M1010 expo build. The Mountain Turtle

[superbuickguy]

The 6.2 and the 6.5 that I have are diesels with incredibly high compression ratios. Another reason that they strongly recommend that you DONT use ether to start the engine...:Wow1:

silicone spray works as starting fluid, but only after you've done the due diligence of filling your filters with ATF.... the biggest issue about using starting anything (other than ATF) is it can lift the head then you have a blown head gasket - so unless it's life and death, simply don't do it. ATF is thicker than diesel, but still burns as well as diesel - so it gets the air out of the lines a lot faster. In that vein, never crank for more than 10 seconds without letting it rest at least a minute after. When I'm starting one after a new pump install, I run compressed air against the starter to cool it because they are really easy to kill by over cranking.... especially when you're at the cusp of it starting... you just want to... it will only take a little more... I remind myself with the burned starters (I learn slow) on my rack that I can wait 10 minutes for it to start.

6.2 - 22.5 compression, 6.5 - 19.3, Cummins - 17.3. A common speed trick to the 6.2s is to lower the compression to 17.3 then turn up the boost...

 

[406expo]

I'm running an 84 m1009 with the 6.2 in it. I can honestly say I love, love, love it. I've learned a lot about the truck over the last few years. Upgrading the fuel filter to a racor with heated bowl and priming pump in the head will make life easy. Steelsoldiers is a great forum for these old trucks. Did you convert it over to 12 volt? I've left mine as the standard 24v with no issues. Might consider bypassing the the 24v direct to the glow plugs if you haven't already. That step down deal mounted on the fire wall ended up wiping out a few sets of glow plugs for me. Easy fix just some wire from the number one battery if memory serves me correct. Also the dog head starter relay.

I live in montana too and have had zero trouble starting at -33. The truck is a beast for us, but we do run 50/50 diesel blend in the winter.

I really like your rig, it's a nice way to get a globalx type rig for a fraction of the cost.

 

[stevo-mt]

@406expo, When I bought the truck it had already been converted to 12v. To say the least, even to the keep it original purists, I wouldn't have it any other way. Alot of the bigger trucks I've worked on had 24v systems and it is a pain in the neck. There are right ups on Steel Soldiers that talk about how to convert to 12v. With the m1009 I think you could just stick a delco remy alternator and and a 12v starter, maybe change some of the cables to handle the higher currents and get rid of all that 24v stuff. But really if it works it works! The beauty of a mechanical injection though and it doesn't matter!

I had the goal of getting the turbo in the truck this month but I don't think that is going to happen. There are just too many things going on trying to get my shop setup. I did manage to get my lathe and mill out to it. Now I have other tools to haul out there and eventually I will be able to do all kinds of stuff!


Eventually my shop will be 100% and I will be able to take on any project in house. I was worried about building new drivelines when I changed out transmissions, but with my 8 ft bed on my lathe I can just make the whole thing!

I'm getting ready to put the suspension lift in project "4funr"

Shouldn't be too bad its a bolt in setup. Plus there are a ton of fun stuff for that rig!

The porta bote has made it to my shop. It will be a companion on my venture up to Alaska this summer. That way I don't have to borrow my boss's boat all the time!


So hopefully after the new year I get back working on my truck. In the time being its busy being a work horse and moving tools and such out to my shop!

 

[406expo]

Well keep the updates and pictures coming when you get back to work on it. I guess the biggest benefit I see to the 12v setup is the cost of starters and off the shelf availability. I wish I didn't have to throw a plow on my 09 but it's perfect for that duty. Perhaps now I can convince the wife to get another overland rig! We've been looking at Toyota's also, I think your going to have a lot of fun with building that 4runner. Tons of good after market gear for those.

On a side note you ever run ballast tanks in your trucks in winter time?

 

[pappawheely]

That Porta Bote is amazing! Even comes with a comfy seat.

