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M1007 - CUCV Suburban Clone Build Thread

Warthog

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Looks great Tim!!!!

I'll be down to pick it up as soon as you get the tranny ironed out. You really need a Chebby horn button. The GMC just won't cut it. ;-)
 

Barrman

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Rory, I made it home just as the rain hit. I have never done IFR in a helicopter but imagine it probably isn't fun.

Joe,
i have a Chevy horn button. The GMC button came from the Gasser half ton when I did the column swap. I was busy with the transmission issues and neglected to change them out immediately upon arrival at home. I will remedy the issue at my first convenience.

Checking all the fluids today showed all still topped off and no leaks. I have also discovered the big plug for the transmission is a common leak point. Hopefully, that is all I have.
 

Warthog

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Sure has come a long way from August 2011 when this adventure started. You need to send the pictures to LMC Truck for their restoration layout.

Did you install Lo-Jack so all the SS members will keep their hands off? :)

Great job Tim.

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Barrman

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The internal wiring harness for the 4L80E showed up Thursday but Colton graduated high school Friday. I had to stay home and host a huge number of relatives and such instead of going to work and getting the Cowdog running. This morning the internal harness was installed along with a new power steering pump to Hydroboost hose. I have never seen it leak, but it is always wet when I touch it.

I picked the rear axle up and hot 80 mph in 4th gear. I had done the same thing last time only to have it stick in 1st on the road. I will try it tonight.
 

Barrman

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I left work and it wouldn't shift out of 1st gear again. Only at my "max shift rpm" set into the Compushift computer would it shift. I lowered it down to 2,000 rpm and it would shift just fine. Very hard shifts though and if I got below 1400 rpm it would down shift with aggression. Slowing from 45-40 in town it dropped a gear. Kind of a super hard tow/haul mode. I was not thinking nice things about Compushift.

I had a meeting right after work so I pulled up the 120 page pdf manual and browsed through it. I thought maybe my shift point settings were messed up. When I went to leave the meeting I had a fault in the TPS voltage as too high. This has been going on ever since I started trying to drive this thing. I re calibrated the TPS again and set out for home on the open road. I got to 4th at 70 mph, but no lock up and no shifting before the max rpm line. Not happy.

The truck went down the road great though. Very stable steering, no drive line vibrations, no noises and excellent road manners.

I got home right at my bed time but I couldn't leave it be. I figured something with the TPS was causing the issues. The TPS is a 1993 off a motor from Warthog. It was giving me a consistent signal with no drop outs. I finally pulled up the youtube Compushift posted about how to calibrate the TPS. I was doing everything exactly as it should be done. Then I noticed the voltages on the video.

They had .035 or so at idle and 4.68 volts at wide open throttle. My was exactly opposite! I went out to the truck and checked all the plugs. None could be hooked up backward. Back to the manual. Buried in a subsection of a subsection they suggest new people don't go to was an option to reverse the TPS signal. Back out to the truck.

I reversed the signal in the computer and took it for a drive. Super smooth shifts right were they should be. I set it to lock up the converter in 3rd and 4th. It did that. Sometimes if I was going easy it felt like just a firmer shift into those gears as it shifted and locked up at almost the same time. If I was in the throttle, it was like a close ratio 6 speed the way it shifted.

Finally, it drives like it is supposed to. I was on a back road at night so I let it run a little. 75 mph at 2200 rpm, 650° EGT, 190° oil temp, 200° coolant temp, 185° trans fluid temp and 2 pounds of boost locked in 4th gear. I went home and went to bed.

I drove it to work today. Still learning the noises and such. My center console extension vibrates a little to annoy me. Need another tie down point drilled it seems. I will take it on a 30 mile run this afternoon to pick up some metal to finish the spare tire swing out carrier. I should get a better feel for how everything works together from that.
 

Another Ahab

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They had .035 or so at idle and 4.68 volts at wide open throttle. My was exactly opposite! I went out to the truck and checked all the plugs. None could be hooked up backward. Back to the manual. Buried in a subsection of a subsection they suggest new people don't go to was an option to reverse the TPS signal. Back out to the truck.
Sometimes Voodoo is the best medicine.



ABC.jpg
 

Barrman

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No, the Prince of Darkness is not involved in this truck build. I have a '57 MGA and a '67 Cooper S. I can't handle any more Lucas in my life than that.

