If you already have the manifolds, yep.

 

The other thing here that I didn't really discuss is that a lot of these performance upgrades are partially displaced in their cost by not having to spend money on the stock parts.

So take the crank and rods for instance. I paid $1400 for the balanced assembly. My machinist quoted me $160 to recondition the rods, $120 to install the press fit pins, some number I didn't write down to polish the crank, and $275 to balance the new assembly with the new pistons. So by the time I bought stock replacement pistons and paid all the machining, the gap here in price between that and a fresh scat assembly wasn't very large, and definitely worth it for the application.

Then look at the heads. First off they're cracked between the seats like most magnum heads, and for an engine I want another 200,000+ miles out of, I'm not super confident those won't spread to water. Then I'm gonna pay $280 for a valve job, $120 for surfacing, $160 for an acid dip, $240 for guides, then add seals and probably valves since the stockers are pitted...maybe even seats too, who knows. Shelling out the $1400 I have for eddies isn't that big of a price jump and they're ready to go. They also have the added benefit of allowing me to get away with a hair more compression at my selected octane limit. They also allowed me to save money buying used stud mount SBC rocker arms. The stock magnum stamped rockers aren't going to handle the spring pressure from the eddy heads, and can't maintain correct geometry with the .580" lift where the heads reach max flow. Magnum style rockers are scarce, basically just Harland Sharp, which is expensive and aluminum, not a great choice for a street engine that's gonna see a lot of miles. I paid $240 for a set of Comp stainless rollers I found used. Finding used magnum rockers is unlikely, so I would have had to buy new, which is $500, so there's another $240 in savings over using stock heads to offset some of the head cost.

So I am willing to spend up a little here and there for things that make big differences, like the crank, heads, and cam. But when you start talking about spending hundreds or thousands on small gains, you've hit a point of diminishing returns I'm not willing to pay for on this particular build.

 

I've honestly been avoiding the cab mount and rocker panel situation for a long time because of how bad they are, but finally dove into that again tonight. Dad and I swapped the driver front out last year, and I just finished pulling this one tonight. Indiana winters have not been kind to it.

 

And i guess you also seen what long tubes can do. Not trying to spend your money just putting it out there. It sounds like you want a diesel rather than a gasser. The cam prices i brought up on here before somewhere. Back in the day you could get a cam for $100 or less. Now they are stupid money, WHY? Roller cam's have been around long enough for prices to drop. Not a lot out there for the magnums as far as intakes. I would like see actual dyno results of some of the kegger mods under 3K. Indy came out with the X head and you could get it in magnum or LA style intake design. That way you have a lot more options for intakes. They where designed for carbs so they will perform different on fi. Did you ever consider doing a hemi swap?

 

Diesels are loud, expensive, expensive to service, the fuel costs a lot more (not offset by MPG differences unless you are almost exclusively towing with it), and it would require getting an entirely different frame and everything else to make that move. Diesels are also very slow. A 5.9 cummins in stock form is even slower than a 5.9 magnum. This 408 will easily tow anything I'm ever gonna want to put behind it.

X heads aren't available anymore and haven't been in a long time. Going to an LA intake pattern limits you to carb manifolds only, unless you want to run aftermarket EFI which is going to be more costly, perform worse (it's all TBI vs port injection) and be less reliable and serviceable than the factory equipment that works just fine and can be tuned with HPTuners.

I did consider a hemi swap but ultimately decided against it. Building this magnum based engine, the way I'm building it, is the cheapest way to get the level of performance I'm after, with a high level of reliability (magnums are less prone to catastrophic failures than hemis) and easy serviceability. It's gonna be a solid performer, it just won't be a "maximum effort" in the go fast department.

 

I must've missed what heads you were running. I know PIE offers a mildly ported EQ head set for $1500 with 2.02" intake valves fully assembled. The throttle body thing is how quick it responds for the most part. It flows more air at lower throttle positions giving the feeling of more power. I remember when I got my 52mm on my stock 5.9l. I averaged 5% less throttle for cruising at 55 mph (according to my scan gauge I had). Felt snappier again. I will say though when I sold the truck and put the stock kegger and TB back on (from the airgap and 52mm) it could spin the tires by simply stomping on it from a stop where as it had a hard time with the airgap. I probably wouldn't do an air gap again, just ported kegger on an N/A setup. The air gap did tow well though above 2500rpm, but you did not want to take off from a stop on a hill.

Agreed diesels are expensive. When I bought my v10 for $9500 it had 72,000 miles on it, loaded leather, hydraulic winch, sitting on 38s. At that time a stock 2nd gen diesel that was comparable was over $20k (and still is). Diesel is ridiculous in price, parts are expensive, modern diesels don't do well sitting around (my truck averages 1000 miles/year), my truck sits out year round and still starts good at -25F without needing to be plugged in. Neighbor has a stock 12v, I listen to him pull out on to the road where we live, which is a hill both directions since we are in a small valley, and it struggles to get up to speed with 6000lbs behind it. So any older ones you are modding then have to worry about the rest of the drivetrain. Diesels have their application, most people who have them don't need them, they became a status symbol. Also if it weren't for emissions equipment we would see older diesels much cheaper.

 

Nope, EQ is gone, or at least EQ as we knew them. Sold out to the chinese, the castings are very different now. I actually got my set of Edelbrocks for less than that, also fully assembled with 2.02s, and they flow much better.

Yeah ported keg is really the best option here in my opinion. If we had larger CSA tuned runner port injection intakes that fit this engine it would really help things out.

Yep, I'd have to spend more than I'll have in this whole project to get a halfway decent cummins truck to just get started on. I really like the V10 and strongly considered doing a V10/47RE swap, but there are a few replacement parts like the crank sensor that are getting real hard to find, and since it went to a distributorless ignition, you never have the option of backwards converting it to a carb and distributor to keep it on the road once things become unobtainium.

 

Yeah, I suspect that the lack of a 50 dollar part, is going to leave a lot of these trucks as paperweights...... It used to be, the aftermarket would support them for quite some time, however, Dodge vehicles seem to REALLY dislike aftermarket sensors in critical locations, and the crank sensor is right there at the top of that list.

 

I am running my second aftermarket crank sensor, first one made it 200 miles, second one is at 1000+ so far. The thing that has been the worst is throttle position sensors, which it shares with the v8, I've been averaging 1 yr on those, as soon as it gets cold out, like right now. Knock on wood it makes it through deer season.

That sucks about EQ. I have an older set on my shelby durango. They've done really well.

 

I've got a '99 Ford Superduty with good cab mounts. The frame though....




The rest of the frame isn't quite as bad, ut I've gotten my use out of it and I'm selling it as a parts truck. It runs and drives okay, but if it gets hit in front, it'll fold up.