Had a day off, somewhat today... So I started working on the install at 10:30am. Just quit at 7:30pm and I'm not done....

I've got the studs in, bottom tapped. Loosened and torqued a total of 3 times. Either I'm turning into a girly man or this is just alot of work... In my humble defense, I do have a bad back. My truck is kinda higher than stock so I step up on a milk crate, lay in the engine compartment, get back down. And do that about what seems like at least a hundred times...

All I have left to do is put back the rockers and stuff, then the aluminum rocker boxes... I'm just beat... I took pics but I won't post em' till tomorrow... Later

 

I did my studs while waiting for my injectors to come back i did them over three days and I was still whipped. Worked on truck after work in the evenings..

 

now see why most folks just take it somehwere.thats why i have a job.its alot of work but that keeps us jobs cause alot of folks rather pay then play.

 

I am trying to find someone to install some for me. the local guy said around 500, I was like no thanks. I have no problem paying I dont expect anything for free. but im not paying that much

 

You did them right. I applaud you for that!
Yeah, its a bunch of work to do them right. Or even do them wrong!

 

Other than the physical labor part of it, was there anything else "bad" about it? Or was it pretty straight forward?

I was gonna waite till this winter to bottom tap mine when I pull the head but it kinda sounds like you didnt have any trouble with that part. Then again if this is all that physically intense maybe I will just waite till this winter to install em anyway and only do it once.

 

OOh man that's my next step.....

 

Yes its alot of work. My best advice is to do it over a weekend not one day. I seem to find if I try to stuff a tedious job into one day towards the end I always seem to make stupid little mistakes. Also it sounds like you did everything right, but did you perform a heat cycle? Just making sure, but all the installers I talked to said it was important.

 

Did you take lots of pic's for a write up?????

 

Didn't do a heat cycle. I've talked to builders who recommended it also, and some that don't. And according to ARP, the studs will not stretch after the third retorque. I may still plan on a fourth retorque in the future, depending upon how I feel about doing this again..

Will, I was a little nervous at first, tearing everything off the top of the engine. After I removed the aluminum rocker box that holds the injector wires, then the rockers themselves, I was impressed with the engineering that went into our Cummins. The rockers are quite a piece of engineering and they are stout. And once you remove the first set, the rest are cake. Really there is nothing complicated about it. I was thinking about ya when I was disassembling stuff. I took pics and will post them later today.
I agree with Rye. It'd be best to make this a weekend project. I wish I knew that before I started, but I thought I read is was a 6-8 hour job.... NOT
Maybe if you had an extra hand but doing it alone is time consuming. There's 26 bolts/studs...
Two things I can think of that you should have on hand that made my job a bit easier. A roll of paper towels is a must. You will get dirty/oily and everything you remove has black oil all over. I used the whole roll of paper towels. The next thing is an air ratchet. I used it for alot of the disassembly, but what it really saved me on was the bottom tapping. I started the tap in by hand, then used the ratchet to drive it down the rest of the way with a 5/16" socket. I backed it out a few revs before the bottom as you would when tapping anything. Also get a magnetic tipped telescopic "pen". This is what I used to remove shavings from the holes. Worked well.
Also, some holes seemed to "fill" with engine oil for whatever reason, and you'll know it when your removing the shavings. I used about a 4 foot piece of 1/4" tubing I had left over from my water/meth install and stuck it into a shop vac and taped it so most of the sucking would be directed thru the small tubing. The vac wasn't happy about this, but it did a fine job of sucking up the oil in those holes.
One thing that surprised me was how loose the stock bolts "seemed" to be. I didn't use the torque wrench to remove them (that's a no-no) just used about a 2 foot breaker bar. They came off in half an easy turn and they were loose. Seemed like maybe 70-80ft/lbs, but that's just an estimate. Also I highly recommend get some type of electronic torque wrench. This Snap-on one I bought used on Ebay is incredible. You press a few buttons to get up to 125lbs and its set. You don't have to look at anything while using it. As you're torquing, the wrench will vibrate and beep when you reach your desired torque AND when your done, it displays the max torque you reached on that pull. Sometimes I was alittle under at 124.x and sometimes alittle over at 128ish. Very accurate and a well built tool.

 

Awsome wright up Tony, I look forward to seein your pics. Thanks

 

pics in new thread........

 

good job, thanks for the write up.
you almost make me want to pay someone, almost.