66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap

[Duncan K]

Did a little more work done on the motor. Finished installing the other bank of pistons and rods. Lubed up the new Comp Cam and slid it in place. New billet roller timing set, and a high flow Melling oil pump.



Taped up the block and hit it with a coat of rust converter followed by a few coats of Chevy Orange. Painted the front and valley covers as well. Buttoned up the bottom end with a freshly hot tanked oil pan.

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[Lokin4AReason]

nice progress on the project ...

[Notch1988]

Keep the updates coming

[Slammed96]

Nice build! Depending on how low you are you may consider an f body oil pan for your set up. The truck pans hang a bit low for my comfort on a lowered truck. Also, curious if that's a boyds welding fuel tank you webt with, and if so, how low it hangs below the frame?

[Duncan K]

Originally Posted by Slammed96

Nice build! Depending on how low you are you may consider an f body oil pan for your set up. The truck pans hang a bit low for my comfort on a lowered truck. Also, curious if that's a boyds welding fuel tank you webt with, and if so, how low it hangs below the frame?

I have been debating going with the F body pan. My truck's not too low,5.5/7 drop, but I'd feel better with the pan being tucked up out of harms way. Just one more thing to add to my budget. I did go with the Boyd's Welding tank, I'll measure the clearance from the ground next time I am out at the shop.

[Duncan K]

Got my heads back from the machine shop, had them vacuum tested, tanked, and decked. Installed the new seals and dual springs



I blasted and painted the water and power steering pumps, all the pulleys and brackets and got them painted up and mounted. Dropped in some new lifters and bolted the heads on.



Blasted and painted the motor mounts



Coat of paint on the transmission as well



At this point the engine is pretty much button up. Still need to clean up the coils and brackets and throw the intake on. Also planning to get the alternator shell blasted and painted.

[Notch1988]

Looking good.

[Duncan K]

Plumbed in new front brake lines



Got the engine and trans mated up and dropped in the chassis

[Slammed96]

What headers are those? They look like they fit like a glove.

[Duncan K]

Originally Posted by Slammed96

What headers are those? They look like they fit like a glove.

Speed Engineering long tubes. They fit really well, only had to trim a tiny bit of the bell housing on the passenger side.

[Sledgebone]

Looking good. I have the same mount plates and I'm thinking of using the I6 perches as well. Are those the Energy Suspension poly mounts? What location do you have them bolted to the plates?

[Duncan K]

Originally Posted by Sledgebone

Looking good. I have the same mount plates and I'm thinking of using the I6 perches as well. Are those the Energy Suspension poly mounts? What location do you have them bolted to the plates?

They are Energy Suspension poly mounts but they don't fit. Way thicker than the stock ones that I used when i mocked up the perchs, gotta return themand use a set of stock rubber ones. I used the stock V8 perches, mounts are in the second set of holes from the front

[Duncan K]

Slow progress lately. Pulled the motor and trans back out to swap mounts. Ended up getting the trans rebuilt while it was out. Cleaned up and painted the coils and brackets and threw on some new plug wires. Motor is back in and intake on. Just have to clean up the fuel rails and throttle body.



Started back on the rust repair on the cab. Got the passenger side floor finished and started fitting up the rocker. Hung the door so i could get the gap right.



The bottom of the back wall of the cab is rusted out. I wasn't sure exactly how I was going to tackle this repair until I came across a guy giving away a full back wall.

[Notch1988]

Looking for my weekly fix...

[SCOTI]

Cool build. Lots or good work going on here!

[Duncan K]

Here ya go Notch!

Moving along with the rust repair. Made a pile of relief cuts, did a lot of bending and hammering. Rocker is all fit up ready to weld in. Going to wait on that until I get the cab sand blasted.



Finished a bit of work on the passenger floor. Had to weld in a small sliver from a previous crappy fit up. Replaced a piece of the trans tunnel hump as well.



Moved on the the kick panel firewall seam. Drilled out all the spot welds and made a template for what i wanted to replace.



Transferred the template to some 18g and cut it out. once i was happy with the fit I cut out the kick panel section.



Made the bends for where the fire wall gets spot welded to the kick panel. Fine tuned the fit and its ready to weld in.



The inside of the door pillar was pretty rusty. Found a rust encapsulator product from Eastwood with a long hose and 360 Degree nozzle. Shoved it up the pillar and coated the whole inside top to bottom. Will let that cure overnight and start welding in the kick panel patch tomorrow.

[Captainfab]

Nice job on the metal work!

[northern 85]

Yes lots of metal magic on this one! Very nice!

[Duncan K]

Slowly chipping away at the rust repair. Finished up the kick panel and started on the firewall.



Built a sandblasting cabin and wheeled the cab inside. Started blasting the cab to see what was surface rust and what needed to be cut out. I was really happy to find the areas above the windshield were not rusted through and cleaned up really well. The lip that the windshield seal goes around is a different story though. That is gonna suck to repair!!



Back onto the firewall/floor seam. Got most of the remaining pieces made and fit. Hopefully will get time to them all welded in this week.

[Captainfab]

Nice job on the metal work

[SkinnyG]

How effective are you finding that sand blaster, and what size is your compressor?

[Duncan K]

Originally Posted by SkinnyG

How effective are you finding that sand blaster, and what size is your compressor?

Surprisingly its been working pretty well, my compressor is a 60 gallon. I'm using 30-60 grit crushed glass from Princess Auto. Takes a bit of time to sweep up, sift and reload the pressure tank but its cheap and I can do it in stages as i go along.

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by Duncan K

Surprisingly its been working pretty well, my compressor is a 60 gallon. I'm using 30-60 grit crushed glass from Princess Auto. Takes a bit of time to sweep up, sift and reload the pressure tank but its cheap and I can do it in stages as i go along.

I was just thinking of something like this yesterday for a temporary parking lot set-up adjacent to my shop building. I'm interested/curious about your pop-up 'booth' for the blasting. Care to share the details? How did you seal it off (top; bottom; entrance/exit)?

[SkinnyG]

Is that a PA blaster as well?

I was planning on taking everything to "the man" and have them blast it all, but I really need to deal with the rust inside everything I have to cut out (like the rockers, corners, etc. etc.)

What HP and CFM is your compressor?

[Duncan K]

My booth is pretty simple, just a 2x4 frame 10ftx10ft, 8ft tall wrapped in poly. I didn't really seal it up too much, just wanted to keep the sand from getting all over the shop.

Blaster is Princess Auto, I run a couple dryers inline to the tank. This is the compressor

https://www.aircompressorsdirect.com...ssor/p705.html