Build The Clustertruck Rides Again - Refurbishing a 1975 Chevota
- Thread starter RWBeringer4x4
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- #1,362
Speaking of ugly but (hopefully) functional, I “modified” my walker Y pipe today...
The pipe barely cleared the oil plan, and also didn’t quote line up with the manifolds at the donut flanges, so the donuts would sit cock-eyed. Really, the passenger side leg was about 1/4” too long. It might have sealed, I figured since it was getting cut up anyway, I’d address it.
So after hacking the donut flanges off, I adjusted the angle, welded in a 2.5” or so extension on the passenger side, ditched the heater riser delete spacer altogether, then welded everything back up.
Now I can get a finger through at the closest corner to the oil pan (picture was before the final welds)
Everywhere else I have an inch or so. I wanted to make sure I cleared the oil pan but kept it as high as I could to give the front driveshaft as much clearance as possible. Should be about 3”.
The pipe barely cleared the oil plan, and also didn’t quote line up with the manifolds at the donut flanges, so the donuts would sit cock-eyed. Really, the passenger side leg was about 1/4” too long. It might have sealed, I figured since it was getting cut up anyway, I’d address it.
So after hacking the donut flanges off, I adjusted the angle, welded in a 2.5” or so extension on the passenger side, ditched the heater riser delete spacer altogether, then welded everything back up.
Now I can get a finger through at the closest corner to the oil pan (picture was before the final welds)
Everywhere else I have an inch or so. I wanted to make sure I cleared the oil pan but kept it as high as I could to give the front driveshaft as much clearance as possible. Should be about 3”.
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- #1,363
Other small things - I adjusted the throttle cable for the new engine placement by cutting a couple inches off.
The first shot does well to illustrate just how far rearward the engine has moved from its original placement.
New position:
I also took care of a couple minor wiring annoyances - like adding the correct, positively locking clips for he distributor wires where the PO had just had spade connectors:
Yes, distributor isn’t fully seated it was just in for mock-up.
Likewise - I added the appropriate locking choke connector and a new choke after the stress of an unsupported spade connection snapped the terminal off my original choke:
And added a new sending unit and some copper line to replace the nylon gauge line that had disintegrated on disassembly.
The first shot does well to illustrate just how far rearward the engine has moved from its original placement.
New position:
I also took care of a couple minor wiring annoyances - like adding the correct, positively locking clips for he distributor wires where the PO had just had spade connectors:
Yes, distributor isn’t fully seated it was just in for mock-up.
Likewise - I added the appropriate locking choke connector and a new choke after the stress of an unsupported spade connection snapped the terminal off my original choke:
And added a new sending unit and some copper line to replace the nylon gauge line that had disintegrated on disassembly.
Your doing a great job !! It`s coming along nicely. You`ll be out enjoying it soon!!
JP
JP
- Thread starter
- #1,365
Thanks! Really I’m killing time until I get some consistent hot weather to paint up the fan shroud and modified radiator cradle and mounts. This week is looking promising.
From there, there really isn’t that much more to do prior to breaking the engine in. The list is getting short!
1. Install painted radiator assembly
2. Cut and install radiator hoses
3. Wire up the starter
4. Install distributor and plug wires
5. A couple more lengths of fuel hose and clamps on existing mock-up fuel/heater hoses
6. A lap around the engine and accessories making sure all connections and fittings are tightened down - everything has been in and out of the truck so many times I’ve lost track.
6. I want a 45 degree NPT fitting so I can mount the Toyota oil pressure fitting by the 350’s oil filter. The dash gauge has been disconnected since I owner the truck but it responds to 12 volts so I’d like to run it.
7. Fluids!
From there, assuming no major leaks, I should be good to go for break-in. Granted, break in doesn’t mean driveable - if everything checks out I still need:
1. Exhaust - but I found a shop 1mi from my house last week that quoted $300 for this, so I’m farming it out.
2. Seats - going with ProCar 90’s
2. Driveshafts - assuming I had them cut to the proper lengths 6mo ago - these just need U-joint and dropped back in
3. The big one - strip, body work, paint, reinstall transmission hump.
4. Once hump is back in I can reinstall the heaters and ducts and be fully functional again.
For break-in, I’m just going to loop the heater lines back on themselves and run without the trans hump. This will provide easy access for repairs when something inevitably doesn’t go as planned.
Lookin' really solid!! Can I ask what kind of bolts you used for the intake manifold?? They look like you have some kind of seal under
the washer or head? That is a constant source of leakage on mine and I'm on the hunt for something better...
Cheers!
the washer or head? That is a constant source of leakage on mine and I'm on the hunt for something better...
Cheers!
