No sir. The pipe that runs from the back of the water pump to the oil cooler below the drivers side exhaust manifold

 

Little progress today. Changed the hydroboost, tidied up some wiring under the hood, re wire loomed some wires where the loom had gotten brittle and broken off. Installed the PPE firewall insulator. Not bad but not a perfect fit.

Installed the downpipe support bracket. They shoudl send it with longer bolts. The flange is so thick I was rorried that I might not have enough threads tp torque it without pulling out threads.

Built my pressure testing set up with a universal hose, PVC cap, valve stem and some caps for the other water outlets. Pretty sure it’s sealed up but will test some more tomorrow. Putting about 12psi to it.

Ordered two stainless heater hose fittings. Already replaced the factory ones but rather have the peace of mind to have metal.

Left side trans dipstick came in about 2 hours after I left the house so wont get to that this weekend.

May install the engine wiring harness tomorrow and see if I can get it rigged with the load leveler to shove it back in.

 

Great work, Charles! I installed the PPE fire wall insulation and found out the same thing. It fits but not perfect. How did you like to quality of the PPE manifolds and up pipes? I just ordered their up-pipes for stock manifolds with the down pipe mount. I got the LML driver's side manifold and I'll be port matching everything. Turbo as well since it's out and I'm rebuilding it. Heads are at SoCal Diesel getting a stock rebuild but I'm going to call them today and have them port and polish while it's there.

 

Got the wiring harness installed. Only have 1 bolt, 1 nut, and 1 washer that I don’t have a place for out of everything I’ve taken off. I’m sure I’ll find it. It may be the bracket that holds the fuel lines coming from the body.

Rattle canned a few places on the frame and then started rigging the motor with the load leveler.

Found out that the wider PPE manifolds meant I had to pull it back out and remove the steering shaft.

Then got it almost in place and found the load leveler interferes with the firewall before it gets far enough back to set on the motor mounts.

Gonna go back to the chain and just hope for the best. Really slow doing it with the tractor and by myself.

 

Well finally got it sat in, but not before a rolled it on it side in the floor as I was taking the leveler off it. Didn’t think much about it but after getting it sat in and bolting up the transmission I noticed it hit the oil filter housing and its bent ever so slightly. May not allow the filter to seal correctly. I already have a 2020 oil cooler on the way so I guess thats not going to be for the other long term build.

Called it done for the day.

 

That sucks...... Are you going to pull the engine out again to install the engine oil cooler? It will definitely be easier. Same with the drivers side dip stick. I should have waited to install mine. It's doable but having the turbo and heads out of the way would have been a lot easier.
You may have to build a bracket for the trans dip stick. Mine didn't line up correctly and if I forced it to mount to the trans bell housing, the part where it actually goes in the transmission would not be straight and seal correctly. It also pushed up against the trans speed sensor on the bell housing and pushed against the fuel lines on the transmission. I ended up building a little bracket so it all fits perfectly.

 

Flashback to when it was coming out.

 

Um…. 😐

 

You telling me to powder coat that battery tray?

 

Is it rusted through?

 

No, I looked at it and it seems like it wont be too hard to get at to replace the cooler.with the 6 inch lift and fender liners removed it wont be too hard to get to the bolts on the water pump and I could see and get to all the others. It was pretty damn tricky working by myself using a tractor and no load leveler and no one to guide the motor so it was on and off the tractor and small movements to get it sat in the right place.

The manifolds and up pipes are top notch from what I can tell.. The cerakote I sprayed on them seems to be working pretty well now that it’s cured. The only complaint is when I bought the PPE downpipe support bracket its made of 3/16 material but they expect you to use the same bolts that came with the manifolds and they are barely adequate in length. Really should get longer bolts. They are definitely wider and I had to remove the steering shaft to set the motor in place. If I had someone to twist the motor while settling it in I may not have had to do it, but again working alone sucks.

Not sure on the dipstick yet. I may be able to get by with the factory stick. If I have to install the drivers side stick I’ll probably have to drop the front driveshaft to get good access and the GPCM is really tight against the firewall

 

Ya I know what you mean when working alone. You will be able to install the cooler with the engine in the truck. Having a 4 inch lift made the installer easier for me but I would have preferred to install with the engine out of the truck.

Good to hear about the quality of the up-pipes. I also had to get the PPE DP mounting tab for OE manifolds. I guess we will see about the bolts. I did get new bolts from DHD but I believe they are the same length as the stock ones.

You will most like have to relocate the GPC if it is in the same location as an LBZ. Depending on the style some people say it will fit in-between the turbo and GPC. Mine wont. I'll be mounting mine on the firewall to an existing grounding stud. I stole the idea from someone on Duramax Diesels forum. When mine was on the passenger side, it sat right against the DP and I was only able to get the mounts half way on the studs to mount it. It worked but barely. I have the PPE DP from years ago when it first came out. I had a magnaflow one before that and it fit better.

 

I really do not want to relo the GPCM off that pretty black powder coated bracket….lol.

Im going to see if I can make the stock one work with the DP if at all possible.

If I have to relo, I’ll build some extension harnesses from some weather pak stuff and move it

Fun and games….shoudl have just stayed stock…lol

 

Come on Charles, we all no stock isn't fun. It will be worth it!

 

Why be "normal"??? Lol

 

Russ, you know I’m only joking.

Dave it is NOT rusted through. Just a nice patina of surface rust…and yes it will get blasted and coated.

#IHATEDAVE


Ordered Fleece trans lines since I saw some weeping at the fitting on the trans.


@SoCalMike I thought about this last night. I have a tubing bender. May try bending the stock tube to make it work if it interferes with the downpipe.

