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Looks great. I'll take a set. ;)

Couple questions, what is that switch looking thing above the heater? And is that a sticker in the lower passenger side of the windshield? And how come the radiator cap is off, the battery cable is off and there is no pics or video of a burnout? :devil:

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lots of great detail going on in that engine compartment !!

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i like those hinges i would like to try to make some myself. were they hard to make and about how much did they cost to make them?

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That is not a switch but the tail end of the lever that opens and closes the vent under the cowl. When I took the factory air out I just left it there, maybe I will hook a passive lever up to it so I can open and close it by hand.

The C10 club is a pretty sizable club out here in California, our big get together is coming up in July at the Brothers truck show in L.A. Over 300 of our truck are there with 45 being from the C10 club. We won the best participation award last year, it was quite an experience to drive on the freeway and as far as you could see in front and in back of you was nothing but C10's. Of course my engine was toast and about ready to disintegrate so i was a little preoccupied. If you get in contact with Rene AKA "C10 King" he will get you one. Or you can always come to the show! it is a great time! Sign up on the Brothers web site.

Oh how I wish the rad cap was on and the cable was connected, you did not notice that there are no spark plug wires either. Details details...

Not too hard to make if you have the right tools. I made all of the bushings and spacers. The pollish is difficult if you have a small buffing wheel. I have a 3HP 3 phase buffer that makes it a little easier to get a nice shine.

I have about $100 into them, $20 for the dumb struts and the rest in chrome hardware and bronze. THe arms themselves were made from scrap alluminum I had in the shop.

I just used the same geometry from the OEM hinges. So I knew they would work. But it saved me about $500, there are a couple of things I would do different if I did them again but I don't think I will.

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Very nice Mike! Like the reflective plate on the firewall. When you gonna fire it up! :metal:

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I am so down to run down to L.A. with that kind of foloowing I need a real road test for my truck anyway it's kinda stuck to local events the past few years so I think that would be an awesome test and always a great place to grab some ideas ;D Awesome hinges gotta love handbuilt Fab work

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Lookin sweet dude killer job on the motor and hinges. Let me know if you need a hand with anything.

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To all you guys who are remotely contemplating if you should take the trip or not, as C-10 king says; "if you can make only one show this year, this is the one to go to". Here is the thread of who is going so far, http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=520878


You know I thought of you when I was trying to find an extra hand for the hood install but then my neighbor came home. I sure I will need an extra hand soon. Thanks for being available.

She's Alive!
 

For those of you still subscribing to my slow as molasses engine rebuild, I fired it up today, Still got the same gas in it from the Brothers show and shine last year. I thought about draining it and putting new in but I figured what the heck I just try it.

It took about 10 minutes to get the carb primed because the line was dry all the way back to the tank but she fired up and I ran it for the recommended 20 min at 2000 rpm while I checked for leaks. There was a small one on the fuel line, another one on the oil pressure line, Trans cooler had a steady drip and the P.S. pump almost ran dry as it pumped all the reservoir into the empty rack and cooler lines.

After 8 months I figured I was bound to forget to tighten something. The good news is the most everything was small and easily tightened. Some I just let leak while I kept the engine running because I did not want to get my hands near the fan. I did not put any antifreeze in it for the first fire so I could check for leaks with just water. After a few laps around the block I will drain it and put the real coolant in.
I will post a video of it running in the next day or so, work is busy now, and I am really kind of surprised that I was able to get a few hours to attempt the start up tonight.

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:metal:

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rock on man

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Hurray! Always a good feeling. Congrats!
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That's good stuff. Congrats on the milestone.

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I'll never forget the first time I fired up my BB 402 in my chevelle after doing a top-end rebuild in my parent's garage when I was 17... I had just put headers on and had no exhaust pipes. That thing sounded mean! It's a great feeling to see it run after so much work.

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Congrats on the fire up buddy now... a burnout video:metal:

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The heart is always in the throat when it first fires up "congrats"

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Well my heart was not in my throat until this morning, I had a bit of trouble today, sadly I am not sure of the condition of my newly rebuilt 700r4. I had it rebuilt in 09 and it sat in my garage for three years while I waited for an opportunity to upgrade the transmission from the fairly reliable TH400. After I got all the fluid levels toped off I shifted the tranny into reverse to back out of my drive to take it for a lap around the block. No reverse at all, I have forward drive gears but no reverse. Bummer, I am towing it to a tranny shop on Tuesday for them to diagnose. Hopefully it is just a stuck valve but I fear that it will have more serious issues than that. I do not think I can or want to take it back to the shop that did the first rebuild because I am starting to not trust their workmanship.

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Hey!
I just noticed my build got a five star rating! cool thanks guys, just learning as I go.

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Sounds like a pin not engaging the reverse band... hopefully an easy fix. Good luck!

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Ok here is a little video of my engine running (sorry it is a phone video, my wife took the video camera to palm springs for the weekend), and how the new cam sounds. Other than the annoying rattle of the stupid air cleaner half way through that sounds like a frog, I think it sounds tons better than it did a year ago.