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- #1,367
They're ARP 3/8" manifold bolts. There's a washer under them, but it's just a standard steel washer - not a seal. I added some liquid thread sealant (also ARP) to the threads prior to installation in hopes of preventing exactly what you're talking about. On my 283, these bolts leaked constantly. I'm not sure if I'll be able to avoid it this time around, but I've done everything I could to try and make them stay dry!
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- #1,370
Out of curiosity, are you running stock GM Ram's Horns, or aftermarket?
I posted a separate thread about this previously - some other folks ran into the same issues. I'm not 100% certain whether it's the pipe itself - inconsistencies in the bends from lot to lot, or if it has something to do with the Dorman "Made in China" 2-inch Ram's Horns. The Rams horns also required a ton of grinding - as the conflicted with the engine block and wouldn't mount flush. I also had to grind out the casting around the bolt holes. You couldn't run the bolt heads home because the casting was too tight to the holes.
In short - I'm not sure who's at fault here - Walker, or Dorman.
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- #1,371
Still checking off little boxes - but getting close!
Painted all my radiator hardware
Installed some new universal joints. Stupidly installed one with the zerk backward but for as often as they need grease it won’t be too tough to just drop the driveshaft for periodic maintenance.
Had to cut the plug off my FJ60 reverse switch, and wire it with bullet connectors to mate up to the 40’s rear harness. I wince every time I cut and splice - hate being “that PO” butchering wiring harnesses but the alternative was finding a 60series harness and butchering that instead.
Added a wire clamp to the top of the transfer case to help route the wire away from the e-brake and driveshaft, since they will be spinnging.
Painted all my radiator hardware
Installed some new universal joints. Stupidly installed one with the zerk backward but for as often as they need grease it won’t be too tough to just drop the driveshaft for periodic maintenance.
Had to cut the plug off my FJ60 reverse switch, and wire it with bullet connectors to mate up to the 40’s rear harness. I wince every time I cut and splice - hate being “that PO” butchering wiring harnesses but the alternative was finding a 60series harness and butchering that instead.
Added a wire clamp to the top of the transfer case to help route the wire away from the e-brake and driveshaft, since they will be spinnging.
- Thread starter
- #1,372
I also cut, crimped, and installed the “dreadlocks” - I found 135 degree plugs just barely clear around the steering shaft:
One the paint was dry I got the radiator mounts, battery tray, fan shroud, and radiator installed. This allowed for final placement of the steering cooler and new overflow bottle:
Got the horns back in too:
Installed and cut the radiator hoses to length:
Wired up all my grounds, then the main harness power to check finally check out the functionality of the rear wiring harness @Coolerman built for me a year and a half ago. I wasn’t at all suprised to find everything in the rear harness worked perfectly - all lights accounted for!
Added gear oil:
Also added power steering fluid and turned the wheels lock to lock a few times to “burp” the system. I suspect there will be more burps - which sucks because I used a whole 32oz bottle of fluid. Sounds like another trip to the store to get more for that last 1oz I’ll need is in my future.
So far, no leaks from steering or transfer/transmission boxes - but I’ll be keeping an eye on them. I’m sure I won’t really see the leaks until everything is buttoned up, hot, and under pressure - but a “cold” leak at this junction would be (hopefully) more easily fixed.
It’s starting to look like a truck again!
One the paint was dry I got the radiator mounts, battery tray, fan shroud, and radiator installed. This allowed for final placement of the steering cooler and new overflow bottle:
Got the horns back in too:
Installed and cut the radiator hoses to length:
Wired up all my grounds, then the main harness power to check finally check out the functionality of the rear wiring harness @Coolerman built for me a year and a half ago. I wasn’t at all suprised to find everything in the rear harness worked perfectly - all lights accounted for!
Added gear oil:
Also added power steering fluid and turned the wheels lock to lock a few times to “burp” the system. I suspect there will be more burps - which sucks because I used a whole 32oz bottle of fluid. Sounds like another trip to the store to get more for that last 1oz I’ll need is in my future.
So far, no leaks from steering or transfer/transmission boxes - but I’ll be keeping an eye on them. I’m sure I won’t really see the leaks until everything is buttoned up, hot, and under pressure - but a “cold” leak at this junction would be (hopefully) more easily fixed.
It’s starting to look like a truck again!
That is looking really good !! bet your getting excited to turn the key and here it fire up !!
JP
JP
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- #1,374
Thanks! I am excited - this is the first time the truck has had electrical in a year or so - kept hitting the horn today. A sign of life! Not a whole lot left to do beyond add fluids, pre-oil everything and crank it.
