Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

I think they'll be good. The seat adjustments are pretty broad. I'm going to change up the pedal alignment a bit to help since you have to lift your feet so high to get on the pads. I figure about 2" more distance away would be similar to my 93 and the Jeep. I can accomplish that without changing the pedal ratio. The pads on these trucks sit very horizontally compared to newer cars so I will make them more vertical and push them a bit farther away.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

I kind of forgot that I did some gas tank fitting back in Sept.
I'm going to run the square body blazer tank. I heated up the solder and turned the fill neck.
It's big and I wanted to move it as far forward as I can.
I trimmed the lower flange on the crossmember to get some more room. I'll add this back on the front side later.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

I made my upper straps, and for now it's held in with a ratchet strap. I'll make the removable lowers later also.
This just gets me to the point that I can get the bed floor trimmed for clearance.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

I also had a chance to test my LS wiring and PCM. We have an old TechII at work and it successfully talked to the PCM!! That was a happy thing for me.
It has the 7603 operating system, which is convenient since it is the most common and supported P59 OS. More on that later.
I was also able to actuate the fuel pump and A/C relays.
And even with VATS still active I was able to crank it and make sure the starter circuit was working.
I will call that a win!

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Now, I have a VIN. Carfax may not be the most detailed info out there, but it can give me a ballpark mileage.
My compression test results were pretty uneven and I was really curious if the mileage told to me was accurate or BS. I suspected BS...
That said, I was ok with the price I paid. $1600 for a 6.0 with wiring/PCM/intake/etc is a good deal around here even if it's just a rebuildable core.
My buddy that still works at the dealer ran the VIN for me and this is what showed up......

Yeah, I laughed.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

It's not even @ 250k.... It's just getting broken in.
;)

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

HA!!! Right, just starting to seat the rings at this point.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

I figured out how I wanted to do the seat mounting.
Removed the front stock mounts and welded on a trimmed length of angle. This way I can utilize the front mount holes. I'll add another pair of mounts on the tunnel side.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

The back was a little more involved. The mount points are wide at the outboard side, off the edge of the flat part of the floor. They're also not the same distance back from the front.
I cut the mount hole portion off, reversed it, and welded it back on the opposite seat and the same length as the inboard side.
The first 2 pics are the driver seat, the last is the passenger.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Now they're parallel, but the inboard side has to clear the bump in the floor. When you run it back, the track comes back and hits the ledge.
You could stack some washers or whatever to do this. I made some shims out of scrap.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Now it was time to address the pedals.
I started with the DBW gas pedal. I measured the pedal travel of several vehicles and most have 2" of gas pedal travel. I mocked it up to duplicate that and made it happen.
Meanwhile, my helper made some use of my scrap pieces.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Alert! Problem found!- car fax :)

Nice fab work! Pretty cool you have a good helper

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Ya, he likes to make fun things with my scrap. He’s getting decent at welding thicker material. When he’s ready and interested I’ll let him do real work.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Now it’s time to take care of the brake and clutch pedals. I’ve never liked how high they sit relative to the gas pedal, and just the ergonomics of lifting my feet to get on them.
I measured my other vehicles and figured taking the pads around 2.25” closer to the floor would be about right.
I measured the 2.25” shown by the red lines and cut the pedal ends off. The pic was after, the pedal pad was still attached when I cut.
I made the cut at a pretty shallow angle. Most newer vehicles have the pedal pads close to vertical. My angle was driven by that.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Here’s the after shots. Overall I gained a lot of foot room and can pivot my right foot on my heel and reach the gas and brake without lifting my toes much.
The overall length of the pedal arm (from upper pivot to pedal pad center) was only shortened by 3/4”. That doesn’t change the pedal ratio much.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

So, the 6.0....
All this time it was sitting with Kroil in the cylinders, hoping it might free up what I thought might be stuck rings causing my poor compression test results. This engine was so clean inside....
I really wanted to run it and see, but wasn't going to spend big $$ on HP tuners just to shut off VATS and some codes. I had been waiting on some of the free software alternatives to be tested, and now that they seemed to be working I jumped in.
I got an OBDx cable, downloaded PCM hammer, and got after it with TunerPro.
Shutting off VATS and extra codes was a couple of mouse clicks.
https://obdxpro.com/product/obdx-pro...cs-and-tuning/
https://github.com/LegacyNsfw/PcmHacks/releases
https://www.tunerpro.net/downloadApp.htm
Attachment 2256877

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

I borrowed a pressure pot fuel flush tool from work, filled it up with some pump gas and pressurized it, and attempted to fire it up.
It cranked for a bit, fired up, ran rough and smoky for a minute, then smoothed out and idled just like it should.
That was such a huge motivation!!
Oil pressure was great at 45ish psi.
I've ran it several times since then, and it's a smooth runner. No misfire codes. I haven't done another compression test, but will eventually.
The oil pressure has been over 30psi every time it's been running and coolant temp has been up to 225 several times to test fan and other functions.
I'm gonna run it as-is for now, maybe under a real load the story will be different, but that will be a problem for future me.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Nice work!

