aviator

gee not even a few chickens for eggs?... as I understand farm life caring for them would be the women folk's work anyway ... LOL...

opps! Incoming flame from the ladies here... DUCK!!

sounds like an expensive lesson re rock harvesting...
waiting for parts can be a good thing...

davez

Hey Joe, I've enjoyed following this forum as I have been replacing the tired OM617 with a reman longblock in my '85 Piston Bully snowcat. A quick question, my apologies if you have covered this and I missed it: What's the deal with removing the alda? My understanding of how that little gizmo works is that it causes the injection pump to feed additional fuel when it senses boost pressure. If you remove it, don't you lose that?

thanks again for a fantastic thread.

PowerstrokeJoe

Aviator- haha if you met my grandmother you would understand lol. She is a wonderful lady but hates animals. Luckily the combine wasn't too expensive to fix it just took about a week of time.

Davez- The alda IMO is noting more than an emissions control. It has a spring loaded diaphragm that holds a pin limiting the rack travel in the injection pump that limits fuel until boost is built up, therefore eliminating smoke upon acceleration. It can be removed or adjusted. Once removed it just allows you to make smoke upon full throttle during a low boost condition. Honestly after driving my 300D it takes a lot of getting used to. You can completely floor the car from a stop and it lags initially for what seems like forever and then takes off like a banshee. I haven't had a chance to play with the one on my car but I'll be sure to post results on both as the ip going in the Toyota may not even have one I haven't decided if I am going to use my spare pump yet. Here is an interesting thread on the ALDA and a little tuning. I think thats about all I can come up with. If I think of something more I'll put it up here. if you have any questions ask away and I'll do my best to answer. Thanks for your kind words!

Well It seems as though I got a mis boxed valve guide so Peach is overnighting me another one. Phil is really great to deal with! I'll keep y'all posted.

davez

Ok, now I get it- You aren't simply disconnecting the line to the alda, you are removing it from the pump. I did not realize that it was a rack limiter. So, assuming you monitor a pyrometer, you won't burn anything down, right? Are you also doing anything with the wastegate adjustment, or leaving it at factory setting of 0.7 - 0.8 Bar?

PowerstrokeJoe

You can't just disconnect it. The alda uses boost pressure to release the plunger/limiter in the pump so if you un hook the line you never get the ALDA to release. Yeah get you a good set of gauges and watch it closely. As for the waste gate I am not going to mess with it as long as it is producing the boost it should. I believe that should be around 10-12 psi (.7-.8 Bar) I may turn it up as I play with the pump but from what I can see it shouldn't take much more boost to keep up with the extra fuel as the M-Pump is only good for about 150 Hp I believe. But yeah like you said have a set of gauges. They are the single most important thing you can do to a diesel if you plan to mod it.

PowerstrokeJoe

Well I figured I'd post an update for you guys. My new valve guide should be here tomorrow and I am hoping to get the head back then I'll have to wait and see. In the mean time I have been buttoning up all the loose ends I can. I got the alternator bracket on and I am going to have to fab up a top bracket for the alternator as the stock MB one is much too short. Here are some pics of the progress.


Here is some pics of the valve cover I finished.



Here is some more painted parts.

Lastly here is the water neck drilled and tapped for my fan controller and mechanical temp gauge. It will get painted tomorrow.

bigshrek

Nice work, I wish I had to the time to work on mine. Busy with work, family and school. Hopefully soon.

aviator

Looks real good Joe... love the red star...

pyrojoe22

Wow, wish my engine looked that good lol. Nice work!

Do you by any chance have a picture of the wires hooked up to your starter? The FSM and Chilton's both give extremely vague descriptions of the wiring (really ticking me off), and I don't remember how they were connected before I unhooked them. There's 3 wires total, 1 big red, 1 thick white with a red stripe, and a tiny white with red stripe that's held in by a Phillips screw. One of the bolts in the solenoid is wiggling all around, which is probably my problem. I just really want to get this thing going if I can. Thanks.

bigshrek

Would you happen to have any pictures of your engine mounts?
Thanks, Carl.

B-yodaful

hey joe great write up I have been readin since the beginning. I just had a Diesel question for you. I'm going to look at an 03 excursion this week it has the 6.0 any thoughts on that motor? it has 132000 miles. thanks for you help. sorry for thread jacking

PowerstrokeJoe

Thanks Aviator! I ran out of black paint for the star so I decided to try red and I really liked it so it stayed.

Joe- Thanks! Which wires are you referring the ones between the solenoid and the starter motor or the ones coming off the car. I'll grab some pictures later on today.

Carl- I'll grab some later on today and get them up. They aren't real pretty but they get the job done.

B-yodaful- Thank you! Great choice on the Excursion. They are fantastic trucks and getting pretty rare. As for the 6.0. They are an awesome engine as long as they are cared for well. If they haven't been maintained they can be a nightmare. I had one and I loved it.

