What in Tarnation?
 

Kind of boring in the dead of winter. I have plenty of work in the wood shop, but I gotta have a mechanical challenge so I have something to 'engineer' when I lie awake at 3 am after getting up to pee. So there's this cummins inline 6 cyl turbo diesel I keep rolling back and forth on a cart in my shop. Not the powerhouse 6bt like a dodge or the shorter 4bt from a frito-lays delivery van. It's a 210 cu in 120 hp. I have owned 2 others but sold them in trucks, the latest I had put into a '59 f350 9' pickup, but sold a few years back. A very rare case of seller's remorse for me. OK, we go back about a week or so and I had been thinking about a conversion into my 47 tonner PU. The 59 ab is low on oil pressure and compression and tends to foul plugs. The truck is a gem though. Maybe best cab I have ever seen and I rebuilt the box and a nice grill etc. Here's what I have done so far. I have 3 tonners in my back 40. One is just a 100.00 rolling chassis with chopped rear of frame and no title. I decided this would be much easier to arrange the engine and it's gm sm465 tranny into as a mockup, then transfer what I did into my good truck. Super easy access on a bare frame.

I hoisted the engine/tranny over the frame and after a lot of head scratching decided the only way I could get the mounts in and clear the steering box, oil filter etc was to cut out the front ford engine mounts out with a torch and side mount it about mid engine..... So I did and other issues kept cropping up. The worst issue was I hated myself for cutting that frame (and since it was a mockup, the horror of cutting my good pickup frame later) Last sunday morning I got out of bed at 3:30 am, Welded the mounts back in and made a pledge that if I was going to do this it would be a complete bolt in kit. No more cutting, no welding on the frame, nothing. The 6at is now mounted with 1/2" clear at the firewall, 1" fan clearance to the ford 6 cyl G radiator I had in a parts truck, re-fabbed motor mounts up forward in the 6 cyl position, using the stock ford donut motor mounts. Trans is mounted on a heavy duty removable cross member just behind the untouched ford trans mount. I made a spacer to get the radiator clearance right but it's just a bolt pass through affair. The throttle lever is in the exact right place on the right side but it needs a pull to accelerate the bosch rotary pump. I had planned to heat the ball end leg to go up, not down, but now have dreamed up a bell crank to change to a pull, bolted to the head. Did I mention I placed a factory cowl on this thing to get firewall /tranny clearance? It would have been used for a bread truck or school bus etc. The GM shifter comes up through the trans cover about an inch further back than stock, but still comes through the cover with no cutting. It's late here and this is the longest post I've ever seen. I will get some pics tomorrow, but excuse the messy shop strewn with scrap metal and the ugly mock up frame. If you have any interest look on youtube at '59 F350 with cummins 6at' I know, I know it isn't a flathead, but I might build a nice one in a couple years and drop it in some weekend. Why am I doing this? Because it was there......

Re: What in Tarnation?
 

i am jealous, and confused, didnt you say a 4bt, and later mocked up a 6at? i read it twice. at any rate, love them cummins. i am on my 4th 6bt, currently driving an 89 (first year) dodge. as most folks say, i didnt buy a dodge, i bought a cummins. i dream of replacing my favorite truck i ever owned, a 63 1 ton ford with a 16' roll deck, with the same truck and a 6bt cummins . drove that ford coast to coast hunting junk for 18 years and knew it was bad planning when i watched it drive out the drive way. keep us posted, i for one will be watching

Re: What in Tarnation?
 

6at . I think the 4bt is a 6bt with two less cylinders. This oddball cummins was first used in onan generators and was later offered as an automotive version and sold to fleet truck operators. Most of the ones I know of came out of UPS trucks. They are indirect injected and develop their hp at 3600 rpms, so gearing and speeds similar to our flatheads and other gas engines.

Re: What in Tarnation?
 

Love it!

Re: What in Tarnation?
 

Cummins bought Onan in the late '80's and the 6AT engine was part of that deal. I worked on 4BT automotive applications and knew some of the Onan engineers well at that time. I think the 6AT was allowed to die a natural death by not developing it to meet new emission requirements, maybe around 1991. UPS used a lot of 6AT engines followed by 6BT engines later on.

Good luck with your installation, it sounds like quite a project.

Re: What in Tarnation?
 

I went and checked out your old YouTube video of the 59 . . . looked like a real nice setup and one that had to make that ole' truck quite the rig. I like your new plan - post some pictures and who us what you're up too!

Re: What in Tarnation?
 