 

[stevo-mt]

Well its been a while but there has been a little bit of excitement. I've been using the truck to get out to my shop/land when the snow was drifted. I've been working on a Toyota 4runner project that is coming along pretty well. I'll have to start a forum for that and post a link.

I was getting my truck ready to take a trip down to Moab, Utah last month. I was doing all the maintainance and fixed a few odd and ends. I attached on the back of my door the aluminum rack I had bought last fall.



I changed my engine oil and got everything ready to go. My friend gave me a half a cord of wood and asked me to store his snowmachine trailer out at my property. There was a couple feet of snow and I drug the trailer out there. I had to put it in 4low and lock up the front diff to get through it. No issues. Until the next day I saw ATF dripping out on the ground. I pulled the truck back in the shop and thought it was a few loose tranny pan bolts. I noticed that there was crack on the adapter between the transmission and the transfer case. It was leaking ATF from the transmission pretty bad.




My buddy was flying down from Alaska to go on the trip and my truck was out of commission. I found the part to replace it but it was 3 days out. Of course we had my truck apart and his truck without bumpers.



So my with my truck missing a transfer case and the adapter that bolts them together we stuck a 2x4 and a strap to hold the transmission up in the back. Then proceeded to drag it out of my shop with the backhoe. We slapped the aftermarket bumpers on the 4runner and headed south! Before we left we had to get my truck back in the shop. Its up a hill to get in and I couldn't run the engine to keep the batteries charged. I put some wood blocks down in front of my forklift tires and made a deadman. I hooked up a strap and it pulled with the winch 80 ft up the hill and then 30 ft into the shop. I'm glad those odyssey batteries are ridiculously awesome!

Moab was a blast and we had some fun! White wash sand dunes is always a blast! We spent about 6 days down there having fun. Out of all the times I've been to Moab, January was by far the best! Cool weather, (we lucked out and it was a high pressure system for a week) slick rock, and the town was fairly empty! Since we couldn't take my truck and I didn't have the espar installed into the Toyota yet, we ended up staying in a hotel. We probably would have camped out but at 40$ a night it was pretty cheap. Plus they would let my dog stay there free!

 

[stevo-mt]

We had some fun. Tried out the new Cooper ST Maxx tires. Pretty much on everything. Overall it went well and I got to see where we needed to make improvements on the 4runner. I was sad not to take my truck but it was fun tearing it up in the dunes in a 4runner!



My dog Kietha trying to catch Travis ripping it up on the dunes.



Sneaking some bikes out to the Bartlett wash Slickrock bike area.



Coming out the Elephant Hill in Canyonlands.



More fun at Whitewash Dunes


Travis showing off his new Baja Designs light bar. By far and away the brightest LEDs out there! This is only a 20" OnX and it was lighting the walls of canyons 3/4 of a mile away! Just crazy.




Right at the entrance/exit of Elephant Hill.

 

[superbuickguy]

is the brace from the transfer case to the transmission bellhousing still in place? if it is, is the bolt broken at the bellhousing? that brace is not optional - foolish people take it off for reasons only apparent to the foolish people - and broken transfer case adapters are the inevitable result. NP205 or NP 208?

while you're under there - consider adding a cross member behind the transfer case, or simply run the brace to the frame (with an appropriate rubber mount).

 

[stevo-mt]

There wasn't any brace under there. When I realized that it was cracked it became very apparent that that is a weak link to the area. There area couple of good spots that I can tie in some good supporting brackets. That setup is kind of frustrating, but not much I can do at this point. I'm driving the truck up to Alaska in April so it just needs to get reinforced.

So going up north I've decided to keep the turbo project on the back burner until next fall. I would love to slap it on there now, but unlike every thing else I put in this truck it wasn't brand new and very expensive so therefor I don't trust it. In all reality the truck does fine and the elevation only gets closer to sea level anyways! I'm not towing a trailer or anything so I'm going to play it safe and stick with no turbo for this trip. I should have bought a banks kit new when I first got the truck, but what to you do. Live and learn I guess. I will probably do that in the fall after a good summer of overtime.

