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muffinman944's '95 Build (1-ton SAS, 6.7 Fummins, Paint/Interior)

11K views 43 replies 18 participants last post by  hcoll 
#1 ·
I haven't posted on this site for several years. My last project was my '90, which was lots of money, lots of learning, and lots of fun! I knew next to nothing when I started, and with the help the knowledgeable members on here and a ton of reading and hands on trial and error, I eventually ended up with a semi-finished rig.

As the years passed, I planned the "buttoning up" of everything, but the more I planned, the more I realized there were a ton of things I would have loved to do differently or at least better the first time around. So, after a lot of debating, I decided that instead of pouring more money into redoing my mistakes, it would be a better investment to start from scratch and do it right the first time. I have a company vehicle for the daily work commute, and I figured throwing a lot of money into something like this would be far more rewarding than simply buying a new personal truck or sports car. After a ton of time planning everything, I figured its time to start a thread.

The goal for this project is my version of the most epic (85% street / 15% light trail) rig. Ill be tackling the SAS on my own, then prepping the truck for engine/drivetrain work and paint. 6.7 Swap and Paint will be with the aid of the experts at Bean's Diesel Performance and JW Collision in Woodbury, TN (another lesson learned).

This build list includes:
-'94+ body style, frame-off restoration
-1 ton SAS (D60/AAM 11.5", 4.11 gearing, ~8" lift w/Deaver springs/King Shocks, 37x14.5R15 Toyo MTs
-BTS Built E4OD / Atlas II 3.8 Tcase
-Built 6.7 Cummins (R&R Connecting Rods, Girdle, Pushrods, Valve Springs, P&P Head w/Side Draft Intake, 100% Over Injectors, LIft Pump, Stroker CP3, 62/80 ED Compound Turbos, EFI Live tuning (Beans Diesel Performance)


Here's the project truck. '95 XLT, zero rust, minor body work, worn drivetrain (not needed)



Here's my old '90. I'll be using D60 and steering setup for the SAS.



Also grabbed a 6.7 Cummins from a 2011 Ram C&C, as well as an AAM 11.5" rear w/4.11 gearing from a low mileage 2009 Ram 2500





I'm starting this thread mid-build, so progress pics will be coming much faster than it actually took me to build. Wanted to get the thread started to share as the project is wrapping up. Ill be posting updates, pics, and vids as we go. Let the fun begin! :rockon:rockon:rockon
 
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#4 ·
Muffinman, glad to see you back at it again.

Please don't take this the wrong way, looking for understanding here on your 85/15 and what you plan.....will the 15% wheeling be pretty moderate to heavy?

You have a lot of heavy duty stuff going into this. If it's on road 85% of the time and you are in Illinois, wouldn't a nice 44/9 or something be better? Small diesel if you want to play around with that and own it a long time, and call it a day? 4-6" lift and 35's and some lockers, have some fun with OBA, etc. and you'd have a much more streetable vehicle. Just my opinion and looking for where you are coming from, thanks.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Muffinman, glad to see you back at it again.



Please don't take this the wrong way, looking for understanding here on your 85/15 and what you plan.....will the 15% wheeling be pretty moderate to heavy?



You have a lot of heavy duty stuff going into this. If it's on road 85% of the time and you are in Illinois, wouldn't a nice 44/9 or something be better? Small diesel if you want to play around with that and own it a long time, and call it a day? 4-6" lift and 35's and some lockers, have some fun with OBA, etc. and you'd have a much more streetable vehicle. Just my opinion and looking for where you are coming from, thanks.


Hey Shadow, good to see you're still around. :beer



I get where you're coming from. The "wheeling" I'm talking about is just very mild off road stuff, such as taking a dirt path to a camp site or something. Definitely nothing heavy duty. If I was, I wouldn't be going diesel at all I don't think.



As far as the size of the engine, I rode in a few modded, high HP Common Rails a few years ago and was hooked ever since. I wanted a +600 hp common rail, but couldn't find any of the modern trucks I really liked. That led me to deciding to just build a new bronco with one. So this thing is my truck/hotrod in one.



That kinda drives the rest of the build. The axles and the Atlas are really just to hold the power. Trust me, I tried to find a way to avoid the Atlas, but every other method either left me with a super short driveshaft & horrible angles or a weak link prone to breakage. This lift seems high, but with the extra weight of the engine and all, its gonna compress to about 6 or 7" given that I'm sticking with softer springs. For tires, I wanted to stay 35-37, and a little wider than 12.5 (for aesthetics more than anything else), which led to 36 or 37. I heard good things on the Toyos, so figured Id give them a try.

That's the basics of how I came to this build plan. It's definitely not the most practical or budget friendly build, but it's going to be a ton of fun in the end.
 
