Hey Mark -- Those boots look great. I am curious, though, about how much throw your twin sticks have. With the set up in my blue truck using two stock levers, the throw was excessive, and the rubber boot I bought ended up tearing after a few years. You are probably ahead of me on this, but I wanted to make sure you had checked that your design had enough material to accommodate the lever travel, and that you were happy with the aesthetics of the boot with the levers in the RWD Hi position . . .

Didn't the '92 & '93 trucks have an accordioned rubber boot in the floor opening before the trim boot? I was always going to get around to making a second inverted heavy rubber boot for sound deadening -- with the two sticks, it seemed as though I didn't have enough room for effective sound insulation in the boots, if that makes sense.

And it seems like you are already making your wife a good husband, eh?

 

Well I pulled Blue out of the mud and crawled under it. I found a dead loose hose clamp on the oil cooler, tried to tighten it, and it immediately stripped. Replaced the clamp.......no joy. The oil cooler itself is ruptured.

 

Hey, JFonder, did you swap to the 60lb springs on just the exhaust or the intakes also?

 

I did them both.

 

Thanks Alec,
My sticks also move quite a bit. The boots are pretty tall, hopefully that will allow for more flexibility. I will mess around with it for a while to see what works and what doesn't. I figure I may have to re do it a couple times before I get what I want.

I don't remember how the later boots are.
I am thinking a thick fairly soft piece of leather with slits cut for the sticks may work for some sound deadening.I'll have to look to see if that is even doable.

P.S.
I tried to make my wife a good husband but she didn't like all the seams And the electrodes in the head were a total turn off.

 

I've always heard 60 lb springs were needed for the higher rpm trucks, and unless your at that level they are not needed. But it sounds to me it was a good "upgrade" for you? If one were to put in heavy duty springs in if not needed there is no bad to come out of the swap?
I actually bought new 60 lb springs from cummins to do this swap, but the comments I got back from DTR members at the time(2008) said it was not needed cause I wasn't at the 4,000 rpm levels. Talk to me JFonder

 

Consider this.....Valve spring rate is a compromise between getting the valve closed in good time and camshaft wear.

 

 

Replaced Blue's auxiliary transmission cooler with a hose splice. Added 6 qts. of ATF+4 to the transmission. Still isn't on the stick. Heading to town for more fluid.

 

Why the ATF+4?

 

60 lb springs are added for exhaust brakes in addition to rpm requirements.

 

It's the modern replacement for AFT+, the original fluid.
It took 8 qts total to bring it up to full. If weather permits, I'll road test it today.

 

Its good stuff.
Semi synthetic, slick shifting even in bitter cold, and has a long service life.

 

The Cummins 60lb springs are the same springs that come standard in marine applications. Engines that run at 2000rpm for days on end and only shut down for maintenance. I'm not worried about them causing any excessive wear. I've been told anything near factory redline, 2700, it's good to have them. i have a 3200 spring and may one day swap to a 3800 and bigger cam. Now I have the valve springs to do so. The biggest improvement right now probably came more from setting the valve lash tight at .008 and .018.

 

We seem to forget these engines are industrial engines and were around a long time before Chrysler ever thought of putting one in a truck.