I have some fun projects to do on the truck before I take off up north. Mainly cleaning up the camper part of the truck. My lady friend is going to paint some mountains on the side with some plasti-dip. Maybe take a little of the crazy prepper look away . But we will be doing some fun weekend trips and such up to the mountains next month. I have a list of things I need to do for the camper as always...

One thing I did is put L-Track anchors all over the inside of the cab. They worked out pretty well and look pretty good anodized.

 

[superbuickguy]

since it doesn't have the brace, get the brackets and brace from a NP 203 in a Chevy truck - it ties from those holes in the side of your transfer case to a 90* bracket that rests on rubber then the frame.... also, if you don't find a bracket, it's really as easy as I just described to craft one from a bit of 2" angle iron.

 

[Larry]

since it doesn't have the brace, get the brackets and brace from a NP 203 in a Chevy truck - it ties from those holes in the side of your transfer case to a 90* bracket that rests on rubber then the frame.... also, if you don't find a bracket, it's really as easy as I just described to craft one from a bit of 2" angle iron.

If you want to really do some drivetrain damage add that transfercase to frame bracket like GM used on the early 205’s from 1969 to 1972, otherwise just use the strut rod from the bellhousing to the transfercase…or just use nothing at all. Nothing at all is much better than trying the tcase to the frame. Think about the torsional stress of the driveline where the engine naturally wants to lift up and twist when under load (even with good engine mounts) then you have the tcase tied to the frame on the passenger’s side. Something in between is going to eventually break. GM later tied the transfercases to the bellhousing by way of a long strut rod instead of tying it to the frame, which is fine as that design of transfercase support moves with the engine/trans/tcase assembly. Bolting the transfercase to the frame was (and still is) a bad idea.

There is a reason GM quit using the transfercase side bracket to frame mount. I have an old work colleague that retired a few years ago that was a GMC truck engineer from the late 60’s up until a couple years ago. He worked out of Pontiac Truck Product Center in Pontiac, MI. When I was doing my NV4500 swap a couple years ago many people on the GM truck forums were wondering why I didn't add the side bracket. I asked him about that side bracket that was used on the early model 205’s and if I should add it and he said DO NOT use that bracket and if you have one take it OFF! As it turns out that side bracket caused GM lots of problems back in the day with broken bellhousings and adapters on automatics transmissions and broken adapters on manual trans trucks, which is why the '73 and later trucks didn't have the tcase to frame bracket at all. Many later 205’s didn’t even have the holes drilled and tapped. In my opinion, the rod isn’t really needed either but it is cheap insurance if you can find one or make one. To me, the damage to Steve’s adapter looks more like damage from bang shifting back and forth from Drive to Reverse very quickly as if someone was trying to rock it out of a stuck spot.

This is the factory 205 in my dad's '78 K20 that wasn't even drilled for any bracing.

 

[Kmehr]

Man this is one awesome rig! I couldn't have dreamed one up any better. Gotta say though, that thing is the perfect candidate for a cummins! With those diesels, hp #s are even really relevant, it's all about the Torque! With your fab skills, you could plop a 6bt in there like it was nothing. Hell they even make swap kits for that year chevy. Your hp/lbs numbers are right on, but the torque story is night and day. A stock 160 hp cummins is making 400ft/lbs all day, and the ole 6.2 is making about 260. Turns some screws on the cummins and you can increase that output 1.5x without spending a penny. I wouldn't even bother with throwing the banks kit. I had an F code 6.5 in my old 98 and I never understood how they moved 10k lb hummers, much less the non turbo ones. There is an outfit in Kalispell that specializes in chevy/cummins conversions, http://dieselconversion.com. Also, I've bought several parts from a guy in western MN for my own project that regularly has full cummins donor vehicles and half cuts for $2000-$3500. I'd be happy to pass along his info if you're interested.

