My 2009 Ford F550 Cummins 6.7l Transplant story #1

I am going to use this thread to document the history of my 2009 Ford F550 that I use to pull my 40-foot fifth wheel camper. The story starts with a Ford powerplant but will end with a Cummins so please stick with me, I know that this is a Cummins site. This will be a work in progress but I want to capture any info that someone else trying this swap, will have enough info to know if they want to try it or not.

In the beginning:
1. Purchased 2009 Ford F550 gas V10 6.8L with no bed.
2. Built (mostly) bed to mount fifth wheel hitch and hang some toolboxes from. Plan on doing a diamond plate skirt and rack, just not there yet.
3. Found a fuel injector stuck open and dumping fuel. Replaced all injectors but MPG only changed a bit. Still about 4.5 MPG while pulling my 16k pound camper.
4. XL stripped truck but I wanted PW, PL, and power mirrors. Stripped the truck down and replaced the dash and floor harnesses with new Ford parts found online. Door harnesses were used.
5. Ordered new SRW conversion wheels from ****. After 11 months, never got them. Ended up ordering from another company, had them in 5 weeks!
5. Still has the DRWs but that will change.
6. Several thousand miles with the V10, a full West coast trip over 6 months and a Texas trip over 6 months. The only major issue was a blown transmission in Seattle on the first trip. Minor issue, 4.5 MPG.

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(Don't you love those eBay red power fold/telescopic heated mirrors!)

To be continued...

After almost 10K miles of pulling 16K pounds around the country, I found the gold nugget. A 2018 Cummins 6.7L out of a wrecked 2500 with only 1000 miles. Now it is time to start gathering the rest of the parts.

1. Found (used) adapter plate, flex plate, and motor mount adapters (Destroked) from a guy off of Craigslist.
2. Engine came from a wrecking yard that shipped it in. It had the ECM and harness but was missing the turbo and a few small parts.
3. SwapHelper was needed to get the 40 minus 2 tone count that the factory ECM and tach needed.
4. Power steering pump mount for a F550 (DCS).
5. All of the parts in the front to convert it to a diesel truck (radiator, condenser, inter-cooler,...).
6. Shortened/lengthened driveshafts.
7. Dodge Ram accelerator pedal. Not sure if I need this yet, will discuss this issue later.
8. Lots of electronic tools and software.
9. Ram flex downpipe. Little close to the transmission lines but will check the temp after a good long run.
10. Possibly a PCS Transmission Controller. Trying to keep the Ford ECM for now if I can but that is still i the works.
11. ECMs and engine harnesses for several versions of truck.
12. I am sure there is more that I am not thinking of.


Some of the general lessons learned:
1. Trust but verify. During this project I have heard a lot of "that will work" or "that should work". All I can say is verify!! So far almost everything that I have asked about, turns out, won't work. The more you dig in and the more knowledgeable people you find the more you figure out the impossibility of what ever you are looking to do.
2. When it comes to ECM configuration/updating/tuning, there is a lot to know. I am not looking to make a complete monster out of this (yet), just a stock tune with deletes that support the truck. You might as well be asking for the keys to the Taj Mahal. I have armed myself with a pretty good arsenal of tools (Cummins Calterm, Insite, EFI Live, Kess) and it looks like it will still be a while to figure it all out and getting help is either very expensive or non-existent. Turns out a lot of the information that I am looking for is the livelihood of these engineers, so I completely understand.
3. Give yourself plenty of time, don't schedule camping trips that end up causing stress.
4. If I were to do it again, I would start with an older CR or even a manual pump motor. The later CRs and their ECMs cause some issues/complexity with the swap.
5. Keep every single wire, bracket, nut and bolt, you will probably need it or some part of it.

Attachment 8776

More to come...

Good luck, sounds like a lot of fun if you've got the time, money, energy and patience for that sort of thing.

Not sure I could do it, but I'll be following along.

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Wow! What a build! [emoji106][emoji106]


2016 Ram Laramie 3500, G56, 6.7, MM3 by Double R Diesel, Rough Country Leveling, 35x12.50 Nitto G2, HID headlights, Morimoto LED fogs plus a whole lot more! [emoji106][emoji41]

This will be one to watch, thanks for sharing the journey [emoji106]

Greg
2012 | RAM 2500 | CCSB | MM3 tuned by Double R Diesel
2016 | Heartland Pioneer | DS310

Will follow this build. Cummins powered ford’s are badass


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by 4kids2dogs&RV

Good luck, sounds like a lot of fun of you've got the time, money, energy and patience for that sort of thing.

