My 1983 SR5 Long Bed Build.

[dngspot]

Front drive shaft is done. She is 36 inches long with 3.75 inches of spline showing. I ground the CV for a bit more angle. In the pic below is the finished product and the item below is from my '83 that will soon be cut and used on the rear drive shaft. The tube is made from dom tube and the whole thing is pretty heavy. The long splines are from TG. The cardan is rebuilt also.

 

[dngspot]

And the trans is fixed up, all holes were tapped and the broken starter bolt was drilled out and re-tapped. She is also painted. I will be installing it as a whole unit, a buddy is going to let me borrow his trans jack.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

That's a long tranny / case combo, but damn does it look good. Keep up the work man!

 

[dngspot]

I have been busy but it does on look like much. Last weekend I pulled the engine for upgrades and paint. The upgrades are dual spring valve springs and a later model air conditioner bracket and compressor. I was a bit concerned about the .455 lift and spring durability, so I ordered a set of dual springs from Toyhead Auto Restoration Services. The springs went in tonight. I removed the head and found that the last carb I used was running rich. It was a 390 cfm Holley that I rebuilt and just did not feel good about. I had a 450 cfm Holley that ran cleaner and should have gone with it but, decided to install a new 390 cfm. The head was removed because as soon as I removed the rocker arm assembly the gasket lost torque and is done in my mind. I ordered a new gasket and it will be here on Wednesday. This is just as well, now I do not have to mask off the head for paint.
I also put the truck on a trailer and took it to work for some engine bay cleaning. And room to clean and organize my work bench. I needed the space for the engine parts. This happened over the weak end.

The head and other stuff

The block.

I have decided to paint the block red along with the valve cover. I thought about using Caterpillar yellow but the red looks better. The reason for those colors are they will show oil leaks if any should happen.

The valve cover.

Oh yea, I forgot the drive shafts. I finished the rear and painted them both. Those pooches are heavy and tough. If the CV's hold up the truck should be able to slide on rock, on the drive shafts.

 

[dngspot]

Head gasket is still on order but I got the exhaust manifold studs installed. I cut them from 10 X 1.50 x 40mm 10.9 bolts. I did this because, when I built the motor and removed the exhaust manifold most of the threads came out with the bolts. I installed thread inserts in all holes and do not want to screw with them again.

The paint has dried and this is what the motor looks like now.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Motor looks great man. That will really stand out in the engine bay.

 

[dngspot]

Thanks

I spent yesterday afternoon and today on the motor. Yesterday I installed the head and started to install the exhaust manifold. I quickly realized that one of the thread inserts, Heli-Coil, was pulling out of the holes. The holes were pretty mangled when I installed the inserts, it was pretty iffy that they would work at all. I solved this problem with Gardserts, they are awesome thread repair inserts and I should have used them first. The reason I did not is because the Gardserts cost 8 bucks each. All that is needed to use them is common drill bits, they are self tapping. If you use them for studs, be especially careful that drilling and install is straight. I used 3/8 course inserts, could not get metric over the weekend.

A Gardsert, it looks squished.

]

All of the exhaust mounting holes have the new inserts in them. Here is a pic of a few complete.

After the intake manifold and exhaust header were installed I installed the motor mounts, alternator, fan and pulley, the late model air conditioning compressor and bracket. The late model compressor and bracket allow me to eliminate the smog pump and still have a adjustable pulley for the ac compressor. I also installed breathers and air filter. This engine was not painted or shiny parts installed to make it look good, I built it to give a little more HP not to be a show piece, so some of the parts are not painted or even cleaned. As the mater of fact the paint was to keep the rust down and show any oil leaks that may happen. The shinny filters are to keep dirt out of the carb and crankcase.

Here she is.

Tomorrow I plan on working on the throttle linkage and plug wire clips to keep them off of the header.

