My son’s first vehicle. 12 valve Cummins with unknown HP

[Swamp Donkey]

    I'm on the fence about giving/making a deal with my kid for his first vehicle.   I have a heavily modified 12v Cummins with goodies such as big injectors, 4K governor springs, delivery valves, low compression marine pistons, stage 3 cam, o-ringed block, ARP headstuds, ported head with a not yet built 6 runner intake, compound turbos, big injection pump, and the list goes on and on. 

    Part of the "deal" will be for him to be on the honor roll, no drugs, and for him to pay for the completion of the truck.  The motor is ready to be put back in the truck, so he will have to just buy things like batteries, fluids, new tires, 5" exhaust system etc.  I guess one more part of the deal will be to obviously help me reinstall the motor. 

   I have kinda moved on from this project and am now focused on the Cuda. I can finish the truck myself and never offer it up and he can just figure out his own 1st vehicle.  Or maybe just sell it when it's done and dump the money into my Cuda fund.

   So the real question is, how much power did you have when you were a teenager and what type of vehicle are/would you be comfortable letting your own child have?  My 1st vehicle that I actually drove on the public roads was a 1979 dodge 3/4 ton Power Wagon with a 440 that me and my dad put in the truck. 

  His 16th birthday is December 27th.....

[Cuda Cody]

That would be a super cool first rig! 

[Jim AAR]

I would ask him what he is interested in first and then maybe cut him the deal....

My 1st vehicle was my AAR which I still own to this day....

[Chryco Psycho]

Too many variables ,
I would ask him what he is interested in for sure .
I had very powerful vehicles & handled it fine while  many others did not , I have always respected power & used it only when in safe situations .
I do not know your son though .

[Skid Row]

At 16 I thought I was "Speed Racer)" in a 65 Dart /6, I soon found out otherwise.

[dave73]

If he's into it, that'd be cool. If he's not, sell it and fund your cuda 

My first car was a 4 cylinder automatic rwd long bed ford ranger. Thing was a dog but I loved it to death, still wish I never sold it. It's his first car, there will always be some sort of attachment regardless of what it is...

[Swamp Donkey]

   He's been bookmarking 2nd gen Cummins on Kijiji for months. And showing me them.  So he is interested.  Has just never asked his old man if he can buy/have my truck. Probably thinks it's unrealistic. 

He also wants a Jeep Comanche for some reason. 

So maybe I will go ahead with the gift with conditions!

[jimynick]

I think giving your boy that engine and having him work and pay off the rest of it will kill many birds with one stone. He'll learn something about both machinery and money, he'll have his own skin in the game regarding the vehicle and he'll spend time with you doing it. Where's the downside? He's a young man and he'll get wheels come Hell or high water and better a big old diesel truck that some rice rocket made out of tinfoil. He also shares a birthday with my late Dad who was the best damn mechanic I've ever met, so maybe it's in the stars, who knows, but good luck! 

[Swamp Donkey]

Just an update.   After what seems to be months of work, building and modifications on just about every part on the intake, exhaust, and fuel system and wiring we finally got the truck running today.  Pretty exciting.  My son helped me every step of the way, and being the old cagey dad, any part of the project that I knew  would cause me grief like hard to reach intercooler boots and finicky things or stuff I did not want to do, I let him do.   Lol.  It was great.  A few hicups with oil leaks, coolant leaks, and now a fuel leak.  But it is a good experience.  As soon as we did our 15 minute break in, he was ready to just go for a rip.  I had to slow him down and we had to do a complete fluid level check, and leak check.   When he put the #5 and #6 valve covers on a gasket was pinched. That was the oil leak.  Coolant leak was just on the upper radiator hose with a stupid spring clamp.  And the fuel leak is around the injector.  The injector hold down nut needs to be resealed or re-torqued.  I have never took on a project of this magnitude.  It was fun teaching him and learning myself on things as simple as setting the valves, timing the injection pump to 20 degrees advance etc.  I had a factory service manual that I made him refer to for all the torque specs etc.  We built the 6 runner intake manifold, a whole bunch of intercooler piping etc.  We had to soldier and lengthen out all kinds of wiring because my stock intake was milled off.  Remote mounted the fuel filter also because of the intake being milled off.  Had him porting the exhaust manifold and the turbo exhaust inlets.  All in all, he has no aspirations of being a mechanic, but has a much greater knowledge of every part of his truck.  It's crazy the extra piping, oil lines and coolant lines needed for two turbo's.  Haha.

I don't have very many pictures..... my kid might. 

[RUNCHARGER]

That's cool: These projects teach kids about mechanical stuff but more importantly how to stick with stuff until it is done and not being afraid do something you never have before.

[Swamp Donkey]

Believe it or not, but there is another way bigger turbo below the one you can clearly see up top.  We just re-bent the stock injector lines in an effort to save money.  My son only has about 4 thousand saved up, and with 2 new batteries and a new billet flex plate, that blew through over a thousand bucks. And all the assorted fluids, hoses and piping etc it does get fairly pricey. 

[Chryco Psycho]

That is a cool build up !!
Love the Cummins engines