Quite frankly - I’m also terrified I’ll have done all this work and wipe a cam lobe in the first 30 seconds of running. I’ve never broken an engine in before
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- #1,375
Big Day!
First start and break-in of the new Crate 350.
After priming with a drill and a couple of false starts and spectacular backfires through the carb I realized that yes, the vacuum advance did need to be hooked up - after that, (and very little else in the way of timing) the 350 held 2000-3000rpm for a half hour without so much as a hiccup.
By two gauges, oil pressure held at about 60PSI with the engine hot.
Temperature around the block hovered in the 185-190 range:
There were a couple instances I saw 210 but I think they may have been false reads. All told the temperature gauge in the truck stayed right where it should.
Now for post-mortem - it seems like things went well, and it’s still too hot (and too late) to dump the oil and see if there’s any major carnage.
I have several coolant leaks and one oil leak to chase - the worst being the lower radiator hose where it connects to the water pump.
I’m also a bit concerned because I ran water (not antifreeze) for break in, and the water in my overflow tank is an ominous shade of brown. Fingers crossed it isn’t oil...
I also dropped my driveshaft off (again) for modification. Somehow, I screwed up a measurement and my rear driveshaft is about 3/4” too long - I only had about 1/4” of inward slip-yoke travel.
So, until that gets fixed - there won’t be any driving/tuning/tweaking.
I’m at a bit of a loss as to what to do next - common wisdom says “don’t idle it extensively” but at the same time, I need to set the timing, idle, etc. but even after the initial half hour I’m nervous to let it idle down.
When the driveshaft comes back I’m debating driving it down to get exhaust first (at he risk of the shop idling it at this tender break-in stage) or just running it 50mi on open headers to try and get the rings all seated first.
Still - assuming everything in the oil checks out - I’m excited to have a living truck again!
First start and break-in of the new Crate 350.
After priming with a drill and a couple of false starts and spectacular backfires through the carb I realized that yes, the vacuum advance did need to be hooked up - after that, (and very little else in the way of timing) the 350 held 2000-3000rpm for a half hour without so much as a hiccup.
By two gauges, oil pressure held at about 60PSI with the engine hot.
Temperature around the block hovered in the 185-190 range:
There were a couple instances I saw 210 but I think they may have been false reads. All told the temperature gauge in the truck stayed right where it should.
Now for post-mortem - it seems like things went well, and it’s still too hot (and too late) to dump the oil and see if there’s any major carnage.
I have several coolant leaks and one oil leak to chase - the worst being the lower radiator hose where it connects to the water pump.
I’m also a bit concerned because I ran water (not antifreeze) for break in, and the water in my overflow tank is an ominous shade of brown. Fingers crossed it isn’t oil...
I also dropped my driveshaft off (again) for modification. Somehow, I screwed up a measurement and my rear driveshaft is about 3/4” too long - I only had about 1/4” of inward slip-yoke travel.
So, until that gets fixed - there won’t be any driving/tuning/tweaking.
I’m at a bit of a loss as to what to do next - common wisdom says “don’t idle it extensively” but at the same time, I need to set the timing, idle, etc. but even after the initial half hour I’m nervous to let it idle down.
When the driveshaft comes back I’m debating driving it down to get exhaust first (at he risk of the shop idling it at this tender break-in stage) or just running it 50mi on open headers to try and get the rings all seated first.
Still - assuming everything in the oil checks out - I’m excited to have a living truck again!
Sounded Good !! Looks and sounds like you did a great job. fix up the leaks and you should be good to go!! The brown colored water is just residual rust inside of the water passages.
JP
JP
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- #1,377
That’s what I’m hoping! I popped the radiator after it cooled down a bit and there isn’t any Milky/floaty stuff.
Any thoughts on where I go from here? Set the idle to something ridiculous like 1500RPM and drive it for 50 miles? Or is it likely safe at this point to let it idle down, set timing, and get the exhaust on it so I stop pissing off the neighbors?
Just hesitant because I’ve read that if you let them idle too long, to early, the rings may never fully seat - not to mention the potential of wiping out a cam love but that risk should be mitigated at this point...
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- #1,378
Couldn’t contain myself - changed the oil at lunch today to review the carnage. I think I’m happy with what I’ve found but I’d love some opinions.
There IS metal in the oil, visible to the naked eye, but they are fairly small flakes, and fairly sparse:
You can see the little white specs to give an idea of the frequency
The oil cane out dirtier than expected but I imaging there was probably quite a bit of assembly lube and such in there that got washed out.
Is this all normal or should I be concerned? I imagine there is always SOME metal when parts are wearing into eachother...
