Doing Serpentine Conversion Tomorrow And Have Some Questions

[Leviticus]

Hey Guys,

Ok another nonsense post from me today lol.

I am doing a serpentine conversion on my 72 C10 350 tomorrow and have some questions.

I scored a complete new OEM GM conversion kit for a 350 crate motor with all new pumps, bolts etc, and the instructions said that GM tested and endorses not having to drill a hole in the passenger side head, which I am pretty happy not to have to do lol.

Can I re-use my power steering pump lines? If not what year truck should I ask for new lines for at the parts store?

What year truck should I get a reverse cooling fan for? And I have heard some talk of a electric fan conversion from a Taurus or something?

I have a AC Delco alternator plug pigtail, but am not sure if it is the right one to convert to my truck? The part number is: PT1742.

Is there anything else I am going to run into that you can think of? I would like to get it all done tomorrow if possible.

Thanks guys!

[Willys47]

I think the new power steering hoses use O rings the older style didn't you may need to get some custom hoses made? and as for the alt I can't help you out but it will put out more than the 37 amps the old stuff made.

[1949gmc]

I was just doing some light reading on this exact topic earlier today and here's an article from Car Craft magazine that I think might be helpful. It certainly answers your p/s line question.

http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles...ive/index.html

Have fun and keep us posted.

[EighthD]

I installed a serpentine belt set up off of a 94 suburban on my 71 swb. And I used the new pump . But I switched the hose fitting from the old pump to the new one with no problems. The old ones screwed rite into the new pump.

[clay68c10]

If it has the o-ring style hoses, you can swap steering boxes and use one off a late square-body truck. Then you get the faster steering ratio.
Or do the fiting swap into your serpentine pump like EighthD suggested. I think it's a 1" wrench/socket size.

[Leviticus]

Great, thanks for the help guys! I will let you know how it goes, or I will be back with more questions wishing it were done lol.

[cparman]

I did a serp setup on my Blazer. If you have P/S now, you will need to reuse the fitting that is currently in the back of your P/S pump. Then you should be able to reuse your hoses. Might have to bend them a bit.

I will be using an electric fan setup, but right now I have a fan clutch, and fan blade from a 90's chevy astro van. bolts right on, and will clear the fan shroud

[mrein3]

So let me get this straight, you can use a new serpentine system without drilling any holes in stock heads?

How about wiring the alternator? Do you do the 1-wire upgrade thing?

I have a full setup from a 5.7 liter 1999 suburban in my shop that I'm contemplating putting on my truck. The carcraft link that 1949gmc posted is informitive but it left out the alternator wiring thing and whether or not you need to drill and tap a hole or two in your heads.

[cparman]

I wrote that this morning, BEFORE my coffee. I put a 330 hp crate motor in my Blazer, and the heads are drilled to accept the serp belt setup, my apology. I also was in need of an engine compartment wiring harness ( the PO's had butchered it ) and so I had the guys at M&H build me an engine compartment wiring harness to accept the alternator, HEI, and electric choke. The harness was $400. crate motor $2800. I have seen on guy that I know drill the original heads to accept the serp belt stuff, but it is not my cup of tea. Hope I have cleared up my before coffee post. here is a pic. There is a way to wire a CS130 alternator ( what comes with the serp belt stuff ) and I think MAD electric covers this.

Originally Posted by mrein3

So let me get this straight, you can use a new serpentine system without drilling any holes in stock heads?

How about wiring the alternator? Do you do the 1-wire upgrade thing?

I have a full setup from a 5.7 liter 1999 suburban in my shop that I'm contemplating putting on my truck. The carcraft link that 1949gmc posted is informitive but it left out the alternator wiring thing and whether or not you need to drill and tap a hole or two in your heads.

[Leviticus]

Hey,

Thanks Cparman, hey the problem I ran into today was my lower radiator hose will not work with the passenger side bracket in place. Did you guys have to switch the lower hose on yours?

Everything else seems like it is going in well besides that so far.

[monte0185]

I am currently doing this exact swap and they make a pigtail that goes from the old internal regulator style to the new style. I did an article on this that had a part # for it and I found it on ebay for like 15$ i think. If you do a search you should be able to find it under serp conversion. I will look to see if i can find it as well. As far as the power steering just swap the plug on the back of the pump. its the easiest way.

[Leviticus]

Bump,

Hey did anyone run into a problem with the lower radiator hose? Mine gets folded over the frame rail with the passenger side bracket mounted. There is a small flange on the frame rail that looks like it is bent up that the lower hose rides over, I thought someone bent it but have seen other trucks with the front clip off on here and its bent on theirs as well.

