New project! The "Red Herring"

[JJorgensen52]

Let's see if I can do this in something vaguely resembling order:
Intake elbow came in. Clearance is good on the fan and the belt drive. Yes my intake is presently made of PVC


Finished up the fuse panel mount. Realized I wasn't going to be able to take the panel out of it once it's wired, so painted it before installing:


Trailer hitch went on. It determines some of the exhaust, fuel and electrical routing so it was time to get it in place.


Pulled the rear springs and installed the track bar to center the rear end and push it right up to the bump stops so I can route the exhaust with adequate clearance (as well as check my tire - fender... a little snug!). Also confirmed that my driveshaft does NOT bottom out anywhere in the range ... somebody put some nagging doubts in my head on that one a while back.


Started in on the exhaust tonight. System is 304SS, 2.25" true duals, doing a traditional H-type crossover in 1.75" behind the trans cross member. Decided to route below the frame rather than through, because once my running boards are on, this will be level with them anyway so no need to take all the extra effort.


Let me tell you what, welding 16ga tubing to 1/2" manifold flanges is a PAIN!!! Using a 312SS rod on the stick welder to do a base pass and capping with the MiG ... ugly but it'll hold.



The flanges are set up for 2.5" OD pipe, so I had to expand the end of the tube to fit, which is okay because it allowed for some misalignment to clear the lower A-Arm mounts.

In other news, the new water neck came in today. It's not clocked down *quite* as much as I had hoped, which means it's back to the catalog for round #3 of hunting for a lower hose, but it WILL clear the frame so that is good news.

Lastly, started laying out the engine harness in prep for doing the wiring - decided I'm not happy with the routing, so I'm going to be re-looming a portion of that and shortening some stuff up, to do a partial wiring tuck so it will all be hidden under the center cover I haven't made yet. Going to relocate PCM/TCM to the firewall and bring the harness off the motor at the rear for neater appearance.

Wow. Words!