96' Cummins Nv4500 Dana 60 Tahoe Build

[GreaseMonkey44]

I have a 96 Tahoe Ls that I've swapped from beige to blue interior from a 98 suburban, heated seats, bed lined dashed with customer supports, all new HVAC, G80 rear end, late model NV4500 built by me with a few internal upgrades like the 5th gear lock nut, swapped in with a stage 2 dual friction centerforce clutch and 2nd gen dodge shift console. MPFI swapped, msd coil, plugs, wires, summit distributor, cloyes true precious timing set, egr deleted, mellings shark oil pump.. the list goes on.. and on.. and on.. lol let's just say I've got well over 10k into it

Anyways lost an oil cooler line and cooked and few rods and bearings, galled the crank. Got a good deal on a 99 cummins frame and here we go!

Cummins build is so far as follows
-99' block decked, Bored .020 over
-0.020 over fel pro pistons
-FVP High flow water pump
-Billet killer dowel pin kit
-Billet Fuel pump block off plate
-Industrial Injection Hot Rod VP44 injection pump
-(Injectors being sent off for cleaning and sizing since they look like aftermarket nozzles)
-178/208 Hamilton Cam installed w/brass retainer.
-Hamilton billet cam button retainer
-Hamilton 3000hp pushrods waiting for the head
-Hamilton 103lb springs waiting for the head
-Industrial Injection HotRod VP44 Pump -Power Driven Diesel Billet Tappet Cover -XDP Billet freeze plugs
-12mm ARP headstuds

I'll post a bunch of pics and try and keep updating lmk what yall think

 

[GreaseMonkey44]

More pics

 

[GreaseMonkey44]

More pics

 

[GreaseMonkey44]

Cummins pics

 

[CumminsFever]

What a cool project! I'm not a fan of Hamilton stuff, but it'll do for ya. I see 2 things missing that are ultra-important to me. You don't mention porting the head, that is a tedious process that gives a huge wake-up call to the vp44 engine. Also, no mention of a turbo or turbos.
Personally, I would get a common rail head, port that, get it o-ringed, and put 2 turbos on it. Let it eat everything the vp44 can throw to it.
Keep the pics and progress coming, it's going to be fun watching this come together!

 

[GreaseMonkey44]

What a cool project! I'm not a fan of Hamilton stuff, but it'll do for ya. I see 2 things missing that are ultra-important to me. You don't mention porting the head, that is a tedious process that gives a huge wake-up call to the vp44 engine. Also, no mention of a turbo or turbos.
Personally, I would get a common rail head, port that, get it o-ringed, and put 2 turbos on it. Let it eat everything the vp44 can throw to it.
Keep the pics and progress coming, it's going to be fun watching this come together!

Thanks man! A lot of local guys in my area kind of convinced me on Hamilton Cams so this will be my first time actually running their stuff so hopefully it holds up to *****. I ended up calling them for their recommendation because I was originally going to order a larger cam. I know the vp44 rpm range is a limiting factor.
I haven't picked out a head yet. Mines got small cracks and nobody local will repair it
I'm thinking an industrial injection fire ringed head and send mine in for core and I have a I have a stock turbo from a 3rd gen laying around too (you'd have to remind me which holset it is) which ill have to research to see if itll be worth or able to be swapped on

 

[Sean Buick 76]

Cool project

 

[CumminsFever]

Thanks man! A lot of local guys in my area kind of convinced me on Hamilton Cams so this will be my first time actually running their stuff so hopefully it holds up to *****. I ended up calling them for their recommendation because I was originally going to order a larger cam. I know the vp44 rpm range is a limiting factor.
I haven't picked out a head yet. Mines got small cracks and nobody local will repair it
I'm thinking an industrial injection fire ringed head and send mine in for core and I have a I have a stock turbo from a 3rd gen laying around too (you'd have to remind me which holset it is) which ill have to research to see if itll be worth or able to be swapped on

I'm not saying Hamilton makes a bad product, rather, while their products are better than stock, I've had better performance from other companies like scheid or haisely.
Don't downplay the vp44, it'll shock you when it's tuned correctly. The latest vp44 I've personally done has rv275 injectors sitting in a ported commonrail head, s363 turbo, with quadzilla adrenaline tuner. In an '02 3500 dually, it'll lite up the tires if you try to jump out into traffic. It lives a life towing a trailer. Last time I drove it, it has 315k miles on it, still going strong!
For a head, it is common to find cracks between the valves, and if it isn't leaking, keep running it. However, the head design is horrible for airflow. The later common rail heads flow great, and with port work, they're even better. The biggest problem with buying a performance company's head is, they usually do so much "airflow" work to them, they lose the swirl in the head. This absolutely kills any available power under 2k rpm. It'll flow insane air and make big power numbers on a dyno, but streetability goes down the toilet. If you're just getting a stock replacement from a company, then the swirl is unaffected.
The 3rd gen he351 is a popular turbo that you can easily use. It's very tight on the exhaust side, giving quick spool. Personally not my favorite turbo in it's stock form, but it works. It becomes an awesome turbo when a higher flowing turbine wheel is installed. In it's factory form, it'll be ok, just make sure to tune the wastegate to match your needs. More boost pressure does NOT mean more power!
Some 3rd gens had the smaller he341 turbo. If that's what you have, don't bother with it. You want the he351.

