bov upgrades gone wrong

Got2gohuntin · Jun 11, 2013

So by starting this thread im hoping people can share their stories of upgrades they have done that didnt go as planned or didnt work as thought. By sharing these stories maybe people can learn from others mistakes.

So back in December I purchased a 2001 dodge 2500. It has the manual 5 speed tranny with the 24v cummins motor. Its also 4wd. Part of my preps was to get rid of everything that wasn't paid for or could be quickly paid off if need be. So the nice new duramax went away. With my budget right now this truck is my daily driver and bug out vehicle if need be. Because of my job I must a have truck capable of towing therefore my vehicle options are limited.

So the upgrade to the truck was a really heavy duty ROAD ARMOR bumper. The bumper came with the truck but was a huge bonus because they sell for around $2000. I inspected the install to the bumper, everything looked great. It even had a few welds (which I thought made it a little stronger). Anyways I finally got to test the durability of the bumper last weekend. Some friends and I were doing some work around someones house and demoing a fence got brought up. So I figured what better chance to test the bumper. The fence only had 6" round poles with 3 2x8's running horizontal. Fence got demoed but it also managed to break the grill on my truck and bend the mounting brakets that go from the frame to the bumper. So I am currently in the process of reinforcing the brackets behind the bumper. So long story short. If you put an after market bumper on your rig in hopes of protecting it. Don't forget to upgrade the mounting hardware if you plan to use it.

I will post more pictures later as I plan to work on it thursday.

Nwcid · Jun 11, 2013

Problem I had with my 2004 Chevy 3500 is not the bumper or the mounts, but where they mount to the truck. All rigs have crumple zones and stuff now so hard to find good mounting spots.

I had a Proline put on the truck last year. I managed to hit 2 deer. First one it slid on the mounts. Local shop fixed it and reinforced it. Then I hit another. This time the actual truck "frame" gave. This time the shop cut out the existing part of the truck the bumper was mounted to and replaced it with heavy gauge square tubing. Now should not moving anywhere.

AMProducts · Jun 12, 2013

Great bumper, bad application. As NWcid said, yes all newer vehicles have crumple zones, this means you need to start reinforcing the frame. When i put a push bumper on my jeep, the next project I started was reinforcing the frame, I've done it all with 1/8" plate steel that's laser cut, and then welded to the existing frame. I'm going to use this as a mounting point for my rock rails (another necessary upgrade IMHO).

DieselScout · Jun 12, 2013

Well let's see. I had about the most perfect expedition vehicle ever sold in the US. a 1980 Turbo Diesel Scout II Traveler with a 33 gallon tank. Off road with both my diesel cans filled I could do 1075 miles without needing to stop for fuel. But, alas, 101 Horsepower hauling around 5K worth of truck, fuel, human and gear finally gave up the ghost, and the engine ate a piston. The major down fall of this set up, was the engine IS NOT common in the US. There was a non-turbo version of it used in fork trucks, but there are enough difference between the oiling system, head gasket, piston design and fuel system, that the parts for a major over haul will not work. On top of that the fuel system needed to be gone through and both the turbo and injection pump needed to be rebuilt. So on top of $3500 dollar rebuild, I was looking at another $500-$1000 dollars in ancillary work as well. And in the end I would up with a rare engine which has a relatively delicate top end and is hard to find parts for.

I had a freshly rebuilt IH 392 V8 sitting there not doing anything for another project. It was paid for, and would double my horsepower and torque, so it seemed like a good idea at the time. Just some minor fab work and it's pretty much bolt in. Well, the swap is 2 years on now. I've lost my motivation to work on it. I decided to do more then I needed to do....upgrade this, change that and "Project Creep" took over. Anyone who's ever worked on any project knows what "project creep" is. Needless to say. I miss my Scout, I miss my diesel, I miss figuring milage at 22 or 24 MPG, and having to think about it as 8-10 MPG (if I am lucky....why oh why did I toss in that lumpy Isky cam???) is really a kill joy.

I am sure once it's on the road again, I'll love it, but right now, I am kicking myself.

BDA.45 · Jun 12, 2013

Uhhhh, Shoulda bought a Toyota?!? HEHEHE!!! Just sayn.......

DieselScout · Jun 12, 2013

BDA.45 said:
Uhhhh, Shoulda bought a Toyota?!? HEHEHE!!! Just sayn.......

I know at least one hardcore Scout guy who's gone the way of the Yota. With 2 kids and a wife that like to wheel with him, limited time and funds it just makes sense. I will not say I haven't been tempted by the sweet songs of being able to just buy stuff out of a catalog, or going into an autoparts store and the guy behind the counter knowing what you're talking about. But I am stubborn, and Scouts are cool!

