Damm right! I'm way behind, I need to catch up to you.

  This is the technical board...not open disc....

Superburban, how well did your truck get around with that 3-53?  I'm sure a 4-53 or 6V-53 would fit in there just as easy.

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Hey Drums, hate to nit pick, but then again I can't help myself 

The 3208 was never really a semi truck engine, especially an OTR semi engine. It was most commonly found in GM's Kodiac truck, which is the moving van, straight truck type, it was also used in school buses and a few other medium trucks. The 3208 was also used extensively in industrial, heavy equipment applications and in marine application. The 6BT has been used in the same applications.

Having once pursued the same direction. I settled on using the 6BT for many reasons. By diesel standards,
It's much lighter,
Fits better in the RC,
Produces far more power than any engine in it's class including the 3208,
Has superior power to weight ratio, and can be turned up to equal or exceed any real big rig engines,
Can be installed using factory available parts
Will accept almost any big rig tranny
Uses a superior injector pump

The 6BT is basically the smaller version of the L-M series but still posses the same reliability and durability of a big rig engine. The key that allows the 6BT to make insane power is it's use of various Bosch injector pumps. Many of these pumps can be turned up for much more power. Most of the old school diesels do not have injector pumps with these capabilities. Once you consider all of the advantages it becomes a no brainer to use the 6BT

Ed

what engine ill be using will depend on whitch one i can get the best deal on for the terms ie; milege , condition , value etcc on any perticular engine . also size is somwhat of a concern as i can cut the fire wall back but i do want to keep the stock dash and not have to cut the windshield at all .  cutting the trans tunnel isint a big deal for me ether .  i love fab work and welding almost as much as workin on my rc so this will combine my passions and test my skills .  if i cant get a part right or somthing fitted properly then chances are i personaly know 1 or more person(s) who ether know how to do it or have done it before . ill keep updating as this progresses . thanks for the few who think this is a cool idea and support me .


,Justin

the one thing i cant say enough ...... ive thought about a 4bt OR 6bt  and i just really want somthing bigger and just plain differint .  thats how some of the coolest things are made .......  with differint non mainstream ideas .  thats what i like about adapting the rc to fit a semi engine or hd equipment engine . 

,Justin

It was a better around town vehicle, then a highway vehicle, mainly because of the gears. but also because it was only rated at 101HP.  it only had the n55 injectors, to up the HP any, required replacing the injectors at $100 a piece. the other problem, it was load, no matter what was done, you could barely hear yourself think. the gear driven blower, and the gear driven cams were never meant to be quiet.
but it was unique, and got lots of attention, in the mid eighty's there were not to many diesel pickups. especially ones that had the sound of a greyhound bus.
On the highway, I'd get about 22 to 25 MPG, but had a usable top speed of 60 to 65. which back then was acceptable, as 55 was the speed limit.
the other drawback, is that unless it was pulling hard, it would not heat up much, so it kinda sucked for short trips in the winter.

That's been done several times.  Also and important thing to note is that the Cummins 6BT is also considered a good swap in a Deuce to replace the various 465 multifuel engines that come in them.

I wish you would quit using the term semi truck engine.  The 3208 is not a semi truck engine.  Its a medium duty truck engine.  I'm not sure the 3208 is even a 500K motor.  Two guys I work with that use to be Cat mechanics say the 3208 is junk and expensive to buy parts for. Your going to have a lot of fabricating to do to get an oddball engine to fit the engine bay alone.  Don't make it any harder on yourself and trying to fab the cab to fit as well.  If you want to have something that is different and loud go with a Detroit 4-53.  With a turbo they make pretty good power.  No it won't be as much as a 5.9 cummins but it would still be fun.  As mentioned before you can get a bell housing for the 435 that will bolt up to the SAE housing of the Detroit.  Being able to use a Dodge tranny will save a lot of your fab work. 

My father in law a 3208 in his ford 9000 dump truck,it hasn't been overhauled ever and he has 450K on it.  He is also very religious about maintenance, as well as the guy who had it before him.

I will agree that top notch maintenance will significantly extend the life of an engine but you said yourself it was taken care of by him as well as the previous owner.   Buying a used engine out of a boneyard or classifieds, you never know how it was maintained only being able to rely on what the seller "claims" was done in the past.  Anymore it seems there are more and more dishonest people when it comes to buying a used engine.  You just can't expect to get 500,000 miles out of an engine you know little if anything on how it was treated in the past.

my thoughts Exactly !  lol


,Justin

This is great!

looking forward to the conversion.  i'm subscribed to this build

well my 318 is taking a dump on me !  not sure whats wrong but its backfireing like a moth$#&@*er  so theres that much more motivation to yank the 100,000 + mile 318 out and the slipping 727  and shoe horn in that cat , detroit or maby cummins in !   ill thow up pics today of the radiator i got for the swap .  3ft tall x 4ft wide , 4in thick !!!!! with 4in wide hose ports ! wew ! 

