Before we ever got our van, my longer term vision for our family adventure rig included a Cummins under the hood. I was going to wait a while before doing this conversion but what the heck, let's do this!!
Here are the details:
-2013 E-350 EB with Quadvan 4x4 Conversion
-2013 High Output 6.7L (370hp, 800ft-lb... Got this from a truck damaged in transit to dealer...12 miles on it when it was dismantled).
-'06-up Allison 6-speed. I'll be converting the bell housing to the SAE #3 unit and using an adapter ring and associated parts from Howard's Allison Conversions. This set up is shorter than the Destroked adapter with the GM bellhousing. It is also cheaper. That's plan A. I haven't found the trans yet but I am ready to jump on a fair deal. Plan B is to use a 68RFE or Aisin out of a Ram truck if I have to. As disappointing as it may be to a lot of people, I am not going to consider a manual trans. No disrespect to the manual...I just don't want one.
-NV271 transfer case. (already have the parts needed to mate to Allison)
I have quite a few of the parts rounded up already (except for the trans and exhaust pieces) and I'll be starting the tear down relatively soon. A few upgrades to the shop have to happen first, the most important of which is a lift. I'm thinking the easiest way to do some of this work is to pull the body off the frame.
The engine
An extra wiring harness to cut up
Obviously the biggest issue with this swap is the electronics integration. There isn't exactly a lot of information online about the new Cummins ECM (a CM2350B) but I have a couple potential connections to the right people to talk to about it (fingers crossed). The second (rather significant) challenge is the trans controller. An off the shelf stand alone controller for the Allison 6-speed doesn't exist but a couple folks on another forum have been able to get a combination of controls parts to work pretty well. If its been done before, it can be done again, right?
Between now and the time I start pulling the existing drivetrain, I'll be gathering parts and information....and I can tell you without a doubt there is a lot of information to be gathered.
I'll for sure be taking a lot of pictures during the swap and I'm the sharing type so if there is any particular bit of information you'd like me to expand on, don't hesitate to ask.
One could argue that this swap will never "pencil out"...and they'd be right. The ROI is tough if not impossible to justify. But life would be boring if we all lived by accounting rules, wouldn't it?