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Thanks! I'm stoked to have it running.
It has also allowed me to geek out and try these tuning tools.
So far I've been able to:
Shut off VATS and codes
Activate, test and adjust my e-fans
Segment swap in manual transmission settings. (Thanks to Universal Patcher)

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

There's a coolant temp sensor available that incorporates the PCM sensor and gauge sensor into one unit. It's for a 98 LS1 F-body.
I know a lot of folks drill and tap a new hole for the 67-72 sensor but I wanted to give this one a shot and it worked out well.
As an FYI, the stock fan settings have low speed coming on at 226. These motors definitely run hotter than the old ones. "Hot" is considered to be 260!! That's the last pic, I mocked up the correct sensor resistance of 55ohms for that one.
Here's some pics in this order: 190F, 212F, 228F (fans just came on), and the simulated 260F

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

I did play around with the resistor on the back of the gauge, but the stock 90ohm one gave the best overall result thru the usable range of the gauge.
I attached some diagrams. Pin C is the one you tie in to the green wire in your original harness. A&B are tied to the PCM wiring.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Your thread and build are amazing! Excellent work and I really appreciate all the details you give on how you are doing your mods. I will definitely be taking some tips from here for my build. I especially like your pedal mods. I was just looking at my pedals the other day thinking they were awkwardly high compared to my throttle and wondering what I could do about it.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Thanks man.
The pedals have always looked/felt weird to me compared to newer cars. I finally decided to change it up since I was putting the gas pedal where I wanted it to be.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

It’s been a while since I’ve updated here. I did get a couple of things done in the past few months.
I modified the Blazer tank fittings from the o-ring TBI style to push connects.
I cut the ends off to keep as much length as possible. Then I had to sand off some of the coating so my flare tool would fit. That took the longest, the coating is thick and I didn’t want the surface rough for sealing integrity.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

I had to flex one of the lines to get the tool on, but it bent back fine.
I use the MasterCool hydraulic flare tool, it’s expensive but I’ve had it forever and it’s great. I initially bought it for the brake lines on my Texas big block CST truck back in 2003ish and it’s been used on plenty of projects since then.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

I’ve had a 71 rear end sitting in the corner for a while. I did a quick look over when I first got it but I hadn’t really checked it out.
I brought it into work and pulled the axles. The bearing surfaces looked good so I put new bearings and seals in. The gear pattern and condition looked good. I also checked backlash and it was about .011”. Pretty good for what I assume are original gears. I’ll run it as-is with the open diff for now. I’ve got other things to eat up my $$ coming soon.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

I’ve always wanted to try POR 15, so when my buddy offered me his leftover half can I gave it a shot. I’d have to say it’s an interesting product. It’s a little glossy for my liking, but now I know. I’m going to test out the semi gloss on some other parts soon. I have the frame to coat this summer so I’ll have to figure out what to use.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Another thing I wanted to try was Ni-copp tubing. I can say that it is my new go to. It’s so easy to bend and flare. I did these brake lines with my bare hands.
My fancy bender is sitting on the cart, but I didn’t even pick it up.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Looks good! I think I’ll use the copper on my next project

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

I love your updates as I always learn something. That flaring tool does a nice job! On those brake lines, they look great, but are you worried at all about durability with how easy they were to bend? I know there's been a few times on my truck as I'm crawling around underneath where I accidentally bumped a brake line.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

It's not so malleable that I'm worried about it in normal usage. That said, if it was going on my Jeep where it may get drug thru some nastiness, I'd probably use regular steel.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

It was time to figure out the seat and console mounts.
I welded on some adapters to the console so it will bolt down to the flat portion of the floor just outboard of the center hump. I used the same material thickness as the existing mount legs and gusseted them for rigidity.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

I added my inboard front mount holes for the R&L seats, and drilled all the holes in the floor.
I have 1/8" steel plate pieces that I will add underneath with multiple rosette welds for reinforcement. Then I'll weld on the nuts for fastening. All my new holes are close to stock bracing locations and I think that will help.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

It's time for the cab to come back off again so I can get the cab's underside floor reinforcement welding and POR-15 done. I'll also take care of the AC component mounting, extra hole filling and such as well, and then do my frame plumbing & coating and etc.
This should be the last time it comes off!

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

If I had a dime for every time I said that I'd probably have a dollar.:lol:

Your seat mounts look really good. As one of my favorite you tubers says... "That aint goin' any where!"

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

Thanks man!

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

If you want to add factory AC to one of these, get the assembly manual. There’s a fair amount of work involved. Most of it is just tedious fitting and adding fastener holes. The difficult part that visually matters is getting the dash vents located.
I started the ball housings by modifying a set of housings that had broken clips. I removed the rear part that sticks thru the dash so I had a template.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

For the center vent I used the printable template from Vintage Air for their kit. It uses the stock looking vent in the center location. It’s a bit small, and that’s fine. I’d rather take metal away and creep up on the final size.
Yes, it’s taped on there off-center in the pic. I did correct that as part of the measure 6x and cut once technique.
I used the HF narrow belt sander to open up the hole to the final size. Very handy tool for this and for removing spot welds.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

For the ball housings, I used a 3 3/8” hole saw to start. I put a solid rod in the centering bit so it wouldn’t walk and drilled it nice and slow. The surface isn’t flat and the saw really wants to move around so a firm hand and slow speed are key. Then I opened it up to the final size with the belt sander.
Time-wise, it probably took me a couple of hours to fit all 3 vents.

Re: ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is
 

The main case mounting area on the firewall was next. The big opening towards the center line of the truck is the same for AC or heat only. It's the outboard side that's different. I used a beat up case for my mockups but I could have used my refinished one, it isn't harmed or disassembled beyond anything normal when you do this.
Some of the mounting holes line up already and some don't. I didn't take any pics of that part, I got the mounting holes done a couple of years ago.