Not sure I could do it, but I'll be following along.

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X2 on this


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Awesome Project !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I miss my fummins

After ordering my SRW conversion wheels from "unmentioned" company, I waited for 11 months, and still no wheels. I called up Wheels Now Inc. They didn't have the specs for the needed wheels so I provided the info that I knew. The were out of the 19.5" blanks at first but got them back in stock pretty quick.

After a few back and forth email, we got them through engineering and in line to be built. About 7 weeks later, my new wheels showed up. Went looking for some H rated tires with some tread and ended up with the Toyo M-608Z.

To get the full carrying capacity of the truck, the H rated 285/70R19.5 (6400LBS) tires is what I needed. Took the wheels down to the truck tire shop in Denver to have them mounted up and balanced. He gave me the good news that he was going to discount the install (by a bunch) which I was happy about.

Turns out that there was a reason. After paying, I went out to take a look. Seems that the guys working on my wheels thought that they were working a farm tractor and didn't really take in to consideration that I had just spent $2K on these wheels with the nice new shiny black powder coating. Now they looked like they belonged on a farm tractor.

Knowing that I could act stupid if I went back in, I chose to suck it up, take the lump, and drive off with my new tires and wheels. Now to get them on the truck.

Turns out the blanks that were used to build the wheels had a bulge to the inside of the wheel that just so happened to line up perfectly with my front brake calipers. Didn't seem to be enough of a problem that a flap-wheel disk couldn't resolve.

After a little polishing of the caliper, the wheels are on. There may be a 1/32" clearance, but it works. These massive wheels don't seem to flex at all.

Got on the highway for a test drive, and the truck now drove like a tractor, it was shaking all over the place. Next day drove it back to the tire shop for a check.

Things didn't go so well with that starting with lug-nuts that wouldn't come off of any wheel. Seems that my Craftsman impact gun was able to do an almost permanent job of putting them on and the tire shop couldn't get them off.

After a couple broke sockets and a bent up tire iron, we got them off of the truck.

Now off to the lounge to wait for the work to be done. Got work that it was ready to go, no money exchanged, and off to the house.

Not perfect but a lot better then before. I don't expect this to ride like a pickup so I am good to go. And for a side note, the wheels clock in at about 80lbs. and the tires are almost 100lbs, that puts each tire/wheel combo at almost 200lbs.

I bought a spare tire and wheel but if I ever have to change it there will be a call to AAA since I wouldn't be able to get the flat tire back on the bed of my truck.

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Little close the bed but this is an F550. I drop the hitch of my camper, 2800lbs tongue weight, and the bed drops by an inch.

By the end of this, I will be installing a Kelderman Quad-bag four-link air-ride suspension that I picked up off of an ambulance.

I hope to lift it a couple of inches with that.

Attachment 8792

Next....

Subscribed.

Today I want to talk about ECMs. This goes back to when I bought the 2018 engine. When I first started looking for info, it appeared that the new 2018 security wouldn't allow me to use the original ECM. That was wrong but I didn't know that then. So, armed with my mis-information I went down the path of using a non-Ram version of the ECM (CM2350A). I still think that it can be done, I just couldn't get it to work. The HD commercial version of the ISB6.7 is for sure different in several ways, here are a few that I know of:
1. Most commercial engines have a rear valve train gear configuration. This changes the location and number of the crank position sensors.
2. Most have a second crank position sensor in the bellhousing.
3. Most don't have a MAF sensor like the Ram.
4. Injection pump is driven from the rear of the engine and not the front.

I am sure that there are more, but these are the big things. Also, I say most only assuming that I didn't find all configuration variations available. If I could have found a calibration that looked closer to the Ram configuration, I could have made this work. If I had got the CM2350A to work, adding cruise control would have been an option since it is a hardwired function of the ECM and not CAN driven. I am not sure of the tuning options without MAF but I am sure that I could have gotten the 1000 lb/ft of torque that I am looking for.

