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Cdnoilram's build thread v2.0

109K views 586 replies 64 participants last post by  Bruja Azul 
#1 ·
After the demise of my last truck at the hands of a Grand Cherokee that thought my truck was a better way to stop than using his own brakes, it's time to look to the future. In that theme, I would like to introduce my new truck... soon to be dubbed "Green Mamba"

It's an '09 1500 QCRB Sport. The important features from the factory are the 5.7L, 3.92 anti-spin diff, 4wd, and I had the dealership put 17s on it for my winter rubber. The guy that had it before me had added side steps, a nasty fuel door, tailgate extender, rear helper bags, a magnaflow 2-in/2-out muffler, and managed to put 100,000 kms on it. Why did I buy such high mileage? Because the entire drive train and suspension are going to be changed out in the next year, so why buy a low mileage one. The body is in OK shape, the expected dents and dings for a used vehicle, and one box side has been repainted, badly.

In true Cdnoilram fashion, I am going hog wild on the build and I was ordering parts even before I had possession of the vehicle :smiley_thumbs_up: Everything will happen in several phases over the next year, because I want to have the truck to where I'll be happy with it by next year. It would be sooner, but I'm also paying for my wedding that will be in June.

Phase 1 mods, already ordered/received:

Stance and handling
McGaughy's 2/4 drop kit, this will be cut for a 3/5 drop
Spohn adjustable panhard bar, adjustable rear upper and lower control arms
Hellwig rear sway bar
EBC sport rotors, green stuff pads (was going to do SSBC kit but would have to run 18s and I don't feel like paying extra for winter rubber)

A few appearance mods
APM ram-air hood
Spyder smoked LED tail lights
Anzo smoked LED 3rd brake
Street Scenes roll pan

Phase 1.5 makin' it look unique in my own special way: (expected ~March)

2-tone paint job by Airdrie Autowerks. A little snakeskin green ('10 ACR viper green) just for a bit of pop :wow:
Custom '13 sport projector headlights
Shave tailgate badge and antennae
Building a custom grille - this is going to be sweet (I'm keeping this under wraps for now, that's all I'm gonna say)
Spray-in bed liner

Phase 2 mods are all performance, have most from old truck:

Arrington P&P BV eagle heads (have)
ARH 1 3/4" primary LT headers (have)
MGH built 545/68rfe hybrid transmission (scheduled to be built)
ported 6.1L intake manifold (have)
85mm BBK throttle body (have)
Nitrous Outlet 85mm nitrous plate (have)
ZEX wet kit (have)

I am looking for a 370 or 392 forged stroker kit/block to handle the novi 1200 I have, but that might take a year with all the custom fab work I'll need to do to make it all work.

Phase 3, may happen before phase 2... audio:

Pioneer 2-DIN HU (have)
Front door panels to hold 6.5" components + 8" mid sub (have)
Modify center console and build box to hold a JL 13TW5 downfire or cheap out and just get a FOX box for 2x JL 10W6s
JL HD 900/5 + 600/4 (have)


That's the plan so far, there will be plenty of changes and tweaks as I make progress, but this is the first truck that I've actually got a plan and want to stick to it. It's warmed up nicely the last few days which means the snow is melting a bit and the truck is absolutely filthy... so no pics until tomorrow after I wash it.
 
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#193 ·
I'll fly out... you just have to pay the ticket ;)

I'm getting frustrated with Josh at HHP, I still don't have a startup tune yet. It's been sitting in the U-wrench for the past 4 days and it really should have only been in there for 1 day if I'd had the startup tune. Since I've been waiting for the tune I've decided to go ahead and do a few of the other mods I have sitting in the storage unit. I'm in the process of installing my drop kit, so I've got the Ground Force front springs in already. I had ordered some Belltech shocks, but they sent me 2wd shocks instead. I can use the rears but the fronts are useless to me.

