Chev. truck diesel conversion

[asavage]

As if I don't have enough projects on the table already (Dad's gen, my Onan BFA 4.0 gen, a Case/Winco diesel gen in the attic, tach for Maxima, turbo for Maxima, re-brg trans for "Arlington Truck" then convert it to diesel, etc etc), I have a hankering for a fullsize Chev diesel truck.

I owned a 1969 Chev C10 CST (Custom Sport Truck, two-tone gold with white roof and gold interiour) from 1981 to 1987, one of my longer held vehicles. It was stolen fron Tennessee and when recovered in Tacoma, the owner called my neighbor and told him if he went and picked it up, it was his. I ended up working on it for the neighbor, and later bought it from him for $500 IIRC.

It had a '73 350ci and T400. Smog motor. Cyl No. 7 would foul its plug long before the rest so I just changed it out every six months. When I pulled the valve covers to replace the valve stem seals, the engine was extremely crudded up. I cleaned as much of it off the springs as I could, and put the covers back on. Over the years it lost a fuel pump, jumped the timing chain (in my driveway) and shorted the starter's armature (in my driveway). When my neighbor got it, it had no PS pump, though it was a PS truck: very hard to wrestle the wheel. After about a year of that, I finally found a compatible PS pump and brackets and got it all plumbed up: what a relief!

I hauled dozens of cars with it, hand-shoveled twenty-one heaping loads of dirt out of Mom's driveway and hauled them away, fixed the T400 with a B&M shift kit and could then chirp the tires on a manual upshift at 45, and just generally beat the heck out of it. I remember jumping it in Edmonds once and having the Interstate battery come loose and get fed into the fan. But I caught a lot of air, so it was OK I guess It ran very well, had a perfect idle and no hesitation when you hit the back barrels. It got 9-12 MPG, mostly in the 10.5 MPG range.

Though nominally a half-ton, it hauled lots of cut-up cars (including a '62 Corvair and two '65 MB 190s) and did not break an axle.

After six years of this, the front end was shot and was going to be very expensive to fix everything. I just kept hanging used tires on it.

1987 was a "bad year" for me, when I had moved to Salem and then sold my '71 Triumph Tiger 650, and then the '69 C10. I think I got $600 for it.

I've been hankering for a replacement like it. Every once in a while I see one I like, but mostly they're getting a bit long in the tooth, and Chevy trucks always did like to rust. Recently, a couple have come my way in the required green color, and it seems likely that one may stick to me soon.

Of course, nowadays I want diesel power (if I can't have electric).

Today, I drove to Aberdeen (~100 miles) in beautiful fall weather, in the '82 Maxima and the same old Apache utility trailer, and bought a 1983 6.2l diesel engine. The fellow had owned it a couple of years but isn't a "diesel guy" and pulled it two weeks ago and installed a SB Chev instead -- I saw it. Rig is an '83 GMC version of the Blazer, ex-state owned (Oregon Dunes area) so presumably it got maintained, if driven hard. Intake looks good (that's where you'll find the real story on these, how much crap -- blowby -- is in the intake manifold). Comes "complete": engine oil cooler lines, firewall fuel filter, on-engine fuel filter, all injectors/GPs, GPC still intact (though he thinks it's bad, because it had a manual GP button installed when he got it)., alternator, CDR, EGR, rebuilt IP by Oregon Fuel Injection. No PS pump. Does have A/C compressor. Intake muffler missing but bracket intact. CC servo. Air filter housing.

Now for a 700R4 for 2WD diesel duty, and a diesel radiator (to accomodate the engine oil cooler setup). Other than that, it's all plumbing: coolant hoses, GP wiring, dual exhaust, throttle cable, shorten front driveshaft for the 700R4. His SBC bolted in, so I expect that the 6.2l will drop in place in the '67-72 series Chev PU just fine. The 6.2l has the corporate Chev bolt pattern, so I could bolt it up to most any Chev pattern trans, but the old cable-operated throttle valve version of the 700R4 is my first choice. It has OD and lockup, and other than being unable to obtain both full-pedal and OD, it worked very well in my '83 G30 for 180k miles (with one rebuild in there). The T400 is another possibility, it's tougher than the 700R4 but lacks both OD and lockup, though I wouldn't have to shorted the driveshaft to accomodate it, I could use a stock part.

Pics of this heavy beast later.

Here is the CL ad for the engine:
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Complete 6.2 LTR Diesel Engine - $100
Reply to: sale-429457433@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-09-22, 4:31PM PDT


Complete 6.2 LTR Diesel Engine from a 1983 GMC Jimmy. Runs good. 129K. (360)-261-5241




* Location: Aberdeen
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[asavage]

Bugger. I can be so stoopid sometimes.

Why would a torque converter still be attached to the flex plate? Because the crank won't turn.

Sump oil = grey. It had to have been run with water in the oil to get that way.

Pulled all GPs: water poured out of No. 1. May have been left out in the rain without cover, or may have cracked head or blown gasket or worse.

I like to trust people. Sometimes I get burned. I've been had on this one.

[philip]

Bugger. -snip-

I like to trust people. Sometimes I get burned. I've been had on this one.

Let me try to send you a "donation".

[asavage]

Pulled the right head off last night . . .





