Wow, Beau! Hmm... let me get all this out if you don't mind... by all means, question Zeus...

How much distance are you going to have for a rear drive shaft with that combo? A 92" wheelbase doesn't lend itself very well to 1-ton hardware. I would give up on the dblr right now - you don't have the wheelbase for it. You won't need a dblr with the NV4500 anyway. Consider the Stak or LoMax if you haven't already - those are the two on my list. The 4500 trans is what I have in my diesel... er, the newest diesel... the stock '94 with the 6.34. It creeps brilliantly... in low range, the brakes strain to keep the truck still. I know builders have always struggled squeezing the 4500 into any rig shorter than the Wrangler... 94" wheelbase. Your D60 is a high-pinion isn't it? The 14-bolt has a long nose on it so I assume you could and may have to tilt the drivetrain to angle the rear yoke toward the 14-bolt and use a CV-driveshaft. The D60 high-pinion should allow for that... however... as I am sure you already know... everything will be extremely tight! The 14-bolt may even run into the fuel tank and the down travel will be very limited because of the short slip spline...

I know how in-depth you can be so I hate to think you haven't already realized these issues... that's what makes me think you are planning to stretch the wheelbase and use a fuel cell. I'm also thinking this will not be seen on the streets since it will be highly illegal. Full hydraulic steering is not DOT approved, fuel cells are not either, in case you are planning a wheelbase stretch and didn't know that...

I'm not saying you can't do any of this but you are a braver man than I so I'll just have to live vicariously thru you! You have one Hell of a puzzle to figure out and I wish you the best with it... you nailed it when you said progress will be slow. Good luck and keep us posted!!!

Quote Originally Posted by Ascinder View Post
NV4500 and an Np205. No doubler at this time, but eventually I'll swap the 205 with an Atlas II and that will be that. The best part was I got the earlier NV4500 which has a 6.34:1 first gear. I was originally going with an SM420 with the 7.0:1 first gear which I still have, but the extra gear up top will make cruising a lot better. Plus parts availability is nice too.

The 6.0 has now got all corvette front end accessories making it a bit shorter lengthwise which allows me to run a larger radiator. I also did this mod which gives a godawful 550 horsepower, the only difference being that I kept the fuel injection instead of going to a crabed setup!!! The torque for that motor is off the charts too. At 3,000 rpm it's putting out beyond the VX's maximum horspower. I ran the corvette batwing oil pan too which greatly increases the clearance so I can position the motor down lower which also drops the center of gravity. I also swapped the timing chain to a double row to handle the increased power. I also picked up some ceramic coated edelbrock headers instead of the cast stockers to help offset the weight penalty with the iron block. Also most of the critical fasteners have been replaced with ARP bolts which really ought to be called "just take out a second mortgage bolts". The tranny gets a new oversized 12" centerforce clutch, pressure plate, throwout bearing, master and slave cylinders and a wilwood pedal setup. To round everything out, I also have 16 of these:


They are for the dual four links that are hooking up a D60 up front with full hydraulic steering and the 14 bolt rear. I'm going with some heat treated chromoly links which turned out to be suprisingly cheap. Likely I'll be going over to FOA coilovers all around. There's still a helluva lot to do, and I'll throw out tidbits as the project continues, but let's just say this isn't something for the faint of heart or shallow of wallet