 

[dngspot]

Since I worked Saturday I got today off. I spent the day piddling around the engine. I was out of thin 3/4" wide material and did not feel like going across town to pick up a small piece so, I went to Home Depot. I bought a 36" X 3/4 X 1/16 piece for 5 bucks. That is scrap at work but I needed it. The first thing I did was make the throttle cable bracket for the Holley and then I used the rest of the material to build the spark plug wire. I used all but 6 inches of the stock from HD. The throttle cable bracket was pretty easy, cut, bend, drill and weld. Not much more than that. It fits under the spark plug wire loom. The loom was a little more time consuming. I had to find wire separators that had a screw through them, the screws were replaced with longer screws and cinched nuts. The screws go through the loom frame and are fastened with the cinched nuts. It seems like I spent more time looking for the separators than working in the garage.

Here is a pic of the loom frame and throttle bracket fastened to the valve cover.

A close up of the wires and separators. The wires are 7 mm and fit loosely in the separators. I have a 8.5 mm MSD set that I will install after I install the complete MSD 6 box, Blaster Coil and Tach adapter.

A shot from the distributor to the back of the engine.

 

[Combat Chuck]

drool-worthy!
I can't wait to see your truck get her heart back!

 

[dngspot]

Chuck your too nice.

FFor the past couple days and today I have been working on the high steer. Who would have thought installing a IFS box would have taken so much effort and test fitting. Yea I know it has been said the install is tough but someone told me making drive shafts were too and they were pretty easy.
Anyway, the box, drag link and tie rod are installed. Tow and steering wheel are set too. To weld in the IFS box, I had to cut into the front clip to the low left of the radiator mount. I also remove half of the bumper mount to get the angle right. With that done the drag link is still a bit close to the tie rod. It can be seen in this picture.

I am hoping the axle will move to the rear about an inch when under compression. I tried to compress the left spring but, when I lifted the axle eventually the right tire came off of the ground. The truck is a bit light without the trans and engine.

The modification to the body to fit the IFS box included the use of a drift, pry bar, air operated mini saw and a BFH 4 lbs. Skills needed, a soft touch, not really I beat the crap out of the inner fender and the front clip.

I hate to weld upside down and my arms show it. I should have put on a long sleeve shirt but, it was to damn hot. Here is an outside pic of the steering box. She is welded in and painted.

I also removed the shock mounts and cleaned the frame for the shock hoops. Those little SOB's did not want to come out. I cut them out with a cut off wheel on my angle grinder. Possibly I will do this tomorrow, if my wife does not have too much for me to do.


Old shock mounts

Side note...
I will be installing a hydro assist in the future. I have a V-6 radiator that came out of a 4 Runner that was an automatic. I was thinking of using the transmission cooling lines in the radiator to cool the power steering fluid. Has this been done before? Or is it just a bad idea?

 

[SamS]

Most of the P/S coolers are just one small metal line up near the radiator. I don't think you need that much cooling really. I would just snatch one off a truck that had fact P/S.

Sick build BTW. I just bought an 80 long bed that I will be building up in the near future and I'm sure I will be referring to this thread often.

 

[dngspot]

My truck has that coil in the front, I was referring to, if the transmission cooler in the radiator was enough to cool a hydro assist system. Thanks for the positive reply.

Just finished the shock hoops. TG instructions were not kidding when they said the gusset tubes had to be trimmed, I took a boat load of material off of the top area that welds to the hoop. Other than that the process was pretty easy. I had the engine out and that allowed me to weld the back sides with ease.

 

[dngspot]

Shocks are installed. The shock is showing about 60% of the stroke. This will be corrected when the engine, trans, bumper and winch are installed.

I also welded in the steering stabilizer. It went in easy but one of the u-bolts is too short. If you look closely at the one on the right there are no threads through the nuts. I would not make any fuss about this but, have no clue where I am going to find one, so I will call TG and see what they can do with it. Sorry for the crappy pic but, the sun is behind the truck and I am not going to turn it around to get a better pic.