There IS metal in the oil, visible to the naked eye, but they are fairly small flakes, and fairly sparse:
You can see the little white specs to give an idea of the frequency
The oil cane out dirtier than expected but I imaging there was probably quite a bit of assembly lube and such in there that got washed out.
Is this all normal or should I be concerned? I imagine there is always SOME metal when parts are wearing into eachother...
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- #1,379
Haven’t had a ton of time the last couple days but took a couple more baby steps. Got my driveshaft back from the shop. He mentioned he couldn’t get it quite balanced but it’s “within 1/2oz” hopefully it will be alright.
So I got those installed. Rear driveline looks pretty good - nice, straight, and flat with about 1 and 1/8” of inward slip:
The front is always a compromise - much steeper angle:
I’m a bit worried about the slip on this one too. I have more than 3/4” but probably not quite a full inch of inward travel. I think it should be enough to not obliterate my t case but I may flex the truck around a bit to see when all of this is done.
Neither should be a problem if I throw a 2” lift on it.
Next up - since I’ve basically confirmed the function and accuracy of the aftermarket mechanical gauge in the cab vs my external gauge, I decided to hook up the Toyota sending unit to see if I can’t get a function stock oil gauge.
The gauge responds to directly applied voltage, but it was never hooked up.
I built a pigtail from pieces coolerman sent me last year:
And hooked up the sending unit down by the oil filter. This required NUMEROUS adapters, while will probably be leaking soon enough.
Last, I re-attached the bib and spent a good hour trying to figure out why my headlights wouldn’t work. Turns out at some point I’d managed to unplug the harness at the fuse box - crisis averted!
So I got those installed. Rear driveline looks pretty good - nice, straight, and flat with about 1 and 1/8” of inward slip:
The front is always a compromise - much steeper angle:
I’m a bit worried about the slip on this one too. I have more than 3/4” but probably not quite a full inch of inward travel. I think it should be enough to not obliterate my t case but I may flex the truck around a bit to see when all of this is done.
Neither should be a problem if I throw a 2” lift on it.
Next up - since I’ve basically confirmed the function and accuracy of the aftermarket mechanical gauge in the cab vs my external gauge, I decided to hook up the Toyota sending unit to see if I can’t get a function stock oil gauge.
The gauge responds to directly applied voltage, but it was never hooked up.
I built a pigtail from pieces coolerman sent me last year:
And hooked up the sending unit down by the oil filter. This required NUMEROUS adapters, while will probably be leaking soon enough.
Last, I re-attached the bib and spent a good hour trying to figure out why my headlights wouldn’t work. Turns out at some point I’d managed to unplug the harness at the fuse box - crisis averted!
- Thread starter
- #1,380
No pictures, but funny story from lunch today - I went outside and fired up the truck with the intent to get the idle timing, speed, and fuel delivery set. I set the idle and my timing was WAY retarded, so the engine started to overheat. Naturally, I went to shut the engine down. I turned off the key - the engine kept running. I pulled the key out, still running. I disconnected everything but the starter wire - still running. I'm not talking sputtering and dieseling, I'm talking running, at idle, like a top...
Finally I killed it by stuffing a rag in the air horn of the carb and choked it out. I don't think the engine got above 220 but it was a terrifying couple of minutes with a runaway engine on the road to self destruction.
Took a LONG while to realize that I'd done. When I moved the alternator to the passenger side, I shortened up the wiring. I inadvertently cut the rectifier diode out of the sense strand on the alternator. I had forgotten to hook this up for initial break in - and caught it after. Well, with the pigtail now connected to the battery, and no diode - the alternator backfeeds the distributor.
Naturally, I chucked the section of wire with the diode, so I just got to place an order for a few more. In the meantime, I'm just going to leave that cable unplugged. The alternator should still charge without it...
In better news: My OEM oil gauge works with the new sending unit! As predicted, it leaked like a sieve so I've shored some things up (hopefully that will fix it).
Finally I killed it by stuffing a rag in the air horn of the carb and choked it out. I don't think the engine got above 220 but it was a terrifying couple of minutes with a runaway engine on the road to self destruction.
Took a LONG while to realize that I'd done. When I moved the alternator to the passenger side, I shortened up the wiring. I inadvertently cut the rectifier diode out of the sense strand on the alternator. I had forgotten to hook this up for initial break in - and caught it after. Well, with the pigtail now connected to the battery, and no diode - the alternator backfeeds the distributor.
Naturally, I chucked the section of wire with the diode, so I just got to place an order for a few more. In the meantime, I'm just going to leave that cable unplugged. The alternator should still charge without it...
In better news: My OEM oil gauge works with the new sending unit! As predicted, it leaked like a sieve so I've shored some things up (hopefully that will fix it).