6.7L Cummins conversion project

[Pntyrmvr]

Bravo!


"Talk is cheap. Whiskey costs money."

[Sheriffdoug]

Originally Posted by mgmetalworks

Well... the Cummins van moved under its own power today. Far enough out of the shop to get a bath at least.

The minor fuel leak seems to be getting more minor so that's a bonus. The power steering leaks look to be fixed too. Now I'm just down to enabling the electronics with my 'CAN bridge'...a device to handle communications between the engine, trans and van modules. This is where familiarity with automotive electronics and computer programming come in handy.








[video=youtube;usTOxSdM3Vo]

__________________
2008 Yellow Ford E350 6.0 diesel eb50 4x4, Front E Locker, Asheville Eng Rebuil 20th @ 261miles, ARP Studds, 200amp Alternator, Performance Aluminium Radiator, OnBoardAir, RoadmasterActiveSuspension, Front & Rear Aluminess with Spare Tire Carrier, Aluminess Roof Rack, Titan Aft 30gallon Fuel Tank.

04-09-2017, 09:58 PM	#533
mgmetalworks Senior Member   Join Date: Sep 2013 Location: Newberg, OR Posts: 1,385	If you follow our Instagram or Facebook pages, you may have seen a couple videos of the Cummins van pulling out of the driveway and running down the road. Good feeling all around knowing that the van runs and moves freely about the world now. As with any mega project though, it is not without some items to address. The Allison trans now being the bulk of those items. The good news is that I was able to get the Cummins ECM and the Allison TCM to communicate directly with each other rather than having an intermediate "CAN Bridge" to handle communications. This is huge because it's like an OEM to OEM connection... rock solid, very little worry of a loss of communication. The not awesome news is that I have a couple DTCs that may be related to each other that are causing a 'limp mode' condition in the trans. I started reading about the troubleshooting steps in the manual but playing outside with the kids sounded more fun so I put the ohmmeter away for the day. I can check the harness tomorrow. Anyhow... the hardest parts of this build are over. Interior is coming up. Materials being ordered, parts on the way, new designs taking shape. Can't wait to use this van! For those who are curious... Even with zero interior and only minimal sound deadening at this point, the Cummins is super quiet compared to the 6.0 and 7.3.

04-09-2017, 10:02 PM	#534
mgmetalworks Senior Member   Join Date: Sep 2013 Location: Newberg, OR Posts: 1,385	Originally Posted by Sheriffdoug Congratulations, Very sweet sound of that big Cummins Stright Six 6.7 litre. I see you like Chrome. So do I. What is the lift on your CUMFORD ? What look/finish will the front & rear bumpers be, The Ujoint or Aluminess look? Cheers Doug. Lift is ~6" The front bumper will be the ARB Sahara that I adapted to the van early last year (pics on our website expovans.com) and I'm designing my own rear bumper for this van.

05-01-2017, 02:35 PM	#535
mgmetalworks Senior Member   Join Date: Sep 2013 Location: Newberg, OR Posts: 1,385	Almost have all of the materials to get my new flooring in place. Friday I got a big delivery of L-track. Today I got the finish material via frieght, later this week I'll be getting the 'subfloor' materials... roll of flooring goodness... While I'm waiting for the rest of the stuff, I have been designing mounts for my new seats (I sold the Sienna seats that were in my van already) plus trying to decide on the final layout of the van. Haven't had a chance to drive the van much because I still need to troubleshoot the transmission errors and I have a customer van in the shop on the lift at the moment so personal projects wait. I know what I need to do though...pull the valve body and see what it making a valve stick/pressure switch not trigger. Piece of cake.

05-09-2017, 09:29 PM	#536
mgmetalworks Senior Member   Join Date: Sep 2013 Location: Newberg, OR Posts: 1,385	I finally had a chance to chase down the issue I was having with the Allison trans. Deep inside the valve body was shift valve slide that didn't like to return to its fully closed position. This was causing two DTCs to force the trans into limp mode. I got the valve body out, traced the fluid paths for 1st gear and sure enough one of the shift valves wasn't where it was supposed to be....just a little sticky in the bore. I tried working it back and forth but it was obvious that I needed to clean up the bore a little. Valve body goes together and back in the van tomorrow and with any luck it will finally shift through all the gears and we can finalize the tuning. The trans stuff was just during break time... The bulk of the day was dedicated to Transit 4x4 system design and parts research. I'll be starting a build thread for that soon. Never a dull moment around here.

05-09-2017, 10:02 PM	#537
ranchero Member     Join Date: Jan 2016 Location: Salida, CO Posts: 76 Garage ranchero's Garage   Agnes	Michael - glad you're figuring this out...and I'm really looking forward to your Transit development. I think a transit 4x4 is likely next for me. __________________ 1990 Syncro Westy XPCamper/NIMBL on 2007 Ram3500. A few Cruisers 2006 E350 RB-31 MG Metalworks/UJOR 4x4 swap (on to another)

05-10-2017, 12:48 PM	#538
mgmetalworks Senior Member   Join Date: Sep 2013 Location: Newberg, OR Posts: 1,385	Originally Posted by ranchero Michael - glad you're figuring this out...and I'm really looking forward to your Transit development. I think a transit 4x4 is likely next for me. I'll put you on the 4x4 Transit mailing list. I will be sending out updates pretty regularly now that we're making progress.

