In the quest for better fuel economy in our beloved 87′ 350 Chevy powered Minnie Winnie we’ve dubbed “Fermin” we’ve gone to the following places and eventually ended at the following conclusion:

Ideas we’ve visited

• We’ve checked full timing advance for correct setting
• We’ve priced out and entertained the idea of installing throttle body fuel injection
• We’ve looked into under/over transmissions
• We’ve looked at 5 speed transmissions
• We’ve evaluated the idea of installing a more fuel efficient torque converter

End Conclusion

After hiring an independent trucker to haul a grain combine that my sister bought a few years back and noticing that his tow rig was a late 80’s Chevy truck that was running a Cummins turbo diesel, curiosity got the best of me and I began researching Cummins diesel swaps. I found that these Cummins diesel swaps are becoming more and more popular all over the country. Poeple are putting the simple and robust commercial Cummins engines in everything from Fords, to Chevy’s, gas Dodge trucks, Jeeps, Toyota trucks and SUV’s, as well as a Hummer H1 I saw. What I also found when I started searching for one of these conversions already put together was the fact that Cummins made a smaller version of their legendary inline 6 cylinder engine called the 4 BT. I then found a 92′ GMC 1500 truck with an NV4500 5 speed manual transmission and a Cummins 4 BT, inline 4 cylinder turbocharged diesel. What a killer combination of simplicity, economy and robust reliability. At the same time I began looking at replacing my totaled Mercedes E300 Diesel to give us a reliable, comfortable and economical set of wheels to make long trips back east in (or anywhere else in the country for that matter). I found a nice 97 Mercedes E300 down on the East Coast of Florida and we decided to fly out to pick it up and surprise Adrienne’s brother on the West Coast on our way home. Just a few days before we left to pick up the Mercedes, the guy with the GMC Cummins swap settled on a price with me but we wanted to see it in person before making any promises. We decided we would drive the new Mercedes from Eastern Florida to Western Florida, hang with her brother for 1 day then drive to Tennessee to pick up my Uncle who lives near where the truck was and go look at the truck together.

Here is Adrienne with her new best friend.

Here is the Mercedes I found in Florida. It looks way better in the photo than it actually does in person, but never-the-less it got us nearly 2000 miles across the country and the only time it let us down was 1 time with a dead battery-because it was a bad battery.

Well, the truck was totally redneck but, totally bad as heck—so we bought it too. Adrienne drove the truck back to my uncles house after making a pit-stop at my cousin Robbins house for a visit. We left the truck with my Uncle for a few months till we can come get it and do some maintenance on it before we go traipsing around the country with it. But, how about this, 25 mpg, tons of power, no frills paint job, and ultra reliability…oh, and we can run it on waste deep fryer oil for free! Beats the heck out of a 7-8 MPG Winnebago. So, as sad as it is, it’s true—we will be selling “Fermin” and getting a nice tow behind RV for our future travels. Here are some photos!

Both of our new vehicles right after we purchased the truck in Tennessee.