12v Excursion Redo

therabbittree · 03-28-2009, 02:43 PM

I didn't want to hijack my first gen G56 swap thread any more ha.. so I figured I would start a new thread in the conversion forum for the project.
I had been looking for a decent Excursion to do a 12v manual trans swap, I had a extra 12v engine etc. I was all set to buy a cheaper gas 4x4 Excursion when my wife found a ad for a 4x4 Excursion with a 12v cummins and nv4500 already installed etc! Only problem was it was lifted 8" and we were planning on this being a family ride etc ha......

I talked to the owner and decided to check it out.I flew out to Ohio and bought it. I probably jumped on it too fast etc oh well.
The Excursion was built from a 5.4 gasser, it is gold and it has tan leather. The previous owner was Shaun Dance. He built it and he is not on the internet boards etc... He does Structural steel / farm supply so he fabricated his own Engine mounts, tracbars etc. He bought the Excursion from the original owner who had it rolling on 22" rims and low profile tires ..kinda like a Donk.
Shaun took a 1994 School bus and removed the 12v p pumped cummins out for the Excursion. He also sourced a 2nd gen 5 spd cummins. He lives near WoodDruff Diesel. He worked out a deal with them to rebuild the NV4500 rebuild it with upgraded shafts and 5th gear etc. He had Woodruff oring the cyl head also. Shaun added a 8" BDS lift and took the low profile tires off and added some 37" Kumho off road tires. The Excursion was used for cruising and some local pulls. There are 2 videos of it on youtube etc. I drove the Excursion home and have ripped it apart and I am changing a lot of it. I decided to do this thread to help thers with similar projects and to document the conversion etc...
Thanks
deo

therabbittree · 03-28-2009, 03:02 PM

More specs on the truck: the engine is 1994 school bus engine. It was rebuilt with new rings bearings and o-ringed cyl head. I was told the inj pump has 11mm plungers and was rated at 160hp stock. The pump had no fuel plate installed. It has lazer cut Delivery valves and 4000 gov springs. The injectors are 370's. Shaun did not know many of the engine particulars, such as timing and what not. He had removed the Engine Data Tag also...ARGH #@$%! ha. The engine had no grid heater. He installed a ats manifold and had J. Mez turbos build a HX50 with a machined 6cm wastegated exhaust housing. the 6cm housing was bored out to fit the HX50 turbine wheel. then 4 studs were welded to the turbine housing and tabs and nuts are used to hold the center section and turbine together.

Incase your wondering ..about the extra small turbine housing..ha yes I am concerned too ha..it does sound awesome though ..its like a jet engine spooling up ha..it has instant boost..you can rev it up in nuetral and see 5-10lbs boost just reaving the engine

I plan on changing it up some and will post more here. also in the second picture you can see a bit of carbon between near the center section. Well on the drive back from Ohio to VA ( my wife's family is in VA) the tubine and center section must have vibrated slightly loose. I noticed it the next day in VA, I was looking fro the source of the carbon coating the engine compartment. I leaned on the compressor, and felt it move

. I noticed the little nuts on the studs had loosed up. I tightened them up and no more leak argh. It was winter time (thanksgiving) so I could not de carbon or wash the engine bay etc. I realized Electrical work was not a specialty of the prevoius owner. Driving back without a working speedo & only the rear interior blower motor wbuilds character.

therabbittree · 03-28-2009, 03:44 PM

The Excursion had a Enterprise Engine dual disk pulling clutch. It was very strong but you could not shift it too fast. When you shift it you shift it without the clutch , floating the gears like in a big truck. I got the hang of it relatively quick , I have my cdl and used to Drive for a living. Shaun had modified a Ford manual trans pedal and hydrualic clutch pushrod to work with the NV4500. For those of you not used to the ford clutch pedal bushing / retaing system it is a pain in the butt. The stock setup has a plastic bushing with little ears that presses into the hydraulic pushrod where it attaches to the pedal. It likes to break eve nbrand new..it can allow the clutch pedal to swing free if the pushrod pushs off the pedal stub..argh

. as you can imagine this happend several times during my drive home ha.. it is not cool to be stuck in a interesction at a light...with a free swing clutch pedal haha. I fixed that problem asap. I removed the pedal and drilled the stub for a push pin and shimmed a new bushing to fit. No pedal problems now. My wife drives standard and has no problem witha normal clutch and transmission ha. But a transmission that needs to be shifted with out the clutch was a little tricky for her. Plus the pedal pressure was very high ha..a 5' tall woman climbing into a 8" lifted Excursion with no side steps is pretty sporting ha. Then pushing the pedal in and mastering floating the gears was a little tough.. i could see where this was headed. I had purchases a new takeout '07 G56 6Spd and Sothbend Single disk FE clutch for a swap into my first gen. Of course she says why don't you swap the transmissions ha...well I finally decided to do that.
I decided to redo the Excursion adding a 6 spd G56 single & disk FE clutch, drooping the 8" lift for a 4 " lift, completely fix the MANY misc electrical gremlins, add a 4" remote exhaust brake, add a Kid and mud proof Vinyl floor, etc etc.. more to come.
Thanks
deo

therabbittree · 03-28-2009, 04:29 PM

More problems that I discovered and fixed, ha..
After a cold night when I first brought the truck home. I had a hard time starting it. I figured it was because of the lack of a grid heater etc. I plugged in the block heater and put a battery charger on it.. and finally got it to start. Well I saw some smoke from under the hood and popped it open. I noticed the smoke was from the serp belt..