#6 ·
Looking good, having a cummins powered half ton ram I can tell you it's a blast. I run the dodge 9.25 in the rear. It truly is like a muscle car!!! I can't imagine how it would be in a short wheel base lol. I started my thread here on my 1995 bronco 7.3 idi build.
 
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#7 ·
Sounds like a fun time to me! Can't beat the power of a turbo diesel:popc1::toothless
 
#9 ·
Actually did a lot of research on that early on. There's a thread on here where a guy was comparing frames, and found that the OBS F-350, and other than a few extra crossmembers, there's not a significant difference. Ill be making the crossmember at the Transmission a little more elaborate, as well as adding one at the Transfer case, which should be enough to hold it together.
 
#12 ·
First on the to do list is the 1-ton SAS. I'm using the same D60/Cage Arm setup from my '90 SAS, and a 11.5" AAM pulled from a 2009 Ram 2500. Both with 4.11s. Ill spare the details on this as this is nothing different from your normal RA SAS. I also took this opportunity to rebuild the gear box, upgrade the steering shaft, and convert over to Hydroboost w/ ram assist steering.

Here are the 37x14.5R15s on 15x12 wheels that will be going on the truck:



First step is the rear axle. I cut off the original perches and picked up some weld-ons from ruff stuff to fit the 4" axle tubes, aimed the pinion towards the bottom of the estimated end of the drivetrain and welded them on. Ill need to swap the brakes from a 2nd gen 3/4 ton Ram to fit the 15" wheels, so for now I'm using some 2" wheel adapters I had laying around for mock up.



Next, the front. I swapped the buckets onto the '95, removed the PS cooler and cleaned up the frame. Then, just unbolted the original Solid Axle from the RA frame brackets down (thankfully I didn't weld them on), and wheeled it under the new truck.
.

Then aligned the RA frame brackets and dropped some plumb bobs to make sure everything was centered. Since the RAs were already welded to the axle from the previous build, a weight handing from the side fender was enough to make sure they were centered.



Got it lined up, frame drilled and bolted, steering reconnected, and then mounted the tires. Had to grind the calipers on the D60 a bit to get the 15" wheels to fit. Definitely recommend using the spray paint method to see where you're making contact, because if you do it right, you don't have to grind a whole lot (assuming you have moderate to low backspacing). Here it is as it sits:



Now onto the fun stuff...the engine swap! :rockon
 
#18 ·
6.7 Cummins Tear Down

First thing to do is to tear down the 6.7.

The weight difference is insane. This thing is likely going to be close to 1200 lbs when all dressed up and filled with liquids. Cherry picker maxed out its efforts getting it inside.



Pulled all the accessories, exhaust, etc off







Not going to be using the fan or emissions stuff:



Connecting rods are getting swapped for R&R Billet Rods:



Swapping the Cam for a slightly more aggressively profiled one geared towards quicker bottom end spool up:



Block stiffener is getting swapped for a girdle that will incorporate the main bolts as well.



Emissions gear and stock VGT Turbo/manifold sold:





Upgrading the following parts:
-Injector tips swapping to flux 4s (100% over)
-CP3 going to Motorsport diesel to be honed to 10mm for extra flow
-Pistons going to get thermal coating
-Upgrading head studs and main bolts
-Fire Ringing head
-Head cast intake manifold milled off, mild porting, and machined for side draft intake

More to follow :rockon
 
#21 ·
Whoa... NICE!!! I am def following this thread!
 
#23 · (Edited)
engine mods

The good news is that there is progress, but the bad news is the old phone and apple ID that I used when taking pictures seems to be kaput, so a lot of the detailed pics of the build are missing. Ill do my best to get better pics once we're complete. Now onto the progress. First, here are the detailed build specs....

Engine rebuild:
-head re-surfaced
-Block cleaned and painted (black)
-billet connecting rods
-coated pistons
-upgraded valve springs
-100% over injectors
-Motorsport diesel 10mm CP3
-upgraded head studs
-upgraded main studs
-Engine girdle (note the 6.7 DOES come with a stock "block stiffener" but it does not incorporate main studs)
-side draft intake (cast in manifold milled off and machined to have side intake bolted on)
-Engineered diesel compound turbo setup (63mm over 80mm)

Engine Accessories and other stuff:
-ford cummins alternator and AC compressor relocation brackets (these are a pain, but do ultimately work for the 6.7L)
-Upgraded Alternator
-Aftermarket 7.3 high capacity radiator
-6.0 aftermarket performance intercooler
-4 x e-fan custom bracket/shroud (2 wired to thermostat and 2 wired to switch in cab)
-Catch can (CCV upgrade)
-oil filter relocation (so I can get to it around the compound setup)
-'09 6.7 ECU with engine harness (Destroked spliced ford harness with above engine harness)
-4'' exhaust (space restrictions)
-FASS lift pump
-BDP fuel sump (no need for problematic hose)
-dual Optima yellow tops
-3rd gen manifold

Trans and Transfer Case
-Atlas II
-BTS built 4R100 (converted E4OD)

Electronics
-EFI live V2
-Edge CTS (OBD II interface Gauges)
 
#24 · (Edited)
engine mods

I gutted the old engine/trans/tcase and cleaned up the engine bay.

