Monster Mudder Rebirth

NakeDiesel

NakeDiesel

Smoke'n in the Mud
Joined
Jan 20, 2010
Messages
1,116
Well, it's been a while since I've given an update on the truck, as most know, I melted #6 piston, bent the #6 exhaust valve, and blew the head gasket on 4 of 6 cylinders on my second race.

I had the head magnifluxed before I started the rebuild process and the shop I had it tested at said that they had never seen a 12 valve head with so many cracks in the exhaust valve seats before.

So I needed a new head now on top of rebuilding the rest of the engine.

Now the engine had 300k miles on in when I bought it. So it needed a full rebuild anyway.

I had come up with a long laundry list of parts and talked to various vendors about this or that item and how they would work together.

I'd decided on a new 181/220 cam from hamilton as well as his HD valve springs and push rods, a full rebuild kit, bigger turbo and buying a new head, there were a bunch of other things here and there for the engine as well.

I called PDP and started talking to them about buying a head from them, to get it Oringed and a valve job done on it before they shipped it to me and we got to talking and ended up having them build my entire engine for me.

Here is what we are going with: The above cam, a fully ported and polished head, ringed, larger valves, cut off intake and new metal bolt on intake, billet timing cover and adjustable timing gear, studding the whole engine, crank stiffener, billet tappet cover, balanced rotating assembly, full rebuild kit with mahle pistons with fly cuts, we are using my 215 hp injection pump with the #100 plate and 4k gsk, my 435 injectors, an ED 66/74 external gate turbo, external waste gate with the wastegate mount in the t4/t3 adapter.

On to the tranny, I've thought long and hard about this, I just can't caugh up the money the big tranny shops want to build a tranny, so I'm buying the do it yourself kit from DTT which comes with the billet goodies, master rebuild kit and a tripple disc converter, I'm also getting thier baja manual shift valve body built for me by them. I'll also be buying a billet flex plat and billet input shaft.

It's amazing how some of these tranny builders are, I bet I called half a dozen, and only two would actually take the time and discuss with me what I was doing with the truck and how it would be used and what parts I did or didn't need.

For the trans, I'm ditching the cooler by the block and the cooler on the front, I'll be mounting a transcooler with all new lines mounted in the bed with it's own electric fan to cool the tranny fluid, it should be pretty mud free back there.

I should be picking the engine up from PDP towards the end of January, thats the earliest I can get away and make the drive up there, can't wait to get it, I'll be ordering the tranny parts too sometime around then as well, so I can start back together with the truck.

I do have to say that my new wife is the greatest, she is the one that forced me to go ahead and get all this work done and spend the money to get it built right and putting off spending money on the new house for a few things that needed doing till later. I think, in all honesty, she just wants to ride in the truck through the mud pit... I've gotten her hooked on riding the harley and now mud racing. She is the best.

NakeDiesel
 
i think you should through a water kit on it to keep from meltin down those pistons! Sounds like one hell of a ride through the mud. Ive got my truck "stock suspension and i through 35" boggers on it and sand drag/mud drag a little bit. Soon as i get my dd clutch in there ill be set that way i can get those 3rd gear boosted launches going instead of 2nd gear rolling into it. i think ill be set up to only shift once from 3rd high to 4th high. that will be nice.
 
I'm still running the stock suspension except for these changes: Added a 2" leveling kit to the front springs, removed all of the rear springs except for the two largest springs, and built new control arms out of dom tubing and heim joints for more flex up front. I'm running 37" swampers with a lock right up front and a lincoln locker in back with the factory 3.55 gears in 4x4 low.
 
sounds like youve got a winner... does the auto trans heat up quick once you get the tires spinnin? i couldnt keep an auto tranny in my old cheverolet, soon as the tars started spinnin the trans temp guage would jump up quick. couldnt get through a whole race without overheatin the tranny. The 5 speed is a pain to get spooled on the line and another pain to try and keep the boost up when shifting but once i got the hang of it i never looked back. no more overheated trannys and there cheap to work on when i break em. what part of the country do you race in?
 
To be honest, I have no idea, I was running the stock auto with about 450hp, and the fluid was burned when I started tearing the truck down. I'll be running John Deere hyguard fluid in the new build, and the cooler with it's own fan. I'm hoping with the higher line pressures of the new vb and better clutches and parts that I won't overheat it.

I'm running in the mamr assoc, which has pits in oklahoma and Kansas areas. I've got questions in for them on which class I'll be running in points next year. I'm hoping they let me in class 2, I would dominate it, but have a feeling I'll be in class 3. Class 2 are trucks with about 4 to 500 HP, class 3 is up to about 700hp and class 4 is about 850 HP. I know our trucks put out more torque, but I also have a 900lb disadvantage due to the heavier drivetrain. I did pretty well in my first race with the trans slipping in class 2, I managed 4th out of 9th against veteran racers.

Nakediesel
 
jaybuller said:
i think you should through a water kit on it to keep from meltin down those pistons! Sounds like one hell of a ride through the mud. Ive got my truck "stock suspension and i through 35" boggers on it and sand drag/mud drag a little bit. Soon as i get my dd clutch in there ill be set that way i can get those 3rd gear boosted launches going instead of 2nd gear rolling into it. i think ill be set up to only shift once from 3rd high to 4th high. that will be nice.
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He shouldn't have to worry about melting those pistons with only 435 injectors and a 100 plate. With that cam, intake and turbo he should have plenty of air as long as he can keep his RPMs up to keep that 66 spooled.

One question though, with the 181/220 cam you don't need flycuts. So are those in preparation of more mods down the road?
 
