1948 International KB11 DT466 swap

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Flatbedcowboy

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Dec 8, 2020
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Hello All,
I'm a member an several different forums (redpowermagazine, OldIHC, powerstroke.org, and some others I can't remember) but somehow ended up here. I don't have much better to do with my time so I figured I would start a build thread. One day I would like to start a youtube channel for this build but that's a lot of work.

Some about myself before we get started:
My name is Mike and I am not a mechanic. I have mechanical inclinations but have spent most my life avoiding mechanicing as much as possible. But I own a farm so its inevitable that things need fixed all the time, and it seems like I spend more time fixing old junk than I do anything else.
I also don't really have a shop; I have an old milk barn that I use but nothing fits inside, so I do all my work out in the dirt and weather. I also do not have any fancy tools, mostly just the standard stuff. If I need to do some welding I have to take it to a friends shop and use his.

This is my first real in depth dive into something like this so progress will be slow and painful. I am also very budget limited so everything will have to wait until I have the cash to do it.
I will try and give as much info as possible and I have been trying to take pictures along the way.

Lets get started:
 
The story of how I got this truck is kind of interesting. A local farmer bought some property that he wanted to put a pivot on, and in the way was an old lean-to and some trucks and old truck beds, and what he referred to as scrap. The farmer happened to be friends with my friend (a retired coworker) and for $500 let us take whatever we wanted from this farm.
So I came home with these among 1,000 other things:
A 1966 International R-190 complete with a DT466

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And the star of the thread:
1948 International KB11

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An International KB11 would be considered the semi/over the road/heavy duty truck of its time. They also made 12 and 14 model sizes. The 7-10 models would be like a medium duty truck to day and the 1-6 models would be pickups.
My KB11 came with air brakes (fairly rare as vacuum was the preferred at the time), a Red Diamond 6-cylinder R450 gas engine; approximately 80 horses, and a 5speed transmission with a 4 speed auxiliary transmission. The truck is almost rust free, some floor pans needs replaced and the engine is seized.
 
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The CORE PLAN is to keep the outside body looking exactly the same as it does now. Rust, paint, patina, bondo, dents whatever is staying. Why erase the history of the truck? For the interior it needs to be nice but functional. This will be my tow rig for my farm, but I still want it to be nice but classic. I also want air conditioning, some sort of manual transmission, radio, powersteering, and 20”+ semi rims. I also want to keep the dual saddle tanks and add 6” stacks. I want to avoid cutting into the cab or fenders if possible, to keep as much of the originality as possible.


Total cost into the project so far: $0.00 (if you don’t include the diesel it took to haul it home or the initial $500 investment to bring 2 trucks 2 tractors, beds, etc. home)


THE PLAN (at least version 1)
Find a diesel dually pickup chassis and swap the cab over. I wanted a powerstroke or cummins engine and a manual transmission. I probably search a couple months and couldn’t find anything in my budget range and I was starting to have doubts whether or not my cab would fit onto a pickup frame. My KB has 34” frame rails, much like todays medium duty trucks and standard pickups are 36”+ wider. I also need a solid front axle to help clear the fenders.
 
So I ended up with this:

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It’s a 1998 GMC 3500HD 454 vortec automatic. It didn’t have exactly what I wanted but I figured it would be easier to find a diesel engine in my price range rather than finding a whole truck. It also had a 12’ flatbed which I could use around the farm to feed cows with. It also had a solid front axle like I wanted, disk brakes on all corners and 10 lug 19.5 rims.

I definitely rushed into buying this truck without doing my research. The biggest problem with this pickup is the rim size is specific only to 3500HD trucks, no aftermarket options. You also cannot get bigger tires because spacers for the rear duals don’t exist. I ended up selling this truck after 1 summer of using it on the farm. Took a $200 loss.


Total cost into this project so far: $200
 
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THE PLAN (version 2)
THIS:

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It’s a 1984 International S1754 9.0L naturally aspirated diesel 5 speed spicer with 2 speed rear, 10ft bed for $900.

Plan is to swap cab over to this chassis, run the 9.0L till it dies, then swap in the DT466 out of the R190 I have. EASY.
But remember how I wanted the truck to stay true to what it originally was? The S1754 is taller and longer, the frame has double rails, and is overall a much larger truck. The frame rails are correct, it has disk brakes in all corners, but there is one major problem:
The 9.0L smokes like crazy. It needs injectors, more than likely a headgasket, the oil test came back with very high silica and I think someone once put unleaded in the diesel tanks and diluted it out instead of draining it. Plus NO TURBO!

