68' C10 5.3/4L60 "Blue Belle"
 

We haven't been in the truck scene much after selling our 78 K5 in 2010. Spent a few years racing motorcycles with my wife on local tracks here in Texas, then found ourselves building muscle cars and getting heavy into LS swaps with the Pro-Touring scene. The last few years have been a lot of work but with maximum fun! In 2014 we bought my wife Cynthia a 2002 Z06 Corvette, after a few upgrades from our inventory at Protouringtexas.com we had it making good power and sounding like a Z06 should :drive: Fast forward to 2016, Cynthia wasn't driving the vette much and we had discussed building a truck that was LS/auto, that had AC and a great daily driver. As fate would have it, I stumbled across a beautiful 68' C10 listing on craigslist that stated this truck had been on Hotrod Power Tour 2015 with a 5.3/4L60/Vintage Air set up already installed. A phone call to a guy named Bryan turned into a long chat about cars and new friendship between our family and theirs. A deal was struck and we met on a drizzly afternoon in Temple, Texas. Cynthia was frustrated with me, all she knew, was that we were driving the Z06 to meet "some people".

We were first to the restaurant, ordered a beer and waited. I had Cynthia sit with her back to the window for maximum effect :cool: Bryan and his wife pull up in the c10. I have a huge grin on my face. Cynthia turns around and immediately freaks out "SHUT UP" she says over and over, with her hands covering her face trying to hold back tears of joy. We walk out to meet them, shake hands and head for the truck. This was an awesome moment, those good feels you only get so often. I was happy for Cynthia and proud of the huge secret I had been able to keep.. which is hard to do after so many years of marriage. So far, she loves the truck! We cant wait to take it to the next level! The great running 5.3 with an Ls6 cam is already on the chopping block for upgrades.

Saying goodbye to the vette
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...psxmfnnmow.jpg

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...psaqxaxqru.jpg


Welcome "Blue Belle" to the ProtouringTexas family!
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...psqhtvuqz8.jpg

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...psctgdmtua.jpg

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Re: 68' C10 5.3/4L60 "Blue Belle"
 

Nice truck. I saw that one too looking around on CL. You have great taste in cars. I also have a 02 Z06 and c10 5.3/4L60e/vintage air :metal:

Re: 68' C10 5.3/4L60 "Blue Belle"
 

Thank you!! Will you be at c10's in the park??

Re: 68' C10 5.3/4L60 "Blue Belle"
 

Nice looking truck!! Congratulations!!

Re: 68' C10 5.3/4L60 "Blue Belle"
 

Very sharp truck!

Re: 68' C10 5.3/4L60 "Blue Belle"
 

I haven't heard of it. Where and when is it?

Re: 68' C10 5.3/4L60 "Blue Belle"
 

http://www.c10sinthepark.com/2016-details

Come on out, should be a boss time.

Re: 68' C10 5.3/4L60 "Blue Belle"
 

Nice

Re: 68' C10 5.3/4L60 "Blue Belle"
 

Agreed.

Re: 68' C10 5.3/4L60 "Blue Belle"
 

Very nice truck. Great way to surprise your wife!

Re: 68' C10 5.3/4L60 "Blue Belle"
 

Update: the truck has been a lot of fun to drive, but kinda of bouncy on the highway and did bottom out on larger dips. So over Christmas I bought my wife the level 2 coil over setup from Ridetech plus the front muscle bar. SWEET BABY JESUS the difference is night and day! I run Viking coil overs on my chevelle and knew they were the way to go. Here are some pics from the install at Protouringtexas.com

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...psd6lzpx3u.jpg

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...pscaznxywz.jpg

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...pszgddjgy7.jpg


http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...psvi4w5v9i.jpg

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http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...pspxtjb7y7.jpg

Re: 68' C10 5.3/4L60 "Blue Belle"
 

Sold all the old ridetech coolride parts. And hopefully I don't store the old trailing arms for years, I'm sure some one can use them.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...psniv7tjea.jpg

Re: 68' C10 5.3/4L60 "Blue Belle"
 

Had a set back with the 5.3 that came with the truck. So it's out.. it overheated taking my wife to work, in the process it pushed the rear freeze plug from the passenger head. The biggest problem was how close the engine was to the fire wall, the ls3 camaro oil pan forced the engine into this location. http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps3tbbj3of.jpg


With the engine out, we checked out the condition of the old engine, it had more shavings than I'd like to see in the oil so we made the call to start over fresh with a rebuild, better heads, and add some performance.

Used some fresh 799 heads with new Gm performance springs. http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...pslury0x4i.jpg

And Ls9 headgaskets to seal things up

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps0yojtqhf.jpg

ARP headbolts were used to avoid single use tty hardware.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps4nazuuli.jpg

Re: 68' C10 5.3/4L60 "Blue Belle"
 

We used a Btr stage 4 truck cam

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...pshuy9ibur.jpg

New set of Ls7 lifters

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...psjqzb3ras.jpg

New trunnions to eliminate needle bearing failure

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps6d6abtko.jpg

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...psosu5nocs.jpg

And a Lsa oil pump for %15 more volume

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...psgqck6sav.jpg

Gibson exhaust sent us a beautiful set of longtube headers they designed specifically for c10 LS swaps, I'm impressed with the quality and fit is the best I've seen from any LS header on the market.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...psxwll89mf.jpg

Re: 68' C10 5.3/4L60 "Blue Belle"
 

More of the Gibson Performance headers

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...psodbozhth.jpg

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...psyuloldyv.jpg

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http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...psuu7rjs8b.jpg

Re: 68' C10 5.3/4L60 "Blue Belle"
 

We wanted an aggressive tone but nothing that drones on the highway. Again, Gibson Performance answered the call with their M.W.A series mufflers. Stainless steel and made in USA! It's great to see an American company making great products for hotrodders like us.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...psx2ifyxg8.jpg

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...pszl6dcg7r.jpg

In these pics, You can see that I switched to an fbody oil pan for more ground clearance, and moved the engine forward about an inch for serviceability in the future.

Re: 68' C10 5.3/4L60 "Blue Belle"
 

So jealous sweet build man. Working on ls swap for my sons first vehicle. 72 c10 long box factory utility box. Lowering it. Haven't seen many. Do you still have trailing arms? If so how much? Keep up on pics!! Awesome build

Re: 68' C10 5.3/4L60 "Blue Belle"
 

Nice truck. And good upgrades so far