. After shutting it down I discovered the coolant hoses were semi solid ha and the waterpump wasn't able to freely spin causing the serp belt to smoke.. argh .. Seems the mixture of antifreeze the previous owner had was pretty inadequate. I used a gardenhose attached to my home's hot water and back flushed the coolant system . I was lucky it didn't fully freeze and crack a block....ask me how i know about that. ( I had previously cracked a block in my '89 first gen about 10 years ago) I added new coolant and buttoned up everything. When i restarted the engine more coolant leaks. argh Fearing the worst i checked the black ha.. it was fine but i did find a ford Quick connect plastic heater hose connection that had cracked andpoped off..argh.

I decided to remove them and use hose clamps and regular hose. Of course in order to remove all of them with the Excursions rear heat etc, I had to remove the turbo to get more access room.

This was the start of the down ward spiral..ha..decided to fix all the problmes then..truck has been down since then etc.

therabbittree · 03-28-2009, 05:02 PM

While I had the heater hose area apart I noticed a large bulge in the alternator cable . Well after dissecting it I found a nice suprise. The cable had been attached by splitting the cable into two smaller portions and using WIRENUTS

I figured I was in for more of these discoveries. Ha I found that the stock 5.4 gas fords have the starter relay on the pass side. The cummins starter is on the drivers side. The truck was wired with the cables leaving the drivers side, travelling to the pass side and then back to the drivers side. The Cruise control was also mounted on the passenger side and not hooked up. The Batteries were not secured very well, and they were not very strong, and I wanted to add a grid heater.

So I opened the wiring up and pulled the relay wires out, moved the cruise control and starter relay to drivers side,

fabricated a new battery tray, sodered new alternator cable, and upgraded to new 2/0 battery cables.

I discovered the EGT / boost wires along with the stereo power were run into the cab with out any grommets on the holes..argh. The holes also passed though some brackets on the inside that hold the ecu.

more to follow....

therabbittree · 03-28-2009, 07:06 PM

I had a friend who recently blew up his NV4500 and he wanted to sell his first gen 4x4 5spd 3.07 axles,cruise,a/c from the factory truck etc. ....so we worked out a deal for him to buy my trans and clutch and I'd buy his first gen. Talked to the the Wife and She was excited to sell the dual disk clutch ha and have me install the new G56 and single disk so I got to it...
It was one of the colder nights this winter and the excursion does not fit in my small 2 car garage so it was pulled outside on a asphalt millings driveway in the snow..ha..good times....

the dual disk enterprise clutch was in good shape ...felt good to get it out in the snow...

therabbittree · 03-28-2009, 07:16 PM

with the NV4500 out I wanted to clean up the oil leaks on the engine. I found that the oil coating the bottom of the engien was from the front crank seal. It had run all the way down the oil pan and made it look like the rear seal was leaking too.. but it was bone dry when I pulled the trans adapter plate off etc. I degreased it a littlebit and plan to really go over it in the warmer weather..etc....

therabbittree · 03-28-2009, 07:46 PM

I wanted to test fit the G56 trans to a extra cummins i have. Southbend had mentioned the FE clutch and flywheel would fit my first gen trans adapter..but I was going to be using the longer 2nd gen trans adapter. I test fit it and it all seemd to be ok.. the starter seemd to mesh when i pulled the gear out..

I made up some nice Dowels to thread in the crank to help position the flywheel with out dropping it on my face ha.. They worked real nice ..basically cut the heads off the bolts and cut a slot for a screw driver.

I then removed the interior to cut a bigger trans hole. I discovered the previous owner had cut right thru the floor heat ducting ha.... i'll have to make some new ones. I plan on adapting / fabbing up a removable trans hump cover etc.

therabbittree · 03-28-2009, 07:59 PM

The Transmission has 29 spline output shaft and the 273 ford transfer case is 31 slip input..sot he previous owner had used a adpater kit from Advanced adapters. The part # is 50-0220 50-0220 . The advanced adapter kit requires you to cut .600 of a inch from thetrans output to make it fit..thats was a pain to do in the trans out housing and under the truck I had to do it with a dremel tool as my air cutoff tool was MIA and it wouldn't have fit in the trans....

therabbittree · 03-28-2009, 08:05 PM

In order to fit the trans cross member I had to cut it down in height. After finishing the crossmember I went to install the drive shafts & I found they need to be cut / modified too as the trans is longer . ha.. so when I modify the suspension lift to lower the truck I will measure the shaft lengths and get that done..ha..

therabbittree · 03-28-2009, 08:50 PM

I plan on running 285/75/16 duragrapplers on some 16" Ion aluminum rims.

I am debating how to lower the truck ... either drop buy 4 of the BDS 4" springs for $900...

, or remove the BDS 8" lift and sell it, and modify a set of stock springs like Carlt does over on the Diesel Page, or remove the stock rear block and modify the stock front spring hangers..any ideas?.
pic of the rear springs and stock blocks and the front springs and hangers..

I'll post up more pictures for the build as it progresses
Thanks,
Deo

therabbittree · 03-30-2009, 02:22 PM

I too kthe front end off this sunday to degrease it / prep for paint, check the KDP, and replace the leasking front crank seall.. found the seal had a rolled lip. Also i really dislike the superduty aero headlight retaining system..something has to happen with that..ha.. found the cam is a bolt on style, and the kdp pin was tabbed already ..nice..

before

After

old rolled seal lip