02 5.9 cummins in to a 96 chevy 3500

wondering how big of a job is it to put a 5.9 cummins out of a 2002 dodge 2500 in a 96 chevy 3500? found a dodge on craigslist that rolled and seems pretty reasonable. my little 350 don't handle the big loads i throw at it like i would like, i assume the cummins would be better? i assume if i were to do a project like this the whole engine and trans assembly would be swapped. seems there was someone on here not to long ago that did something like this. is it worth the hassle or is one better off to just save his pennies and buy a factory diesel pickup? any thoughts, ideas, or advise welcome
 
Life would be easier for you if you dropped in a 12 valve instead. In 98.5 they came out with the 24 valve which is computer controlled.
12 valve swaps are the most common for a reason.
 
ok thanks, i haven't done any research on a project like this and thought this would be a good place to start. in all reality its a project i will
probably never tackle, just saw the add and it got me thinking.
 

Swapping a 12v Cummins into a truck with manual trans is easiest which is what I did (04 F-450, 12 Cummins, Ford ZF6 6spd manual)

24v swap also requires using the Dodge ECM and involves a fair amount of wiring.

Cummins engine is longer, to use the mechanical fan the trans will need moved back 2-3", this will require modifying trans crossmember, shift linkage and drive shafts.

Take the cost of the rolled Dodge and add min $2K and max $5k to the total cost of the conversion (some have spent much more), then decide if your present truck is worth spending that much on, do you use it enough to justify the cost, do you plan to keep it long enough to drive to cost back out.

Cummins Diesel Forum has lots of threads in the Cummins Conversion section about doing such swaps.

In my case the swap was worth it.
The truck was a rust free low mile (under 100K mile) former fire truck (stored inside) with blown engine (bought cheap). Swapping in a Cummins was less than replacing the blown 6.0.
Short of being wrecked I plan for this truck to be the last heavy duty truck I purchase, I have zero interest in a new diesel pickup, should I be forced to replace this truck I'll probably go back to a gas engine.
 
I'd be looking for a chevy 454 it should drop right in ! Good power it will get it done !
 
We put a "93 Cummins into a "94 Chevy dually. Spent maybe $3800 on parts, which includes the low mileage motor, the "98 Chevy NV4500 5 spd. tranny, the all aluminum radiator, special bell housng, new clutch pack, new flywheel, drive shaft work, exhaust pipe adapter, and miscellaneous stuff. Had to lift the cab 2", and shove the motor all the way back against the firewall. The whole job is easier if you first remove the grill and everything else between the fenders, except the bumper and lower supports of course. We installed a 6" turbo-back straight exhaust, using an adapter I found on Amazon, but we still had to heat it with a rose bud in the curve in order to beat it inward somewhat where it passed by the tranny support, otherwise it wouldn't fit. We are now driving the truck. It does great. The only issue we have is some problem with the wiring. When the lights are on, either by way of the headlights burning or when braking, the turn signal;s and dash gauges stop working. We installed several additional grounds and disabled the ABS system to no avail. Next we will get an adapter for connecting the Dodge motor to the Chevy truck, disconnect the auxillary gauges, and see if that solves the problem. This project has taken over 6 years, working when we had the time. Would I do it again? Not sure. A good bit of the time was involved in finding the right parts, making mistakes, correcting them, and doing it again. I expect therefore that the second time would be a lot easier. We learned a lot, had fun, and now have a combination of the best frame and the best motor.
 
Just a thought,I just did a tune up on my 96-3/4ton. plugs,cap,wires and rotor made a great big difference in the old girl. The chain store wanted $12.99 per plug,I bought everything from RO for $48.00. Mine is a little slower pulling than my SILs Duramax,but I run 65 mph with the gas burner, and he can run 70mph pulling the same trailer. I can tune mine up for $50.00 and he can t buy an injector for that. I get 10 mpg and he gets 15mpg, and his cost a heck of a lot more than mine.
 
