68 C10/international L110 Mut

[jmlcolorado]

Originally Posted by ERASER5

That loose nut behind the wheel will fit perfectly in 12 to 14 years from now. You are building that "for her" right?

That's what the wire thinks
This one along with the rest of the future projects in the back 40

[JRANGER]

man thats some awesome progress

[jmlcolorado]

Received the intercooler and radiator for the truck yesterday.
I've been procrastinating the grill shell/radiator setup for quite awhile. Not sure why, but I've been dreading that work.
I changed routes in the radiator. I had a mustang radiator that I was going to flip sideways, relocate the filler neck and use. But all that work into one I wasn't sure was going to work right (running sideways), I figured I might as well get one designed to run that way to begin with.
This one also has a trans cooler built in, so that's a plus. The external trans cooler I recently bought will now be used for the power steering cooler. Probably a little overkill, bit that's okay.


Tonight we get a rare look up the skirt of the international.


I had a buddy come over who is very interested in building vehicles, and also has a much sharper eye for detail, and how old bunch more patients that I have to the small details to help me with the valve body modifications to convert the trans into full manual.

I got a transgo TOFD-3 Kit. Neither of us had ever been in an automatic transmission. Like never even have dropped a pan before. So this was new and exciting for both of us.
This is also not something I would have ventured to tackle 5 years ago when I started the project. Too much fear involved in unfamiliar Territory.
Seems as I've gotten a bit older, I've gotten a little more adventurous. What's the worse that could happen? I screw something up and I gotta fix it. At least a lesson would be learned from the whole thing.

Anyways, between the two of us, took about 4 hours start to finish. Not bad at all and I don't question one thing about the process if I did wrong or not.
Took our sweet time, lots of discussion and I'm confident.

The guy I bought the ram 1500 donor Tru,ck from said the transmission was recently rebuilt. I had my doubts, based off the cracked block cummins he also said was good. But once inside, I was pleasantly surprised at how remarkably clean it was!



The thing was absolutely spotless. No metal in the pan. Nothing. All the pieces we removed from the valve body appeared totally new. No score marks of moving pieces. I'm happy with it. Now we'll see how our efforts pay off once the truck is moving.

I was hoping to stab it back in the truck tonight, but the new filter I got was too deep and wouldn't let the pan install. Also couldn't find the flywheel to torque converter bolts. No big deal though. At least the main goal was accomplished.


Now, question.
The torque converter I had left the fluid in and taped off the nose.
I planned on draining it and refilling with fresh fluid.
How do I go bat doing that?
Just dump out the old and fill up? How much to I fill it up with? Till it starts spilling out when standing verticle?
Or does the transmission fill it up? The end of the output shaft appears hollow. It doesn't pump fluid into the torque converter does it?
I feel like it doesn't.
Let me know your thoughts.

[dug224]

Man, you are officially out control. Great build and adventure. dug

[jmlcolorado]

Originally Posted by dug224

Man, you are officially out control. Great build and adventure. dug

I don't know. I'd like to think I've finally gained control

[jmlcolorado]

Started working on the intercooler and radiator mounting

Here's the mess I left myself when I started building the shell, but never finished. Glad I never finished, otherwise there would be a different radiator in there.


That big round frame crossmember passing throu this thing is a real PITA, but it serves a good purpose, and once the grill is mounted for good, it won't be too bad. I think it adds a lot of character too.

Intercooler will set here.


In/out piping on top. (P.S. I LOVE plasma cutters!)


Radiator behind.


The one thing that REALLY bothers me is the turbo out and intake aren't symmetrical. But I think i can fix that with some creative piping.


I was a little concerned how the intercooler was going to fit, but it fits very well. Just barely hangs below the grill, and no lower than the oil pan.

[jmlcolorado]

Interesting. I have two sensors/switches in the water jackets of the head. One at the rear with a short pigtail with 2 leads on it. Another at the thermostat housing with one spade terminal on it.
Wondering which was which, I got out the volt meter and torch to test.
The one at the rear of the head with 2 leads is a Nason TT-D1B-230R/WP110.
The breakdown of this part number is
Temprature switch
1/2" Probe legnth
1/2" NPT
Normally closed
Fixed set point of 210*
Set point direction- rising
Weather pack connector.

Now WHY would they have a normally closed switch on this engine?
This means the circuit is closed, until the truck reaches 210*

This doesn't make sense for a fan, because it would be on all the time, and the engine wouldn't likely ever reach 210*

Doesn't make sense for a warning light, as it too would remain on all the time.

From what I read, this particular port is the best port for fans because it reads hottest.

Wouldn't you want a normally open switch here, and in a temprature range of closer to 185* or so?

[jmlcolorado]

Got another box of stuffs today. I'm really starting to like getting boxs of stuffs.




Got the intake piping roughed up. Adding a 45*elbow stright off the turbo really helped bring things in line.







Only thing not symmetrical is the valve covers. They are about 1 1/2" off center of the block. But ain't no changin that, so I'll live with what I have.

[jmlcolorado]

Got the radiator mounted. I needed it to be mounted to order the fan. Good thing I waited to order the fan because I thought I would have about 4" to work with. Turns out I only have about 2 1/2" between the radiator and nose of the crank shaft :/

Used rubber isolators for the bottom mounts for vibration resistance.


This thing is healthy heavy. I'd say about 50 lbs with no water in the radiator.



Hose routing is going to be tricky.
At the top of this picture, you can see my dirty finger on the water inlet. The far side you can see the outlet of the radiator. The hose has a pretty short run. But will need to snake under the belt tensioner in between.



At the top, there is about 1/4" between the radiator cap neck and the water inlet neck in the engine.
At the bottom down there you can see the inlet for the radiator. It only has 1/4" between the bottom of it and the drag link for the steering. Not good.