CamoDeafie · Jun 12, 2013

DieselScout said:
I know at least one hardcore Scout guy who's gone the way of the Yota. With 2 kids and a wife that like to wheel with him, limited time and funds it just makes sense. I will not say I haven't been tempted by the sweet songs of being able to just buy stuff out of a catalog, or going into an autoparts store and the guy behind the counter knowing what you're talking about. But I am stubborn, and Scouts are cool!

couldnt you swap in a Toyota engine into the Scout? I agree the Scout is awesome... or a small Turbodiesel tractor engine? I read somewhere one guy did that with a homebuilt truck and he got 30something MPG on it, with the styling of a 1920s heavy truck..

as for the crumple zone thing..yeah thats a sucky thing for a heavy duty bumper to be attached to....though there;s a good reason...you dont want to have ALL the impact directed to your body/cabin/human driving it.... the crumple zones disperses the impacts.....same reason for the triangulated frameworks in race cars; it spreads the impacts around. now; a race truck frame probably can take the impacts and leave the human mostly uninjured.....if you triangulated more things, you might be able to get it to divert energy away from your human.

AMProducts · Jun 13, 2013

DieselScout said:
Well let's see. I had about the most perfect expedition vehicle ever sold in the US. a 1980 Turbo Diesel Scout II Traveler with a 33 gallon tank. Off road with both my diesel cans filled I could do 1075 miles without needing to stop for fuel. But, alas, 101 Horsepower hauling around 5K worth of truck, fuel, human and gear finally gave up the ghost, and the engine ate a piston. The major down fall of this set up, was the engine IS NOT common in the US. There was a non-turbo version of it used in fork trucks, but there are enough difference between the oiling system, head gasket, piston design and fuel system, that the parts for a major over haul will not work. On top of that the fuel system needed to be gone through and both the turbo and injection pump needed to be rebuilt. So on top of $3500 dollar rebuild, I was looking at another $500-$1000 dollars in ancillary work as well. And in the end I would up with a rare engine which has a relatively delicate top end and is hard to find parts for.

I had a freshly rebuilt IH 392 V8 sitting there not doing anything for another project. It was paid for, and would double my horsepower and torque, so it seemed like a good idea at the time. Just some minor fab work and it's pretty much bolt in. Well, the swap is 2 years on now. I've lost my motivation to work on it. I decided to do more then I needed to do....upgrade this, change that and "Project Creep" took over. Anyone who's ever worked on any project knows what "project creep" is. Needless to say. I miss my Scout, I miss my diesel, I miss figuring milage at 22 or 24 MPG, and having to think about it as 8-10 MPG (if I am lucky....why oh why did I toss in that lumpy Isky cam???) is really a kill joy.

I am sure once it's on the road again, I'll love it, but right now, I am kicking myself.

This is part of the reason I tend to shy away from diesels, I used to have an 82 diesel suburban, which was great until it needed about $4k worth of fuel pumps.

I've gone instead with jeep cherokees, 20mpg highway.

maxisback · Jun 13, 2013

I began looking for alternate fuels/mpg boosters about a year ago. I've been using acetone in my gas for about 3 yrs now with a gain of 10%. SO I bought a hydrogen generating kit off evilBay and installed it..and immediately LOST 10mpg! What gives? Well, turns out that modern engines have an O2 sensor, that sees the extra oxygen molecule from the HHO gas burn as a lean mixture, so it enriches the mixture, robbing me of any gains in mpg. The cure? Install a EFIE- Enhanced Fuel Injection Enhancer. This baby fools the O2 sensor, basically, so it won't richen the mixture. Gained about 5 - 7 mpg right away. My Metro was getting an AVERAGE of 46 mpg, city and hwy. :woot:
Concept proven, I bought a dry cell HHO generator. This thing makes about 1 liter of hydrogen a minute! It was phenomenal. Except that I got 43mpg on the freeway! :s0054:

AAARRGGGHH! So now I have to figure out this problem. I think I have to retard my timing. When I figure this thing out, I'm going to install HHO units in my Land Rover (aka "The Beast") BOV and my Gran Torino. So the battle with OPEC goes on. :huh:

Got2gohuntin · Jun 16, 2013

So the outside brackets are the original brackets. I decided to fix them and just use 1/4" steel to reinforce everything. The tubing is 2" OD and 1/4" wall. The bottom flatbar is 1/4"x4". I used the flatbar to bolt to the main cross member of the frame and welded it to the brackets and the lower piece of tubing. The original install had 6 1/2" bolts attached to the truck. The new setup has 14 1/2" grade 8 bolts. This truck is also my daily driver so I decided not to get rid of my crumple zones in the frame. If this were strictly a bug out vehicle I would weld plating over the crumple zones.