I'm Cummins swapping a '74 Duster, thought I'd share the progress.
To address some concerns that everyone seems to have. I in general do not know what I'm doing, I do know how do all of the engine work, suspension, brakes, plumbing etc, but specifically with fabrication etc., no idea. I do however understand general concepts. I have an understanding of welding and techniques, however no practice. So I'll just weld scrap metal together, until I can get a good result that I would feel confident fabricating cross members, frame ties, etc. to actually install in the car. That is the inherent nature of being a car guy, right? Even if you don't have a formal education, tinker until you figure it out, especially now with the internet, there are plenty of resources to learn new skills and improve them.
I'm not just some dumb kid with a whacky idea that's going to cut up this car to shove an engine in there. I've owned this car since 2016 and I'm quite attached to it, I love it. I have zero intentions of selling the car or completely ruining it. I can change course at any point. Will it cost a lot of money to do so? Yeah probably, but I've put allot of thought into this whole ordeal, if I didn't think it were possible I wouldn't be attempting it at all. At this point all I can do is execute and problem solve as I go.
The car itself looks decent but the quarter panels are rotted at the bottoms, the rocker panels are rotted, the 318 that was in it had a slew of problems, was not well maintained by the previous owner, not to mention the transmission, brake and suspension problems the car had anyways. (All of which will be addressed, the rotted panels, suspension and brakes that is). It's a '74 anyways, nobody likes the late Duster's and there are very limited restoration parts for them. The car was unsafe to drive more than just moving it out of the way. I had to neglect the car and let it sit for the past 8 years since I joined the military, got out and attended school, during which I worked at a restoration shop and got to see and work on all sorts of modified classic cars, nothing like what I'm trying to do, but some pretty gnarly drag cars.
Regardless of what everyone is saying with how terrible an idea this is, I get it, I understand. But I'm going to proceed. There are safety concerns with the whole idea, and as someone who previously worked for Cummins themselves and is consistently around high voltage, high amperage systems, safety is always a concern. When I say I'm a generator technician, I'm not saying, "oh I work on the little 5000 watt Honda generator that you take camping", no I work on units up to 2 megawatts that can push out thousands of amps, 78 liter V18's, bigger than some people's homes. So, yeah safety is always a concern.
Hot rodding is inherently dangerous, all you can do is mitigate the danger, no motorsport will ever be safe.
Lastly, this whole YouTube channel thing is a way for me to document the project, why not share it. If my channel blows up and i can monetize it, cool, I'm not doing this for likes, attention, or money. I'm doing it because I want to build a unique car, that no one else has. LS swaps are cool, but boring, chucking any Mopar into it has been done, a hellcat motor? Sure. But no one has a Coal Duster, and I mean c'mon who doesn't wanna see a Duster with a 600 HP Cummins in it rolling coal?
Added some pictures of some of the stuff I've had the privilege of working on and a picture of one of the absurdly large generators I work on
To address some concerns that everyone seems to have. I in general do not know what I'm doing, I do know how do all of the engine work, suspension, brakes, plumbing etc, but specifically with fabrication etc., no idea. I do however understand general concepts. I have an understanding of welding and techniques, however no practice. So I'll just weld scrap metal together, until I can get a good result that I would feel confident fabricating cross members, frame ties, etc. to actually install in the car. That is the inherent nature of being a car guy, right? Even if you don't have a formal education, tinker until you figure it out, especially now with the internet, there are plenty of resources to learn new skills and improve them.
I'm not just some dumb kid with a whacky idea that's going to cut up this car to shove an engine in there. I've owned this car since 2016 and I'm quite attached to it, I love it. I have zero intentions of selling the car or completely ruining it. I can change course at any point. Will it cost a lot of money to do so? Yeah probably, but I've put allot of thought into this whole ordeal, if I didn't think it were possible I wouldn't be attempting it at all. At this point all I can do is execute and problem solve as I go.
The car itself looks decent but the quarter panels are rotted at the bottoms, the rocker panels are rotted, the 318 that was in it had a slew of problems, was not well maintained by the previous owner, not to mention the transmission, brake and suspension problems the car had anyways. (All of which will be addressed, the rotted panels, suspension and brakes that is). It's a '74 anyways, nobody likes the late Duster's and there are very limited restoration parts for them. The car was unsafe to drive more than just moving it out of the way. I had to neglect the car and let it sit for the past 8 years since I joined the military, got out and attended school, during which I worked at a restoration shop and got to see and work on all sorts of modified classic cars, nothing like what I'm trying to do, but some pretty gnarly drag cars.
Regardless of what everyone is saying with how terrible an idea this is, I get it, I understand. But I'm going to proceed. There are safety concerns with the whole idea, and as someone who previously worked for Cummins themselves and is consistently around high voltage, high amperage systems, safety is always a concern. When I say I'm a generator technician, I'm not saying, "oh I work on the little 5000 watt Honda generator that you take camping", no I work on units up to 2 megawatts that can push out thousands of amps, 78 liter V18's, bigger than some people's homes. So, yeah safety is always a concern.
Hot rodding is inherently dangerous, all you can do is mitigate the danger, no motorsport will ever be safe.
Lastly, this whole YouTube channel thing is a way for me to document the project, why not share it. If my channel blows up and i can monetize it, cool, I'm not doing this for likes, attention, or money. I'm doing it because I want to build a unique car, that no one else has. LS swaps are cool, but boring, chucking any Mopar into it has been done, a hellcat motor? Sure. But no one has a Coal Duster, and I mean c'mon who doesn't wanna see a Duster with a 600 HP Cummins in it rolling coal?
Added some pictures of some of the stuff I've had the privilege of working on and a picture of one of the absurdly large generators I work on