I started tracking down parts for plan A (CM2350A), plan B (CM2200), and plan C (CM850) and the corresponding harnesses for each. Along with the ECMs and harnesses I picked up what I thought that I needed for tools. Bought a Cummins Inline 6 pass-thru adapter, Cummins Insite, Cummins Calterm. Now with all of my tools, I put together a bench harness for the CM2350A, I started trying to figure out what to do. I found a good amount of information but never everything that I needed. Turned out that not only did I need to do the deletes (EGR, DPF, DEF), I needed to adjust the configuration for the different location of the crank position sensor and lack of MAF. I assume that this would require a completely different strategy which I couldn't find an example of. After a full 6 weeks of working on the ECM, I think I have it. The Engine is in the truck (will update on install next) and ready to test the ECM. I was hoping that I could at least get it running in derate mode, but no luck. After messing with the CPS configuration and other random settings, I gave up. Thinking that I would move on to Plan B or C, I started looking at the parts that I would have to replace on my 1000 mile Cummins engine, I delayed on going that route. I sprung for a EFI Live V2, put the Ram CM2350B on, flashed it with a stock tune for the 2018, and upgraded to CSP5 OS. Hooked up my power and pedal, turned the key, and shazam, it started up. Turns out that the new security that Ram put in place for 2018 is just a security module that goes between the ECM and the ODB port. I was also worried about the SKIM, but seems that the EFI Live kills that as well. So now I have a "kind of running" Cummins in my Ford. Still a lot to do but feeling better about it. Next post will be the physical install and the things that I learned from that but I will continue with the issues that I am running in to trying to get the Ford ECM to control the transmission.

As for the physical install, it overall went okay. Here are some things that I figured out by trial and error (mostly error). First, buy all of the conversion parts from the same builder as there are repercussions if you don't. For example, the motor mounts make a difference with the power steering mount. Also, F250/F350 is different than F450/F550. The power steering gearbox is bigger on the F450/F550 than the F250/F350, so different mount needed for the Ford diesel pump. In my case the used engine mounts I bought, already had been drilled to change the height of the engine for a compound turbo setup that the previous owner had tried to install. These extra holes seemed to help me out with power steering pump to gearbox clearance issue that I had. Then there was a flexplate issue. Somewhere along the way, Cummins change the way the factory flexplate centered. It went from centering on the outside of the crank snout to a centering ring on the center of the shaft. Problem was, the conversion flexplate didn't account for this. So I have the option of either grinding off the centering ring on the crankshaft or cutting a recess in the flexplate. I went with modifying the flexplate just in case this engine ever needed to go back in to a Ram. I broke out my die grinder and ground a circle in the face of the flexplate. Seemed to work but not sure yet, having issues with the starter. It is possible that the circle that I cut may have not been deep enough. For some reason the starter doesn't like to engage far enough to start the starter motor. Swapped the starter with another, and still the same issue. Back to the motor mounts, the ones that I used won't let you keep the ECM mounted on the side of the engine. You can barely see in the photo where I built a stand that is welded to the crossmember of the truck that holds the ECM. Another company claims that their mounts would have worked but I didn't find that until I had already cut/lengthened my driveshafts and I don't know if the different mounts changes the location of the engine or not. The location/height of the engine also makes a difference on the fan shroud, which I will have to make some adjustments for that anyways since I had to raise the engine to accommodate the power steering/gearbox clearance issue. One of the things that I didn't realize on this swap was the relocation of the engine. There are a set of transmission mount holes that are about 2 inches to the rear of where mine started. The biggest issue with the physical install will be this move. Driveshafts got lengthened/shortened (4X4), which was easy, problem now is the manual shift transfer case. I have no idea what the rearward set of holes are for but it doesn't appear to be for a 4X4 truck with a manual shift transfer case. When I started looking through the parts catalog, the shift lever and swivel was different for a gas engine vs a diesel engine so I thought that would fix me up. Not the case, still the same issue, shifter is 2 inches further back from the hole in the floor. Looks like I will have to do some fabrication of the swivel to move the lever a couple inches forward.

Exhaust so far seems to be going okay as well. Bought a down pipe from a 2017 Ram that has a big flex joint in the middle. It fits in the space but a little close the the transmission cooler lines. I have a trans temp gauge that I can keep an eye on just in case I have to do some reengineering. I kept the factory flange on the downpipe and found a guy that builds a weld on replacement flange that would normally go on a DPF. Bolts up like it should and I will extend that with a piece of 4 inch pipe that I picked up. The muffler is a simple commercial side exit dumped straight to the ground. Will look more like a big box truck with the muffler putting the soot to the ground and not in someones face or on my fifthwheel.

