Heavy Duty Truck Engine Conversion and Swapping

In Heavy duty tuning culture, an engine swap is a process of removing a heavy-duty truck’s‪ original engine and replacing it with another. This may be a like-for-like swap, or to install a non-factory specification engine. It could be of the same brand like Cummins ISX 870 to Cummins ISX 2350 engine or a Different one like Detroit heavy-duty truck engine to Cummins heavy-duty truck engine.

G.B Truck and Diesel are a specialist when it comes to Swapping or Converting Heavy duty Truck engines in Edmonton.

 

The Heavy-Duty engine swapping or conversions that we have done are:

 

1) Converting or Swapping Detroit heavy-duty engine with Cummins Heavy duty engine

 

2) Converting or Swapping Paccar heavy-duty engine with Cummins Heavy duty engine

 

3) Converting or Swapping Cummins 2350 heavy-duty engine with Cummins N14 Heavy duty engine

 

4) Converting or Swapping Cummins 2250 heavy-duty engine with Cummins ISX 870 Heavy duty engine

 

The cost of conversions or swapping of Heavy-duty engines in Edmonton depends on the Engine swap process. You can do a cheaper swap but it is not going to be a nice swap. You can do a more expensive swap or conversion by buying a whole bunch of parts for it. That is where the Expertise of G.B Truck and Diesel comes into play as we have been swapping and converting heavy-duty engines in Edmonton since the year 1973 and are considered experts of heavy-duty engine conversions or swapping.

 

The reasons why engine conversion or swapping is done in Heavy Duty Trucks:

 

1)Mostly swaps or conversions are done for fuel savings

2)Improved performance by swapping in a more powerful engine.

3)Maintenance, where older engines may have a shortage of spare parts, and so a modern swapping or conversion may be more easily and cheaply maintained.

4)Older engine broke down

 Things to check before Swapping or converting heavy-duty truck engines.

 

1)Wiring

Wiring is always a constant problem for people, no matter what size project they are taking on, especially in modern heavy-duty engine swaps. Wiring can be very complex, and it requires a lot of understanding of amperage, wire gauges, relays, and overall circuits. A perfect example is the electric fan circuit. Many people run two wires (power and ground), but the circuit needs to be tied into the cooling system, and air conditioning system and the system needs one or two relays. We at G.B Truck and Diesel make sure that wiring is done properly during the engine conversion or swapping process

 2)Cooling Systems

Cooling systems aren’t tricky, but many people just underestimate the volume of work that goes into it. Mechanical fans will work OK with older heavy-duty truck engines, but today’s heavy-duty truck engines run hotter and require a lot more cooling. Most people just don’t think about the specific functionality of the modern heavy-duty truck engine they are installing and reinstalling the mechanical fan, or they hook up a cheap electric fan that doesn’t have enough flow.

 3)Headers

Most people know or have a good idea that the exhaust manifolds will need to be modified. However, it isn’t until the engine is sitting in the engine compartment that they realize how complex the issue can be, and people can quickly get in over their heads. Steering linkage, spark plugs, and wires can really cause some headaches when fabricating a header. By the time most people have a good mental image of how the headers need to lay out, they realize that the tubing is going to hit the frame or body and have to start from scratch again—a common and costly mistake.

That Is the reason we stress that Engine conversion is a specialist job and we have been doing conversions and swapping heavy-duty truck engines in Edmonton since the year 1973.

 4)Oil Pans and Pick-Up Tubes

Since most chassis and cross-members are in different locations, oil pan clearances are often a problem. Luckily, with the wide variety of aftermarket oil pans out there, people usually don’t have to build custom pans and pick-up tubes. It takes a little more effort to find exactly the right fit.

 5)Steering

Steering linkage can get tricky when figuring out how to navigate past the headers and around everything. In addition to that, many people upgrade their suspension and steering systems simultaneously as the engine.

With the wide variety of aftermarket components available, sometimes the combination of parts used can require an odd combination of the steering linkage. Here the parts experts working at G.B Truck and Diesel come into the picture and help the customer find the right part.

 6)Air Conditioning

Late-model engines usually have mounting brackets or bosses for air conditioning compressors. While this can make it convenient, the compressors are usually mounted on the lower sections of the engine. This can create problems when trying to get an engine between the frame rails. So, mounting the compressor in a different location is often necessary. In addition to the compressor, a lot of people have problems laying out the system and figuring out where the accumulator/dryer or fixed orifices go while converting or swapping heavy-duty truck engines

 7)Fluid Reservoirs

One commonly overlooked modification is that, in general, all of the reservoirs need to be changed. The cooling system isn’t a big deal, but the power steering reservoir can be tricky.

Packaging gets really tight, and sometimes a remote mount reservoir is needed. Engine conversion and swapping is a customized job where every job comes with its own set of challenges. However, our experienced and factory-trained technicians always find the best possible solution.

 8)Driveshaft

While a driveshaft doesn’t seem like a big deal, people will sometimes have problems either measuring the driveshaft or selecting the right yoke or flange while doing heavy-duty truck engine conversion or swap

Once in a while, we run into a problem where people don’t tell the driveshaft shop that they put a blower on the Heavy-duty truck. So, they will bend the driveshaft or kick it out of the side of the truck when they hammer it.

 9)Fuel Systems

Most people know they need larger and higher-quality fuel lines and better filtration. Where they run into problems is selecting the right fuel pump. At G.B Truck and Diesel we, usually recommend people try and use a factory-style in-tank pump for a daily driver. Frame-mounted high-volume pumps vibrate, run hot, and usually aren’t designed for extended driving cycles. So, failure and cabin noise can be a problem in the long run

 10)Torque Converters

If the rest of the driveline is staying the same (designed for an early-model engine), sometimes getting a converter with the right flywheel pattern and transmission spline count can be tricky. There are aftermarket “hybrid” converters to solve this problem.

 However, swapping or converting heavy-duty truck engines could cause issues as well if you break something and you are on the road you might not be able to get that intercooler piping, like first, it needs to be figured out, did you use the Cummins piping did you use the Paccar piping.

 You need to drive the heavy-duty trucks enough to make sure the cost of conversion or swapping heavy duty truck engines paid off

 Buying somebody else’s conversion is touchy because when something breaks you have to completely reverse engineer that and fix that

 Most of the issues mentioned above can be solved ahead of time with extensive research and forethought for system layouts. We at G.B Truck and Diesel always educate customers about the benefits and drawbacks of engine conversion or swapping heavy-duty truck engines. We give the estimate before starting the conversion and understand the reason why a customer wants a Heavy-duty truck engine conversion or swap done.

This is the reason we are rated as Number 1 firm in Edmonton when it comes to heavy-duty truck engine conversion or swapping.