My ongoing restomod M998ish project

[MattNC]

I thought I’d share my restomod project that’s ongoing and progress so far. I use the truck a lot from the beach, to the farm, camping, Home Depot runs, etc so I made the truck to do what I want it to do while hopefully honoring the 30 year old military vehicle it is.

Base vehicles- 1993 M998 with an ‘87 6.2 in it all from Ft Polk JRTC. 2012 M1102 trailer from Camp LeJeune.

M998 mods front to back

homemade Luverne style brush bar and mounts forged and welded myself

BMI turbo kit installed by me

speedhut gauges and surplus tach

Prerunner spec level3 700r4 from bowtie overdrives installed by James Justice with a 4spd shifter

37” nitto ridge grapplers on black rhino armory wheels

homemade “decked” style drawer system that comes in and out as needed.

homemade cargo cover kit with a refurbished cargo cover. Also have a four man back curtain pickup style with a opening oversized window added

modified radio tray with cup holders and backup camera and boost/egt gauges. Which switch to a dial style someday.

transmission temp gauge in place of filter gauge on dash

federal military parts hitch and xm381 12v trailer setup with military setup still in place

hi lift Jack on tailgate

M1102 trailer repainted and a second cover sewn for lower height with bows made from emt to match roof height of hmmwv. Makes trailering much more enjoyable and fuel efficient.

mods yet to come this year: replace front seats with high back ones I got for a great price at the Denton rally. Add side view camera that came with my rear view. Install an old brake trailer controller I had with the xm381. Keep fixing stuff that goes out!

that’s it for now!

 

[MattNC]

I thought I’d share my restomod project that’s ongoing and progress so far. I use the truck a lot from the beach, to the farm, camping, Home Depot runs, etc so I made the truck to do what I want it to do while hopefully honoring the 30 year old military vehicle it is.

Base vehicles- 1993 M998 with an ‘87 6.2 in it all from Ft Polk JRTC. 2012 M1102 trailer from Camp LeJeune.

M998 mods front to back

homemade Luverne style brush bar and mounts forged and welded myself

BMI turbo kit installed by me

Prerunner spec level3 700r4 from bowtie overdrives installed by James Justice with a 4spd shifter

37” nitto ridge grapplers on black rhino armory wheels

homemade “decked” style drawer system that comes in and out as needed.

homemade cargo cover kit with a refurbished cargo cover. Also have a four man back curtain pickup style with a opening oversized window added

modified radio tray with cup holders and backup camera and boost/egt gauges. Which switch to a dial style someday.

transmission temp gauge in place of filter gauge on dash

federal military parts hitch and xm381 12v trailer setup with military setup still in place

hi lift Jack on tailgate

M1102 trailer repainted and a second cover sewn for lower height with bows made from emt to match roof height of hmmwv. Makes trailering much more enjoyable and fuel efficient.

mods yet to come this year: replace front seats with high back ones I got for a great price at the Denton rally. Add side view camera that came with my rear view. Install an old brake trailer controller I had with the xm381. Keep fixing stuff that goes out!

that’s it for now!

 

[juanprado]

looking sharp!

 

[Mullaney]

.
That tool drawer on the floor is a great idea! Nice and a good way to carry what you need without any way to lock a canvas top...

 

[MattNC]

Thanks guys for the comments. The drawers I might change around if I was doing them again but I don’t have much time or money in them and they work. They connect to the tie down locations at the back of the bed and the front of the bed behind the seats using turnbuckles. You can remove it without opening the drawer and I just padlock the tailgate to lock it and the drawers. The front of the setup has a locking drawer by the drivers seat that can store headsets and other items. I like the big locking drawer for fishing rods and rifles when hunting.

 

[wheelspinner]

Thanks guys for the comments. The drawers I might change around if I was doing them again but I don’t have much time or money in them and they work. They connect to the tie down locations at the back of the bed and the front of the bed behind the seats using turnbuckles. You can remove it without opening the drawer and I just padlock the tailgate to lock it and the drawers. The front of the setup has a locking drawer by the drivers seat that can store headsets and other items. I like the big locking drawer for fishing rods and rifles when hunting.

Man I wish I would have gotten over to check this one out! Was great to meet you last week

 

[MattNC]

Yes I wanted to check out your LMTV as well. There was so much to see there. Maybe I’ll run into you here in NC. I’m near Raleigh but take it out to Chatham and Alamance county a lot, and a few trips a year to the mountains and coast.

 

[MattNC]

OK a bunch of videos of the BMI turbo and 700r4 in action on the road. I was coming back from Lowes with 500lbs of stone in the back, otherwise just in their by myself.

For all videos make sure to click on the little gear for settings and then select a higher video quality if you want to see the tach and pyro/egt gauges.

First driving "normal" on sides streets to show how it runs generally.

Getting on the highway with the fan briefly on then running 65-75 mph and actually passing someone at over 70.

Doing the most significant hill climb road in my area down in 3rd gear to compare to when the turbo wasn't present and I had the 3l80. I could never hold more than 30-35 mph before.

Sideroads and going up a pretty good hill holding 60mph and staying in overdrive.

Overall I am pretty pleased. I may need to adjust the wastegate down. Normally I drive less aggressive but wanted to push it a little. I am thinking of keeping it below 10psi.

The EGT gauge is a glowshift model and the probe is dead center of the airstream in the midpoint between the exhaust ports and the inlet to the turbo. Installed as directed by BMI.

 

[MattNC]

EGT probe location. The probe length landed it dead center on the pipe. In the second picture of the elbow, the turbo is mounted on the flange you can see on the top. The passenger side exhaust ports are to the right maybe 4”. The drivers side ports come over via a crossover and dump into the one large header prior to passing the passenger side ports.

 

[MattNC]

So a review so far of the 700r4 and BMI turbo. I've put a few thousand miles on the combo so far and love it. Driving to the beach and back 300 miles round trip mostly at 65 mph I was at 2200 rpm and got 14.1 mpg overall. If I would have gone a little slower I think I would have done better given the brick like aerodynamics. It made the beach trip way better than in the past and we could actually talk and not feel deaf upon arrival or have to wear hearing protection the entire time. The truck can definitely pull more then 65, I have taken to 75 and I am sure it could pull 85, but the nitto ridge grapplers feel very touchy with the hmmwv steering above 70. 65 is a very relaxing drive in the truck. The transmission stayed below 170 degrees the entire trip and the fan kicked on every 4-5 minutes for a brief period with outside temps around 95 degrees. The lower RPM definitely helps the truck run cooler.

 

[SCM35A2]

Very nice!