Correct, with the head mods, I shouldn't need water/meth. I'm a little worried about keeping on top of the 66 too.

The fly cuts are a piece of mind thing, with running larger valves and alot of timing

I've already bent one valve by kissing the piston with it at 16.5 degrees timing at about 3800 rpm, granted, it was due to just having 60lb valve springs on it at the time
 
Where in OK do you run? There are a couple big races near my house, around the town of Geary every year. Don't think its with any org's though.
 
NakeDiesel said:
Correct, with the head mods, I shouldn't need water/meth. I'm a little worried about keeping on top of the 66 too.

The fly cuts are a piece of mind thing, with running larger valves and alot of timing

I've already bent one valve by kissing the piston with it at 16.5 degrees timing at about 3800 rpm, granted, it was due to just having 60lb valve springs on it at the time
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I was thinking the 66 might be a bit big for mudding, especially with an auto. Worst case scenario it doesnt work and you can trade it for a 64, that should work.
 
Our races are in Porter, OK, Caney, KS, Cedarvale, KS, Howard, KS and a couple of other places in KS, and will probably go up to the big race in South Haven, KS. which isn't part of the MAMR.

It's an ED 66/74 that's been clipped for faster spool up, I'm going with a little looser stall on the converter to help with spool up of the turbo, so we shall see how it does. I've had alot of discussions about turbo's and spooling them over the last few months with various people cause without keeping on top of the charger, I'm not going anywhere when racing.

It's been interesting talking to people in the cummins performance area and getting them to understand what mud racing is like, and how track conditions can really vary and that I might need to get out of the throttle and then jump right back on it again, or that the engine could bog down and need to downshift depending on how deep the mud gets at the end. We've been to some places that the first 90 feet were a walk in the park, just a couple of feet deep and watery, the last ten feet being very deep, thick and sticky, killing all forward momentum and wheel speed.

All last season, I had people asking when I was going to bring the dodge back out and run it again, in one race, I picked up quite a following of rednecks and motorheads. We heard alot of comments about diesels not being able to get through the mud since they are so heavy before I ran, then afterwards, I had tons of people going to look at the truck and check it out.

I've seen some other diesels run, but they were either stockish chevy military blazers with the 6.2 in them or one first gen cummins with like 15" of lift and 46" tires, it wasn't fast at all.
 
I'm sure you've been told a small set of twins would be the best option, right? Something like an Hx35 over a s471... Perfectly capable of a cool 500hp, yet should spool instantly at low RPMs in case you hit that deep mud/water that causes you to loose momentum and wheel speed.
 
I'd have to agree, to big of turbo for what your going to be doing, you need something with zero lag, especially if you start to bog down or have to jump back in the throttle. Good way to melt those pistons no matter what head mods/cam you have.
 
Twins are a no no in the classes, so it's not even a consideration. I ran the he351 with a mechanical waste gate control to control the vgt sleeve last year, spooled up quick, but it pumped alot of hot air at 55lbs of boost. Spool was almost instantaneous.

I guess I'll have to see how the 66/74 does, if it doesn't work, I'll bump down to a 64/71. Still waiting on answers for which class I'll be running in.
 
Alright, trying to come up with some kind of witty slogan to go with my logo on a t-shirt for the wife and I to wear at events... My logo is my avatar and the trucks name is Coaltrain

Here are some thoughts:

"Roll'n Coal & Sling'n Mud"

"Smoke on the Mud"

"Smoke'n"

S & M 2011
(Smoke and Mud)
(Get your mind out of the gutter)

Lets hear your thoughts....
 
NakeDiesel said:
Here is what we are going with: The above cam, a fully ported and polished head, ringed, larger valves, cut off intake and new metal bolt on intake, billet timing cover and adjustable timing gear, studding the whole engine, crank stiffener, billet tappet cover, balanced rotating assembly, full rebuild kit with mahle pistons with fly cuts
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Your doing all this and only turning 4000 rpm?
 
Ever been mud bogging? I've never done what he's done but I've spent my fair share of time in deep mud holes and egts can get hot quick and stay there. Not to mention bogging down. I'd want all the airflow I could get in my engine.
 
Billet timing cover, studding the whole engine, crank stiffener, billet tappet cover, and balanced rotating assembly doesn't help airflow.
 
I've did a little bogging with my 64 and it seemed ok. Had a problem early on with air filter getting muddy. Never actually went back out with new air filter setup to try it again. I should be back out there this year. I still want to get a twin setup of some sort though.
 
for the airfilter, I'm running a bhaf that has a plastic cover over 3 ends of the filter and takes all of it's air in one from one direction. I have the filter opening pointed to the back of the truck, inside of the plastic where the filter element is located is clean as a whistle.

Billet timing cover, studding the whole engine, crank stiffener, billet tappet cover, and balanced rotating assembly doesn't help airflow.
Click to expand...

No, they don't help with airflow, but they do help with engine longevity and lasting the season or more than one season.

Your doing all this and only turning 4000 rpm?
Click to expand...

4k gsk is in there from last season, I want to get the truck back up and running and test at current injection pump setup before I do more to it. I'm hoping to get the truck all back together before the end of march so I have time to test and tune it.

The goal of pit racing is to get from one end to the other as fast as possible, but it's the luck of the draw on how the pit is when you get to run, it's not a bog where it's deep gumbo . Ideally you don't want to have to get out of it at all or downshift, and I think now with the power I will have, I won't have too. The only time I'll ever have to really get out of it is if I hit a bad rut and start climbing out of the side of the pit or get sideways. I'm hoping now to have enough torque and wheel speed by the time I hit a deep end, I can just keep on going without having to downshift.
 
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