Total Cost into the project: $1100
 
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Mid-Summer a 1947 KB8 truck came up for sale on facebook for $250 so I jumped on it. It has a nice floorboard that mine is rusted out, the back window frame, and is over just cool. I used my smoking s1754 to go get it.

I made a tow hitch to pull it home with, and it worked out awesome. Until we stopped. Started solenoid staid on and nuked the starter. Pull started the truck and got halfway home, and the parking brake housing bolts busted out. Apparently the parking brake linkage was so lose, the brake didn’t come off and broke all the bolts holding the drum on. Wire tied that up and made it home.

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New starter $320.00 Total cost into the project $1420, not including another project/parts truck.
 
THE PLAN (version 3)
OK final plan. Use the original frame from the 1948 KB11, swap in the DT466 from the R190, and the Spicer 5 speed and axles from the s1754. That way itll have the stance I want, higher speed rear end, powersteering front axle, big diesel with a turbo, manual transmission, and originality.

Why not keep the original air brakes you ask? In 1948 air brakes were for brakes ON not OFF like today. That means if you lose air going down a hill, all that stands between you and death is the parking brake and God! Not safe. Plus I am planning on pulling standard stock trailers and goosenecks, so disk brakes will be more inline for that use.

STARTING THE PROJECT
Freaking finally right? From now on it’ll mostly be pictures with explanations and questions I have along the way.

Last pictures before tear down:

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Check out the massive parking brake this thing has:

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Auxilary transmission
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interior
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Hood Off
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Thats a great start to a build thread, bada$$ man,:clap:

watching for sure:Cheer:
 
Man I gotta give ya props,done lots of work with what I had and there's nothing easy about it. It definitely makes you use your imagination and looking back, makes me very grateful for what I have now. Cool project and looking forward to the progress
 
Pretty cool, going to build that RD450 engine for an antique puller?

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk
 
Very thorough start of your thread. I’m looking forward to your progress. What area are you in? It appears you are out west somewhere, Texas?
 
12valve95 said:
Thats a great start to a build thread, bada$$ man,:clap:

watching for sure:Cheer:
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Hey thanks!

thatguy69 said:
Man I gotta give ya props, done lots of work with what I had and there's nothing easy about it. It definitely makes you use your imagination and looking back, makes me very grateful for what I have now. Cool project and looking forward to the progress
Click to expand...

Sometimes it cooler to work with what you have, rather than trying to copy someone or be the same!

J-Pipes said:
Pretty cool, going to build that RD450 engine for an antique puller?
Click to expand...

Ha probably not. I actually have two RD450s one in the truck and a spare that I picked up from that farm. But parts are getting hard to find for these; Ill let someone else get some use out of it, least more than me.
 
Meyers Farms said:
Very thorough start of your thread. I’m looking forward to your progress. What area are you in? It appears you are out west somewhere, Texas?
Click to expand...

WUnderwood said:
I'm going to guess Kansas or TX panhandle.
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Strokersace said:
I’m going to go with southern Idaho or sw Oregon based on the the tags on the trucks.
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WINNER WINNER. SW Oregon, right on the state line.



jasonc said:
Well that would be a pretty good hint, ha.
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So I was able to get the dual saddle tanks off together, they have an angle iron frame that bolted to the frame of the truck, and get the auxiliary transmission out. I had to cut out one of the u-joints to get the driveline off, and torch all the bolts out of the frame but with my loader it was easy work.

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The tanks has some liquid sloshing around in them so I turned them on end and found this coming out of the fill hole.

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I took out the drain plug, flipped them on the other end and ran a garden hose in each tank for over an hour. I need a hole for a sending unit and pickup straw, so I cut a 4" hole in the top of the tank, and what I found wasn't pretty. (Dont mind the drill bits, the hole saw I was using has a bad bit holder and I dropped half a dozen in before I got the hole done)

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So the tanks look like they may pretty much be toast. I really want to use these as they are the original and the patina matches. New stainless ones would look terrible.

But since the tanks are steel, I may cut the ends off of them, sand blast the insides out and reweld the end caps back on. Maybe.... I dont need them right now so Ill worry about that later.
 
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I also sold the white flatbed off the S1754. It was pretty bad. The truck used to belong to a water district out in the middle of nowhere and it shows 30 years of hard labor. Pretty much every cross brace was cracked, and the boxes on the other side were smashed in.
Sold it for $400

Total cost into the project $1020
 
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