Blaze
The Jeeper Reaper
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2005
- Location
- Wake Forest, NC
This is one of those slowly but surely things. I've already done a bunch to it, but will be doing more this year and I start using it more for the business.
I got this about 8 months ago as my tow rig. Traded a Grand Cherokee for it. It is an ex PennDOT truck that I got off a guy who is in the National Guard and got some surplus Apache helicopter paint.
Truck is a 1998 Chevy 2500 Cheyenne, with the F-vin 6.5L turbo diesel. It is the heavy 3/4 ton with the 14bFF and all.
When I got it he had already relocated the PMD, new fuel solenoid, new cylinder head, new fuel injectors, new water pump, new front suspension, and wheels and tires. Tires are 33x10.5x15s.
I drove it for about 3 weeks and the PMD went bad. It was the original so I went ahead and replaced it with the upgraded one, and it works great now. A few more months went by and I noticed when I was towing, the temps would get up close to 230, which made me uncomfortable on this diesel. Then a week or so later my fan clutch locked up and created a massive roar that scared women and children. Seriously, I was picking my son up from school. They were scared. I went ahead and replaced the setup with an HD fan clutch and a Duramax fan. Had to trim out the fan shroud to fit the bigger diameter fan, but got that taken care of and the truck runs right at normal operating temperature no matter what now.
While I was in there doing the fan clutch I figured it was time to put an exhaust on it. So as to not deafen my children I went with the Diamond Eye 4" exhaust with muffler. Got that installed and it sounds really awesome and woke the truck up. While I was doing that, I went ahead and installed a Heath Turbomaster manual wastegate controller on it. The truck was working great. Pipes were a ton bigger than the old ones.
The I was helping a friend extricate his Ford truck from his ex-wife's yard before she sold it for scrap. It was late and we were up in the sticks hauling it to another friend's house. I realized then I couldn't see crap with those headlights. I ordered some new replacements off of Amazon. They have the plastic housings with the replaceable bulbs. Easy install and they throw out 10x as much light as the old ones.
Truck was good until a couple of weeks ago. I was coming back from the scrap yard after hauling a Jeep body when I noticed the truck was down on power. The SES light came on and I knew I wasn't making any boost. I got it back to the shop and ran the codes. Yep, low boost pressure. The turbo had started rattling a bit a couple of days earlier so I figured it was on its way out. So, of course, I upgraded. I bought an HX40WII turbo and install kit and set my way to installing. Had to do a lot of cutting, filing, measuring, and praying along with replacing a few broken parts that were worn out along the way. While I was in there I went ahead and deleted the vacuum pump and installed a boost gauge. Tonight I got it fired up and it runs awesome. I'm making a little more boost than I feel comfortable with, so need to tune it a little bit, but overall I am extremely happy with it.
This weekend I am going to install new door pins and bushings along with the spring and roller, then I am installing two LED light bars under the rear so I can see when I am backing the trailer up. I'll post pics as I go!
And I'll leave you with my favorite pic of Big Ugly.
I got this about 8 months ago as my tow rig. Traded a Grand Cherokee for it. It is an ex PennDOT truck that I got off a guy who is in the National Guard and got some surplus Apache helicopter paint.
Truck is a 1998 Chevy 2500 Cheyenne, with the F-vin 6.5L turbo diesel. It is the heavy 3/4 ton with the 14bFF and all.
When I got it he had already relocated the PMD, new fuel solenoid, new cylinder head, new fuel injectors, new water pump, new front suspension, and wheels and tires. Tires are 33x10.5x15s.
I drove it for about 3 weeks and the PMD went bad. It was the original so I went ahead and replaced it with the upgraded one, and it works great now. A few more months went by and I noticed when I was towing, the temps would get up close to 230, which made me uncomfortable on this diesel. Then a week or so later my fan clutch locked up and created a massive roar that scared women and children. Seriously, I was picking my son up from school. They were scared. I went ahead and replaced the setup with an HD fan clutch and a Duramax fan. Had to trim out the fan shroud to fit the bigger diameter fan, but got that taken care of and the truck runs right at normal operating temperature no matter what now.
While I was in there doing the fan clutch I figured it was time to put an exhaust on it. So as to not deafen my children I went with the Diamond Eye 4" exhaust with muffler. Got that installed and it sounds really awesome and woke the truck up. While I was doing that, I went ahead and installed a Heath Turbomaster manual wastegate controller on it. The truck was working great. Pipes were a ton bigger than the old ones.
The I was helping a friend extricate his Ford truck from his ex-wife's yard before she sold it for scrap. It was late and we were up in the sticks hauling it to another friend's house. I realized then I couldn't see crap with those headlights. I ordered some new replacements off of Amazon. They have the plastic housings with the replaceable bulbs. Easy install and they throw out 10x as much light as the old ones.
Truck was good until a couple of weeks ago. I was coming back from the scrap yard after hauling a Jeep body when I noticed the truck was down on power. The SES light came on and I knew I wasn't making any boost. I got it back to the shop and ran the codes. Yep, low boost pressure. The turbo had started rattling a bit a couple of days earlier so I figured it was on its way out. So, of course, I upgraded. I bought an HX40WII turbo and install kit and set my way to installing. Had to do a lot of cutting, filing, measuring, and praying along with replacing a few broken parts that were worn out along the way. While I was in there I went ahead and deleted the vacuum pump and installed a boost gauge. Tonight I got it fired up and it runs awesome. I'm making a little more boost than I feel comfortable with, so need to tune it a little bit, but overall I am extremely happy with it.
This weekend I am going to install new door pins and bushings along with the spring and roller, then I am installing two LED light bars under the rear so I can see when I am backing the trailer up. I'll post pics as I go!
And I'll leave you with my favorite pic of Big Ugly.