I may have the wrong hose on there to begin with, but have you guys run into this?

[monte0185]

didnt find mine but here is another one.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=157126

[cparman]

yes I did. What I did was is to get a couple of old hoses, and cut them in pieces. Taped them together, and used them as a guide when I went to the parts store to match one up. Took the part # label off of the hose or I would share. I also cut a half circle out of the top of the frame rail to get mor clearance. I will take a picture of what i did tonight and share. I am almost finished with my coffee! ha ha

Originally Posted by Leviticus

Hey,

Thanks Cparman, hey the problem I ran into today was my lower radiator hose will not work with the passenger side bracket in place. Did you guys have to switch the lower hose on yours?

Everything else seems like it is going in well besides that so far.

[mrein3]

This site rocks. Thanks for all the tips. I'll have to try to tackle this swap this spring after the shack is off the lake and before I need to haul the boat around.

I suppose instead of drilling holes in my old heads I should send the vortecs I have on that suburban engine in to be gone through and install them. Then I'll need a different intake. I'm guessing this will be easier to do with the engine on a stand at which time I can do my 700r4 swap. I may as well use the 99 Suburban AC compressor and get some custom AC hoses made up while I'm in there. And it looks like I'll have to screw around with finding a lower radiator hose that will clear the serpentine bracket on that side.

Should only cost me $2000 - $3000. We'll call it Matt's economic stimulis package.

Seriously though. For you guys that drilled and tapped holes in your older heads, did you simply use the bracket as a template to drill?

[chevy_mike]

I used the bracket to and a transfer punch to mark the center for the needed hole. Then I made a guide out of 3/4" aluminum (drill on my press) so I would be drilling straight into the head. Took a mic to figure out how deep and taped the drill bit to meet that depth adding the 3/4" aluminum to the equation. After drilling, I used a starter tap and a bottoming tap to thread the hole.

When all said and done, it bolted up just like it was suppose to without any mods or clearancing needed. Here are a couple pics.

[steinepstein]

I have the serp setup on my small block:

Buy the summit racing power steering kit, it is a great deal and has every fitting except a hose clamp. Buy a AN-6 hose clamp from Summit also.

I believe the AC pump pigtail is DT142, don't quote me on that. Go to AC Delco and download their catalog and cross reference it. Then I bought mine on Ebay for $5 or so.

[Leviticus]

Thanks for the help guys, I found upper and lower hoses that will work with some trial and error. Everything is almost finished, just need to refill the coolant and power steering tomorrow, check for leaks, double check re-torque all my bolts and I should be on the road, Woot woot!

[JohnC]

Originally Posted by Leviticus

Thanks for the help guys, I found upper and lower hoses that will work with some trial and error. Everything is almost finished, just need to refill the coolant and power steering tomorrow, check for leaks, double check re-torque all my bolts and I should be on the road, Woot woot!

And post some PICS!!!!

[Leviticus]

Originally Posted by JohnC

And post some PICS!!!!

Finishing up today, and will post some pics when all done. Thanks again guys!

[mrein3]

Originally Posted by Leviticus

Thanks for the help guys, I found upper and lower hoses that will work with some trial and error. Everything is almost finished, just need to refill the coolant and power steering tomorrow, check for leaks, double check re-torque all my bolts and I should be on the road, Woot woot!

Can you post part numbers of the radiator hoses you used?
Thanks.

[Leviticus]

Originally Posted by mrein3

Can you post part numbers of the radiator hoses you used?
Thanks.

The upper was an XL 1171 from autozone, I trimmed about 2-3 inches off of it to make it fit. It will seem like it has a little kinking in the elbows but once it relaxes in place and has some pressure in it once, its all good.

The lower has a couple numbers on it, the longer of the two is 61274 and the shorter one is 323.

After trying a coulple of different ones it dawned on me that a 1986-88 or so, Chevy 1500 had the same serpentine setup as mine with the smog pump slot and the frame rail in the way. So we pulled one up for that and it fit perfect.

Hope these help. Will ad some pics, when I get the fan in.

Its a funny looking S shaped hose, with a larger flared end for the water pump side, but it fits sweet.

[Nova70]

I must be lucky. When I did mine the only thing that I ran into was the lower radiator hose. Everything else bolted right up, even my dual alternator.

[joeelutz]

I just cut off the lower half of the smog pump bracket and used a shorter belt without the smog pump delete pulley. Works great with stock hose.