While i had the front shocks out I decided to try an experiment... swapping McGaughy's spindles onto a 4wd, and they physically fit, but it's obvious my upper balljoint is in a very extreme situation since the McG's spindle is 2.5" shorter than the 4wd spindle, so I'll be designing a new upper control arm to even everything else out, aside from that the lower portion of the spindle works great with the 4wd suspension. I might see if I can't convert to a uniball or spherical joint rather than a balljoint, as it would take more extreme angles. I'm going to leave the spindles in with the GF springs and see how long my CV joints hold up if I ever get the engine running.

Tomorrow I tackle the rear springs as well as the Spohn adjustable control arms and panhard bar. I may have to cut the rear springs eventually just to get the trim I want, but that will happen in time.
 
#194 ·
Soooooo..... still not running. Got my new tune from Josh. He had taken the day off to be with family but when I called HHP they got a hold of him at home and he did the tune from home. Sadly I believe it is a physical issue, not a tune issue. I'm pretty sure that my timing is off as I'm only making 2-4psi of compression in cylinder 1.

However, I did get the truck's stance to where I wanted it. I might trim the rear coils to bring the back down more, but using the Belltech 2WD stock size shocks was exactly what I wanted with the McGaughy's 2wd rear drop springs. Here's everything that I pulled out of the truck in the last 2 days



Swapped out the rear sway bar for a Hellwig bar at the same time that I did the rear Spohn control arms and panhard bars.







There's a slight length difference between the stock 4wd and the 2WD Belltech shocks



Here's the difference between the stock 4wd steering knuckle and the 2wd McGaughy's steering knuckle. There's an overall 2.5" height difference between the two and it results in an extreme angle on the upper balljoint. I have been in touch with Michigan Metal Works and they make a replacement upper control arm with a spherical joint for this exact purpose, dropping a 4wd lower than 2" in the front.



 
#196 ·
No pics of the new stance until it's running and I can give it a bath. More than a month of being outdoors and no ability to get it to a wash bay, I'm ashamed of how dirty it is right now.

I just had it towed to my friend's shop so I can get started on it again tomorrow, so hopefully it's running either by the end of the day or by tomorrow at the latest. In the mean time, I took a day off from the mechanical stuff and relaxed and did some fiberglass work and some prep/paint.

Filled in the lower RAM insert and smoothed it all out


Coil pack covers painted, just waiting on clearcoat


The start of the fiberglass work on the lower console. I'm smoothing it out and will be running my nitrous pressure gauge and master switches from here.


The inserts... painted to match the new body color
 
#201 ·
How much do you have in it thus far from date of purchase?

Rough ballpark....

How about after all's said and done?

You don't have to share. I'm just curious....
 
#202 · (Edited)
It was definitely the timing! Reset the chain today and bolted it all back together. Found that the front oil galleries didn't have plugs either, so I pull the ones from the old engine and put them in place. I fired it up for a few seconds just to see if it would fire... and it did!!! I was so happy. When I get to the shop tomorrow I'll fill it with coolant, pull a CV shaft since I've snapped one already, and take it for a quick test drive... very low speed and a few turns before I park it and pick it up later tonight.

There will be pics and vid tomorrow, I can't wait. It's loud as all hell with just headers, no cats or exhaust.



So far only about $13K. 3K for the engine, 2.5K for the supercharger, 2.5K for transmission, 1.5K in misc engine parts, 1.5K for the suspension system, and about 1.5K in shop costs as I'd been working at a rental shop bay for the first 2 weeks. I already had a lot of stuff from my previous truck like the heads, intake manifold, nitrous system. I have gotten some great deals buying lightly used parts from forum members and I have the ability to do most of the work myself so that really saves money. I'm not a professional by any means, but I'm definitely learning a lot.

I also have Bully's to thank as well. They've helped me out as well with some much needed parts and Andrew and Jeremiah have been great to deal with. All the parts to my soon-to-be custom exhaust and QTP cutouts have come through them.
 
#205 ·
Thanks Andrew. You guys will be getting a call in the next month or two for some goodies. I have need of a toneau cover, a couple of catch cans, a DeeZee, bed rug, etc. I was going to go for a set of AMP retractable side steps... but really not needed anymore with the 4/6 drop.
 