The fan shroud is going to need some work. With the changes to the height of the engine, I can't use the Cummins inner fan shroud even if I did have it. When everything lines up with the right mounts and engine location, the Cummins inner shroud is supposed to line up with the conversion shroud that I have. But in my case, not so much. With my arrangement, I have space issue getting the cool side intercooler pipe up between the frame and the shroud so that will be a little cutting action happening to help out. Along with the cut, I will need to have a lower panel cut to fill in a very large gap around the bottom. I had opted to use a Ford 7.3 fan and clutch which is a little smaller than the Cummins which was good, the Cummins fan would have never fit. As long as I close in the bottom of the shroud, I don't expect to have any cooling issues.

I got on Amazon and picked up a bunch of random intercooler pipe including a kit that was supposed to fit my truck if it came with a diesel engine. That didn't work out so well, the kit didn't really fit very well. They have you cutting up the core support just to make it fit. Looks like I will get to use some of the parts after a sawzall and a hammer but I did have to order one of the Ford pieces to get through the core support.

Transmission line and filler tube were fun (NOT). For the lines I started with a new set from Ford. Each line is a two piece assembly that after they are assembled, you can't get them apart (found a YouTube video about that). The rear section is the same between a gas truck and diesel but the front are different. Because you can't get them apart and I needed the diesel version for the fronts, Ford parts order was placed. After I got my new lines, I broke out my torch. With some heat, hammer, pliers and some blocks of wood, I was able to reshape the lines to fit. Turned out pretty good and will have a decent pattern to use if I have some made in the future. For the filler tube, I used the original. Again with the torch, did a little adjusting with some heat, and got it looking like a factory tube. Found a stud topped bolt on the valve cover of the Cummins to bolt a strap of metal to and welded it to the tube. Topped it off with some semi-flat black paint and good to go. I did measure the before and after of the dipstick and it came in less than an eighth of an inch different, not enough for me to worry about.

Fuel lines are another good story. I still haven't got far enough to test my plan but here is what I did. The gas truck has an in tank pump with a fuel pump driver module and no return line. The ECM monitors the fuel temp and pressure and the rail and maintains 40psi. The Cummins wants 10psi at the engine but has a return line. So I re-plumbed the vapor line that goes back from the engine to the canister that hangs off of the frame through a "T" that ends up in the tank. I swapped out the "T" for a coupler and now returning fuel through the original vapor line. Seems to work and haven't blown anything up yet. As for pressure, the original fuel rail pressure sensor is a potentiometer that varies a 5 volt signal. So what I will be doing is feeding the Ford ECM with an aftermarket pressure sensor that I will be putting inline. I don't have exact numbers there may be some tests but the maintained voltage from the sensor for the ECM should be around 2.8 volts so I picked up a 20 PSI sensor that will output about the 2.8 volts at 10psi. So my hopes are is that the pump will see the 2.8 volts and maintain that pressure. I will see.
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Another bit of advice. When standing and walking on the front crossmember/radiator support, try not to step on your SRS impact sensor or it will end up looking like mine.

Attachment 8847

Nice writeup and a lot of work you put into it!! That is gonna be one heck of a Fummings! [emoji106]


2016 Ram Laramie 3500, G56, 6.7, MM3 by Double R Diesel, Rough Country Leveling, 35x12.50 Nitto G2, HID headlights, Morimoto LED fogs plus a whole lot more! [emoji106][emoji41]

One of the things that I forgot to mention are the issues with the coolant recovery tank. Even with the diesel left hand battery tray and recover tank, there is not enough room because of the larger intake/throttle body system that comes on the 2013 up CR engine. What I have opted to do is trim up the left hand battery tray to delete the bottle completely. I am building a reducing couple that will serve two purposes. One to reduce the top radiator hose from the three inch radiator side to the 2-3/4 inch Cummins side. In the middle of the couple will be a welded on radiator cap fitting. Then hanging off of that I will do a simple non-pressurized recovery tank somewhere. Seems like it should work okay, radiator cap will be at the highest point so it should bleed okay. And again, make sure you keep everything that you take off. In this case I needed the special Ford connectors that go to the radiator. Just trim the retainer ring off and removed the old rubber hose. Then I am going back with good quality worm drive clamps with the new hoses.

Trying to get caught up with progress.