Anyways, love the project, I'm definitely subscribed!

 

[stevo-mt]

Yeah, a lot of people like those cummins. Just too heavy for my tastes. If I ever did anything other than a 6.5 TD peninsular it would be the 350 chevy out of my impala cop car (its pushing 300 hp) or a 454. That 350 chevy was originally built and cammed to pull horse trailers. Then my brother found a sweet cop car and we put it into it. It's kind of cool but I bought it from him for the engine.

Realistically I don't think a cummins would improve the truck. What sets that vehicles mileage will is the fact that its a brick. No matter what you do the best milage will be at 55 mph, and engines can only be so many % efficient. It almost already gets the same mileage as the Turtle expeditions 7.3 TD truck (right now 13 mpg) and will probably match it when it gets a turbo, estimated 14 mpg (is what TE says they avg). The cummins just weighs too much and is just too much modification for no real advantage. Then I would have to change gear ratios in the axles because you can't get any rpms out of them and I've got 4.56 gears. They have their place with trucks that want to be mini semi's and pull 20,000 lb loads! Just too much engine for this old beater. Plus the advantage with the 6.2 and the reason that truck can go so many dang places and cruise through the snow is it doesn't spin out the tires. My uncles and I have pulled heavily loaded horse and hay trailers around the ranch for years with both an old 6.2 NA and small block 350's. But the best truck for all around everything that we've had was a regular chevy pickup with a 454. It would drag a trailer up in the mountains very well and when we would be hunting it would have enough power to chain up all four if needed and get to many places that a diesel just ways too much to get through. I say this because never have I ever seen a cummins diesel truck go the places that a regular old gas truck will in the boonies. Not saying it can't or hasn't been done. I just know that more weight = not as much fun when stuck. I've managed to keep my truck lighter than I originally had predicted so I want to keep it that way. I just need to be able to make the HP it makes at sea level at 10,000 ft. The Banks kit will get me that so I will be happy. I will put the 4L80e tranny and NP241 transfer case with it and life will be good. I'm never in a hurry when I'm driving that truck anyways

Rant over. Sorry....

So back to the get everything ready for this spring's trip up the Al-Can and back down in the fall probably on the Stewart-Cassiar highway.

Some of the important things I'm going to get lined up:

Postponing the turbo install until fall. I've put 10,000 miles on that truck so far without a hitch and there just isn't enough time to fully test a turbo. My girlfriend might be driving the truck some over the summer so I don't want it in a position where it could make enough power to over heat. Right now you just put it in drive and it goes!

A radio antenna needs installed. Military truck never had one.
1600w inverter needs installed.
L - Track Port-a-boat rack (If I find a good zodiac I will probably leave the porta boat at home)
Plasti-dip fender flares
color changing interior LED lights (mainly for dimmable red LED's)
thinking about something to keep spices and plates organized (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KJNLXRC/ref=gno_cart_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER)
bought one of the utensil rolls linked here. http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/117060-Utensil-set-roll
H4 headlight upgrade (can't believe I haven't done this yet!)http://www.amazon.com/Rampage-50899.../ref=lh_ni_t?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=AFMQYIC80AXNE
A hand rail to help get in and out the back door
Hand rails to get in the pass and drivers seats

There is still a long list of other stuff. Just need to get it done. But the truck has been running good, starting when it's been super cold with no issues. Most importantly no ATF leaks! So hopefully that trend continues.

 

[chilliwak]

I am glad you had a good trip to the dessert Stevo. Lets hope you get the transfer case thing sorted out soon. Larry knows his stuff so I would follow his advice. I am looking forward to seeing pics and updates from your truck. Cheers, Chilli...

 

[Kmehr]

Well to each his own on the engine choice, I'm interested to see what the turbo does for you. Love the project.

Those H4 headlights- do you have any experience with them? I've been looking for something to upgrade the headlights in my 89 Chevy as the stock ones are just absolutely pitiful.