About 2 months while searching Craig's list I found a fairly
local guy selling a 12v Cummins 6bt for a very reasonable price. after a few
emails I drove the 20 minutes to his house to have a look. It turns out that
they guy was an ex mechanic for FedEx and new Cummins engine especially the 6BT
very well. he also had a small dodge truck wrecking yard in the back of his
house which supported his hobby of rebuilding 90's era dodge pickups he bought
at auction. It turns out the motor I
went to see Had 32K original miles and was coming out of a 1993 dodge 3500
which was used as a yard truck for a local trailer and equipment rental place
that went out of business. When I got to the house I was told that for the
price of the engine I could have anything I want from the truck and since the
truck was complete minus the cab that meant everything. I got the Getrag 5speed
manual trans, the turbo, intercooler, radiator, complete air-conditioning system. power steering pump alternator ,
starter..... Well you get the picture. After seeing the engine run (it started
right up and sounded beautiful) I gave him a Deposit. Paul asked that I give him a
week or two to disassemble everything and get it drained and ready to
transport. Well here it is 2 months later (Paul had the engine ready when he
said he would but our schedules kept us from finalizing the deal) and I picked up the motor and all the parts
today. The trip was not without drama though. The loading of the engine and all the other bits went fine and after charging the dead battery, the 69 started right up and drove
surprisingly well on the highway. What I didn't realize was that the alternator
wasn't charging and when I got to Paul's house I couldn't restart the truck
once I'd shut it off. We jumped my truck off Paul's 98 dodge and I decided to
leave her running. I knew that the battery would eventually not be able to even
power the ignition system but I was hoping to get packed up and back to my shop
before that happened. Well not only did it quit sooner than that, leaving the
truck idling was a big mistake. As I was tying down the Cummins and all the
bits in the back I heard the truck die. Thinking that was that, I turned off the
ignition and went back to tying down the cargo. Paul had commercial sized
battery charger up at the up at the house so I was sure that we could charge
the battery enough to get me back to my shop
after we finished with the motor and bits. As I was standing in the bed
of my truck I looked through the cab and noticed that the paint in the center
of the hood was starting to bubble. In fact I was watching it bubble up in
front of my eyes. A few seconds later black smoke started coming out from under
the hood near the firewall. Holy S**T FIRE! I jumped out of the bed and luckily
I was wearing heavy leather gloves that allowed me to reach under the hood and
undo the latch. Throwing the hood open I found the aftermarket air cleaner and carburetor
completely engulfed in flames. I ran the 50 feet over to where Paul was cutting
that transmission cross member off the old frame and half yelled asking him if he had a fire extinguisher. Puzzled
for a moment I pointed to my truck and after seeing the black smoke now pouring
from under my open hood he exclaimed that he had one in the house and ran to go
get it. I ran back to the front of the truck and managed to swat the wing nut
holding the completely flaming air cleaner loose with my gloved hand. Once the
nut was off I reached in and with one yank threw the burning air cleaner clear
from my truck on the gravel driveway. The carb was still burning and I grabbed
an old tee shirt that was on the seat of my cab and tried to smother the
flames. It sort have worked but it wouldn't completely cover the carb and
as soon as I moved the tee shirt a little the flames would come right back. I
was afraid of the shirt starting to burn or absorbing any gas and making the
fire bigger and my gloves were starting to get very hot. Luckily Paul arrived
with a small fire extinguisher and with the shirt covering the throat of the carb a quick blast from the
extinguisher doused the flames. Of course now the paint on my hood was F**Ked
up and the engine bay was covered in white powder but the flames were gone. I
was pretty sure that despite a fire that burned a couple of spark plug wire everything
else was fine. I kludged together
working sparkplug wires from some old ones Paul had lying around and after
reinstalling the newly charged battery the truck started right up. We blew off
as much of the bicarbonate as possible and after closing the hood I was on my
way. Luckily the trip home was all highway so even if the cooling system was
marginal, so long as I didn't hit traffic I was sure I was going to be fine.
Traffic was very light and I was able to do 60mph practically all the way back
to my shop. Here she's going to sit for a while I figure out where and how I'm
going to start. stay tuned.
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| Whats left of the air Cleaner |
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| Engines Don't look good in White! |
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| There was already a black spot like this when I first got the truck.Now I know why. The last owner didn't tell me the carb like to spontaneously ignite. Would have been nice to know. |
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| I'll sand this and paint it Flat Black. |
