Alive. Finally.

Tried it wednesday night but killed one of my batteries cranking it. Got another optima last night, and installed it. It was about 10 pm, I figured fawk it, I can't leave this thing alone. Crank, crank crank, finally got the bright idea of holding the crank on the pump wide open, and BANG it was off. Black smoke everywhere, just billowing out of the 4" open exhaust, turbo spinning, 40 psi oil pressure (right on spec). Kept it going for about 10 mins, shut it off, hit the lights and went inside to hide until the cops showed up. They never did.

I've been waiting for this for a year. The engine had been in a tow truck, which was the very definition of bootiefab. Marrette house wiring connectors, vicegrip exhaust hangers, and a piece of welded threaded rod holding the steering box on. I had to pull the head to fix all the dumb stuff that they did, rebuilt the injectors with parts from Ben, etc etc, and I didn't even know if it would actually run. Well, it does. So I'm fawking pumped.

There is a problem, however. It doesn't idle. The governor in the VE pump must be gummed up and siezed, because it will run down to about 1400 rpms but will not idle. I put a litre of tranny fluid in the tank and am going to run it for a while, to get some lube in there and try and free the govs up, and I suspect that it will work. If not, I'm looking at a rebuilt pump, which sucks.

First impressions:

1 - Way quieter than a 300TDI. Lots less of a crack/can of marbles noise to it. A lot more mellow clatter. I love it. The sound is half John Deere tractor, half Peterbilt with stacks.

2 - The entire truck shakes when I rev it. There is a lot of rotational mass in that engine, it's kinda scary. It just jumps up and down.

3 - Much smoother than I expected. Even cold. The cylinder overlap of a six smooths things out a lot, way nicer engine as far as vibes go than a 4 cyl.

4 - A 300 TDI sounds like a VW TDI compared to this thing :flipoff2:

Let me figure out the idle problem and I'll get some video.

Congrats on getting it going. I had a similar problem when I installed my NOS 6AT with a surging idle. Ran some marvel mystery through it at the suggestion f John at Peak Sales and it evened out. Still does it occaisionally when cold but not when warm. You may have the same experience. Quieter than a 300tdi? Im not sure I agree. Both are louder than the AT though. Im interested to see how all that rotational mass affects the handling with the relatively soft suspension you have used. My AT will make my 88 compress the springs and swerve a touch when you are coasting along and jam the throttle . . . I can only imagine a 6BT.

-Ike

Congrats on getting it going. I had a similar problem when I installed my NOS 6AT with a surging idle. Ran some marvel mystery through it at the suggestion f John at Peak Sales and it evened out. Still does it occaisionally when cold but not when warm. You may have the same experience. Quieter than a 300tdi? Im not sure I agree. Both are louder than the AT though. Im interested to see how all that rotational mass affects the handling with the relatively soft suspension you have used. My AT will make my 88 compress the springs and swerve a touch when you are coasting along and jam the throttle . . . I can only imagine a 6BT.

-Ike

Marvel mystery oil? I was going to go with tranny fluid, but that sounds like a good idea.

Probably not quieter in true DBs, but the noise is a lot more subdued. Not anticipating it to be very quiet - I've got no muffler and 4" exhaust.

I hope that I get some funky handling due to the torque... With the extra wheelbase it should be easier to deal with than your shortie.

yeah I was surprised too at the noise. mine wasn't all that loud and all I have is a 4 foot down pipe nothing else it just sounded like a john deere to me. I like it though might have to change the exhaust later really haven't revved it up all that much yet but it definatley shakes the truck some when revved. I'm glad it started up and the idle thing might be the engine not warm yet do you have the grid heaters and fuel heaters hooked up I figure it's pretty cold up where you are now so it mihgt not want to idle because it so cold. If you let it warm up (which means you actually have to put a real load on it to warm up it probably won't warm up just sitting for ten minutes) it might actually idle. Hope it isn't the injector pump that would suck. But maybe you can upgrade to a p pump then :)

-ben

yeah I was surprised too at the noise. mine wasn't all that loud and all I have is a 4 foot down pipe nothing else it just sounded like a john deere to me. I like it though might have to change the exhaust later really haven't revved it up all that much yet but it definatley shakes the truck some when revved. I'm glad it started up and the idle thing might be the engine not warm yet do you have the grid heaters and fuel heaters hooked up I figure it's pretty cold up where you are now so it mihgt not want to idle because it so cold. If you let it warm up (which means you actually have to put a real load on it to warm up it probably won't warm up just sitting for ten minutes) it might actually idle. Hope it isn't the injector pump that would suck. But maybe you can upgrade to a p pump then :)