Walter, why did you use a Chevy NV4500 and not the Dodge NV4500HD? Chevy NV4500 has a granny low and a smaller input and output than the Dodge HD version and that Chevy granny low isn't needed with the diesel.
 
Pretend Farmer. At the time, we were trying to hold costs down as much as reasonably possible. The "98 Chevy NV4500 came available at $500. Plus we
didn't really know much about the differences between Chevy's and Dodge's anyway. Not that it matters much anymore: My hauling days are over. My wife
developed some serious health issues during the conversion so I can't be away from home on long trips anymore. What else can you tell me about the
differences? Are the gears the same size except for the granny? I decided to put 6 new tires on it. Going with Thunderer Commercials size 235 x 85-16.
My son has them on his Chevy. Next will be a new windshield. Still haven't figured out the wiring problem. The motor didn't come with a wiring
harness, so we made do. When I turn the headlights on or press the brake pedal, all the dash gauges stop working, so do the power door locks and
windows and turn signals. We installed auxillary gauges on the dash and ran a separate wire from a new toggle switch to the headlights and several
additional grounds all to no avail. The auxillary gauges keep working, but of course they don't include the fuel gauge or the speedometer. Putting a
new brake light switch on today to see if that solves the problem.
 
Walter, Grab a 12 Volt unpowered test lite.

Connect the test lite wire directly to the ground post at a battery.

Probe the black (ground) wire connection at a headlight with the test lit probe.

Obviously, test lite should not light.

Continue to hold the test lite in position on the ground at a headlamp, and have someone turn on the headlight switch. Let us know what the test lite does!
 
Walter,
As far as I know the only difference between the Dodge NV4500HD and the light duty Chevy NV4500 is the 1 1/8" input, smaller output, and granny low. But I don't think all year chevy NV4500's had the granny low.
You can snap that input with your Cummins but it would be unlikely if you have a single disk organic clutch as they don't grab hard.
If you had a ceramic clutch in it you probably would've snapped it already. The NV4500HD has a 1 1/4" input and that's a big difference.
 
Interesting... If it truly isn't the ground side, it has the be a common point in the wiring on the power feed side... possibly in the "power distribution box" area under the hood. I have factory wiring diagrams for that year, if I remember and get a little time later, I'll take a look for a common point all those systems that "go down" share.

I'd sure like to know what you have going on... HAS to be something very simply that was not tightly connected, or damaged during the engine swap.
 
Bob, if you can figure it out I will include you in my will. This is the only thing preventing me from driving the truck. My mechanic is the best mechanic I know but he had never before done such a conversion. We have worked on this project as time and funds have permitted, over 6 years now, but for a total price of about 5 grand which includes EVERYTHING, motor, tranny, tires, windshield, the works, plus considering the fact that he isn't charging me for labor, I feel like I did pretty good. I just wish we could solve this wiring problem. Several people told me that there is an adapter that allows you to connect a Cummins motor wiring harness to a Chevy wiring harness. I haven't yet found that adapter, but the motor did not come with a wiring harness anyway. Do you think it would help to find one and use it with that adapter?
 
Walter, check all of your connections in the light circuit. also check the multi function switch in the steering column. That switch can cause a lot of problems.
 

That 93 1st gen Cummins doesn't need much wiring.
Ignition wire to the inj pump, water temp, oil pressure, wire up the starter. Not sure how GM gets their tach signal if you have one and want it to work.

Company called Diesel Conversion Specialist makes harnesses for Ford conversions, they may be able to make up one for your Chevy.
 
Destroked, son and I put an 81 chev cab and frontend on a 91 Dodge frame. Used all of the chev wiring to hook up the gauges. only problem we had was the wire going to some of the sensors were too short. Cut and splice. Worked great. 650 hp on a dyno. Kinda scary to drive. But fun and proved to his buddies that this "Old Man" knew what he was doing. They don't say " you can't do that" anymore.
 

