matty_fly

I decided that I was tired of having electrical gremlins that no normal person can trace and repair, and made the truck completely unreliable, so I just sold my 08 Silverado 2500 HD and picked up this:




78 W200 Crew with 22k original miles on the stock 360/727 combo. It's as clean as it looks, it was a FD brush truck and wasn't used much apparently. I haven't picked it up yet, but it's paid for and I plan on getting it this week.

My original plan was to find a ECLB 4x4 chassis and swap the body over, then I looked closer and noticed the drive flanges, and decided that since it already had a 60F, that I would keep the super clean 78 frame and drop a CTD into it.

I picked up this hideous thing right around the corner from my house to supply the engine:





It's a 97 with 243k miles. I bought it very right and can hopefully get a good amount of my money back out of the bed, good doors, and scrapping the rest. For the engine, I will most likely go through it lightly, fix any oil leaks, swap injectors, KDP it, and make it pretty. I might go so far as to pull the head and have it rebuilt, but with the decent miles, I'll be leaving the shortblock alone. Power wise, I'll prob shoot for bumping it up to 250-300 HP and somewhere around 600ft lbs. Enough to to go but still be mostly normal.

Transmission wise, I am hoping to find a low mile or reman nv4500 and hang a reman 205 off it's tail. Yes, it's expensive, but it's also new parts I won't have to worry about, and all of this is a whole lot cheaper than my gasser chevy was and even cheaper than a new 4 door diesel.

Front axle wise, if I can find some selectro lockouts, I'll leave it alone til something breaks, if not, I'll prob swap out the outers. Rear axle will become either a 80 or 14b, depending on what I can locate, disc braked in either case.

Otherwise, I am going to sound deaden the crap out of it, add AC, a good stereo, and drive the wheels off it. I just sold my property preservation business and am starting to restore vintage VW's, so this will be the towrig/family hauler.

thrashingcows

Hey Welcome to the board. Nice project your going to have there! Congrats on dumping the bow tie, and going with some quality iron.

matty_fly

Thanks. I had a 24v before the chevy, but it gave me fits in the electronic department as well, and I was always paranoid about the VP44, even with gauges and a FASS. I thought about new CTD's for a minute, but decided that I would prefer something that I could actually repair in my shop and would not have to deal with. I also want it to be nice and reliable, so that's why I'm ponying up the cash to basically build a new truck.

simplysmn

double check but to me that look's like possible a dana 44 full time frontend ?

matty_fly

I don't think the Dana 44 had drive flanges, they were all unit bearings as far as I know. Maybe some of the old closed knuckle axles, but by 78 they were unit bearing open knuckle. Should be a 30 spline Dana 60F.

edit, unit bearing 44 on this 78, note the castle nut and no drive flange

simplysmn

Yeah just by looking at the outside it could be a D44 what transfer case does it have ? 203 having a full time frontend and being a w200 it's Light weight stuff underneath I may be wrong but that has been my experience with Dodges .

matty_fly

I cannot find any reference to a drive flanged D44 in the front of these trucks. Coming from here: http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/dodge...-my-truck.html

States all were equipped with 203's and that the D44's were unit bearing and the 60's were drive flange equipped. I'm guessing that since mine went into government service, it was a heavy 3/4 and equipped similar to the CUCV trucks.

Further, here is a 78 Dodge 60 with an external hub which looks like mine.


Not trying to start a pissing match, just trying to learn the facts, I know all about HP king pin 60's, later CAD 60's and chevy 60's. but very little about the early dodge 60.

simplysmn

Yeah it's Hard to say untill you look at it in Person but if it's a full time frontend then you will have a 203 and won't be any good for a ctd swap .

matty_fly

Huh? The 203 is leaving with the 727 and being replaced with a NV400/205 combo. The front driveshaft will just spin all the time unless I put on a set of lockouts or just pull the pucks

simplysmn

Is the front disk Brake ? I honestly haven't ever played with that style frontend is why I was asking great looking truck thou .

Moparmax

Dodge had disks on all the 70's full time trucks. That looks to be a d60 front end, the 44s are like the brown truck posted before. just need to get some hubs to replace the drive flanges and it is a part time axle.
MM

matty_fly

Thanks for clarifying.

Rick 12v CTD

If it's a 97 auto it will have a 180 pump on it. If stick it'll have the 215.

If it's a 180 this is what I would do to the motor. 2095 rack plug. Remove the plate. Do the afc mods and tune up the afc all nice. Even without a plate you should be able to tune it to almost zero smoke. I would pick up a set of 215 injectors (5x10s),have them cleaned and repopped. Buy a tork tek ofv valve and 3k gsk springs. Set timing at 16*

Whatever you do, remove the head and have it gone over. Take it off, have it cleaned and checked for cracks, have the valves cut and deck the head, make sure it's good to go another 250k miles. Put new valve stem seals in with 60# valve springs. . Get new oe head bolts. Stock Cummins head gasket.

For the rest of the motor just clean it up and do a general reseal. You know. Front/rear crank seals. Pan, oil cooler if it's seeping. Tappet cover. Tab the kdp. I would retorque and locktite most bolts as well. Most of the time things start leaking in the first place because the rattling motor loosens the bolts.

Do all that and come back and tell me I was right.

While it's all off, now would be a good time to upgrade to an he351cw as well. It's a great turbo for the kind of power you'd be making.

Also, if you do everything I said you'll have 300-350hp and 700+ft lbs and the motor should still be plenty reliable. Just get a clutch to match.

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matty_fly

It's a 180hp auto. I decided today that I'm going to pull the head after I noticed a little bit of compression escaping around a head bolt. I will be doing the rebuild on the head myself, I have a full valve and seat grinding setup. I can definitely budget going through it as I only spent $1500 on the entire truck.

Also, I am currently considering going with a 2wd NV4500 or even 5600 and running a divorced 205 behind it. 1st gen 5 speeds are rare as hens teeth around here, and if I can get a divorced setup for the same price, I'll do it.

Rick 12v CTD

I think you can buy a 23 to 29 spline coupler. In fact I think I saw one for sale over on cf in the first gen classifieds... If you do want to keep it married

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