SFBD square with a Cummins and custom chassis

holy crap man.... i thought my truck was a pain in the ass.... yours takes the cake .. im not sure i f i ever want to do a cummins swap. i may just deal with my 6.5 diesel i have already... at least mine will bolt right up....lol

be carefull mang......im glad you all didnt get hurt moving everthing around...

keep up the good work...everything looks good so far... i bet you cant wait to hear that beast fire up for the first time in the dually.....lol

Thanks a lot man. This thing has fought me kicking and screaming not wanting to go into the dually but it's finally there now. I think it'll all be worth it in the end. Having a body dropped dually with plenty of power on tap and still getting 20 mpg. I've loved doing most of the swap so far though even with the problems. The only part I didn't like was trying to get the huge thing out of the dodge and into the Chevy. It got a little sketchy a few times.

Hey man! Im diggin the engine mounts! i hadn't thought of that at all lol. ive been tossing around how to do mounts. i wont go copying ya but ill definately take the idea into consideration lol.


i finally got some pics uploaded on here at work today, (working real hard) lol.

Lovin the progress though homie! doing great! keep it up!

Feel free to use anything I come up with. I don't care if you want to use the exact same thing. Hell that's the entire point of putting it on here is so other people can enjoy it and get some ideas.
I'm gunna have to go check out your new pix. Did you get the big rigs put on yet?? If not feel free to just give them to me LOL

Theyre not on yet! lol. Heck i dont wana get em dirty, i just get a piece of glass and lay them down in my living room as a coffee table LOL.

alright on the mounts i may try my hand at that.

I had a bit of time today between work shifts and I got the upper part of the frame rail cut out so the ac compressor will fit with the cummins. I had to cut away about an inch and a half. Hopefully I'll actually get the compressor mounted up tomorrow.
I also cut a lot of the cowl bracing out and got a big notch cut out for the back valve cover. That way when I lower the cab back down I'll still have room to take the valve cover off for maintenance. I tacked in some sheet metal and than welded the bracing back in behind it. I could have made the sheet metal kind of follow the contours of the firewall but I wanted to leave it wide open about the valve cover like that. Much easier to work on it later on.

This is when I first cut the center braces out of the cowl area and got the desired area chopped.

This one is with the sheet metal and bracing tacked back in. I'll finish it all up when I get the cab back off and paint everything. You get the idea of what I'm going for on this area.

Another angle of it tacked up. Still have a lot of work to go on it.

This is the frame rail where the AC compressor goes. When you put a dodge version of the cummins in these Chevy trucks you have to make this notch for it to fit in. Either this or buy a new mounting setup for your ac and alternator. I took about 1.5" out of just the top rail.

i think it might be wize to weld a metal strip at an 45 degree angle on the bit you cut out of the frame to keep it from flexing there
a lot of importand bits in front of the cut that would make the truck do weird thing should they shear off or if the frame breaks at that point under power

I thought bracing that some how was a good idea also. I'm just not sure the best way to go about it and it still look good in that area without a bunch of bracing welded to it. I'm thinking about just welding a plate inside the frame rail in that area and making it run a few inches beyond the notch on both sides. I am also considering just boxing that area from the notched part. We'll see what I can come up with.

i was thinking making an edge along the cut myself as that might stop cracks as whell but putting a plate inside from the middle of the chassisbeam to the edge should work as whell might even be stronger as you triangulate that piece

Well guys I have encountered my next unknown area that I need to get figured out and I'm hoping you guys can once again save my ass. My Driveline. I've got the slip yoke for the 47RH still attached to the dodge drive shaft. Hopefully I can get it taken apart tomorrow. Will the dodge yoke fit on the Chevy drive shaft?? It looks like the dodge uses a bigger U joint. I figure I'll probably have to shorten my drive shaft which is fine. My plan is to take what I need out of it, butt weld it back together with a good TIG bead, and let the drive line balance it.

Also I need to get my hydro boost buttoned up. I have the high pressure line all connected to the correct place...I think. I have an extra low pressure line though. My hydro boost unit has 2 high pressure lines,the gear box has 1 high and 1 low pressure and the pump has 1 high and 1 low also. So I have a total of 7 connections to make. Not sure how to do this with an odd number of lines lol. The dodge was a vaccuum boost setup off of the vaccuum pump. The Chevy already has hydro boost though and I'd like to keep it that way.

Any help on this stuff would be great. If pix are needed of any of this stuff just let me know. Thanks guy.