I was able to get the exhaust system built. Couldn't find a muffler shop in Denver that could do anything with 4" pipe so I broke out the Sawzall and the mig welder to "bend" a piece of pipe to fit. Started by cutting off the muffler and pipe hangers from the original exhaust, relocating the rear hanger bracket (using the same holes but swinging the bracket around to the rear), and massaging them with a torch/hammer. I was able to get the muffler hanging just between the frame and the driveshaft with probably an inch on each side. It may hit one way or the other on the bumps but not worrying about that for now. After getting the muffler hung where I wanted, started on the slicing and forming of the pipe to connect it in. Took a couple times but got a pretty good line up with some tacks then took it back out and welded it up. Not the prettiest job but I think it will hold perfectly.
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Finally got far enough putting the front together, to work on all of the hoses and pipes. The one issue that I ran in to with the aftermarket intercooler pipe that I bought was getting through the passenger side of the radiator support. What I ended up doing was buying a new Ford factory pipe and cutting a section out and welding the beaded end back on with a little tilt downward. Turned out pretty good but had to have a coupe offset HPS connectors. Forgot that the turbo has a 2.75" outlet and ordered a 3", so another part on the way. And don't forget to torque the T-clamps to ~109 inch/lbs or you will blow the connectors off (SURPRISE!). I had picked up a aftermarket intercooler pipe set for the truck and used a lot of the pieces for my custom config but I did have to buy some additional pieces including a 90 degree reducing connector for the Cummins intake to the 3" aluminum pipe.

After finally figuring out what all of the plumbing on the engine was for, I now tackled the heater hoses. One of the pipes that looked like a heater pipe was actually the crankcase vent. I am pretty sure that things would have went really sideways if I plumbed that to a coolant line. Turned out pretty easy as soon as I figured out what to do. The only connection that will be an issue in the future is the pipe that would connect to the bottom of the radiator pressure tank. I put a coolant bypass cap on it but those don't usually last very long. I was able to use regular non-molded hose for the connection to the head and a simple generic 90 degree hose for the return pipe.

For the upper radiator hose, tried to weld my stainless radiator fitting to the hose connector, blew a hole right in the bottom of the area where the cap seals. Now that is trash, nothing saved but the radiator cap. Got online and found someone that had a 1-3/4 connector with filler neck so I got it on the way.Got it installed but still don't know if my plan will work or not. Turns out that the cap is a little lower than the EGR cooling system so now I will just have to test.

Power steering hose took a trip to The Hose Shop. The Ford V10 hose was my starting point but it was way too long on the metal part of the assembly. The Hose Shop was able to take my cut down hose, weld on a fitting, make a short rubber hydraulic hose, and reattach the end that connects to the pump. Looks mostly like a factory hose and appears to work as it should. As for the low pressure reservoir return line, I started with a new Ford 6.4L hose, cut it in the middle (or so) and used a brass barbed coupler to rotate for the directions that I needed, and clamped it.

A/C hoses are not in scope right now since winter will be starting, project for next year.

I do want to call out HPS for having a good variety of pieces and parts that I have needed for this project. Also, it was worth the $130 for the Jegs tubing beader. Not sure it will work on anything heavier than the aluminum tube that I have, but it has been invaluable.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by slax-a-lot

Finally got far enough putting the front together, to work on all of the hoses and pipes. The one issue that I ran in to with the aftermarket intercooler pipe that I bought was getting through the passenger side of the radiator support. What I ended up doing was buying a new Ford factory pipe and cutting a section out and welding the beaded end back on with a little tilt downward. Turned out pretty good but had to have a coupe offset HPS connectors. Forgot that the turbo has a 2.75" outlet and ordered a 3", so another part on the way. And don't forget to torque the T-clamps to ~109 inch/lbs or you will blow the connectors off (SURPRISE!). I had picked up a aftermarket intercooler pipe set for the truck and used a lot of the pieces for my custom config but I did have to buy some additional pieces including a 90 degree reducing connector for the Cummins intake to the 3" aluminum pipe.

After finally figuring out what all of the plumbing on the engine was for, I now tackled the heater hoses. One of the pipes that looked like a heater pipe was actually the crankcase vent. I am pretty sure that things would have went really sideways if I plumbed that to a coolant line. Turned out pretty easy as soon as I figured out what to do. The only connection that will be an issue in the future is the pipe that would connect to the bottom of the radiator pressure tank. I put a coolant bypass cap on it but those don't usually last very long. I was able to use regular non-molded hose for the connection to the head and a simple generic 90 degree hose for the return pipe.