,Justin

  Getting a new timing chain might be a lot less involved than pulling the motor..if it's the timing chain...

Ok few questions from the peanut gallery:
1. How will you cool it with medium duty parts like radiator and fans?
2.  How about suspension? 
3.  Transmission?  has to compatible with a transfer case... or run a divorced case but again wheelbase is too much of a factor....
4.  How will you gat it to pass smog and vehicle inspections in ca.? (I am pretty sure engine swaps like this are not liked in california)
5.  Do you have experience with large diesels?
6.  What is the truck's purpose? (DD, Towing, Trails, Mud?)
7.  How will you wire it?  still using original gauges and instruments? custom complete chassis harness?
8.What Are you using for axles?
8A.  What about brakes in those axles?
9.  Have you calculated final drive ratios to make it pheasible?
10.  What about a frame?  fully box yours?  will it handle the stress of the wieght and of hte forces applied from acceleration adn deceleration?
11.  Try asking over on pirte4x4.com and see what they think- Most of them are from ca. so they might have more info. 

I just wanted to look at it from an engineering standpoint...  Good luck either way..

theres a semi engine man if you wanna fit one of those personally I'd scrap the ramcharger idea. buy a long box extended cab 3/4 ton truck(the frame is made of material about .250" thick compared to the RC's .150" thick. but your still going to have to box the entire frame) then you take two sets of fenders and chop the 2 sets to make the front fenders as long as you need them I'd guess your going to have to extend the front sheet metal about a foot to a foot and a half. You'll have to body lift the h e double hockey sticks out of it that or my personal opinion section the body and add enough material to make the truck body tall enough to enclose the engine. Now I'm sure with your determination to use the ramcharger body I would chop the back roof off the rc you have(the whole section with the windows) and weld that onto the truck bed of the long chassis and add some doors ether finding some from a wrecked crew cab or just fabricate some yourself out of a set of front doors(Might as well with the the fabrication your doing already.

Now onto the rest of the drivetrain. if you find a wrecked peterbuilt or something(think durability when you choose an engine through the cheapest engine idea out the window right now that will do you no good) In my personal opinion with a rig this big I'd run some dual semi axles and forget about 4x4 it will be hard enough finding axles to handle the power from the semi diesel let alone one that can steer(unless your lucky enough to find rockwells. Personally I would say find out what a monster truck runs for a transfer case if your looking at running 4x4 think of the torque those motors make(they are rated at about 1400 hp think of the torque required to turn those tires they weigh about 500 pounds each.

Now your front end depending on whether you go with a 4x4 or 2x4 will require lots of modifications I would look into getting a semi truck front steering setup as it would be best equipped for your application but if your going 4x4 expect to learn alot about fabrication and when something is strong enough(I guarantee with this setup you WILL break parts) You have lots of research ahead of you because I would be willing to bet your best suspension option for a 4x4 will not have any close fitting cousins that you can just graft in.

Not only are you looking at heavy mods to the truck as a whole your going to be looking at heavy brake modifications. I would say the best option again is semi truck brakes(air brakes with big drums)

All in all your looking at a huge rig and hige amount of fab time to even make this driveable I say driveable not streetable because you live in ca. This is just a guess but I'm pretty sure the only way this will work is what I have above and I'm pretty sure theres no way you could do all that for less then 60 grand. Good luck btw I can get a rebuilt 727 at a tranny shop locally for only 375CDN and a rebuilt engine can probably be had for like 1500.

Nobody likes my idea geez? I didn't think it was that bad

lol hehe well I was going to buy a 72 passenger bus to make into a car hauler lol

wew ! an you guys thought my idea was crazy !  lol anyways ive been trying to gather up parts for the swap but ....... my current 318 setup decided it didint like the idea of being replaced in a few months so it took a fat crap on me !  cant figuer out why . ill keep this updated as i might be starting the tear down process alill earlyer then expected .

,Justin

It will never be legal since he is in CA.

Ok  I just want to know what kinda training wheel you are going to put on the oil pan. look at the pic of the furd. see the oil filters and pan that look like they hang at the same height as the front pumpkin. And you are going to have to fill the inside of the truck with lead just to balance the weight out. your best bet would be to chop a truck fram and do a ton of body mods to mount the rc cab to it. So it can be done just your going to have more of a truck then a RC and spend out the a** in time for fab work.

The RC frame can handle a 6bt as well.