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Looking to give my 1028 a 6.5 turbo/4L80E a heart transplant....

Ah - Thanks - makes sense now! I'm not planning on lifting Merle at this time, so I hope I won't be chasing driveline vibration gremlins. If i do get a shudder, I'll probably just shim the rear to get the angle back in tolerance. That will work...wont't it? Experts who have done this, feel free to dive in and point me right!
 
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Cleptomaniac

Active member
1,083
1
38
Location
Tecumseh ,OK
I would imagine the drive line angles would be fine If it's not lifted.
The 4l80e is 2" longer so you will have to have the driveshaft shortened.
 

acesneights1

Member
1,449
21
20
Location
CT
I would like to study the math used to determine that Cummins/NV4500 swap would be cheaper than a 6.5/4L80E swap.
Depends... if you geta rotted frame dodge donor it can be cheaper. A decent standalone contoller is 600+ dollars alone not to mention all the future repairs a GM 6.xxx will need plus it is still a dog even with the turbo, just less of one. A 6bt still out pull, out last and get better mpg so sometimes gotta look at the long term. Looking back on my m1008 I wish I had done a cummins swap.
The gm gurbos are junk besides. They choke at top end.
6.2/6.5s were never meant to be rebuildable motors. They are throw aways. With 200k miles the block and heads are probably stress cracked, the balancer is used up etc etc.
I would check the block casting numbers on the 6.5s. The 97, s cracked the number 8 cyl.
The earlier 506(non optimizer) the main webs cracked.
 
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Iceman3005

Active member
933
96
28
Location
Holt, MI
FEDEX man brought the Dakota Digital DSL-2 flywheel sensor/tachometer interface in from Speedway today. If it would quit raining (cats and &$%# dogs), I might be able to get this ****ed thing together this weekend. Excited to get this done and back on the road.
SWEET! I have been wanting to get one of those and install a chevy tach!
 

Iceman3005

Active member
933
96
28
Location
Holt, MI
I'll let you know how it goes...I intend to do the exact same thing! I can not wait to get Merle back on the road with a real OD trans...be cruising as slick as you and your 700R4 equipped 1008's.

If you wouldn't mind getting some pics of the install and tach, with some info on how you hooked it up, that would be sweeet!
 
Ugh... I had a heck of a time getting everything wired together, so I enlisted some help from a local trans shop. After their top mechanic spent several hours on it, he called TCI and talked to them about the difficulties. The tech confirmed they had a few bad units recently, so it needed to come back... I had to call TCI and they checked my invoice and cleared it. Sigh..turns out I wasn't crazy, but now it'll have to go UPS back to MS to get checked/swapped. More delays....
 
The computer finally arrived back at TCI today, all the way in Ashland, MS. They are going to "run diagnostics on it" (why it didn't get this before it was shipped is a mystery) and get it back to me in a few days. I'm thinking I have lost yet another week with the testing and the shipping back from MS. Anyone else been thru this rigmarole with TCI products?
 
I'm so hopping mad I could spit. TCI's dyno was down, so they sat on it for a week for swapping out a new computer (after I called and yelled). The new unit got here on 13 August, and my mechanic tried Thr and Fri to get it working, but got a new fault - no power to computer. He rechecked the power off the harness, checked the ground, and the continuity...all fine. He called TCI back and they confirmed - another bad computer. According to the tech, I should buy a lottery ticket, because the odds of getting 2 bad units in a row was astronomical - "there's a less than 1% failure rate." So my CUCV is down for another 2-3 weeks while we do the return/test dance with the boys in Ashland MS. All I want is my truck back up and running, and this has turned into a 2+ month nightmare with TCI. As soon as it gets back together, and the curse is broken, I am going to start a web page called "www.tcisucksmyballs.com."

Anybody else have this kind of horrid luck with TCI?
 

richingalveston

Well-known member
1,715
120
63
Location
galveston/Texas
yes, tci is crap. I am throwing mine away and getting the optishift.

TCI is the main reason my truck is still not on the road. I only get a couple of months a year to work on it and they have used up two years worth of my time with bad units, they took 6 weeks to send me back my first unit which had been programed with the fuel injection program and not the trans program. Then the second one the program went to safe mode and after two weeks on the phone with them I ran out of time due to work. I sent them the unit, paid shipping both ways. They send it back saying nothing is wrong with it. It is trash. I am just waiting to get paid from my summer work to buy the optishift. I am worried that it has damaged my trans.
 
So TCU #2 failed the dyno test back at TCI, and the FEDEX guy dropped box#3 on my porch last night. Let's hope the third time is a charm, otherwise the whole shooting match is going back to TCI for a refund...and I'm considering sending them a bill for the 3 x installation / removals. Gahhhhh!
 
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