One thing I did point out in the video for you guys smarter than me regarding engines, when I start it I get a normal oil pressure level at idle, then when I throttle up it spikes. This is a new oil pump not the old one. I did install a larger diameter braided line in the engine compartment but then it reduces to the original size when it goes through the firewall. Could that larger size be the culprit? Or could it be that there is air in the line causing the bubble to give a false read. Not sure if I should be concerned about this or not.

http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/o...h_10217596.jpg

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Sounds good. Looks like the gauge is working normal, the line size or even air bubbles should not change the reading, it is a closed system and all parts of it will feel the same pressure. The difference may be that the output pressure of the new pump is much higher and you have a standard oil pressure gauge. There are OEM oil pressure gauges that are rated for higher pressure. I think standard is a 0-60 psi and the other is 0-80 psi. It says on the gauge if you take it out of the bezel. Most high flow or high press oil pumps will go to 80 or more, especially on a cold engine.

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Yeah when I put the tach in I think it was a 60 psi gauge if I remember. Maybe I will pick up a numerical gauge and see what it is pumping
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Hope its something small on your transmission man. Engine looks good. Going too see you at brothers this year for sure??

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Oh yeah I'm still going, but I too hope it is something small, I have spent enough on this truck already:lol:

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Ok,
well the damage on the stupid tranny cost me $700! trying to save money and go with a local guy to rebuild it, ended up costing me a ton of money. Turns out there was some sort of shim or bushing that was too big and was preventing the reverse from engaging. Had to yank it out and re build it again. This time a guy I trusted and came highly recommended. In the end it all worked out and it is working fine now. I took it to the local street show tonight for its maiden voyage.

On the freeway I am turning around 2000 rpm at 70 mph. I am curious to see what my gas mileage will be.

Now for you Mustang rack and pinion converts; Did you notice a loss of turning radius? I thought I was going to be ahead of the game by being able to turn faster since the Mustang rack had One less turn lock to lock. The Chevy box was 3.5 lock to lock and the stang is 2.5

Turns out it is the same ratio just one half less turn in either direction. I think that the turning arms on the spindles is shorter on the mustang so it pick up the 1/2 turn in the shorter arm. I am bummed about that to the point I might just yank the entire system out and go back to stock if this is as good as it is going to get.

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Mixed message there. Congrats on getting it back on the road. Sorry to hear the disatisfaction with the steering. I guess you could swap out the front suspension for the mustang style or maybe you can replace the rack with one that has the longer throw, like what no limits sells. Might bolt right in with the mods you made to fit this one. He might be using a variant of the chevy truck rack.

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Glad too hear the beast is on the road.

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Well I just read the entire thresd, you are an awesome fabricator the work is supper. I would like to hank Josh for stepping in as the pool was turning an ugly shade of yellow. there is more todo and I will gladly watch. I do agree with other members that some of this stuff you should either make or have made to sell, I think the monetary rewards would be high and that is my 2 cents worth

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Thanks Tink for the kind words, I do love to fabricate but the rest of the story is my better half:lol: I think if I spend any more time on truck stuff rather than with her there is going to be mutiny.

This truck started out as a fun project that I could play around on an occasional weekend. Ha it has turned into an up at all hours fourth job. I already have three jobs that take most of my time, now that I am done with Phase II for the most part I will be making a concerted effort to focus on my "tryingtobepatient" wife. As I have said, This truck is my therapy, if I had to do it for a job it would not be very therapeutic. The better reward for me is to see you guys like an idea and copy it, I am a teacher afterall.

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Onto the Oil pressure issue. I have a numerical gage that I hooked up and the PSI at idle is 65-70 when I rev it is goes to 80. Now I did not leave the gage on until it warmed up I just checked it and then I had to disconnect it because I had to leave for work, and it was just and under the hood type install. I am not sure if I should be concerned about it but for now it seems to not be hurting anything.

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Might consider using thinner oil. I've got a melling high volume pump on mine and it has real high pressure also. Been using it for over 20 years, no issues with that part of my truck.

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Yeah the break in oil I am using is straight 30 weight oil, and once I drain that I will switch to 5w 30 to run in it from then on.

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sounds like a good plan on switching oil

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Apparently there is an adjustment screw on the oil pick up that regulates oil pressure. Do any of you guys know how many turns to bring it down 20psi? I have a small annoying leak in my pan gasket and I need to replace it anyway so I figured since the pan was going to be off it would be a perfect time to adjust the PSI.

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Congrats on the new Motor, cool video! too bad about the tranny and steering. Keep up the hard work it is really paying off now.

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Unless you have some different oil pump, there isn't an adjusting screw on the pickup. On a normal oil pump, the oil pressure relief spring regulates the pressure. There is a roll pin that keeps the spring in place. If there happens to be a washer between the roll pin and the spring, take that out and it will drop your oil pressure a little. Or you could just replace that HV pump with a standard volume oil pump. The standard volume pump will be just fine for what you're doing. As a general rule on most engines, you need 10 psi for every 1000 rpms.

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Like CaptainFab I have not heard of an adjustment screw on the stock pickups.

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I don't know one way or another, I am just going on what the guy who owns the business that did all the machining and assembly on the engine. He said that the spring and roll pin is only in case the filter gets clogged, the pressure relief will blow out, but that there is an adjustment screw on the new pick up. I will call him and confirm. This is not a stock pick up.
This might be why I have the annoying oil leak on the pan gasket. Either way I need to drop the pan, so I will up date you guys on what I find. Thanks for the help.

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Never heard of adjustment on the pickup. If it where me id replace the pan gasket with a Fel-Pro 1 piece gasket can be purchased at any auto parts store. Then put it back together, and run it like that. Take it on a few good drives get it too normal operating temp and see what the oil pressure does than. I wouldnt be concerned at all, Mine runs at 60 psi and goes up from there but once it gets good and hot it will drop.