Mine's a 97 215 p pump engine in a F-450
It's my primary tow vehicle so keeping it under 400hp for durability.
Did the conversion 4 years ago but the used engine wasn't much good, so we built a new engine with aftermarket cam, injectors and turbo, swapped it in 2 years ago while doing a 08 front frame swap converting the front to coil springs for a better ride and sharper turning radius.
Finished it up a couple months before my 60th bday.
Wife drives around in a super charged Z71, not to often you see a 16 year old wanting grandma's old truck.
 
Destroked, I believe I already talked to DCS. I know how simple the basic wiring is. Not much more complicated than the wiring on a MF 135 with a
Perkins. But we don't have a problem there. I can crank the motor and drive the truck right now. Already have. The problem is the interference we're
getting to the rest of the wiring every time we either turn the lights on or press the brake pedal. Doing either one apparently robs everything else
of current. No dash gauges, no turn signals, no power door locks or windows. Can't get an inspection sticker like that.
 
We didn't use a brass insert clutch but we used the heaviest duty one under that that we could find. I honestly can't remember its composition it's
been so long. Can those shafts be replaced with larger ones, or would it be necessary to change the entire transmission? We haven't done anything to
effect the Hp. It's still the stock 160. I never had a problem pulling 20K# loads with my "93 Dodge D-250 that was converted into a D-350 dually and
has the 5 spd. Getrag tranny, original 160 Hp output. I don't know the composition of the clutch in it but probably just stock. We're about to find
out because it finally wore out and is in the shop for a clutch job.
 
I don't think its worth the effort to convert a light duty NV4500 to a heavy duty version. Honestly if it were me and if you could afford the break down, I would just drive it and if you ever snapped the input then worry about it.
Your chances of snapping the input with the stock 160hp is pretty slim I would say considering that I think the light duty NV4500 is rated for 400ft-lbs input and that's where your 160hp cummins is at.
Take a look see here: http://www.dieselhub.com/trans/nv4500.html
That doesn't list the light duty input torque. I can tell you for sure that I was putting over 500ft-lbs through my NV4500HD.
 
I was talking with my mechanic today and he reminded me that before he stabbed the Chevy NV4500, he removed the input shaft and replaced it with the
larger HD version. I had forgotten. So we are good to go there. I drove the truck today about 5 miles to the tire shop so they could mount the 6 new
10 ply tires that arrived this morning. These Thunderer CLT Commercial Duty tires from Thailand are impressive, have excellent customer reports, and
are unbelievably inexpensive at $108 each. You just can't beat 6 load range E truck tires with a reputation for extraordinary strength and long life,
and that come with an unconditional 45 day free replacement, no questions asked, and a one year practically unconditional free road hazard warranty
for $651. But we are still working on the wiring issue. Very aggravating.
 

Sounds like a bad ground somewhere.
I've had it happen on semi's, one bulb not grounded good can draw thru the whole system making other lights not work.
Engine to body, engine to frame grounds all good?

Years ago a neighbor was having issues with tail lights not working, took a bit of searching but the right front marker light was shorted.
You had some of the front end apart doing the engine swap, did you get all of the grounds for the front lights reconnected?

John
 

I would suggest looking at the actual headlight on-off switch.

This is from the previous generation truck but I had a lot of lighting issues caused by a burned connection inside the old push-pull switch. It had 7 or 8 male lugs on it and the organizer comb for the female lugs was long gone. Only one combination was correct. It took a lot of looking at the wiring diagrams and ringing out the switch with a continuity meter to figure out the problem.

Eventually realizing the problem (too much electrical load on the parking lamp circuit when pulling the Goose) I installed a 30A relay to do the actual switching of lights ON or OFF. The push-pull only sends milliamps now to the relay coil.

However a lot of unexpected behavior of the internal and external lighting resulted.

I was lucky enough to find a Haynes (OEM -GM) printed manual for my truck on ebay. The wiring diagrams inside really helped.
 

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