Dodge Ram 3500HD Dually "Fat Ass"

[Ged]

Mentioned this in a few posts but thought it best make a wee build thread on it now theres some progress.

This 03 dodge Ram my freind has owned for a long time, but she needed some TLC and he had collected alot of parts for the 5.9 Cummins common rail to increase the power.

He asked me to give him a hand with it The goal is to aim for 5-600hp and tighten up alot of the other supporting parts along the way.

First job was to stip and remove the tcase and gearbox to replace the worn clutch

Fitted a dual disc organic unit This should be capable of 800hp

After that we moved onto remove the axles and stripping all worn bushes bearings rust and re-painted

All of the other small parts where blasted and painted also

-Ged

 

[chris_b]

Oh my Ged this is all kinds of win in my book

 

[Nicky]

Next mod - change of ownership to you...?

 

[Ged]

Next mod - change of ownership to you...?

All kinds of tempting but not at this stage and i dont think i could afford it lol

The next step was to get the engine and bed off the dodge to get the frame and bed properly protected and go through the suspension and brake lines and the engine upgrades installed.

The frame was coated with Buzzweld products and the inside trated with cavity wax

Next parts to coat are all the springs brackets and suspension/braking parts

Cheers,
Ged

 

[Bryan]

I'd love a dually to build one of these to haul the jeeps...

Americans know how to do it!

 

[Dave..]

I'd love a dually to build one of these to haul the jeeps...

View attachment 240793

Americans know how to do it!

My wife had one when she lived in the US, A GMC. she said it was very hard to park as it was so wide.
She had a goose neck on it for the horse trailer.

 

[Ged]

Shes a big girl now right enough driving it is an experience.

Next job is to get all the smaller peices primed and painted as well as cleaned up.

Also split and rebuilt the brake calipers

Then we got the front axle reinstalled with new hubs and bilstien dampners

-Ged

 

[Bryan]

Those brake caliper pistons look like pistons from the engine of a small car!

 

[Ged]

Those brake caliper pistons look like pistons from the engine of a small car!

Its no joke even the hubs and bearings and 3x the size of the HD landrover units i ran on the 130 lol

 

[roverspeed]

Class, that's some unit.

Any opinion on the buzzweld stuff? I like the finish it gives.

Does he not have bother with MOT? Looks like the back wheels stick about a foot outside the arch

 

[Ged]

Class, that's some unit.

Any opinion on the buzzweld stuff? I like the finish it gives.

Does he not have bother with MOT? Looks like the back wheels stick about a foot outside the arch

Buzzweld stuff is good goes on well and seems to last well.

He just takes a set of wheels off for MOT i think lol

So after that we stripped the bed back to decent metal and painted and replaced everything wear realated bushes damners tierods bearings etc

Then put it all backtogether parked it outside while we waited on parts coming from the states to support 600hp...

And this is where she sat upuntil a few weeks ago. Shipping didnt go to plan and between scavanging parts and getting the right parts there was a few months of nothing happening.

-Ged

 

[Ged]

So that pretty much catches the thread upto a few weeks ago when some parts arrived for the Dodge and i dragged it into the new workshop which was built in the time it lay outside .

This is where all the cleaning and descaling and painting finally end and start adding the go faster bits finally.

We stripped and rebuilt the 5.9 common rail cummins added some ARP headstuds to handle the boost

And jammed it back into the hole it came from

Before i went much further i cleaned up and painted some of the bolt on engine componenets.

And the very large tipped injectors arrived and got them installed.

The turbo to go on this thing is massive an HX52 a fair bit larger than the hx35 that went on my defender. Next Job is to fabricate and install an adapter to get that mounted to the engine and work out what to do with the battery that used to live in the space the turbos now going to be taking up.

Cheers,
Ged

 

[Ged]

Turbo time,
This was a photo we took last year when we where messing with the idea of big power and now it was time to make it a reality.
This was a VNT turbo with water cooling but as we arnt 100% duty cycle we decided to go simpler and use an HX52 Oil cooled turbo off a volvowith a standard boost regulated wastegate.

We got a older style manifold to move the turbo fowards then measures the odd sized turbo flange off the 13L volvo turbo and drew up and had an adapter made

This was then port matched and mated to the manifold

Getting the HX52 mounted was simple enough and i think we have just about enough room for a 4" elbown into 5" downpipe.

Oil feed and return made and she was ready to fire up.

Cheers,
Ged

 

[Ged]

Bit of a teaser of how it sounds, next step is to get a 5" stainless exhaust fabricated and get the cooling pack back on.



Cheers,
Ged

 

[jayme]

Is this David’s? Have heard stories about this from a few chaps I work with.

 

[Ged]

Is this David’s? Have heard stories about this from a few chaps I work with.

Sure is, You work in the big Terex Also?

 

[jayme]

Sure is, You work in the big Terex Also?

Do indeed, work in the drawing office for Ecotec, so know Davy through QRS.

 

[Ged]

Very good, ask greives and all, about a ginger GFA that used to work in washing they will tell you all you need to know . when are you lot moving to Campsie?

 

[Anto84]

That’s just bloody EPIC

 

[southsky sunrise]

Good golly Miss Molly that’s Awsome

 

[Ged]

Cheers guys,
Another weeks work done and we got the custom stainless 5" exhaust started cooling pack back on Intercooling piping fabbing and complete and coolant filled and bled.

Playing peekaboo with the HX52 lol

I still struggle with how massive and wide this is... the doors 14ft

Soon we will have he out for a test drive after refilling the gearbox and tcase and tidying up alot of the wiring in the rear end which was scotchlocked to death to add various plugs.

Cheers,
Ged

 

[Ged]

Spent another couple of evenings this week on the Dodge, managed to get the intake pipe fabricated out of 4" Stainless and a 355mm K&N had to fabricate a neat plate for the Airflow meter. After that spent quite a bit of time on wiring and removing old dodgy foglight and reversing light wiring that was added to pass MOT when imported, will be doing a full auxillary wiring setup in her now wit proper relays and fuses. Also removed the rear prop to replace a noisy carrier bearing.

Next job is to fabricate an airbox and cold air feed for the intake and getting the 5" stainless muffler and pipework for the exhaust this week so hopefully some progress on that.

Ive made a little american purchase of my own that should be arriving this week also. But ill keep that under wraps for a day or 2 yet.

Cheers,
Ged

 

[Ged]

When 5" stainless exhaust isnt big enough. ill let the pictures do the talking.

All 304 Stainless and a straight through muffler box

5-8" reducer

I still think its crazy but its not mine to argue lol bucket sized

Also had to do the mandatory sound test, we may have got carried away. Fairly sure my new clading wont be white for long

Video to follow at some point.

Cheers,
Ged

 

[Gibonz]

Great work. Loving this

 

[Ged]

Spent a few hours on the tig welder this weekend. full 5" system with a custom straight through sliencer now complete for the ram, was very challenging fitting up and welding the large pipe certinly takes a time going round it.

Just the tip position to decide on and ill have to get a start up and running video.

Soon be time for a test drive.

Cheers,
Ged