I can't figure out a way to put the TPS on the truck backward either. I re read my earlier post from today and realized I was saying negative things about Compushift and didn't really say anything positive. I don't know if they sent me a pig tail adaptor that had the wires reversed, my TPS is screwed up or if I was supposed to verify every single setting in the TCM when it was supposed to be shipped ready to plug and drive.

What ever it was, they have the option to reverse the signal in their controller. That means I am not the first to have this issue. It also means they programmed in for weird things and easier than cutting the wires and splicing them back reversed ways to remedy issues.

Now that it all works, I will start playing with the exact settings. I found out last night that 13% throttle holds 50 mph perfectly on level ground. Yet, 47% throttle is needed to maintain 75 mph. The factory TCM setting is for the TCC to unlock at 50% throttle. So, just a wiggle to maintain speed on a hill causes a downshift basically. I reset it to 54% and now the turbo takes care of the hill without any downshift, locking or unlocking or drama. I need to keep playing, learning and tailoring the thing for my type of driving. I really am impressed with the unit now that it all works.
 

The FLU farm

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I found out last night that 13% throttle holds 50 mph perfectly on level ground. Yet, 47% throttle is needed to maintain 75 mph.
Considering the "excellent" aerodynamics of a Suburban of that era, that's almost surprising. Until remembering that air resistance goes up by the square.
Being a lead foot, I'm all too familiar with that phenomena.

Congratulations of having it all (nearly) sorted.
 

Barrman

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I put 60 highway miles on it last night. Great road manners. I turned off the TCC lock for 3rd gear. That makes the in town driving much, much smoother with it locking only in 4th.

I haven't pushed the turbo above 8 psi or 850° yet. The boost builds really fast and comes on strong so far. I want a turbo on everything I own now.
 

Warthog

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Great news Tim!!!! Put about 400 miles on it and bring it up here. ;-)
 

Barrman

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It isn't ready to get to you yet Joe.

Maybe. I found a set of pull off H2 wheels and tires back in January. They are on the Cowdog. Tires are about 50%. There was another set on Craigslist this week. Even better tires. They were in New Braunfels. 98 miles away. Getting them might give me better tires on the Cowdog. But for sure would let me have matching wheels and tires on both m101 trailers and the Cowdog.

We spent all of Friday and most of Saturday in the Houston area with my nephews high school graduation. We got home yesterday afternoon and the guy still had the wheels and tires. Colton was going to be around to come get me with a tow bar if needed,I pulled the 3rd seat and headed out.

92° outside air temp and 120° inside temp. I have the Dakota Digital VHX digital analog gauges. The temp gauge is kind of closely spaced so reading the exact water temperature is difficult for my old eyes going down the road. A quick scan tells me within 10 though. But there is a warning option with the gauges. I reset the coolant warning to 210° Thursday. This will flash the exact temp in numbers where the odometer normally is.

The a/c had pulled down to around 50° at the vent by the time I got on open road. I was blasting along at 70 mph enjoying the great road manners when about 8 miles later the temp warning started flashing. I was right at my first stop of the trip. The warning went away while I waited to pull onto the highway. Nice easy acceleration to speed had 211° flashing. Then 212, 213 a minute later to be followed by 214 and 215. I pulled over and looked under the hood.

All looked good, no leaks, smoke, sounds or smells of overheating. It had cooled down again while I let it idle. Since it was cooling at idle, I decided to keep going. Only 185 miles to home. I tried 65, then 60, then 55 and finally found 50 mph kept the warning away. 60 miles later I was in San Marcos stuck in traffic waiting to get on I-35. I had been able to run 48-52 all the way but any input of power or trying to hold speed on hills had the warning flashing again.

Banks in the turbo packet says to stay below 220°. I personally think 212° is over heating. I don't like it being that hot. My mirror thermometer found in a junk yard by Warthog now said it was 95° outside. I-35 is a lot of long grade rolling hills through this part of the state. I had to stay around 42-44 up hill and just let it coast down the hills. It would start flashing near the top of each one and stop at the bottom.

I have driven the same roads at the exact same speeds in the M715 and M35A2. I always got thumbs up as people passed. M1009 going the same speed 7 years ago on this road had some thumbs up and some other digits raised. No thumbs up to a 383 green Suburban. Just other gestures and angry horn honks. I made it though.

The wheels were good and the tires about the same as what is already on the truck. They will work though. I loaded them up worrying about if the hot engine would start up again. It started like normal much to my relief. Having gone almost 100 miles setting my speed by temperature. I just eased along on home. It seemed there were more down hill going this way though and I was edging closer to 50 most of the time.