For the upper radiator hose, tried to weld my stainless radiator fitting to the hose connector, blew a hole right in the bottom of the area where the cap seals. Now that is trash, nothing saved but the radiator cap. Got online and found someone that had a 1-3/4 connector with filler neck so I got it on the way.Got it installed but still don't know if my plan will work or not. Turns out that the cap is a little lower than the EGR cooling system so now I will just have to test.

Power steering hose took a trip to The Hose Shop. The Ford V10 hose was my starting point but it was way too long on the metal part of the assembly. The Hose Shop was able to take my cut down hose, weld on a fitting, make a short rubber hydraulic hose, and reattach the end that connects to the pump. Looks mostly like a factory hose and appears to work as it should. As for the low pressure reservoir return line, I started with a new Ford 6.4L hose, cut it in the middle (or so) and used a brass barbed coupler to rotate for the directions that I needed, and clamped it.

A/C hoses are not in scope right now since winter will be starting, project for next year.

I do want to call out HPS for having a good variety of pieces and parts that I have needed for this project. Also, it was worth the $130 for the Jegs tubing beader. Not sure it will work on anything heavier than the aluminum tube that I have, but it has been invaluable.

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Looking good so far! [emoji106] Thanks for the update friend!


2016 Ram Laramie 3500, G56, 6.7, MM3 by Double R Diesel, Rough Country Leveling, 35x12.50 Nitto G2, HID headlights, Morimoto LED fogs plus a whole lot more! [emoji106][emoji41]

Getting the truck far enough along to move it. Still had fueling issues with my plan on using the factory gas in tank pump and also the return line. For simplicity, I went ahead with plan B which was the AirDog Raptor universal pump. I was able to put together a mount just about where the factory gas fuel filter sets in the frame rail. Took some rectangular tube, cut it in half making a C-channel, drilled some holes and mounted it using some homemade u-bolts made out of all-thread. I then removed the filter quick connects from the plastic line and pushed in some brass barbed connectors to attach my multi-fuel hose to. I didn't have enough split loom to cover the wires headed to the front of the truck so I did some temp work until I get what I need. Added another relay (three total - accessory, fuel pump, and onboard air compressor) for the fuel pump. I also put a billet union in line up at the engine for a mechanical fuel gauge. Not something that I can see from the cab, but at least I can keep an eye on it from under the hood. Next I will drop the tank again, and using a bulkhead fitting, add a return line to the top of the pump module. Thought about just using one of the bottom sump adapters but will do that if I need to in the future. If I do that, I will change to a composite tank then as well. Since I am using the vapor line for a return, I will have to make some adjustments to the tank vent. Seems that the diesel tank from the factory puts a mushroom cap on the vent pipe at the tank. I found that Ford has a TSB on the cab and chassis truck of that era stating issues with the accumulation of water/snow/mud on top of the tank allowing moisture in. Their resolution is an extension hose over to the crossmember with a vent cap on it. So I will re-plumb the existing vapor hose to the newly added bulkhead fitting and then put a simple rubber line on the vent over to the crossmember with an axle vent clamped to the end.

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Since I am running out of time to get the truck on the road, I continue to make adjustments to the plan. I was still not able to find enough information about transmission tuning the Ford ECM to support the Cummins, so I sprung for the PCS TCM-2800 from DeStroked/GOS Performance. I now have it mounted under the passenger side firewall and connected. I won't bundle up the wires until I have confirmed that all of my inputs and outputs are correct and working. The provided wiring harness has several connections that are not needed so I trimmed those up, sealed them off with some shrink sleeve, and will bundle them up in the loom. After clearing out what I knew for sure wasn't needed, the harness was a little less daunting. I emailed Aden at GOS Performance and he was quick to provide a base config bin file along with some documentation that I needed. After getting the controller wired in and powered up and the PCS tuning software installed, I was off to discover what the controller can do. It was pretty exciting to see what the controller can do even though I won't be using many of the options for this project. The software offers a monitor to watch for each of the inputs and outputs to make sure that things are hooked up correctly. For instance you can see when you shift gears or hit the brakes. The tow/haul doesn't seem to be displayed but that may require the truck to be moving, don't know yet. Some of the options like the manual shift (up and down) and overdrive cancel will be worked on later, I have the wires routed in to the truck but no switches yet. I have ordered a Super Duty 2011+ shift lever that has the shift +/- so that I can shift from there as long as I can get it wired in.

