First off, BIG THANKS TO ADAM!!!!!!!!!

You rock man I never woulda got it done without you!!

Second, thanks to everyone who has called, offered advice, help, and tools and parts.


My epic started two weekends ago at Cris's house near Cherry Point when we installed new F1 springs and Flux 2's.



Doing stuff on the Big Rig is always a chore and Cris actually has a garage it will fit in. We we're also gonna install nitrous, but I forgot some of the kit.


We still ended up taking the front wheels off just to make it easier.





Thanks to Daniel for all his help too.



All back together and a test drive made clear there was alot more power and smoke onboard. Now I'm ready to call Bob and get that TNT-R for a test session on the dyno.


2 B contd

 

Then we did gauges in Cris's project race truck and stacks <- well stacks "sort of kinda stacks".



^^^ That's Daniel( aka> zuki-dan ) bailing me out and finishing off the gauges since I was way overdoing it.



^^^ Cris has the best stack clamps you'll ever see.




2 B contd

 

MOVE FORWARD TO THE FRIDAY BEFORE THE DYNO DAY.

I had gotten the TNT-R from Bob the night before, but I wanted to take the current Wild Smarty out for a test run before I put the R on it so i could have a SOTP comparison for any difference. I got up early Friday morning since I also had to work 12 hours that day. I started the truck to warm it up while I loaded up the two 35's I'd need to dyno. Once they were in, I took a slow drive down some back roads until I knew the thermostat was open. With Smarty on 9 and everything else unhooked or off, I started to flog it down some roads taking it to the limiter. Almost 3500, it ran great every time I hit a straight stretch. I turned around to head home and load the TNT-R, on one of the last straight stretches at about 2700-3200RPM's I heard some small pops. Not real loud. Let out, looked for white smoke in the exhaust trail, all clear. Okay, maybe it was the rail. Hit it again, it took off hard like usual. Rail stayed near 18K, EGT's never got above 1300. Okay, nothing major went back and loaded back to stock. Started truck and it idled fine. Updated to TNT-R. Loaded TNT-R into the truck and started it up. Idled fine. But as soon as I touched the throttle, it ran rough or sluggish. Like a gasser hesitating. Put it back to start, uh oh, still the throttle problem.


Well after lots of questions and suggestions, it became evident a week later that I needed to start pulling the head off to see what the heck is going on.

sqrll$$ offered his hoist but didn't want it back. Adam said he had one and could even help some. So I got started on tearing down the top of the motor until Adam reached a stopping point at work.









THIS IS FUNNY AND A CLASSIC DTR STORY. So Adam and I met up Friday for lunch. He says "I'll come out to the house and pick you up". I'm a little surprised, "Would you like some directions?" Adam says something like, " Ah nah man, I'm out on those roads going to the farm alot and your truck is hard to miss." Sweet!! He shows up without missing my drive way and we're off to Randy's for lunch, my treat. So we're sitting there at Randy's talking trucks and stuff and I said we should probably go ahead and get the hoist next. He frowns a little and then says that yes he does have one, but getting it will be tricky. HUH? TRICKY? Okay. He begins to explain to me that his grandfather had passed and now his grandmother with severe Alzheimer's is paranoid about everything including the dead grass! Okay..... I really don't want to be a problem causer. I can find another hoist. "Oh no, it'll be fine." He proceeds to call his mom and they come up with the plan of her distracting grandmother while we load this hoist up under the disguise of taking off scrap metal and trash. I'm really feeling like I'm causing trouble, but Adam insist. So we go out to grandma's driving slowly around the neighborhood killing some time and the we park across the street until his Mom shows up. She waves us back when the coast is clear and we pull the truck around to the garage in the back yard. Adam's truck IS LOUD, there was no sneaking. His mom then meets us out back and says Grandma said "What the heck was that?" about Adam's truck. Good, she's not caught on yet. Adam's mom was very friendly and mentions that their not always this devious, but this is just the better way to deal with poor ole grandma. At this point, I'm kinda concerned whether or not Grandma remembers where the shotgun is. Of course the hoist is in the very back of the garage with an enormous array of junk/tools/well, more junk in front of us. We're moving fast. Adam 's mom says maybe we can back the truck up a little more so Grandma can't see in. Again, I'm really hoping that if at least she remembers where the shotgun is, she forgot where the ammo was. To her, their family, but I'm a trespasser in the middle of open season. So, we finally get the hoist out and into the truck. Then Adam's mom has us pile trash and scrap on the hoist including a large black bag over the top of the hoist to help disguise it. We got in the truck and rolled out like bandits with a pile of jewels. Grinning the whole way!! I was relieved to be outta there and away from the imaginary shotgun I pictured granny pointing at me. What a start to the day and its barely after NOON.

 

MOVING ON TO THE MOTOR TEAR DOWN.

We get back to my house that Adam didn't need directions too because he'd seen my truck many times. Unload the hoist. I told Adam, if he had other things to do to go on. But he said he was gonna stay and help. So we start taking off this and that stopping to assess the situation or try and figure out where I lost that 14mm wrench this time. Talking trucks as we go. 5pm comes and its time for me to get my daughter from daycare. I'm expecting Adam to roll out, but he says, " You go on and I'll stay here so you don't have to put the tools up." Wow, I went and got my daughter and Adam still didn't leave. We stayed at it until we had the head off as dark was closing it.

BLOWN HEAD GASKET BETWEEN #3 and #4.


^^^ With the head barely off, we could see the problem with the gasket with just a little light.


^^^ Just a tiny bit of damage to the piston crown. Nothing major.


^^^ Adam helping to get the cherry picker hooked to the head.


^^^ A better shot with the head off.






^^^^^^^^^^ This is as far as I got before my computer crashed on Sat night.


I have since driven the head to Timinva. Its gonna be milled, oringed and a valve job. Should be good to go.

Will be picking it up from Tim this weekend hopefully at Creswell on Sat barring rainout.

 

Here's a better shot of it.

 

I was wondering when that story would surface

 

Thanks for the update, Keegan. Just so you know, the race will happen, if Saturday is rained we'll race on Sunday.


Thanks also to Adam for lending a helping hand and get away vehicle!

 

Man I hate that for you Keegan. Tim will do you a great job on the head work and you'll be good to go going forward. It's no fun in the time being though. It seems to happen to all of us with this diesel bug though. Hope it falls into place going forward for you.

 

lemme know if I can do anything for you buddy. Im in Raleigh and will do what I can to help.

 

I'm sorry to hear about the headgasket. Your truck doing that makes me start worring that mine will do it now also, since we are running about the same setup engine wise. Hope to see you at creswell.

 

Keegan, sorry to hear about all the problems you have had with your truck!
But, as you know, like you, I have definitely been there too! Glad to hear you and Adam were able to get it all taken care of and I know Tim will have a great job done on the cylinder head! Great report and photos too!

Hopefully we will see you at the OBX Event.

--------
John_P

 

Just to update everyone we set the O-ringed head and marine headgasket back in its rightful resting place this afternoon. Plans are for Keegan to work on it what he can during the week and we hope to finish it off Thursday.

 

I hope Keegan lets you run his truck down the 1320 at MATR for all the help you've given him...

 

You know I was thinking the same thing But at the same time I wouldn't want to break nothing

 

How about I just let you take your picture in front of it!!!