#206 ·
Congrats on the first fire up man. It's always such a good sound to hear when it finally comes to life. Loving the looks of all the other little projects you've posted pics of lately to.
 
#282 ·
Got my interior painted, hydrodipped, and added some carbon fiber di-noc. Really happy with the results.









Wow just went thru the whole build... you have some awesome mods!! cant wait to see the truck done! how hard was the hydrodipping?? did you buy a hydrodip kit online and if so which one? is the carbon fiber hydrodipped as well or how did you do that? ive been looking into some different ways like this for the interior of my ram. Looking sick so far tho! keep up the great work! rep points for ya on the very detailed build :smileup:
 
#212 ·
I think what has saved me the most money is that I'm willing to delve into this myself and see where it takes me. I have never built an engine before, and yes I have made mistakes, but I've learned SOOOO much and nothing I have done has been a disastrous mistake, it's just little issues that have arisen, and having learned how to troubleshoot has been a huge help. I've become a resource for my local car club as well, I've been asked to help with several 'deep' engine mods across the LX platform, which is kind of cool.

AS much as my wife has complained over the last 1.5 months of my truck not running, she realizes that I love what I'm doing and it's still less expensive than having had a shop do the work. Of course, when I tell her, because of what I've done, I need to do more to make it all work properly/better, she gets a little angry, but c'est la vie.
 
#213 ·
Inner CV joint victim #1. Ordered a set of Kore inner CV joints yesterday morning at the tune of $850, but should prevent this in the future.



Literally, broke that sh!t apart. No clunking to indicate the joint going out, that sh!t just sheared right the f off. Caused by accidentally switching the truck into 4wd when removing the switch to reinstall into the center console that I had just refinished. :doh:

 
#216 ·
Ordered a set of Kore high angle inner CV joints today. That should allow sufficient mobility in the inner joint to keep the outer joint happy. Damn, it's costing me $1300 just to keep the damned McG's drop spindles... but you'll see why when I'm able to actually wash the truck and I can take pics of the new 4wd's stance :smileup:
 
#218 ·
Depends on when I decide to actually stop :LOL:

This year is all about performance and basic appearance. Next spring will be the audio build and paint. Then who knows after that. I am hoping to buy a house next year and I'm dead set on a 30% downpayment, so my mod funds won't be as high as they were this year, but I can still put away $500 a month for mods I think and that will cover the paint and audio by the end of spring.
 
#219 ·
Depends on when I decide to actually stop :LOL:

This year is all about performance and basic appearance. Next spring will be the audio build and paint. Then who knows after that. I am hoping to buy a house next year and I'm dead set on a 30% down payment, so my mod funds won't be as high as they were this year, but I can still put away $500 a month for mods I think and that will cover the paint and audio by the end of spring.
Dude! You need to share how the hell you can save money and have 30% down for your house and still mod your truck like many dream they can do.

That should be the topic of your thread for the next posts

Will this be your daily driver? Or you have another daily driver and this is your fun car/truck?
 
#221 ·
30% DP will really help your house note.

We just put 40% down on a new house we're building and the note was a lot more do-able.

How you're doing all that around you build is beyond me.

Kudos, because my wife would freeze my jewels if I attempted it.

Here's another looking forward to the finished product.
 
#223 ·
30% DP will really help your house note.

We just put 40% down on a new house we're building and the note was a lot more do-able.
Yeah, getting everything together and just having to have the bank approve the mortage rather than the additional CMHC getting their fingers into the pie is a big benefit. It's one thing my wife has insisted on for our house especially since we plan to keep our current condo as a rental property.

Kudos, because my wife would freeze my jewels if I attempted it.
What makes you think I have any jewels left? The only balls I have left are the ones I have put into my truck, my wife's had mine pickled and sitting on a shelf for 5 years now, and we just got married this year. :shy: Truthfully, from what I got from car accident and what insurance gave me for my last truck I was able to start with a pretty good amount for mods for this truck.
 
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