The Chummins Project

The finished product.

I have been acquiring parts for a while to build a truck. I really like the 1st gen cummins diesels but really dont like the truck they came in.

 Sooo..... I decided to build a Chevrolet with a Cummins. I am really cheap so this is a low budget build.

 I bought a 90 dodge diesel auto for the donor its a low mileage truck it only has 4-5 hundred thousand on it, these trucks have some great parts on them, Dana 60 front end,  Dana 70 rear, NP 205 transfer case, and of course the cummins. I gave $1500 for the truck scrapped the body for $200 and let it sit in the barn for a year. I also purchased a running 75 model Chevrolet crew cab 1 ton that was only 2 wheel drive $700 but I wanted a 4x4. So I done lots of measuring and decided to cut both frames and just weld them together but the more I thought about it I finally decided to just use the entire Dodge chassis.  I don't have any pics of the dodge before disassembly. Right now I am into it for $2000.

The frame had to be extended 18" to accommodate the 4 door cab

After the frame was extended I just set the cab on the frame to start measuring for mounts.

The cab and bed are sitting in place and just blocked up before the cab mounts were made.

Added the front clip, welded mounts in place and bolted it down.

The engine compartment in pretty rough looking  While the clip was off I replaced the front and rear seals and also fixed the killer pin inside.

I removed the front springs to have them re-arched along with new bushings.

This is it with the body all bolted down and beginning of the wiring and plumbing.

My helper Luke, he is obsessed with this old truck as much as me.

Finally got a new set of tires. these are 37" humvee tires, double beadlock wheels with runflats inside. 

$400 added to the total cost.

My helper again tightening all the spring hangar bolts, I still have't check those after he was done.

Squirted a little Flat Khaki paint its not like any khaki paint I have seen before, its a rough texture, sometimes it looks green sometimes Tan and other times yellow the color is growing on me though.

$25 It was some old stuff I had in the barn, I had to break it up with a stick and then strain it before pouring it in the paint gun.

I have been driving it a couple weeks at this point, have not checked the mileage but am sure it gets over 15mpg because I pumped 20 gallons in and have driven over 300 miles so far.

I had to buy a steering box and some other miscellaneous parts that cost around $350 total so the total invested is $2775

1-12-13 Update

Pics below are after making some repairs and approx 1500 miles of driving.

Last week I had to replace the 23 year old head gasket and a leaking injector pump that I screwed up trying to fix it without replacing. The truck cruises down the highway just fine at 75 mph . I have been averaging 16 MPG and running it mostly off used motor oil mixed with gas. 

Installed an old bumper that I had laying around it is really flimsy made but better than nothing. It will house a winch soon I have them just need to get them mounted.

The Chummins will run off just about anything is another reason for picking this engine. Those who know me know that I like to be prepared for just about everything. I carry to many tools, spare parts, guns and ammo most of the time but I don't like to call for help.  So I began researching running it off  WMO (Waste Motor Oil), I had a friend who done this in the past with really good success so I thought i would give it a try.  I found that the preferred mixtures was 10-15 %  gas to WMO, right now I have been mixing it at 10-12% gas mixture.  I set up a filtering system I ordered home water filters from amazon with different micron filters to help clean up the oil. Oil is pumped through a 30, 10, &5 micron filters that all were ordered from amazon, currently I do not have a water separator on it. I purchased the pump from harbor freight for $40 some trash drums at walmart and the bulkhead fitting from amazon. The pic below does not have the 5 micron installed yet. I have ran about 100 gallons of WMO with no problems. I did have problems running old refrigeration oil I believe it caused the injector pump leak and the blown head gasket. The refrigeration oil had some residual refrigerant left that possibly ate up the pump o rings and displaced area in the cylinders causing higher compression and gasket failure.

So if and when SHTF I will be able to be mobile long after everyone is out of conventional fuels. There is just over a gallon of oil in every vehicle so as long as there is a vehicle out of gas every 16 miles I will be able to continue to travel as needed.

Day 5

This is the last day we decided to go about 1/2 way home so we would have a short day the next. Well that never happens why stop riding when its still daylight out, then why stop when your that close to home. We ended up just riding home once we made it to New Mexico I think it was another 900+ mile day.


This was a great trip everything went real smooth so it kinda defeats the purpose of blogging. I finally decided to update with a few pics so we can look back and remember the time we had.
Jimmy
Riley AKA The Champ
and me Cheyenne the homeless looking guy

Jimmy and Riley had only ridden their KLR's to town 2 times (<50 miles) before their first day on this trip, they are accustomed to Harleys with cruise, radios and windshields. This was a definite change but riding 900 miles their first day on a KLR thats going all in for sure.

We only had 1 mechanical issue Riley had a hole in his radiator from the fan rubbing but nothing major.

Day 4

We spent the night in Salida at a hotel since we were soaked, continued south this was one of the better days of riding, a little rain just enough to keep the temps good. 

^^^ Deep Water^^^

We made it about 180 miles and was only 20 or so from fuel when we came up on this,

Road closed, we didn't have enough fuel to back track the workers were real jerks, they watched another guy on a bike try to drag his KTM 525 up an embankment with no luck. It looked like they were just going to leave him when we showed up. All 3 of our group helped push his bike to the top and they escorted him out. The workers advised us to turn back so we agreed, well that is until they were gone.

The bridge.

We decided to try and make it across I found an old cabin, Riley found a long 4x4 so we were able to make a bridge to push the bikes across, the ground was extremely wet  and the water under our makeshift bridge was about 3' deep. We were able to make it across and up the steep embankment on the other side with no problems. This was the most exciting part of the trip. 

We made it on down and made camp somewhere in the national Forest.

Day 3

Day 3 We left Steamboat lake headed south and it began raining it pretty much rained from Steamboat to Salida I am pretty sure it snowed some too, we all was frozen and soaked, except for Jimmy and his $300 boots. No pics this day that I can find.

Day 2

This day was pretty boring, hot and nothing but Wyoming desert you can put in some miles pretty quickly though. 

We set our destination as Steamboat Lake for showers and washing clothes. After getting cleaned up we went to the outfitter for dinner. We ended up getting a cabin there since it was only $70 a night.
That night we met a really interesting guy who was riding a fat tire bicycle we had passed him earlier in the day, I wondered if he would make to the lake before nightfall. Well he made it about an hour after we did, he was riding from Anchorage to Denver then meeting up with his girlfriend across the Colorado trail then on to Mexico.  He had some good stories, this was the 2nd time he made the trip.

We told him about our troubles with the GPS so he let us take pictures of his paper maps so this is how we navigated the remainder of the trip. Pics of maps on my phone.