Kinda got carried away..... M1028 rebuild

[Sharecropper]

After completing the installation of the Vintage Air system, I cleaned & undercoated the underneath of the cab. It didn't take much cleaning, as it still looked new from sitting in Arizona all its life. Still amazed at the absence of rust. Got the new drivetrain bolted in place over the weekend. Everything fit like it should, except I had to drill two new holes in the frame for the crossmember on the passenger side. Used all new Grade 8 bolts, washers & nuts. All engine mounts, including the frame mounts, were sandblasted, phosphate-treated, primed & painted with two coats of Rust-O-Leum semi-glass black. Also did the same for the crossmember and skid plate. Attached & adjusted the transfer case cable shifter, works wonderfully. Plugged-in the 4WD indicator switch and attached the speedometer cable. Verified that I had the correct blue 18-tooth drive gear in the NP241 and gray 44-tooth driven gear to correctly calibrate the speedometer with my 37-inch tires. Next I will begin to attach all wires & hoses to the new engine, in preparation of reinstalling the core support and new radiator. More updates coming.

 

[Sharecropper]

OK I have been asked about the PCV valve and how it will be hooked up, so here is my reply for all to see: Because the supercharger intake is at the rear of the blower, and because I mounted the centrifugal oil filter on the drivers side of the intake, the housing and in-line air filter for the supercharger had to come around the passenger side of the intake. Consequently, the CUCV PCV valve was right smack dab in the way. So to solve the issue, I sourced, on Ebay, a civilian 6.2 PCV bracket, which was engineered by GM to be located right over the passenger side alternator. However this only solved part of the problem, as the civilian bracket positioned the valve too high to be connected with the CUCV oil fill tube. I considered using a civilian oil fill tube, however that wouldn't work and still clear the supercharger snout. After thinking about the problem for a few days, I decided to simply cut the civilian bracket in half and shorten it so that the hose would connect to the CUCV oil fill tube at the proper elevation. Then I had to figure out how to connect the PCV valve to suction so that it would work correctly. The suction would need to be downstream from the air filter but upstream from the blower. I reached out to Tom Rabold, engineer at Bullet Racing in Australia, the designer of the supercharger intercooler intake for the 6.5 diesel. Tom shipped me a special brass elbow, and I drilled & tapped a corresponding hole in the underneath side of the rear blower housing. Bought the correct size hose from NAPA and hooked it all up. Worked like a dream. All this is shown in the photo below for anyone wanting to go down the same road as I have gone. Hope this helps yall to understand my red-neck engineering.

And before anybody asks, the white thing on the makeshift firewall is the 24v aircraft pre-oiler pump which will circulate oil to all bearing surfaces while the glow plugs are warming up. It sucks from the oil pan and pressurizes the galleys at the plug over the oil-cooler lines on the drivers side.

 

[Sharecropper]

Got the new all-aluminum radiator installed yesterday. Fit was excellent, however the overall height was approximately 3/8" shorter than the OEM radiator. I had some black neoprene rubber in the shop, so I fabricated a couple of saddle spacers to fit over the top mounting tabs which made the radiator support brackets fir correctly. Ran a SS self-drilling screw down through the brackets to hold everything in place.

 

[Sharecropper]

Pulled the core support back off and clamped it on my bench, then fit the new Derale #16843 dual electric fan to the radiator. This dual fan provides 4800 CFM cooling capacity, which will be helpful to pull fresh air through the intercooler for the supercharger, A/C condenser, and radiator. Also bought the Derale #16797 fan controller which features soft-start and variable speed which is determined by a sensor which is epoxied to the radiator tank. The controller adjusts the fan speed based on the temperature of the tank. The hotter the tank, the faster the fan speed with more air pulled through and vice-versa. During the fan install, had to make a few sizing adjustments, as well as to fabricate and install aluminum brackets which strengthens and attaches the entire radiator/fan assembly to the core support. Test-fit it and discovered that there was a 3-1/2" space between the fan shroud and the supercharger belt, so today I plan on pulling-off the core support and pulling out the entire drivetrain, and re-positioning the engine mounts to provide an additional one-inch clearance between the rear of the engine and firewall. This will also require drilling new holes in the frame to re-position the transmission cross-member. More updates coming.