I had spent most of the drive so far trying to figure out what was wrong? I kept coming back to IP timing, fan clutch and if I had screwed up going with a single thermostat with the HO water pump. I was thinking IP timing because this engine has a very distinct diesel clatter. More than any other 6.x I own. But it is the only one with a turbo and single exhaust. Maybe I am just hearing things? I was thinking fan clutch because it never locked up even with the engine indicating 215° for a few minutes. But, it cooled down at low power settings so coolant was flowing.

I was very comfortable in a quiet and cool interior for the 5 hour drive to think about this over and over and over. Everything on the truck worked perfectly. The 4l80e had me at 1250 rpm and 45 mph just loafing along. Yet a slight push down would unlock, drop a gear and get the boost climbing. It was pretty enjoyable. The truck drives and handles perfectly. Better that the 2005 Super Duty I used to make all those runs to get it and all the parts the last year or so. I haven't worked all the bugs out of the cruise control yet so my right leg was stuck in the same spot the entire drive. No numb butt, no cramping thigh, no calf ache. I got the seat and interior just like I wanted.

Back to the drive. About half way home I ended up coming in behind a rain squall. The outside temp dropped to 88°. The transmission temperature had never gotten more than 161° at any point. It went down to 155°. The oil temp had been 195° the entire drive. Now it went down to 182°. I started speeding up. 50 and no over heat. 60 and a few warnings. 20 miles from home it was down to 82° out. I was running 65-70 based on speed limits and it stayed below 211°. What the heck?

i also had a very steep hill to climb coming out of Bastrop that is only a mile or so from pretty much a dead stop. The Banks manual says 60 mph steady cruise should show 400° EGT with 1-1.5 psi boost. When I could run 60, I was right at those readings. I wanted to see how the Bastrop hill would get handled if I tried to get up it at the exact speed limit or above. My 396 powered M715 could do it and use a quarter tank of fuel. Nothing I have diesel can do it. Since I had figured out how to control the coolant temp. I hit the throttle at the bottom of the hill. The 4l80e stayed in first until 3,000 rpm and shifter super firm. When I lifted as I was blowing past the speed limit I had 6 psi and 850° EGT. This truck will move! Yes!

I checked everything over once home and found no issues. I started researching online. Fan clutch, thermostat and blocked radiator seem to be the biggest 6.5 overheating causes. I have a new with less than 300 miles thermostat. But, my 1997 or 1998 fan clutch and 20 inch 9 blade metal fan came with a broken engine I bought from NDT. 20 years old and I think 200k miles. It was a "do later" component. I guess it is later. It never locked up.

My cooling stack of oil cooler, transmission cooler, condenser and radiator are all new or redone. That isn't the problem.

The thermostat is confusing though. I remember buying a new 190° unit. I think it wasn't a Delco. I can't find the bill though. Lots of guys with 6.5 trucks go through 3 or 4 thermostats to find one that works at the listed temperature. I didn't test mine. That could be it. Or not.

Or, maybe I don't even have a problem? I mentioned the Dakota Digital gauges. They are analog with a digital display for any ready out of the range I designate. I had the coolant warning at 220° until a few days ago as mentioned. If I hadn't set it to 210° I might not have know of an issue yesterday until maybe too late.

So after church today I reset the warning to 180°. My intent was to see exactly when the thermostat opens by watching it warm up and then drop when it opens the first time. It opened at 203°. According to the digital readout. I used my infrared thermometer on the thermostat housing, cross over pipe, upper hose, sender housing and anything else I could point it at. Nothing over 181°. Most everything was cooler by a bunch.

Maybe I just have a gauge issue? I can't find a way to calibrate the Dakota Digital made sender using the Dakota Digital made wiring into the Dakota Digital brain. I will call them tomorrow. I will research fan clutches more and try to find a Delco 195° thermostat that gets put into boiling water to swap in as well.

Sorry for the long post but with what I saw yesterday I don't think the truck will make it very far this summer as is.

Oh, I was prepared to turn off the a/c and put on full heat if the temp kept climbing. But since it was controllable. I used the trip to test things out.
 

richingalveston

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Nice to see that it is on the road and being fine tuned, I prefer that terminology over getting the bugs out.

What starter are you using. I am trying to decide if I should by a new starter. can't get my direct drive 24 volt to line up. I have two, tried both. Wondering if a new gear reduction would line up differently. I am at a loss on my starter.

