5.9l Cummins in M35A3

[gunnersmate]

I did a lot of searching around the forum and on line and haven't come up with anything about swapping a 5.9 Cummins in M35A3. One of my thoughts is the radiator. Would the original Cat 3116 sufficiently cool an 5.9?

Mostly everything else I want to is already avalible. Pretty straight forward swap. New motor mounts, run throttle cables, fuel lines, and electrical (mainly starter and alternator) Run the exhaust and air intake, put in a new radiator. I plan to maintain the Allison 545. Any other thoughts or suggestions would really be appreciated.

 

[swbradley1]

Try reading all this thread and then decide.

http://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?60642-5-9-Cummins-NV4500-Hydro-boost-and-Disc-Brakes

 

[swbradley1]

And please put your state in your profile. United States does not count and it is a rule.

Thank you

 

[treva2]

I agree, Mudguppy has a highly detailed Cummins 5.9 engine swap including great pics. I plan on doing a Cummins 5.9 with a NV4500 trans and the Hydro-Max brake package without the disc brake setup. He answered alot of questions for me, great guy.

 

[tim292stro]

...I plan on doing a Cummins 5.9 with a NV4500 trans...

My , I'd stay away from New Venture transmissions - even Dodge stopped using them behind the Cummins, when they went out of business. You might want to look at medium duty transmissions with a 650ft-lbs and higher input shaft design (not simply an aftermarket "hack" to get an insufficient transmission to "work").

 

[camoyj7]

Never seen one in a M35a3. The military put a few 5.9 Cummins in the M35a2's with the spicer 5spd. The last pic's are of my friends 5.9 install in a deuce.

 

[tim292stro]

That build speaks to me

 

[rustystud]

My , I'd stay away from New Venture transmissions - even Dodge stopped using them behind the Cummins, when they went out of business. You might want to look at medium duty transmissions with a 650ft-lbs and higher input shaft design (not simply an aftermarket "hack" to get an insufficient transmission to "work").

Totally agree with you Tim. I never thought much of the NV4500 transmission. When they bought out NP (New Process) I thought they would use their old platform. Instead they built there own with all this fancy quick shift synchro's and other junk, and why in the world did they stop building the NP205 transfer case ?!?! Never liked NV.

 

[country]

here is one a customer of ours did with our support

dave

www.easternsurplus.net

 

[trukhead]

I would consider the 4BT in front of the Allison tranny. I heard of a guy installing a 4BT in some GM body and running 10 second quarter miles with it after modifications. I think the 6bt and especially the 4 bt would respond well to the rev range of the A3 gearing. I would try it in mine if the Cat takes a dump. I think the SAE bell housings are all interchangeable.

 

[tim292stro]

The Cummins 4 and 6 B series have interchangeable flywheel housings yes, but you need to match the flywheel housing to the transmission (or vise versa).

My advise is to start with a running engine, the 4 uses a balance shaft I think to take the vibrations out of the engine, the 6 is balanced by the 6 cylinder design. I'm putting a 6BT in a CUCV clone I'm building, the 4 is smaller but unless you have a good reason to need a smaller engine, the 6BT is actually more common.

I'll also give you an idea on some costs - I haven't even gotten the 6BT for my truck into the frame yet, and I'm already about $7K into it (including the $2.5K purchase). I could easily drop $20K on the engine just with fancy parts but I don't plan to drag a sled with this. The guy who is helping with my engine build DID tractor pulls, and was talking to me about 6BTs running 2500HP for about 30 seconds... If you want this to be reliable though, I would recommend staying well below 500HP.

Then there's the transmission - a working take out in SAE #2 or SAE #1 (largest) which has been inspected will run you about $3-4K easily for a common one (read as, not in high demand).

I am not familiar with the transfer case setup in anything higher than a CUCV, but I suspect that you may have interfacing issues if the transfer case is "married" to the transmission. That will make replacing the transmission harder to do IMO. If your engine transmission lengths change at all, that could require that you move the transfer case and potentially rebuild/replace drive shafts - this is all assuming there is space to do so.

 

[sigo]

To accompany the link SW posted: http://www.hanksdeuce.com

 

[camoyj7]

I would consider the 4BT in front of the Allison tranny. I heard of a guy installing a 4BT in some GM body and running 10 second quarter miles with it after modifications. I think the 6bt and especially the 4 bt would respond well to the rev range of the A3 gearing. I would try it in mine if the Cat takes a dump. I think the SAE bell housings are all interchangeable.

The 4bt would be too small for the M35a2. A 6bt would work the best.