I got a few photos this morning. I also decided the cowl must have been from a G engined truck and that's why the long arm bending downward and push rather than pull. Today I hope to shorten the short front driveshaft. I think I have 3 of them from my junkyard. I have shortened them before, but today I want to try something a little different. The plan is to scribe an index line for phasing u joints, cut out the 3 or so inches, turn a wood dowel about 18" long on my wood lathe the ID of the shaft.Tap in fit. Weld around the joint, leaving the wood inside. What could possibly go wrong? If the six inches of linear weld ever sheared, I'd just roll to a stop. So here I am cutting and welding..... I also am slightly modifying the radiator support as the radiator is about an inch in front of stock. The cross bar will be bumped ahead. I will keep both of these items from the good red truck and save them for the next generation of flathead lovers. I have a conversion u-joint on it's way that has the GM caps on one axis and the ford tonner axis on the other. I love stuff like that.

Re: What in Tarnation?
 

So that's what a "tarnation" is... huh.

Re: What in Tarnation?
 

I was wondering about this too. Most of these "American expressions" come from English words ("vittles' from "victuals", "critters" from "creatures", etc.) but I can't figure this one out.:o

Re: What in Tarnation?
 

Purgatory?
Bruce

Re: What in Tarnation?
 

Not sure either, but there may be a connection to the Turbo Cabulator.....

Re: What in Tarnation?
 

1784, American English alteration of darnation (itself a euphemism for damnation), influenced by tarnal (1790), a mild profanity, clipped from phrase by the Eternal.

The longer version: The history of the noun and interjection tarnation illustrates a phenomenon called taboo deformation, by which words that can be considered offensive or impolite under some circumstances are made more acceptable or softer-sounding by altering one or more sounds that make up the words. Tarnation appears to be a variant of darnation, itself a taboo deformation of damnation, in the same way that darn is an alteration of damn. Tarnation, however, seems to have been influenced by tarnal!, another mild oath that is derived from the adjective eternal—as used in eternal damnation! for instance. The taboo deformations darn, darnation, and tarnation have been used in New England since the late 1700s.

Re: What in Tarnation?
 

What the hell??

I'm liking this project!

Re: What in Tarnation?
 

It was meant to describe my project as some kind of hillbilly nonsense. Like
" What in tarnation is this hick up to this time?"While not a listener to national public radio (my wife is a fan) they have a yearly contest whereas one takes a word, changes one letter and gives it a new definition. The results are often quite humorous. One of my favorites over the years has been 'reintarnation'.... coming back to life as a hillbilly. Speaking of such things I made my dowel for driveshaft alignment but grandparent duty got in the way of the welding aspect this afternoon. The welding may happen tomorrow morning at 3 am depending on the whims of my bladder and the magnetic pull of all that steel and iron in the shop.

Re: What in Tarnation?
 

They are a very reliable and fuel efficient engine, and something different.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8MAVbo6Gq4

Re: What in Tarnation?
 

Got my driveshaft welded up. This will give me the yoke to yoke dimension and be good enough for a start and drive around my end of the island. Before I hit the mainland I will get a properly built and balanced shaft. It's only about 2' long, has the carrier bearing on the rear of it. Ideally I'd have a 3150 end yoke welded onto the end of this 2" dia shaft, but it's a big u joint on the tranny's output (from a '77 GM one ton dually) and I only see them listed for a 2 1/2" or 3" dia tube.

Re: What in Tarnation?
 

Good work, GB. An interesting project.

Re: What in Tarnation?
 

Thanks Mart, Always a good word! Did a bit of cleaning up after the manic phase of making this thing fit. Been pulling the mounts and painting them, fan, radiator, etc. I needed an entire chevy clutch kit so have one on order. This cummins has all chev at that end of things. Still need to work out hydraulic clutch details, but I did that before with the '59. Edit: Did I mention I ordered a 4 row aluminum radiator with bottom outlet on the left made for a chev 350 in a 46 pickup?

Re: What in Tarnation?
 

Gary
I like the cat yellow engine mount. Also your adjustment pulley.

30 years ago I put a 6BT 5.9 crate engine in an old White compact with an Allison MT 640 Transmisson. Very good combination for a cl 6 truck.
Bruce

Re: What in Tarnation?
 

Thanks CM.... When this oil burner gets put in place in my red truck it will be painted and properly wired and plumbed and I hope it will be the kind of project vehicle I could drive coast to coast. Coast to coast on the Puget Sound is from my wife's sisters place near Port Angeles on the West, to maybe even her older sister's place in Ellensburg way back East!