And the culprit: blown head gasket.




Somebody "repaired" the outboard starter mount by welding in a stud of some unsuitable material:




This engine stand has a label that states "HEAVY DUTY 1000CAPACITY ENGINE STAND" (just like that). Evidently, they don't mean 1000 lbs! I don't know what the 6.2l fully-dressed weighs, but it's certainly under a half-ton. I kept the overhead chain on and bearing weight until I could pull off the front and manifolds.

[Carimbo]

That does not look good. Who were these people? I can go down there with you as backup when you go talk to them.

[asavage]

Both David & Patrick seemed very personable and I really had no reason to suspect anything. But this engine has not been run in a long time, and with the blown head gasket, it was just full of water. It took more than two hours for most of the "oil" to drain from the sump. The heads are shot, the rockers are shot.

[kassim503]

ouch, at best, that just sucks.

That motor has spent at least a few years outdoors with water getting inside it. It had so much water inside of it I wouldnt even bother to salvage the block, because of the corrosion from the head gasket, and the cooling passages seem to be completely filled with gunk. The torque converter definitely was a clue, but if that was me I would thinking nothing of it so dont feel bad, personally, I wouldnt even bother to unbolt the converter if I pulled the motor (condensing the eyesore). At least you have a spare imanifolds, covers and a/c compressor.

Guess every deal cant go good, every once in a while you get "that deal" that just ruins the winning streak.

And dont trust the engine stand, mine broke after I put a chrysler slant six on there. It snapped the back plate off the tube that goes thru the hole. Resulting in a crushed 5 gallon bucket, bent crank pulley and damged pan. Also there was a gouge in the floor of my garage. the 6.2 should be pretty darned heavy, its really is a big block, with alot of extra iron for to make it a good diesel motor. If i had to run a v8 diesel id go with a 6.2, they are time tested, and the military uses them.

[asavage]

I think it sat for a long time in the truck it was run in, with water in it. It may have run reasonably well before it was parked, but with the oil the grey it was, and all the rust on the valvetrain, it was run with the leak before it was shut down.

[TooManyIdeas]

As ugly as the engine seems it may be rebuildable. The block I used for my 383 was a shortblock that was outside my uncle's garage in PA for over 5 years. Don't consider an engine dead until its been fluxed. You may just have to spend alittle more in replacement parts. The only hard part is being patient enough and careful enough to disassemble everything down for vatting/fluxing and measuring. The only really bad item I see is the redneck repair to the starter mount. Even then, that may still be salvagable if you find a competent machinist.

I don't think that is the best core but I believe it may still be usable

As far as your engine stand I feel for you I have the HF equivalent. I once mounted a Caddilac 425 fully dressed on it and was more than scared

[kassim503]

I think they are way too flimsy to be a engine stand, especially when your working on the motor and you see the engine sway up and down a little, and you think.. either im going crazy or ill keep my feet away from the motor

[asavage]

That engine stand held up a spare Ford 3.0l Vulcan engine for the last three years.



I finally sold that good long block a couple of weeks ago.

For that little thing, it worked fine. But I think a reasonable upper limit would be closer to 500 lbs than a half-ton.

Yes, that diesel block and heads could be rebuilt, but 6.2l long blocks are not scarce, and the add'l work cleaning up the castings of rust alone would make seeking a different core more cost-effective. However the valvetrain is scrap metal, I would only consider rebuilding the rockers and shafts if it was pre-WWII or something. Ditto the pushrods.

But this is all beside the point: I am not looking to rebuild a 6.2l, I'm done with that kind of work. I want a good, running engine requiring no more than possibly head gaskets, crank seals, IP and injectors to make a good runner. If it needs brgs, valves, or rings I'm not interested. BTDT, got the sweatshirt.

[asavage]

I've posted the IP and the injectors on CL, along with an explanation of why I'm selling them, including the person I bought it from's phone number & address. He has other items for sale on CL, maybe I can help save someone else from being ripped as I was.

[asavage]

Pulled the pan and the crank today, the last bits that could be salvaged. The crank will have to be reground, there's rust pitting and some light scoring that could be polished out, but I don't know as I'd do that: regrinding is safer, if more expensive. Some obvious heavier rust on the counterweights that sat in the oil/water bath, but no serious rust where it counts. It could be re-used.

[dieseldorf]

Al, I like your shop.
btw, I own the same engine stand, only red. I used it recently for a 3.9L Dakota engine tear-down and the LD28. No problems.

[asavage]

The shop is my employers, steel bldg in an industrial park. We're locksmiths with a lot of hobbies Boss has the same disease as I. Rent on 2900 sq/ft is ridiculously low, so stuff accumulates.

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During a period where we lost an outside camera on our security system, someone came by and stole all the non-ferrous scrap metal out of our junk pile. No big deal, it was scrap. Unfortunately, they took my two 240SX wheels and four Maxima alloys. Still not a big deal, I'd sold the Maxi factory alloys so they weren't mine anymore. I called the police, filed a report, never expect to see them again. Tweekers are endemic around here, stealing stuff like that.

Then Friday I went to send the spare LD intake off to have it cleaned as a rotating exchange spare for the board, and found it was stolen too! Now I'm pissed. All that driving to Tacoma and back, for nothing.