“The 6.9” project thread

[Laine D]

Passenger side is done. Driver side will be alot easier. I think a bag on top of spring setup will definitely be more stable in the case of a cab over camper or something but I don’t really anticipate that being an issue. I like how these mount better plus they were very very cheap.

 

[Old Goat]

I see back in post 798 you made that off set bracket/brace for the Bags. Was wondering why.

Now I see why, a later model truck set of bags.

I installed the Fire Stone bags which sit on top of the springs. Sure made a difference when I was hauling 1 1/2 yards of crushed 3/4" rock @ 3000 lbs ea load.
Pumped them up to 20lbs.

Forget the HF, china garbage Drill Bits. Use good grade of quality Bits.

Even hauling my 22ft car trailer, kept her from squatting down.



Goat

 

[Laine D]

I see back in post 798 you made that off set bracket/brace for the Bags. Was wondering why.

Now I see why, a later model truck set of bags.

I installed the Fire Stone bags which sit on top of the springs. Sure made a difference when I was hauling 1 1/2 yards of crushed 3/4" rock @ 3000 lbs ea load.
Pumped them up to 20lbs.

Forget the HF, china garbage Drill Bits. Use good grade of quality Bits.

Even hauling my 22ft car trailer, kept her from squatting down.



Goat

Yeah man my old work truck was a newer f250 with the same rear leafs I have on this. It road really nice but it squatted down a lot whenever I had any weight behind it. I’m excited to try them out.

 

[Laine D]

I haven’t really done a lot in the last month or so because it’s been really hot and work is stupid. Not really stupid it’s just work. Anyways, probably next month sometime I’m going to take the 7.3 to the machine shop and have them check everything out. I don’t want to sleeve it because $$$$ and the cylinder walls looked really good when I checked with my probe.

The last month the poor ranger has been running really hot because the a/c works really good and I don’t like to sweat. Today the fan ******* exploded . It didn’t mess anything else up surprisingly. Threw a new fan clutch and fan on and wow, I don’t really think the fan ever came on before


Here’s my dog though, she’s cute.

 

[The_Josh_Bear]

I love it when an underperforming part breaks or otherwise gets replaced and you realize how crappy the old part truly was! Shocks, brakes, tires come to mind. Obviously fan clutch is another.

 

[IDIBRONCO]

Threw a new fan clutch and fan on and wow, I don’t really think the fan ever came on before

I love it when an underperforming part breaks or otherwise gets replaced and you realize how crappy the old part truly was! Shocks, brakes, tires come to mind. Obviously fan clutch is another.

Those fan clutches are something else. You take them for granted until you realize how much better a good/new one works. Back in about 2000, I was mostly driving a 1984 Mustang with a CFI 3.8 and I had put a AOD transmission behind it. It was the first summer that I had driven the car. The engine was running hot and I knew it was since I had installed mechanical gauges due to the factory ones not working at all. In town, on speed limit 40 roads, I had to run in OD in order to keep the temps down. On the highway, I had to hold the speed to 50 MPH in order to not overheat. One particularly hot day, on the way home from work (50 miles one way) the car stopped running and wouldn't start again. I let it sit for about 15 minutes and then it started up. The only conclusion that I could come up with was that it actually vapor locked, which I didn't think was possible since it had electric fuel pumps and a return line on the fuel system. The next day, I bought another fan clutch from Auto Zone, put it on and never had another overheating problem again. Until I swapped in a 302 and got two bad thermostats in a row, but that's another story entirely.

 

[Laine D]

Those fan clutches are something else. You take them for granted until you realize how much better a good/new one works. Back in about 2000, I was mostly driving a 1984 Mustang with a CFI 3.8 and I had put a AOD transmission behind it. It was the first summer that I had driven the car. The engine was running hot and I knew it was since I had installed mechanical gauges due to the factory ones not working at all. In town, on speed limit 40 roads, I had to run in OD in order to keep the temps down. On the highway, I had to hold the speed to 50 MPH in order to not overheat. One particularly hot day, on the way home from work (50 miles one way) the car stopped running and wouldn't start again. I let it sit for about 15 minutes and then it started up. The only conclusion that I could come up with was that it actually vapor locked, which I didn't think was possible since it had electric fuel pumps and a return line on the fuel system. The next day, I bought another fan clutch from Auto Zone, put it on and never had another overheating problem again. Until I swapped in a 302 and got two bad thermostats in a row, but that's another story entirely.

I bet that was confusing lol.

 

[Laine D]

I called the machine shop that did my 6.9 to see if they have experience sleeping 7.3’s. Got quoted 1100 to hot tank, sleeve it to standard, and replace the cam bearings. I feel like that’s plenty fair. I believe they said about 100 to polish the crank. I’ll take the heads to get checked and if they’re good (no cracks or anything like that) then I’ll do all the valves and everything. The main issue I’m having is finding standard turbo pistons. I’m going to give r&d a call since they offer them on their website.

I’m choosing to sleeve it because I just want take cavitation off the table completely and start with a fresh standard bore. In the off chance that this block has very little cylinder taper then that’ll save me a lot of money but I kinda doubt it

Here’s my ranger, I just did an oil change. It’s at 303618 miles. I hope it lasts another 10k The rear end is screaming and when I checked the fluid it was glitter, so I’ll be finding another one very soon.

 

[Nero]

$1100 ain't bad at all! I'd do it too!

 

[cozinsky]

I had all eight on mine sleeved and they had to deck the block to get the surface true again. That caused issues when I went to reassemble it because the pistons were too far above deck so I had to order a special set of reduced height pistons to make it work.

 

[Laine D]

I had all eight on mine sleeved and they had to deck the block to get the surface true again. That caused issues when I went to reassemble it because the pistons were too far above deck so I had to order a special set of reduced height pistons to make it work.

I’m kinda leaning towards cutting the pistons anyways to get the compression down a little lower than 21.5:1. I haven’t done the math but I’d like to get it down around 19:1. I believe it’d still start fine in the cold and would take some stress off the bottom end. I know there are alot of guys running high boost on stock compression but I’d really like this engine to last and I feel like it’d really prolong the bearings lifespan if I brought the pressure down some.

 

[Laine D]

$1100 ain't bad at all! I'd do it too!

I was honestly surprised. I felt weird, like I was grilling them on machining when they definitely know more than me. For some reason a lot of places don’t really mess with idi’s, I’m assuming that all the guys who worked on them have retired by now. I’m not so much concerned but more interested in how they go about sleeping the block. I’d like to see them leave a step at the bottom of each cylinder to keep the liners from sliding out but I’m not a machinist and maybe that’s common practice

 

[Nero]

I had inquired a local machinist here who does a lot of power stroke and Cummins head and block work. Straight up refused to touch Idi's because of the precups. Wouldn't even run them through his parts washer and lap valves.
But that's alright, I got rid of that block.

 

[Laine D]

I had inquired a local machinist here who does a lot of power stroke and Cummins head and block work. Straight up refused to touch Idi's because of the precups. Wouldn't even run them through his parts washer and lap valves.
But that's alright, I got rid of that block.

Quality Diesel machine in Sacramento is who I contacted. I’d like to use Valley Balance and Machine but they’re down in Ceres. That’s a little far for me to run down to before work. I’m gonna swing by the place in sac and talk to them about how they sleeve it.

 

[Laine D]

In the recent month I’ve swapped the bed over, finished my hitch, bought wheels that don’t fit, and went through my spare zf5. I’m getting closer. I wanted to test the air bags so I hooked it up to my 5th wheel. Fun fact, the trailer is also torn apart but it’s on the inside lol.