It was an 03 as well. A lot of guys will rag on the 6.0 especially the 03. IMO the 03 and early 04's are really the better engine. They had the better egr cooler that rarely ever fails. A couple of things I would check right off the bat. Take a close look at the coolant tank and the area around it in the engine compartment. Look for a white chalky residue which indicates coolant being pushed out of the degas bottle. Also make sure it has the yellow or red coolant in it. If it has green or any other color run. Don't be surprised if it doesn't have a ton of power until its warm. The injection system is run off engine oil and it has to get warmed up too. If it misses and smokes when cold (a little on cold start is very normal) the injectors may be getting tired. If everything looks good take it out and drive it pretty hard on the highway like get some long uphill WOT runs. Then when you get back look for coolant around the degas bottle. If there is you are probably looking at head gaskets and egr. If there is nothing you are good to go. If you have the vin you can take it to your local ford dealer and get an OASIS report that will tell you every bit of warranty work that was done. If it is a book it might make me think a little harder. Sorry for the long post just trying to cover all of the bases. Now all of that being said. I had 0 trouble with mine. Honestly it was one of the best vehicles I have ever owned. I in many ways wish I would have stuck with a 6.0 over my 6.4. The people who have trouble with them are the ones who do not take care of them. Oil has to be changed every 5k the fuel filters every 10k and coolant flush every 50-60k. They don't take well to idling for long periods and they like to be run out every once in a while. I've worked on several of them and everyone that has needed major work was due to lack of care or stupidity. Overall I would say if it runs well and doesn't have any issues go for it. You won't look back! That's all I can think of for now. If you have any other questions holler.

B-yodaful

thanks joe.. I'm going to go look at it this week I will keep you posted.

pyrojoe22

You get er in and runnin?

mountaingoat92

I was just wondering as i gazed into my empty Toyota engine bay if it would be possible to switch the steering stabilizer from in front of the tie rod to behind and relocating it's bracket by re-welding it in the hollow of the motor mount. Could this remedy the pain of notching the oil pan?

Also, I've read about a couple folks who opt for the bed mounted rad. One guy seemed to have some issues with sudden and rapid temp fluctuations on minor hills. Is it because the rad doesnt get that forced draft it would get up front. Reading this worried me a little. What's your take on this?

pyrojoe22

I'd think you'd money and headaches ahead to put some fab work into leaving the rad up front. Otherwise your gonna blow major change on radiator hose, you'll lose your bed, and your gonna spend time fabbing up a rad bracket for the bed that you could have just as easily spent on fabbing up the front end for the newly positioned radiator. Just my .02. And also, if I lose the use of my bed, I no longer have a use for the tiny cabbed truck, and I'd just get a car instead.

bigshrek

Mountaingoat-
You have to keep in mind that when you move your radiator to the bed or rear of a vehicle, your over flow tank has to be higher then your radiator. You also still need to run a fan shroud to direct the air flow through the radiator. The chance of getting an air pocket in the cooling is greatly increased. The ability to use the ram air from the vehicle in motion is lost, unless you install scoops to direct air into the radiator area. The air flow in the bed area of pick up truck is more of a swirling action instead of direct air flow. The other problem most people encounter, is they do not install a big enough electric fan.
There are companies out there that will help you figure out how big of an electric fan to install, one is: http://www.electricfanengineering.co..._contents.html
I've had some interesting conversations with them about putting electrics on my Power stroke diesel.
I've done some projects where we moved the radiator to the rear, and we never had a cooling problem.
I'm in the middle of doing a Mercedes diesel swap into a 4runner, and I plan on running the radiator in front. I just need some time to be able to work on it. Maybe I'll start a build thread on it, when I start really start working on it.
Just my thoughts on the cooling problem you mentioned. Carl

PowerstrokeJoe

No problem B-yodaful! I am lookng forward to hearing how it goes.

Mountain Goat- Honesty IMO it wouldn't be worth the extra fab work to relocate the stabilizer. It took me all of 30 minutes to make mine and it seems to fit fine. The radiator seems to be a source of great debate. On my truck I have no choice but to put it in the bed. I would have to completely re do the whole front end of the truck to make it fit. I would much rather have it up front. Rad hose is crazy expensive. I think I have about $300 in my rad setup now and I know I'm going to have to get a bigger rad. As for the cooling I believe that it could be remedied with a decent sized radiator and the right fans. Coolant hose routing is also very critical as well as getting all of the air out. Yes it cost me bed space but I never use it for hauling. I may tow my boat with it occassionally but thats it. With your planned swap a front mounted rad should be no problem as the 22re transmissions sit farther back. I'll be sure to let you know how my setup works out because I am very unsure of how it will turn out.

Joe- No it isn't running. My valve guide didn't get in until late Friday so I am taking it over first thing tomorrow. School is about to run me into the ground right now too. I'm shooting for mid week barring no more setbacks with wrong parts.

mountaingoat92

Not to be a thread highjacker, but my goal with this swap is to maintain function and reliability of the truck. I've got a flat bed that will be put to work so a remote rad is and has been out of the question. I only mention so powerstroke Joe could have an idea of potential complications as described in anOther thread. I will be retaining the Benz set up almost to the teeth. Manual fan and rad up front. My greatest strength in this swap is meal fabrication so fabbing a bumper to accommodate the "big nose" aint no thang.

What do you guys think about moving the steering stabilizer behind the tie rod to avoid oil pan mods? Any thoughts? Remember I'm an IFS guy.

89lc

If you adjust the alda until you get a slight grey haze when accelerating from a stop, you will be using the full potential of your engine without creating a cloud of black smoke. I don't see a reason to remove it. When your boosting, it is giving you all the fuel you can get anyways. I say leave it in and just adjust the nut on top.

If you push the engine back almost all the way to the firewall, you can barely fit the stock mercedes fan in there. You will have to make your own shroud though.

And move the stabilizer where ever you want, as long as it's close to in line with the tierod you'll be good.