1985 D150 "Mr. Curtis" race truck with a 2015 6.4
Howdy,
i guess this is my first own thread here.
Welcome to the mess i got myself into.
This is "Mr. Curtis", my 1985 D150 (slant six, a833, 8.25 3:55).
Rust free (literately) Texas truck, ran good, some maintenance required. I want more.
I want a race truck for autocross, track days, hill climbs and general bombing around on the Autobahn (i am located in Germany).
So in addition to Mr. Curtis i bought this little accelerator:
A poor 2015 Challenger SRT-8 donated its 485hp drivetrain (engine, transmission, wiring harness, ECUs, fuel tank, ABS module, tachometer, pedal box, exhaust, etc.) in form of a turn-key pallet from Cleveland Power and Performance (Cleveland Power & Performance - Late-Model Car Parts, Restomod, Salvage Rebuilds, Custom Cars).
They take a short video of every turn-key-pallet they sell.
Good thing Dodge made a "race truck" from 04 to 06.
A Ram SRT 10 donates its Dana 60 HD rear axle (14" rotors with large two piston calipers) and parts of its front suspension (15" rotors with monstrous four piston caliper).
A D150 is about 3750 lbs, the 500bhp SRT-10 weighs about 5130 lbs.
It should be a fun truck with the Challengers 392 but i guesstimate it runs out of steam at around 150mph.
Any regular six cylinder Diesel station wagon does that in Germany.
I want more.
I want to brute force it to 170. But that's step two.
For step one this is the game plan:
- install Chevy C10 trailing arms (reinforced like on C20s) with coil springs.
I am in the process of making CAD drawings for the custom crossmembers.
It will be installed with a custom panhard bar, relocated shock mounts and a small sway bar
- fab and install frame-stiffening crossmembers, maybe tubular cross-bracing
- fab and install parts to adapt 05/06 Ram SRT-10 lower control arms, spindles and upper control arms and the rack and pinion steering.
- drop in the 6.4 with a Cherokee SRT-8 oil pan and make it work.
- have a specialized builder make a race-suitable cage (that will also stiffen up the chassis with rear and front outriggers
Also proper race seats, harnesses (regular street legal 3-point aswell) will be installed.
- carbon fiber bumper (moulding of the original part), carbon fiber hood (or at least air ducts for venting the engine compartment), etc.
I figure getting the 6.4 to work in my D150 is the most complicated part of this operation.
Everything else is precise measuring, fabbing parts and a bit of brainstorming through parts catalogues and Ebay.com
The 6.4 comes with an ABS-module for example. I can not re-use that with my truck, the calibration will not match the chassis behaviour OR the brake system so i need to get rid of that without disturbing the network of ECUs.
I wonder if there is a way to do that with say WiTech hardware and software.
Does anyone have experience with that?
One problem is:
I need to keep the original ECUs to make this thing road legal concerning emissions.
So there's no way of putting a Megasquirt Pro in the truck and running it that way.
This project would be a lot less fun if i could not make it road legal, so consider this a must-criteria.
So here it is... The Mr. Curtis project. Hope you like it.
Howdy,
i guess this is my first own thread here.
Welcome to the mess i got myself into.
This is "Mr. Curtis", my 1985 D150 (slant six, a833, 8.25 3:55).
Rust free (literately) Texas truck, ran good, some maintenance required. I want more.
I want a race truck for autocross, track days, hill climbs and general bombing around on the Autobahn (i am located in Germany).
So in addition to Mr. Curtis i bought this little accelerator:
A poor 2015 Challenger SRT-8 donated its 485hp drivetrain (engine, transmission, wiring harness, ECUs, fuel tank, ABS module, tachometer, pedal box, exhaust, etc.) in form of a turn-key pallet from Cleveland Power and Performance (Cleveland Power & Performance - Late-Model Car Parts, Restomod, Salvage Rebuilds, Custom Cars).
They take a short video of every turn-key-pallet they sell.
Good thing Dodge made a "race truck" from 04 to 06.
A Ram SRT 10 donates its Dana 60 HD rear axle (14" rotors with large two piston calipers) and parts of its front suspension (15" rotors with monstrous four piston caliper).
A D150 is about 3750 lbs, the 500bhp SRT-10 weighs about 5130 lbs.
It should be a fun truck with the Challengers 392 but i guesstimate it runs out of steam at around 150mph.
Any regular six cylinder Diesel station wagon does that in Germany.
I want more.
I want to brute force it to 170. But that's step two.
For step one this is the game plan:
- install Chevy C10 trailing arms (reinforced like on C20s) with coil springs.
I am in the process of making CAD drawings for the custom crossmembers.
It will be installed with a custom panhard bar, relocated shock mounts and a small sway bar
- fab and install frame-stiffening crossmembers, maybe tubular cross-bracing
- fab and install parts to adapt 05/06 Ram SRT-10 lower control arms, spindles and upper control arms and the rack and pinion steering.
- drop in the 6.4 with a Cherokee SRT-8 oil pan and make it work.
- have a specialized builder make a race-suitable cage (that will also stiffen up the chassis with rear and front outriggers
Also proper race seats, harnesses (regular street legal 3-point aswell) will be installed.
- carbon fiber bumper (moulding of the original part), carbon fiber hood (or at least air ducts for venting the engine compartment), etc.
I figure getting the 6.4 to work in my D150 is the most complicated part of this operation.
Everything else is precise measuring, fabbing parts and a bit of brainstorming through parts catalogues and Ebay.com
The 6.4 comes with an ABS-module for example. I can not re-use that with my truck, the calibration will not match the chassis behaviour OR the brake system so i need to get rid of that without disturbing the network of ECUs.
I wonder if there is a way to do that with say WiTech hardware and software.
Does anyone have experience with that?
One problem is:
I need to keep the original ECUs to make this thing road legal concerning emissions.
So there's no way of putting a Megasquirt Pro in the truck and running it that way.
This project would be a lot less fun if i could not make it road legal, so consider this a must-criteria.
So here it is... The Mr. Curtis project. Hope you like it.