rebuild:

* The Oil pressure with the new pump now sits at about 24 psi at idle (720rpm) and about 38-40 psi at 1600-1800 rpm. Also the pump has that annoying low pitch whine to it.

* Coolant temps have been rock solid at 180F. Prior to rebuild they were rock solid at 190F. Not sure if this is due to the new thermostat or just a result of the rebuilt engine or what. My money is on the thermostat due to the steady nature of the temperature.

* So far (bobtail) I haven't been able to get the boost gauge to read above about 25psi. Turbo sounded a little off (probably just in my head), but doesn't seem to be working any harder than the resulting boost readings. I did find one loose band clamp and leak yesterday before I left, so I'll look things over again. Might need to pressure test the system.

* Had to add another 1/2 gal of coolant today. Didn't see any leaks, but I noticed the underside of the radiator was damp around the outlet. Could also have been some air in the cab/sleeper heating systems that worked it's way out. Will keep an eye on it.

* A little rough on startup again, but smoother then before. Also, like before, it smooths out as it warms up. Running down the road it's much smoother then before the rebuild.

Been keeping it up between 1700-1800 rpm most of the time with some variation as low as 1600, no cruise control. Did run out of gear a little starting in SC, but not a lot of momentum to work with when bobtail.

[marek4792]

If you had your turbo rebuilt make sure the turbine housing clamp is tight (about 13ft lbs) might be slightly loose so you can have the center housing clocked properly when reinstalling it.

[Waterloo]

(09-21-2020 )marek4792 Wrote:  If you had your turbo rebuilt make sure the turbine housing clamp is tight (about 13ft lbs) might be slightly loose so you can have the center housing clocked properly when reinstalling it.

Yes on that clamp on the turbo, mine was lose and discovered on the way home from Rawze's. Good call, I forgot all about that.

[JimT]

We didn't take the turbo apart, just removed it from the truck.

Bobtailing home all I could get it up to was between 20-25 psi, but I was also running it up around 1600-1800 rpm the whole way back. Going out tomorrow to pick up a load of ISO so I should be able to get a better idea what it looks like under a normal load. I know the CAC had a leak on the passenger side at on of the top mounting bolts. Maybe the removal/reinstall resulted in the leak getting worse. I'll look into it more over the weekend. I typically keep the boost down around 5-10psi, maybe 15 up a hill, so it should be ok for the moment.

Oil pressures continued steady, 25psi idle, ~38psi in the 1600-1800 range. That's the new pump which doesn't use shims. The noise seems to have subsided slightly too.

Coolant temps inched up to steady 181F on day 2. Maybe the new thermostat needs to break itself in? Still seems a little low to me, but maybe that's normal?

After the half gallon of top off coolant I added yesterday it didn't really go down anymore. No measurable drop in engine oil level. Still no visible leaks. Even along the oil pan where I used the plumbers putty or whatever it is that Rawze suggested. Looking all good.

Finally replaced my Davco unit. Forgot to bring it with me down to Rawze's so I changed it out today. It was getting to the point where the fuel level wouldn't stay above the bottom of the clear housing. No matter how much I filled it up, after a day of driving it would end up down just below the clear plastic. Installed the new one, bled the air out and we'll see how it does tomorrow.

Picture:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/KXLiA5CJT6kPhEzp6

Finally, on the way home something in the fan belt area started making some noise. Kind of a ticking/tapping/clicking sound. Not quite a chirp or squeak. So I pulled the belts off today and it seems both the AC compressor and the Alternator are making noise :/ Mostly the Alt. Battery voltage/system is charging just fine so I'll just keep an eye on it. I can disconnect the AC if needed. I think it's a 170amp alt and I was considering something a bit bigger anyway.

Made a video (with sound) of them spinning here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/eqhj4RL3W8DBQ9Dw9

Hopefully they can hold out a few weeks cus I'm fresh out of money right now!

--------

For those who missed it, here's the link to my full rebuilt photo album:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Nmzav1DWydFRFUMq8

--------

Not too much to say about reassembly other than it would help speed things up a lot if you go through and clean the parts up ahead of time. Even if you're not painting anything you still want to get the grease/oil/dirt and especially the rust off of the surfaces. Scrape off old gaskets, flat file and scotchbrite mating surfaces, clean up the injectors/injector tubes. Stuff like that. Just a real time loss when you have to halt assembly to spend time scraping or sanding something that could have been done while waiting for parts to arrive.

The other thing, other than painting, that took a lot of time was applying anti-seize to nearly everything. Bought a new bottle for the assembly and I used about half of it by the time I was done. Bolts, o-rings, gaskets, mounting surfaces. Basically everything except the injectors (vasoline), the intake manifold (used marine spray on that instead) and the oil pan gasket got a thin coating. Even the inside surface of the v-clamps got a nice coating.

Took my time and made sure I torqued everything down properly.

Overall I spent about a week doing basically nothing but prepping and painting parts. Yeah, it wasn't strictly needed, but I wanted the outside to reflect the time and effort spent rebuilding the inside. Yup, spent a whole $60ish on about 10 cans of spray paint (IH Red) from tractor supply. 1 coat, some paint runs, a few touch-ups after install. Dries (need AT LEAST 24 hours!) slightly brighter then the Cummuns Red with a slight semi-gloss shine. Even after a week or two there's still some spots of paint right now that will rub off on my hands when I touch it. The Cummins Red dries pretty fast and goes on much thinner with more of a flat/eggshell appearance. It's also like 3 times the cost of the tractor supply paint!

Oh, one last thing. As a test I used corroseal on the exhaust manifold. It sealed up that rusty thing beautifully. So far it doesn't appear that any of it has burned off. It bonded and dried FAST. Even after 4-5 coats with a sponge brush it dried into a nice hard, black surface. I was gonna repaint it in a few months with some high temp ceramic paint (VHT) that I have lying around, but if this finish holds up I might not bother.

[Waterloo]

I lost my alrternaotr and AC compressor soon after returning from Rawze's, within a week or two. Probably from sitting outside. And purchase the largest alternator you can afford Jim, I went with a 300 amp Delco, am not going back to anything smaller.