Thanks for getting that for me man, but yes Tsiturbomightymax, the DOHC is super impractical for our trucks. Doesn't mean that they aren't out there (never seen a complete one but I have seen two or three terminally in-progress builds), but they sure as hell aren't easy. The stock turbo manifolds are actually a detriment of the engine, because they toss the suckers at odd angles for a longitudinal mount and they sit right where the motor mounts belong, necessitating custom fabbed headers and re-clocking anyway.
Thanks for all of the compliments on the dash guys, everyone I show it to tells me they couldn't tell it wasn't stock, which is pretty much what I was going for. It's still nice to hear that folks who know what is supposed to be there like it too
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Sorry to say guys, but the dash is about the only thing that hasn't broken so far. Lost the tranny in september after I clicked second gear at about 5500 rpms, leading to a gnarly synchro-grind and the stick locked in the 2nd gear position with no power to the rear wheels. Ouch. Swapped out to my spare V5MT1-1 as soon as I could and it's still doing alright, but 3rd is starting to sound funny and I'm chocking it up to 20-30 years if use. The carrier bearing shredded itself due to a slight difference in the mounting from the 1990 long bed frame to mine (the bracket is too close to the end of the transfer case. Not so much that it doesn't bolt up, but enough to cause excess wear.), and I'm waiting until I can swap to a single-shaft driveline like it used to have. The cherry on the cake here is the motor seemingly spinning a bearing at 1560 miles.
Took it out to the sticks last weekend and let a friend do doughnuts in a mud pit after a shooting trip and he basically had it pinned at the rev limiter in 1st the whole time apparently. This was, at most, a 1 minute long doughnut, but evidently that was one minute too long. The motor rattles constantly when warmed up, growing in volume with rpm, and under load above 2000 rpms it develops a deeper knock that sounds an awful lot like a rod bearing going out.
The motor had its first oil change at 600 miles with noticeable sparkles in the oil, and here at about 1560 it has sparkles in the oil again and a rod knock. It has always ran cold, maybe a third way up on the gauge, and it was running just as good when it started knocking as it did before, that is, no loss of oil pressure, no increase in running temp, and no loss of power. This last change I ran 20w-50 non synthetic, a quart of Lucas oil stabilizer and a fresh filter. The "new" trans is running a bottle of pennzoil synchro-mesh and GL-4, with pure GL-4 in the transfer case. Those are the fluids that I've had recommended to me by folks who know this drivetrain, so I don't see that being the issue.
I'm starting to get pretty unconfident in this drivetrain. The (admittedly old and used) V5MT1-1 5 speeds I've ran have proven to be sloppy and weak, while the NA 6g72 is blowing itself up at 1500 miles at the first sign of hard use. Do I have gremlins or something?
So I know that there are a lot of powerful SOHC 6G72s out there, and they seem to do fine, but I've never heard of how well the 5 speeds handle power... Does anyone here know the torque rating on those trannys? Do people with high output 6g72s baby them everywhere? I just want to know from folks with experience with these drivetrains if I'm building a grenade that I'll have to always drive like it's already breaking down.
I'm not canceling the build, though I will obviously have to remedy the engine first, but I'd like the questions above answered before I dump more money into this already money pit of a truck.
As for the dash I'm loving it. It's everything that I'd hope it would be
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Originally Posted by idahoram50
. I only wish that I could select the G54b as the 'former' engine, if only as an homage to that gutless wonder.
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