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BT band wagon

montaillou

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I don't think anyone well escape the heat in summer anymore.
That's why I'll be putting in a Red Dot A/C system for the camper. I'll have solar panels on the roof and in the years I've been looking, more wind systems have come on the market.
 

rustystud

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But soooooo many do. So many.
That's so funny ! Reminds me of what some stranger at the gas station said when I rolled up with my
Deuce. He was absolutely positive the Deuce could go completely under water and come out half a mile away with no problems and no modifications. I tried to explain that the engine needed to breathe and that there was a host of other things needed to do to facilitate this wonderous feat . He would not be detered !
He knew what he knew !
 

montaillou

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There was so much that just wasn't mentioned in the thread, all the little issues that cropped up and the solutions that were found. Some of those are as follows, some are just too numerous to remember.

Looking back over this thread, I never mentioned that the oil pan was pulled from another 6 BT as the original one didn't fit right for my truck. One advantage to having 3 of them to pull parts from. The location of the dip stick was also changed to make it more accessible as the original location was kind of crowded.

The air compressor (not the a/c one) was not on the engine and came from another source. It had several fittings already on it, the bracket, but had some issues (a gear was chipped, probably from a kdp incident, and a back plate was missing). What started out as a good deal ended up becoming an ok deal after having to replace missing parts. But it did come with the ability to add power steering down the line if I ever want to go that route. Finding the parts was a pain because the compressor wasn't matched up to this particular engine originally.

The turbo was replaced with one from a Cummins L10.

I thought the front engine mount looked a little fragile and when I mentioned this to the mechanic he changed it to something more robust. No pic, sorry.

A couple of parts were machined. The guy I got the engine from was a machinist so he did this work for me, at cost.

In the end I'm glad I had a friend doing the labour. He was also knowledgeable about the Deuce. He made some changes I never considered because he knew they would be a good idea and I could talk to him about changes I wanted made as well. If I had just found some outside mechanic they never stick their necks out (can't blame them), but that meant stuff would get done and then redone (like the original oil pan not working out) and end up just costing more. Also, I was in charge of finding parts (some could take hours), whereas another mechanic would probably do that and add to the cost.

I did pay my friend, but nothing near what a retail shop would charge. All in, this probably cost me between $8 - $9k in out of pocket real money expenses (labour + parts (manifold, intercooler, radiator, air compressor, miscellaneous parts, etc)). I also contributed my 2 LDT engines - one from the truck and the other I got years ago for $160. Looking back, had I had to buy the engine, pay a retail mechanic, have them order the additional parts, etc, I expect this swap would've cost $25 - $30k. Maybe if I found a shop that did these sorts of things, the cost would've been lower, but then again specialty mechanics usually charge even more.
 
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