05-10-2017, 01:04 PM	#539
Flux Senior Member     Join Date: Aug 2016 Location: Reno, NV Posts: 1,420	Congrats on your progress, with everything. You give the layman a lot of inspiration to go out and tackle harder stuff. Can't wait to see the Transit!! __________________ <br> Tim - 2013 EB V10 Agile 4x4 SMB PH Ginger Army All Terrain Mobile HQ

05-26-2017, 05:13 PM	#540
mgmetalworks Senior Member   Join Date: Sep 2013 Location: Newberg, OR Posts: 1,385	Well this is how my Memorial weekend is starting.... Have a problematic leak to take care of and an internal issue causing one of the clutches to not engage. On the bright side.... all of the work I did to make things easy to service have proven to work very well.

[mgmetalworks]

If you follow our Instagram or Facebook pages, you may have seen a couple videos of the Cummins van pulling out of the driveway and running down the road. Good feeling all around knowing that the van runs and moves freely about the world now. As with any mega project though, it is not without some items to address. The Allison trans now being the bulk of those items.

The good news is that I was able to get the Cummins ECM and the Allison TCM to communicate directly with each other rather than having an intermediate "CAN Bridge" to handle communications. This is huge because it's like an OEM to OEM connection... rock solid, very little worry of a loss of communication.

The not awesome news is that I have a couple DTCs that may be related to each other that are causing a 'limp mode' condition in the trans. I started reading about the troubleshooting steps in the manual but playing outside with the kids sounded more fun so I put the ohmmeter away for the day. I can check the harness tomorrow.

Anyhow... the hardest parts of this build are over. Interior is coming up. Materials being ordered, parts on the way, new designs taking shape. Can't wait to use this van!

For those who are curious... Even with zero interior and only minimal sound deadening at this point, the Cummins is super quiet compared to the 6.0 and 7.3.

[mgmetalworks]

Originally Posted by Sheriffdoug

Congratulations,

Very sweet sound of that big Cummins Stright Six 6.7 litre.

I see you like Chrome. So do I.

What is the lift on your CUMFORD ?

What look/finish will the front & rear bumpers be, The Ujoint or Aluminess look?

Cheers Doug.

Lift is ~6"

The front bumper will be the ARB Sahara that I adapted to the van early last year (pics on our website expovans.com) and I'm designing my own rear bumper for this van.

[mgmetalworks]

Almost have all of the materials to get my new flooring in place. Friday I got a big delivery of L-track. Today I got the finish material via frieght, later this week I'll be getting the 'subfloor' materials...

roll of flooring goodness...


While I'm waiting for the rest of the stuff, I have been designing mounts for my new seats (I sold the Sienna seats that were in my van already) plus trying to decide on the final layout of the van.

Haven't had a chance to drive the van much because I still need to troubleshoot the transmission errors and I have a customer van in the shop on the lift at the moment so personal projects wait. I know what I need to do though...pull the valve body and see what it making a valve stick/pressure switch not trigger. Piece of cake.

[mgmetalworks]

I finally had a chance to chase down the issue I was having with the Allison trans. Deep inside the valve body was shift valve slide that didn't like to return to its fully closed position. This was causing two DTCs to force the trans into limp mode. I got the valve body out, traced the fluid paths for 1st gear and sure enough one of the shift valves wasn't where it was supposed to be....just a little sticky in the bore. I tried working it back and forth but it was obvious that I needed to clean up the bore a little. Valve body goes together and back in the van tomorrow and with any luck it will finally shift through all the gears and we can finalize the tuning.



The trans stuff was just during break time... The bulk of the day was dedicated to Transit 4x4 system design and parts research. I'll be starting a build thread for that soon.

Never a dull moment around here.

[ranchero]

Michael - glad you're figuring this out...and I'm really looking forward to your Transit development. I think a transit 4x4 is likely next for me.

[mgmetalworks]

Originally Posted by ranchero

Michael - glad you're figuring this out...and I'm really looking forward to your Transit development. I think a transit 4x4 is likely next for me.

I'll put you on the 4x4 Transit mailing list. I will be sending out updates pretty regularly now that we're making progress.

[Flux]

Congrats on your progress, with everything. You give the layman a lot of inspiration to go out and tackle harder stuff.

Can't wait to see the Transit!!

[mgmetalworks]

Well this is how my Memorial weekend is starting....



Have a problematic leak to take care of and an internal issue causing one of the clutches to not engage. On the bright side.... all of the work I did to make things easy to service have proven to work very well.