 

[dngspot]

I came home from work looking for a package that did not arrive yet. When it arrived after my wife and I ate dinner, I took off and picked up some fittings. To be exact the package was a proportioning valve and 2 lbs residual valve. For the love of God I do not know what I did with the residual valve I had. The fittings I picked up were 4-3/16 inverted flare by 1/8 NPT and two 3/16 8 inch lines.
I ended up installing the residual valve. Figured I better before I loose this one. To do this, I used the nuts from one of the brake lines and installed them on the lines in the truck. The lines in the truck were cut a 3/16 nut was pushed over the 4mm line and then I double flared the line. I broke my 4 mm and 5 mm metric double flare tools and ended up using my 3/16 double flare tool, it did the trick.

Here is a pic a bit out of focus but, you will get the idea.

The residual valve is located at the old proportioning valve location. I decided to remove it, just did not like the way it came out and it was going to be hard to get too.

I will install the new unit tomorrow the same way I installed the residual valve. The outside nuts are from the brake lines that I cut. It was cheaper to do this rather than buying the nuts by themselves.

 

[dngspot]

I have not been able to work on the truck lately because of my mother in law, she went through open heart surgery and that turned our home upside down for a the last couple of weeks.
Today I took some time and cut the floor out of my truck. It was worse than I thought. When I removed some of the floor tar and pushed on the rust a hole appeared. The rust spread from the wheel well to the rear of front cab mount. I only worked on the passenger side today.

I started cutting material out before I took any pics but, in this one you can see how forward the rust is. I ended up cutting up to the seam, from what I can tell, with out removing the floor tar, I have cut past the rust.

The rusted pieces removed. I may clean the cab mount and re-use it. I have also given thought to building a gusseted angle from 1/4 steel plate and using it. I think it will allow road salt to move through it and not hold stuff to rust, like the old one did.

The cab mount was spot welded to the underside of the floor and side rock panel. I used a spot weld drill bit to clean the material away from the spot welds.

What I used to support the cab.

... And a hole ready for cleaning and new material.

 

[SamS]

I have the same problem in my truck. I haven't started working on it yet but I know there is some pretty bad rust on the driver's side. There is one spot near the door opening and another really bad spot under where the gas pedal used to be. I'm probably going to have to take some sheet metal and pretty much make some floors. When you get the new material in are you going to paint it, cover it with goo again, or put bed liner material? I think I'm just going to use the bed liner material in mine and cover the whole floor so if it gets wet it won't hurt it.

 

[dngspot]

I am going to use seam sealant and then Duplicolor.

 

[dngspot]

I have a V-6 radiator and I also have the radiator that was in the truck. The truck at one time had trouble taking on the summers in So. Cal., so I sent it to the radiator shop and had them make me a 4 core radiator. I was going to use the V-6 radiator, which came out of a auto 4-Runner, as a cooler for the hydro steering assist that I ordered. I decided to order trans cooler instead and think I will continue using the 4-core radiator. I also have an electric Taurus fan, and think I will be using it also. Let me know what you guys think, keep the 4-core unit or use the V-6.

 

[Combat Chuck]

I have a V-6 radiator and I also have the radiator that was in the truck. The truck at one time had trouble taking on the summers in So. Cal., so I sent it to the radiator shop and had them make me a 4 core radiator. I was going to use the V-6 radiator, which came out of a auto 4-Runner, as a cooler for the hydro steering assist that I ordered. I decided to order trans cooler instead and think I will continue using the 4-core radiator. I also have an electric Taurus fan, and think I will be using it also. Let me know what you guys think, keep the 4-core unit or use the V-6.

I'm happy with my 4-core rad, but I've found the 22R to be extremely hot-blooded, especially pulling hills in the summer, but still not hot enough to merit going the next size up.

what my own thoughts are: wire in an extra helper fan in front of the radiator to help her breathe a little easier uphill (especially since the bulk of my commute is uphill).

So, my vote is to keep your 4-core, and add the Taurus as a helper fan.

 

[dngspot]

Look what showed up on my door step.

That is one small cylinder... I am normally working with cylinders that I need a hoist to pick up, some have the diameter wider than it is long.