A few months ago my IP front seal went out puking fuel into my crankcase. While fixing that I found loose fasteners and leaking fluids all over. Truck was a recent purchase that needed lots of work so I parked it and decided to get as much done in one shot as time and budget would allow. Roughly half a year later this is what I've done:
homemade 1/2" stainless drawstraw
-6 teflon fuel hose with -6AN fittings
40 micron prefilter
Walbro 392 electric LP
Napa 4770 filter heads
Cat water separator and 2 micron filter
Fuelab bypass fuel pressure regulator
Valair 13" organic HD clutch
Getrag 360 rebuilt with new input shaft, bearings, synchros
NP205 not rebuilt now, just cleaned up and painted
4X4 crossmember installed with grade 8 hardware
rear driveshaft rebuilt and rebalanced
engine resealed and painted
cowl cracks welded up with doubler straps at windshield corners
new windshield and gasket
2003 Chevy Tahoe drivers seat on homemade stainless adapter
Wiring harness repaired and rewrapped
A/C condenser and compressor deleted
external voltage regulator to bypass pcm
24" Delta underbed boxes, fuel supply system mounted in driver side box
homemade 4" stainless downpipe
all new hoses, belt, fluids
and I finally yanked the ridiculous 300lb front bumper off
For the fuel system, I ran a new line off the drawstraw for supply, regulator bypass ties into stock supply line, and stock return is unmolested. LP power is run through a 15 amp fuse and then a 22 amp relay triggered by a switch in the cab. My clutch hydraulics have been sitting in my garage for almost the entire five years I've been accumulating these parts so time will tell how it holds up but it works well. Had to install 6" lift blocks in rear for the driveshaft to fit so the truck has some stupid rake now until the SAS is done up front. Still need longer shocks and to reattach airbags to spring packs.
Future plans include
homemade front bumper with winch mount and stinger
homemade flatbed for SWR width - thinking stainless and aluminum frame, wood deck
rebuild and install front D60
reseal and install SRW D70
new 35" tires on 16" alloys
complete 4" stainless exhaust
12cm H1CW to swap in, may go directly to HX35 though
need to look into injectors and IC upgrade, not sure which direction to go
And that last item brings me to the fact that I'm building for reliability, mileage and power in that order. This truck is never going to haul 10K lb plus cross country but will be racking up about 40K miles per year plus as my travel rig for work. My Ramcharger desperately needs to be parked and worked on for a while before it goes completely to sthi and I expect to be hauling tools, materials, firewood, etc with this one way more often.
Always open to comments and suggestions, especially on parts selection/tuning for mileage.
I cant find my phone at the moment so Ill have to add pictures later when I find it.