-ben

Nah, the heaters aren't hooked up yet, I'm doing the wiring tonight. I'll let it run for a while, but I can't load it up yet, no driveshafts. Maybe put the auto in drive with the e brake on??? Naah, I'll just wait. I'm pretty sure I won't have to change the pump, it should wake up. I didn't run it that long, it was getting late and I live in a res. area, so the neighbours were probably thinking that some blackhawk helicopters were landing. It is pretty cold up here, there are a few inches of snow on the ground, so working on the thing is no fun right now. I want to finish up as much as I can of the small stuff so all I have left is the high dollar driveshaft, and front end parts.

Man, they sound sweet!

Congrates on the engine startup. I'm sure it was nerve racking wondering it it would work or not.

A 6BT not loud with open exhaust? Just wait till you give it some real throttle under load and you will see how loud that 6BT is. Just ask KC how loud mine was with straight exhaust before putting on a straight through 4" glasspack. Now it is loud under 1/2 to full throttle instead of "wake the neighbors, set off all the car alarms on the block loud".

And there ain't no way a non-common rail 6BT is quieter than a 300Tdi. I have been in many 12V's (and some 24v's for that matter) that you had to almost yell to carry on a conversation while driving down the highway. My Tdi is quieter than my 04.5 CTD at idle and under load (talking engine noise and valve clatter not exhaust noise here).

Try this... Open the hood and have someone stand across from you on the other side of the engine bay. Now try and hold a normal conversation at normal volume with the vehicle idling at normal speed (700-800 rpm). Let us know how it turns out.

Billster

J-L: Timm and Matthew told me my 6at did the same thing on startup. Would not idle. They told me they ran it for about an hour (in S. Cal temps) to try to warm it up, but never would idle. Rebuilt the pump. My engine had been sitting for years.

Congrats on bringing the beast to life.

Simon

Try this... Open the hood and have someone stand across from you on the other side of the engine bay. Now try and hold a normal conversation at normal volume with the vehicle idling at normal speed (700-800 rpm). Let us know how it turns out.

Billster

I've driven a few VE pumped 160 hp 5.9s with straight exhaust, they were pretty decent. Definitely not enough to warrant installing a muffler. Perhaps the new ISB is louder? There is a lot more fuel and power coming from that engine than from mine. That seems to be the issue - more fuel, more noise.

I'm sure it's louder than a 300TDI, but it seemed to be a lot more subdued. I just thought it would be absolutely unbearable at redline, but standing right next to the motor, I was pretty surprised. The 300TDIs have a really high pitched clatter to them, and there is no cylinder overlap. I was really pleasantly surprised at the noise.

J-L: Timm and Matthew told me my 6at did the same thing on startup. Would not idle. They told me they ran it for about an hour (in S. Cal temps) to try to warm it up, but never would idle. Rebuilt the pump. My engine had been sitting for years.

Congrats on bringing the beast to life.

Simon

Yah, I was on the phone with Timm last night, he was saying how yours needed some work to run right. I'm going to try the marvel mystery oil/tranny fluid fix and let it warm up a bit tonight, see if it'll run then.

Sounds good JL. Glad you finally got it started. Is the (Bosch?) VE pump a 6cyl version of the same pump that is fitted to the Tdi (Bosch VE)???

Sounds good JL. Glad you finally got it started. Is the (Bosch?) VE pump a 6cyl version of the same pump that is fitted to the Tdi (Bosch VE)???

Yes. Same as VW Diesels, 4 and 5 cyl, 4BT/6BT, 6AT, and Rover TDIs...

Grats!!
looking forward to the video.
Pete

Congrats J-L, good to hear it! My 4BT 92 era is super loud, and sounds about the same as about an early 90's 6BT I figure except maybe a hair louder and certainly more rattly. Here is a video clip of it when it only had about a 2' long down pipe. Honestly, the exhaust did not quiet it down too much but did make it smoother. I went with 3" but in hindsight should have done 4". I was having trouble finding anyone who would do it for less than $400 when I had $175 with magnaflow for 3" out the door.

EDIT, sorry I fixed the link. You want to right click and save target as once you are on my site...
http://www.collegeinternetsolutions.com/cisautoweb/fj55/4bt_movie/

nice video