 

[GreaseMonkey44]

I'm not saying Hamilton makes a bad product, rather, while their products are better than stock, I've had better performance from other companies like scheid or haisely.
Don't downplay the vp44, it'll shock you when it's tuned correctly. The latest vp44 I've personally done has rv275 injectors sitting in a ported commonrail head, s363 turbo, with quadzilla adrenaline tuner. In an '02 3500 dually, it'll lite up the tires if you try to jump out into traffic. It lives a life towing a trailer. Last time I drove it, it has 315k miles on it, still going strong!
For a head, it is common to find cracks between the valves, and if it isn't leaking, keep running it. However, the head design is horrible for airflow. The later common rail heads flow great, and with port work, they're even better. The biggest problem with buying a performance company's head is, they usually do so much "airflow" work to them, they lose the swirl in the head. This absolutely kills any available power under 2k rpm. It'll flow insane air and make big power numbers on a dyno, but streetability goes down the toilet. If you're just getting a stock replacement from a company, then the swirl is unaffected.
The 3rd gen he351 is a popular turbo that you can easily use. It's very tight on the exhaust side, giving quick spool. Personally not my favorite turbo in it's stock form, but it works. It becomes an awesome turbo when a higher flowing turbine wheel is installed. In it's factory form, it'll be ok, just make sure to tune the wastegate to match your needs. More boost pressure does NOT mean more power!
Some 3rd gens had the smaller he341 turbo. If that's what you have, don't bother with it. You want the he351.

Do you know what all the differences are between the heads? What all did you have to change? Crossover tubes, coolant passages, sensors, special fuel lines, valve cover? Idk I'm just listing off things trying to think of any possible differences? Lol
3rd gen head does sound like a possibility for me if not all too much needs to be changed
Also I was looking into quadzillas until i talked with industrial and i guess The hot rod vp44 will freak out and if externally tuned since it's already internally programmed by Industrial ‍ new info to me lol
I'll go to my storage unit and take some pics of the turbos I have, maybe you or someone on here will be able to help me identify them, hard to tell if the one is a 341 or 351
The injectors I pulled are also pretty weird, they look to have 8 orifices? Lol I know the standard is 7 and usually larger goes to 6, so little confused since this engine was aparrently running this big vp44 that's supposed to run with 120hp injectors at the minimum.
Figured I'll send them off to get them tested and hope they can tell me ‍ lol

 

[CumminsFever]

Do you know what all the differences are between the heads? What all did you have to change? Crossover tubes, coolant passages, sensors, special fuel lines, valve cover? Idk I'm just listing off things trying to think of any possible differences? Lol
3rd gen head does sound like a possibility for me if not all too much needs to be changed
Also I was looking into quadzillas until i talked with industrial and i guess The hot rod vp44 will freak out and if externally tuned since it's already internally programmed by Industrial ‍ new info to me lol
I'll go to my storage unit and take some pics of the turbos I have, maybe you or someone on here will be able to help me identify them, hard to tell if the one is a 341 or 351
The injectors I pulled are also pretty weird, they look to have 8 orifices? Lol I know the standard is 7 and usually larger goes to 6, so little confused since this engine was aparrently running this big vp44 that's supposed to run with 120hp injectors at the minimum.
Figured I'll send them off to get them tested and hope they can tell me ‍ lol

The head I used was an early commonrail head, but from my understanding, they're all the same. Intake temp sensor and map sensor had to be fitted to the intake plate, and schied conversion crossover tubes to the injectors. That is it.
7 hole injectors, ugh. My personal 24v hated them. I was a test truck for monster pump Mike years ago. The shop I was working through kept shoving 7 and 8 hole injectors at me. It was nearly undriveable as it smoked so badly. We finally ran 5 or 6 hole injectors, the smoke instantly went away. Mine was a '99 engine. I've tried the 7 hole injectors in various engines, some were not the 5.9 and they only work well in low rpm low power applications. That's been my experience. I personally recommend a 6x13.
I never heard of the hr vp44 not playing nice with power boxes. Knowing the internals of the pump, I highly doubt it's true, but anything is possible.
For turbo identification, there should be a tag on the turbo. It'll literally say he341 or he351.
I'm really appreciating the fact that you're keeping the vp44 and not jumping into the p-pump. After munching so many vp44 pumps (at least 8) I went p-pump. It was a built pump cut back to 500cc.I hated every day of that setup. So many people tout the p-pump/24v and it actually sucks. No variable timing. My '99 is slowly going back together with a ve pump'd 12v. Watching your build because it's rare to repower with a vp44. Super impressed!