I left 1/2" between the top of the radiator and the top of the grill shell.
I feel like I'm going to have to pull the whole she'll forward on the frame to gain me 1 more inch for fan clearance as well as room between the engine and radiator cap neck. Might need to take out that 1/2" between the top and dimple the shell top for clearance to gain room for the bottom hose too. Really using up all the room quick.
You think that without fenders and a hood, you have all the room in the world. Except you don't if you are trying to keep it all in proportion I guess.

Oh well, I'll figure it out.

[jmlcolorado]

The aluminum intercooler piping requires beads to keep the boots from blowing off. I don't have my tig welder setup yet and learned this trick somewhere.
Channel lock 909 wir crimpers.


Grind off the nose


And crimp away.


In about 5 minutes you have a full head completed, and I didn't even burn myself


I didn't bother to deburr this inside of this tune before I started so the finish product will look much cleaner.

[jmlcolorado]

I wanted some tail lights for the rat and wanted something different.
A buddy has been looking for a steering gear for his 69 roadrunner, but didn't want to spend the $500+ everywhere online was asking. He'd looked everywhere for the dang thing. I mentioned a scrap yard an hour north of us and we decided to take a day to head up. He found his gear box for $50, and I found me some tail lights.
These came off a 1973 Mercury Colony station wagon, whatever the heck that is.

I bought new sockets and bulbs and fired them up. I was disappointed at how dim they were. Checked 3 times to make sure I wasn't hooked to the parking light wire. Ended up pulled them apart, scrubbed the crap,out of them, painted the reflectors back to white again and called it a day.
Left is as I pulled them form the livestock trailer at the scrap yard, right is after cleaned and painted.


Started working my way from the back up again with wiring and loose ends. I'm quickly running out of things to do. I want the cab back on, but want all systems go under the cab so I don't have to climb under it. This means no wiring can be on the firewall, it all has to pass under on the frame.

I want to be able to pull the cab easily if needed. So the only things connected to the cab are electrical (with 2 bulkheads), steering shaft, brake lines and power steering lines to the reseviour. That's all that's needed to disconnect the cab.

P.s. Wiring sucks.


Even though the trans is manual now, I still need the pigtails for electric lockup and overdrive controls.







This one looks like it's rubbing the frame, but it's got a half inch clear and is mounted ridged so no chance it'll work to the frame and cut wires.





The main bulkhead along with all the extra wires I need to terminate into it, and the supplement bulkhead.



Only thing I'm waiting for is 4 3/8" DOT air brake push tube bulkheads. Ill be using these to mount 2 water traps on the trans crossmember, after the tank to collect any moisture right before the air gets to the valves. After those get here Thursday, I should be good to install the bed.
And very possibly, a short joyride for the first time in the yard till I finish everything else up

[swamp rat]

Man this is one crazy build! I can appreciate this one, takes lots of skill to chop and channel body panels like that. (first page observation, read the rest later)

[jmlcolorado]

Originally Posted by swamp rat

Man this is one crazy build! I can appreciate this one, takes lots of skill to chop and channel body panels like that. (first page observation, read the rest later)

Absolutely no skill was involved
The whole thing has been trial and error. I've never done anything like this before, so I've spent about 12 times more time reading about it all then actually doing it.

As with most of my projects, they start out as a simple idea, then I progressively get carried away and they get 20 dozen changed and never end up being what the initial vision was
Usually they end up better than my initial vision, so I suppose I can't complain too much
Posted via Mobile Device

[jmlcolorado]

I really haven't made much progress the past week or so. So came out tonight determined to get something done.
I picked up a speedway cooling fan that is supposedly rated for 2700 CFM on its highest setting.
It's as thin as I could go and came with a shroud. I a,so wanted the biggest fan I possible could, just to maximize effectiveness.

The shroud was still quite a bit too big so some love was required.


Width is okay, but height needed changed.


Hacked off the top.



Marked to hack off the bottom.





Right before cutting, I decid d to add 1/2" so I could re mould th bottom back so the shroud was completely closed.
I'm not sure 1/2" of open space across the bottom would be that big of deal, but figured it came as close to sealed to the radiator as possible, might as well try to mimic the same theory.
I also found the shroud had a lot of flex, and there was basiclly zero clearance around the fan to the shroud so when it flexed, the fan would bind up. Figured assign this 90* edge back would provide much required suport.





I worked with ABS for the first time over the winter when I had to clearance my 2013 ram 3500 to fit 37's with 2.5" lift. I had to trim some fender lip and re mould the wheel well. Yeah d think bending and plastic welding ABS would be easy. HA! That suptuff is such a PITA to reshape its not even funny.
I know I have a nice pair of metal bending players somewhere, but the move to the new house has me in a funk still and can't p find the things I only use once in a while. Heat gun and Regular old players were used.





Looks like crap. I tried a hammer and angle iron to try to straighten it out and it helped some, but I'd bend in one place, and it would pop up in another no matter how hot I got the material.


I finally realized if I heated it up, placed it where I wanted then sprayed with water to cool, it would stay pretty well.
That's when I decided that more clamps, more heat and more angle iron where required.
Heated the whole thing till it was all jiggilly like santas belly the night after Christmas and clamped the heck Out of it and doused with water.

[jmlcolorado]

Tada!





Here it is sitting in place. Seems to fit nice and will hopefully pull loads of air through the radiator.


This whole assembally is pretty large and hefty. I weighed it with the fan sitting in place and it came in at 88 lbs dry.

[Palf70Step]

Nice work on the fan. IT looks like it should have the strength and flow needed.

[Gokart Mozart]

Originally Posted by jmlcolorado

Fancy controller

Thought these would be more fitting.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/TRIPLE-TOGGL...dV9GQN&vxp=mtr