Dual thermostat crossover swap question

[markrinker]

I would like to hear from anyone that has done this swap onto a pre-96 6.5 motor. Is there any fabrication necessary to maintain the 'old style' alternator and A/C compressor locations?

Is this common swap written up elsewhere on the website?

[cruzer]

Mark, this is a very common mod. You can see it in just about everybodys personal signatures. 92-93's are more difficult because of the mech inj and the accelerator & cruise cables. My alt and A/C are on the drivers side. I had to grind a little off of the back of the alt bracket to clear the crossover.
I removed the bracket then installed the crossover
held the bracket up and determined where and how much material to remove. You'll also have to re=route the fuel return lines, which is no big deal. Your truck has electronic inj so the mod should be very easy.
A write up on this is in the 1999 Feature Articles
from TDP but you probably don't need it.

My cooling system stays in check now. I also installed a new rad, 20" fan and fan clutch. Heat took out my engine and I made sure it wasn't going to happen again.

[Bobbie Martin]

I installed the dual thermostats on our 95 Suburban. This was covered in the 2001 and 1999 reprints. If you have a DS4 pump, it is pretty easy. I think its the belt tensioner bracket that needs to be ground out for clearance. Its cast iron and is very easy to do. Alternator & AC fit fine. You may have to slightly bend the heater hose to fit. The only thing I didn't like is the top radiator hose rested on the ABS box. I figured the extra heat wasn't a good thing, so I made a bracket and welded it to the alternator mount. Now the hose sits about 3/8" above the ABS box. I could send you a picture if you wanted.

[cruzer]

That's right! It's the belt tensioner.

[damork]

Mark,


Here's a link to photos I took while doing it on my 1995.

http://community.webshots.com/album/42727688JuUMeK

You need to remove material from the casting support for the alternator which is pretty simple. The other challenge I found was fabricating/modifying/bending the fuel injection low pressure return lines that form a junction above the water pump and in front of the injector pump and under the water manifold.

I ended up cutting the line where it tees to the FI pump and making a small tee there, then rather than bending the lines to each head, I installed a good quality 1/4" rubber fuel hose. It takes a bit of trial and error, but it works just fine.

While you are at it if you don't have the DSG timing gears, it would be the time to do it. My injectors and glow plugs have over 100k miles on them (truck now at 186000) and it runs better than it did when I installed the new injectors. I even started at -10F this winter without plugging in and there were gas vehicles in the parking lot that couldn't believe it (as well as a couple of F0RD PS that never did start all day). I'm not talking lots of cranking or glow time either, this thing fired off after one glow cycle, blew some white smoke then leveled off. Running 5w-40 synthetic and 2 new batteries were also a big help.

I think installing the DSG Timing Gears is the single greatest improvement anyone can make to their 6.5 or 6.2 diesel, even the mechanic setting the timing was amazed at how smooooth it ran.

[Marty Lau]

Mark;
If you don't want to spend the money on the DSG gear drive do the timing chain and gears, it cost me about $130 for a "kit" (both gears and chain)from the local Carquest, your there and the labor to change it out is very little.
The other thing that I ran into is the quick conect will not fit with out major tweeking on the heater pipe that goes down the top of the engine. I put a brass hose barb in where the quich connect goes in the manifold then a piece of heater hose to conecct the two with clamps. It took about 3inches of hose is all.

[bobt]

When I did mine, I replaced the '93 heater hose with an OEM '97 heater hose. Fit perfectly.
Bob