We trimmed a ton off the firewall, and installed the engine block for mock up. Had to go to Destroked engine mounts, as the Ford-Cummins mounts weren't positioning it right for a compound setup downpipe/valve cover clearance. If you want to know what the major difference between the 5.9 and 6.7, its the valve cover height, which requires a bit deeper cuts into the upper portion of the firewall to make the valve cover accessible/removable



Here's a good shot of how we ended up with the firewall... basically have to cut a small "cave" into the firewall to allow the vale cover to go on and off. The heat shield is an altered OBS 7.3L one.





 
#25 · (Edited)
charger and mockup

Here on the truck is at Bean's Diesel Performance in TN. These guys are awesome to work with and know their stuff.
The compound chargers from ED came in, 63mm over 80mm setup. They make them custom per your request, and as long as you don't need them in a hurry, I highly recommend them.




Got the accessories mounted using the Ford Cummins brackets and started plugging in the engine harness and all. Ford Cummins stuff is good, just no instructions and its not as intuitive as one might think...these kinda things are never plug and play. Think in retrospect I might have been better off making some in house. Still a lot of wiring to complete to get the gauges in the dash to all read right, but so far so good. You can see the Turbo mockup on the second pic...going with the primary (larger charger) out front, and the secondary down low. Using a 3rd gen manifold to make setup a little easier.






Found a good spot for the Power steering reservoir. Hangs nicely off the alternator.




Bracket to put the Wiper/radiator overflow fluid reservoir....I accidentally cut it off like an idiot the first time.



 
#26 ·
Compounds and Turbo Piping

The shop brought in an expert to do the piping for the compound setup. Going with a forward mounted primary concept.

















All welded up and hot pipes wrapped. Downpipe fitting is tight, but fits very nicely. You can see how 4'' is about max, at least until you get out of the engine bay.









Core support is mounted to begin radiator and intercooler mockup. There was some cracking found on this core support, so we'll need to source a new one eventually.

[/IMG]





 
#28 · (Edited)
I had a Sterling 10.25'' in the rear before swapping the AAM, and I had to have 2'' spacers on it to get the mating WMS to match the front D60. When I swapped the AAM, I had to take them off (in the pics you can see the rear tires stick out pretty far, because the spacers were still on), so it seems to be close or a bit more than the width of the D60. Ill have to measure it next time I'm at the shop.
 
#29 ·
The folks at Beans got the front end buttoned up and the drivetrain put in.

Heres the radiator, new core support (old one was cracked) Intercooler, AC, etc




Also added dual Optimas, finished piping for coolant.




And the Air intake side with filter



Atlas II shifter placement came out well




Front end back all together..

 
#30 ·
Startup Video

Heres a video of the startup.





Next is tuning the transmission, installing gauges, and tackling all the little ankle biters.
Definitely looking forward to seeing the power this thing puts to the ground! :rockon
 
#32 ·
I ended up with 24v Destroked mounts. I originally went with ford-cummins mounts, but they placed the block too far back to have any decent exhaust routing options, or fit the valve cover without excessively trimming.
Flip side is, you'll need to run electric fans because there won't be enough clearance for the clutch driven mechanical fan setup.

This is all if you're installing a Common Rail though. 12v will give a little more flexibility due to the lower overall height.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
 
#34 ·
Test Drive and after mods

First test drive results:

Good
- The truck drives straight and rides smooth enough considering the extra weight. SAS came out very well.
- Power is plentiful, even with the stock deleted tuning. Looking forward to dialing it in.

Bad
- Transmission shifts hard, but that is expected. More tuning should dial it in nicely.
- ECU went haywire and killed the motor, then had the Throttle Position Sensor at full throttle regardless of where the pedal was....swapped the ECM and all is good now.
- The added weight in the engine definitely takes a toll on the 1/2 ton softer springs (smooth when riding, but will bottom out when hitting a bump). Will definitely need to put some money into some performance shocks, and going to look into some upgraded springs/maybe going to coil-overs.
- Axle wrap is ridiculous. Even with minimal throttle, the nose of the pinion arcs up a ton. Trac bars or 4-link rear will be needed before any real power can be put down.
 
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