Hopefully I will get the rest of the wiring done today, then work on the fuel tank this weekend. After that I will have to circle back and do the DPF and DEF deletes to the Cummins ECM. I hope that I can get that figured out before spending more money on a custom tune. I have started trying to learn how to build a EFILive cax file but still not there yet.

A LOT of work. But you’ll get a really badass truck. Keep posting and good luck on this awsome build


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Well the last several days have brought together a bunch of stuff. First off, I was able to get almost all of the wiring done and wrapped up. This included the ECM, accelerator pedal, transmission controller, and ODB2 port. The only wiring that I haven't finished is the A/C wiring and tracing down an issue with my speedometer. After that I went after the fuel supply issue and that actually went pretty well. Emptied the tank, dropped it, removed the module, removed the pump, disconnected the flex hose at the top, drilled a hole in the metal plate, added a 90 degree barbed bulkhead fitting, connected a piece of plastic fuel line to the original draw pipe, cut it so that it would lay in the original baffle, and put it all back together. Used part of the original plastic vent pipe to make a new one. Used a heat gun to get a little bit of a turn up and added a 3/8" barbed axle vent. Got the lines hooked back up, added fuel and all was good.

Attachment 9138

Next I took a grinder to the fan shroud. With my Ford fan and the non-standard conversion location of the engine, the shroud was getting in way with the cold side of the intercooler pipe. I will get some rework done to it in the future but that won't happen right now.

Attachment 9139

And finally, the driver side battery tray. This was a freebee that I got from the wrecking yard that was already busted up but it worked for what I doing. All I did was remove the coolant recovery tank, cut the sharp edges off, and smoothed it up. Turned out as good as I wanted, just don't have the second battery or cables yet.

Attachment 9140

With all of this, I was now able to take a test drive. I will share that fun in the next post.

Now for the maiden voyage. Engine seemed to be running good and the transmission was shifting with the base config provided by Aden at GOS Performance. My first trip was just going to be down our mountain road a mile or so and back up. Down was good, up, not so much. First I figured out the base config of the TCM wouldn't do any engine braking, so I have to ride the brakes all of the way down the mountain. But overall, things seemed to be going okay. After turning back up the hill, I gave the truck a little pedal found another weak spot in my intercooler connections. Seems that I have have had too much angle on the hot side out of the turbo going to my homemade pipe that goes thru the radiator support. After limping it home with a disconnected intercooler pipe I pulled the code from the Cummins ECM and found that I had a high fuel rail pressure code. My assumption is with all of the messing around with the fuel system, I must have broke the fuel control actuator.

So armed with the sawzall, grinder, welder, plate steel, and some leftover pipe, I did a rebuild on the pipe that goes thru the radiator support. This time I put some turns in it to get a better line up with the turbo. After welding and grinding on this thing way too many times, it was getting thin and I couldn't keep from blowing holes and I couldn't get it air tight. So I added some plating and welded that up. Not my best work but I think it will do.

Attachment 9111

Today was a trip to the diesel shop (Cummins was out of stock) for a new actuator. That install was easy and seems to have resolved the high fuel pressure DTC. Since I had done a lot with the fuel system I thought that it would be a good idea to look at the engine end fuel filter. Shouldn't have done it. Everyone complains about how tough the cap is to get off but since this is pretty much a new engine, the cap came right off. The only problem was something had gotten to the o-ring and puffed it up. Now I can't get the cap back on because the o-ring is too big. So back to the parts house in the morning to either find just the o-ring or to buy a filter that comes with it.

With a few more little things, I will be on the road again. Biggest issue right now is getting the TCM tuned. I will be working with Aden from GOS but I would like to get a good grasp on how to do some of it myself to save some back and forth time.

Update on the fuel filter housing o-ring. Went to the first parts store and they didn't have any o-rings that would help so I moved on to the second one in my little town. The counter guy told me that he didn't have one but he could make it. The peaked my curiosity so I asked how that happens the answer was a razor blade and super glue. Never heard of that but figured it was worth a try. I ended up taking my oversized o-ring and cutting a section out with good straight cuts and super gluing it back together. Worked like a champ and doesn't leak, so all is good.