Glad to hear your truck has the power you wanted, I hope mine does if it ever gets on the road.

I keep my IR temp gun in my truck and check everything with it often. Once my truck is on the road, I plan to log all the temps so I can see what is going wrong. The best thing for checking to see if your wheel bearings are adjusted properly is the temp gun. since I pull a lot of trailers I use it especially on trailers. just drive them to warm them up, they all should be the same temp and not more than 40 degrees above ambient temp.

Not trying a high jack here, just recommending a temp log and a standard protocol on checking all the temps. It is hard to remember what each one should be and watching the temps rise over time tells you when you need maintenance or another problem is happening.

Since your truck is new I would suggest logging everything for a while. It really gives you that extra level of comfort with your truck.
 

Barrman

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I have a 12 volt redux on the Cowdog. 12 volt direct drive on the Blue Bomber. 24 volt direct on the M1009 and M715. RED has a 24 volt redux. I have 4 or 5 spare 24 volt direct drive units and I think a single spare 24 volt redux. I will be in B/Cs Thursday afternoon and then all day next Wednesday and Thursday for Coltons new student conference. Let me know if you want me to bring one.

I have the truck stripped bare of anything personal since I take it to my class. I wasn't really planning the trip yesterday so I left with nothing but a bottle of water and a phone. I too use infrared guns on just about any moving part. I fine tune tire psi with them as well. I was kicking myself for not having it most of the trip yesterday.
 

richingalveston

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If you could let me borrow a 24 volt redux just to test with, I will deliver it back to you. If anything happens to it I will replace with new.

my worst fear is that the starter bolt holes were drilled out of line, I am also considering putting the old flex plate on, this will be very difficult but I may have to give it a try.
I have tried everything possible with the two starters I have and they engage and turn the motor fine but make a terrible noise and the Bendix sticks in the flex plate. you have to put a screw driver in torque converter and roll the motor backwards for the Bendix to release, so if it did start, I would probably burn up a starter. but no fuel in it now so no worries there, I unplugged the ip just in case.

one question about flex plate, are the teeth straight cut, the old flex plate looks that way but the new one, the teeth may have a very slight angle. The angle seams to pull the Bendix into the flex plate. It may just be a visual thing but when looking closely they seam to have very slight angle.

I should be in CS all week and can meet anywhere.
Thanks
Rich
 
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richingalveston

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yes, I put my old flex plate up to the new one and rolled it around. The two flex plates match up well and not at an angle. I don't think anything is wrong with the flex plate. I am leaning to just having one starter rebuilt with new Bendix gear. Maybe the old gear is more worn than I think and causing it to jamb up in the flex plate.

both starters I have the gears have wear but not much. Maybe I just need two new gears meshing together instead of one new and one slightly worn.

got to look in the tms to see if I can change the gear my self and then where to purchase one.

Thanks
Rich
 

Barrman

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I just had a student test a redux here in my class. It works. But, I am not sure if it is 12 or 24 volt. No markings. I have another spare redux known 24 v at home as a spare in RED.

I got educated on the phone today at lunch. Called Heath about their super duper fan clutch. It only fits the 99 and newer screw on fan clutch water pumps. It won't fit my '98 4 bolt flange water pump drive. He also said the HO stamp water pumps are not "High Output." He claims they are no better than the '94 pumps. Saying the HO is actually the foundry mark for the sub contractor GM had build them. I didn't argue, but I know the impeller is significantly larger than the regular serpentine impeller.

He said they do have a stronger duty than stock GM fan clutch that will fit my pump. He explained the heavy duty one they sell is for a medium or larger than 1 ton truck. It is supposed to be able to hold the fan at 90% of pulley speed for 22 minutes. While the better than stock one which is mean for 1 ton trucks is only rated to hold 73% of pulley speed for 5 minutes. Then according to him is the stock GM clutch which is even less. I didn't bite at the sales pitch to get a new clutch, fan and water pump and just got the better than stock clutch. He did sell me on a 21" composite fan. I think it is the Duramax fan about which every person that has installed it says it is magnitudes better than the 20" metal fan. We will see.

I called Dakota Digital. Very helpful people when I explained I think the temp gauge is off. The manual tells you what Ohms the sender should be sending at 100, 200 and 300 degrees. Not something to realistically test in the engine with any accuracy. He told me 72° is supposed to be 850 Ohms. That I can check in the morning since the low is supposed to be about that temp. The gauges even have a self test display that will let me use it to tell me the Ohms instead of getting out the multimeter.
 
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