 

That's funny about the transmission lines. While my truck was running I had not problems. As soon as it says there for a month my trans lines were a little wet. So I replaced mine too. I ended up getting the DHD kit with the stock hard lines. This way it still mounted in the stock locations.

Like you I would have preferred to keep the GPC in the stock location. I guess I could have. On mine the stock dip stick mount was hitting the downpipe. Right where the mount was welded to the dip stick. Only way to fix it was to bend the dipstick back. I tried but ended up tearing the mount off of the dipstick and making a hole in the actual dipstick. So I had to order another one. That was a pain too. Getting the dipstick in the transmission was impossible with the motor and transmission in the truck. I tried everything, even removing the transmission crossmember and lowering the trans. I ended up getting a new transmission grommet and cutting about an inch off the bottom of the dipstick to get it in. Here is a couple pictures of where mine was hitting and a picture of the mount I made for the drivers side dip stick.

 

This dude still creeps me out

 

Small progress today. Was unable to get the drivers side dipstick in. Body seam intereferes so if you have the motor out beat that seam over before hand. Would need to drop the trans cross member and not doing that with the lift because the torsion bar drop has to come out.

Got the trans bolted, torque converter bolted up, bought a new starter and got that in. Got some of the wires re-loomed and routed in the factory holders and grounds cleaned and installed. Heater hoses in with the new stainless quick connects.

Tomorrow will replace the oil cooler and install the PS pump and start getting the core support in and reinstall the steering shaft. Also installed the fuel lines with new safety clips.

 

You putting that 2020 cooler on it? For some reason I thought you was using the original one?

 

I was, spent a lot of time making it clean and sealed it with loctite 518 since no gaskets are available….then I rolled the motor on its side in the shop floor and it landed on the oil filter boss and bent it…lol

 

Rolled the engine on the old one and bent the filter adapter.

Edit, for some reason Charles's reply did show up until after I replied.

 

Tackled the oil cooler this morning. Not too bad. Had to back out the trans bolt where the adapter to the rear engine plate is in order to get it to drop down. New cooler is massive but I’m really bummed about the smaller filter. I guess more frequent filter changes are in store.

You can see the bow if you look closely in the older one. Guess its a good thing I waited and rolled the motor with the old one and not the new one.

Then moved on to connecting and routing all the wiring harness on the engine. installed the gasket for the turbo water cooler pipe, mounted all the engine grounds, zip tied some stuff out of the way. Installed the PS pump and lines and the alternator. Routed and connected and torqued the external oil line for the turbo.

Then pulled the truck forward to start getting all the stuff out of the bed for the core support and front end parts to go back on.

Disassembled the intercooler, radiator, condenser, and trans cooler to make it easier to assemble since I removed them in all one piece with the core support. Got the core support installed, drivers side battery tray, windshield washer reservoir. By removing the passenger battery tray i was able to move the fender out enough to get the core support back in without bending anything. Shoudl have done that when removing it. Note to self.

Routed all the lighting harness across the core support and secured it in the original loom clamps. Found a broken set of wires on the passenger side and racked my brain until I figured out it was the fog light connector that was missing. Ordered up metri pack 280 connector and terminals and will fix that later.

Now down to:

Reinstall exhaust to downpipe, intercooler, radiator, overflow tank, intercooler piping and new silicone boots from PPE, Fan, shroud, TCM, intake and filter, radiator hoses and Fleece transmission lines and trans cooler and new AC condenser.

That should get me to start up then I can reassemble the bumper, grill, headlights.

Perhaps 2 more weeks. Starting to get there.

 

This looks awesome Charles! What an undertaking and to beable say ya did it all in your own shop is pretty bad ass too!
I say send the other motor up to SDP lol

 

I’m sure he wants it back in a decent time frame lol. Sdp would have it 2 years maybe more if you’re not on top of them. You haven’t learned that from Russ’ thread lol

 

Your doing a great job Charles. Wish I had the know how and a big enough shop to take on projects like this!

 

Well that would be about the right timing for my next motor…..

 

Fixed, the mettripak 280 connector and reloomed the fog light wires. New battery tray installed, and new oil pressure sensor installed.

pressure tested the intercooler using a pair of PVC drain fittings in the intercooler boots with a valve stem inserted in one of the drains. Pressued it to 20 psi and sprayed it with soapy water. Then hit it with some acid cleaner and cleaned out the bugs. Very few since it was only about 9 months ago I had it out and cleaned when I did the AC. Washed the radiator out and installed the cooling stack, intercooler tubes with new PPE boots and clamps.

The kit I ordered was 2002-2006 so the boot at the y bridge is incorrect and I’ll have to order that one separately. Got a new condenser even though the old one was only 9 months old since it sat open and I just didnt want to take a chance given how cheap they are. Trans cooler in and used the OEM lines for now and will install the PPE lines after I get it running and do a fluid and filter change.

ECM and TCM, and fan and shroud installed. Coolant tank and air intake installed.

Got the exhaust back on and from the looks of the mounting flange at the downpipe I’ll need a new exhaust to not have a small leak

Charged up the batteries and next up is to try and prime and fire and if all goes well, I’ll flash new PPEI Tunes on the DSP5, flush the AC lines and purge, vacuum and charge the system

 

 

Great progress Charles. Looks killer!

 

I don't think I could take on this project anymore.... it sure is great to see someone with the skills getting it done. Looks great, congrats on the progress.

 

Looks great Charles! I wouldn't be able to sleep at this point. And work tomorrow would be out of the question.

 

Well it runs. Seems I have a fuel and coolant leak to chase down.

 

Very cool, Charles.