I've had this truck for about a year now. Ups and downs like every 2nd gen but overall I am very happy with this truck. Prepare for picture overload. Quick run down. A buddy posted this truck for sale on fb the day before the transmission decided to die in my grand prix (shocker). I bought this as to be a dd/tow rig when needed. The truck is originally from Texas and moved around a bit. I did find the owner on fb that brought the truck up to Indiana/Michigan and he provided some history on it. The box was trashed from day one. The owner I bought it from did not own up to rolling the truck onto it's side which cause bed damage and some door push in at the bottom. Nothing too crazy on the cab, door or fend. Box took the most of it. The engine, transmission and tcase are of unknown origin as Kurt (guy who brought it up to the north) sold it as a roller. It is a 180hp engine, 47re and DHD tcase. No clue how they found the correct drivetrain to stick back in it but they did. Lucky me. From day one this truck was weak. Even for a stock 12v. Ended up being the injection pump yayyyyyy. I got lucky and found a 180hp pump that had been gone through. Runs pretty well now. I will be going through the transmission to support my needs and have most of the parts already. Replacement/fixed stuff I have gone through; front brakes, ball joints, axle joints, track back, steering linkage, steering box, transfer case, front main seal, gauge wiring, dtt voltage box removal & wiring repair, thermostat, a/c line, water pump, stainless flex lines, led lights through out, projector retrofits, double din stereo, recovered head liner, 5% tint, two sets of wheels & tires and I think that is it. I am getting ready to do an axle swap to get better brakes as the single piston calipers are a JOKE. Now for the pictures and I'll try to get them in order.

I wouldn't be too excited. It is a long arduous process. 

I don't like the word long. I don't see me doing studs either.

29 minutes ago, jlbayes said:

I wouldn't be too excited. It is a long arduous process. 

 

Well I'm gonna have to do it eventually so I might as well learn!

8 minutes ago, dripley said:

I don't like the word long. I don't see me doing studs either.

 

Stock (or small) turbo trucks with injectors & tuning are harder on head gaskets than about anything I have ever seen. Speaking from experice here lol.

 

1 minute ago, notlimah said:

 

Well I'm gonna have to do it eventually so I might as well learn!

 

Yeppppp!

3 minutes ago, jlbayes said:

 

Stock (or small) turbo trucks with injectors & tuning are harder on head gaskets than about anything I have ever seen. Speaking from experice here lol.

 

So I'm about to throw in some 7x.012s with my HX, you think I need studs right meow?!

I would be very careful about timing.

Yes @notlimah.  Take your current settings and subtract at least 1* from each of them.

fml, now I'm worried!

 

Welp the head is back on. Studs are installed. As well as the new injectors.. Got a couple little quirks to fix but I'll get to it. Cleaning out the oil coolant mix SUCKED. Took me about 6 hours to get most of it out. In the end Lysol dish soap worked the best, even better than the purple power I was using initially.

 

The beginning of the head studs. In the picture you can clearly see I painted most of the stud with moly. Why? The moly lube will keep the black oxide coating from corroding. The majority of the studs on a 12v are exposed. The 24v trucks do not have this issue as most of their studs are under the valve cover. Only 6 studs on a 12v are under the valve cover. So all the rest get painted.

38 minutes ago, jlbayes said:

Why? The moly lube will keep the black oxide coating from corroding.

 

Funny how heating and cooling will draw moisture into the weirds little places to do damage. Good Tip!

@jlbayes you still gonna do a full write up for stud install?

33 minutes ago, Mopar1973Man said:

 

Funny how heating and cooling will draw moisture into the weirds little places to do damage. Good Tip!

 

Very.

 

18 minutes ago, notlimah said:

@jlbayes you still gonna do a full write up for stud install?

 

Yes. I'm getting there. I need to do the first retorque still on it. Why I did not go into the full scale version yet.

Do you use the ARP lube for torquing? Is there a substitute for it? 

 

Finally got my head back from the machine shop, (they took their sweet time, and lost some of my parts) and I'm ready to go back together with it this weekend, but I realized I didn't have any ARP lube. Can't find it locally, and I ordered a bottle online, but it's saying it won't be here til next week...

Mine is loctite moly lube. Same stuff. 

Few pics from the last couple of weeks. I'll get to the head stud stuff after this post.

I want some explanations with these pictures 

Ok 1-3 are for retorquing the head. Completely remove the nut and washer. Relube the stud, bottom of the washer and then the nut. Pull torque right to arp spec of 125ft lbs for the 2000 series studs. You do one stud at a time so as to not lose your clamp load on the gasket.

 

4-7 are the axle swap. Front was donated by the green truck and I had bought a disc dana 70 from a buddy. All new 3rd gen brakes front and rear with stainless steel flex lines. Mofo STOPS now.

 

The last two pics are for the 2nd gear servo. The red sonnax is what I removed. The black tcs was installed in place.

Edited May 3, 20186 yr by jlbayes

Questions...

 

1. What’s this stainless steel flex line you speak and where can I purchase?

 

2. Wtf is the ‘do it bayes way or else’ head stud write up?!?!

1) Russel makes a kit for the disc/drum trucks. Crown performance makes a kit for the disc/disc trucks.

 

2) It's there. Just spread out at the moment. Piece all the head studs post together.

 

Follow the arp sequence for the initial torque along with painting the exposed studs. Get the engine to operating temp. Shut it down and let it sit *This next piece is very important.* The engine HAS to be ambient temperature when doing the retorque. Completely remove the nut and washer. Relube the stud, bottom of the washer and then the nut. Pull torque right to arp spec of 125ft lbs for the 2000 series studs. You do one stud at a time so as to not lose your clamp load on the gasket. I generally do this for a total of 3 retorques. The first is usually the next day after it has cooled. The other in a week and the next one in another week.

Any advantage to 14mm studs and do all blocks need machine work to run em?

3 hours ago, jlbayes said:

Crown performance makes a kit for the disc/disc trucks.

I looked at their site and all I saw was for 03 to 11 trucks. Is that what you used?