Moving on to the rest of it.
Needed the truck to pull the camper for a trip. We made it all of the way there and back, just not at a good rate of speed. Turns out that the engine is running in limp mode which I couldn't really detect without the camper connected. I had ran out of time so we just went for it. We had a lot of hill climbing that went very slow but the truck did okay while on the flats. Transmission still isn't shifting correctly but I am thinking that it is because of the RPM/torque derate that is happening. Until I figure out the derate issues, I am not going to troubleshoot the shifting. I would like to point out that even with all of the issues with limp mode, I think I got almost 4 times the MPG than with the V10!

Other than climbing the hills at a very slow rate of speed the only issue that I had was the factory trailer brake controller. I still need to do some testing but one of the things that I didn't get resolved before the trip was the speedometer and I think that caused my brake controller to not work. At one point coming down the mountain, all 4 wheels were smoking to the point that I thought we were about to go up in flames. I had been slowly increasing the gain on the controller and even though it looked like it was working, it wasn't. Fortunately I had an aftermarket controller with me to swap out with the factory one, and all was good.

Next steps are to figure out why the ECM is going in to limp mode. I have been able to delete the urea and DPF which seems to be good but the Cummins tools that I am working with doesn't have all of the support for the Dodge calibration that I need. I will break out my other scanner and see if I can get a clue about what is causing my issues. If I can figure out all of the things that I need to complete the deletes, then I will move on to finding a way to port over the Cummins ecfg files in to a cax file that I can use with my EFI Live. With that I will get my CSP4 OS and tuner switch so that I can start learning how to bump up power.

Winter is about to be here so the air ride suspension, paint job, bed skirts, and headache rack will wait until next summer. I will continue with the updates on the ECM as I can, hopefully it will be soon as I plan I taking the camper out again for Christmas.

Quick Update:
Still working on getting the ECM to do what I want it to do and so far I am losing.

My plan is/was to keep the EGR system but delete the DPF and def.

Since this is not a common configuration, I can't find information on whether or not this is possible.

Seems possible that the NoX sensor just behind the turbo may be needed to keep the EGR working but the info seems to go both ways.

A user over at MHH Auto was nice enough to share a calibration file with me that he described as deleted. Not sure what is deleted (def, DPF, egr, VGT??) but I am going to load that calibration and see what happens.

I have done some Calterm comparisons with an original Incal calibration and looks okay but I am not a pro at this.

This calibration is compatible with an ECM that I didn't have so I picked up one that has the correct part number, so here it goes.

I suspect that I could have figured out how to do an overlay with Calterm and used the ECM that I had but that will be for another day.

This will be the last update for a while.

I have been still working on getting all of the deletes completed, which I finally think that I am done, but I won't know for sure for a while.

While working on trying to resolve the derate issues with the ECM I was adding additional stress to the recently rebuilt 5R110 transmission.

Seems that the PCS TCM-2800 controller couldn't shift the transmission correctly because of the decreased torque over 2000 RPMs.

This was causing some hard shifts in 4th and 5th.

On my test run this afternoon, getting on the highway and with a good amount of pressure on the pedal it seemed that the engine was finally pulling above 2000 RPMs.

The transmission didn't seem to shift hard in to 4th but we it went in to 5th, small pop and I was no longer spinning the drivetrain.

Had my laptop with me so I connected up to the PCS controller and found that it was not seeing any input shaft rotations.

My best guess is all of the repeated hard shifts weakened the input shaft and/or splines.

Either way, AAA was called, truck loaded up, and hauled to the house.

With temps less than freezing I don't think I will be pulling a transmission until spring.

If it is the input shaft, a hardened billet replacement will be on the list.

Probably should have done that to start with.

I miss my fummins and this is making me want to build another.....

O I gotta keep up with this thread.

There's a YouTuber who 5.9 swapped a 16 or 17 F350 so this should also be a good thread to follow now.

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Quick update for those subscribed:
1. Bought some property and been developing that.
2. Broke my arm which put me on the bench for a couple months.
3. Limited time at my Colorado hose which is where my F550 is and the home projects took priority.
4. Snowing as I write.

Been working out some ECM config details in my head and now have a plan of attack with the Ram ECM but also thinking about reverting back to the CM2350A ECM.

There doesn't seem to be a realistic way to get cruise control and exhaust brake to ever work with the RAM ECM.

Also figured out a difference in the pin out between the CM2350A ECM and the Ram engine harness.

I will see if I can adjust the hardware pins of the 5290170 ECM config to match the RAM engine harness (or move the wires in the ECM connector) and if I can do that, I may be able to get cruise control and exhaust brake.

Hopefully the next update will be in April.