'86 Crew Cab - The Race Car Hauler

[Dieselwrencher]

Everything looks awesome, but I'd be careful using Fram filters. I've seen a few of them collapse internally and wipe out a few 5.9's. It wasn't real cool. Also, did Spectre supply the auminum tubing for your intake kit? If not, where did you get it from? Thanks Ryan.

[Blake_H]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Everything looks awesome, but I'd be careful using Fram filters. I've seen a few of them collapse internally and wipe out a few 5.9's. It wasn't real cool. Also, did Spectre supply the auminum tubing for your intake kit? If not, where did you get it from? Thanks Ryan.

I pieced it all together using Spectre's website and being fortunate to have a Summit Racing store in Sparks. When I first put it together, I bought everything I thought I would need, brought it home and tried it out. The MAF sensor turned out to be the biggest problem getting it to work. Overall I am really pleased with it, and it gets a lot of compliments. While we were filling up in Bakersfield and I was adding the aforementioned quart of oil, I got quite a few double takes as guys were walking by.

[Blake_H]

So, the last real update on the progress of the build was back in early December. The whole reason for this project was I had accepted a new job in North Carolina, and we needed the truck to pull the trailer with all of our earthly possessions and race car to get back there. You may, or my not have wondered why I have stuff scattered between my folks place and mine. Well, my wife and I have been staying at my parents house while we remodeled our house. In the middle of the remodel, last year, I lost my job due to the housing implosion here in Reno. I was lucky I had been able to keep it as long as I did. So, I stopped working on the house last fall to do this truck so we could go to North Carolina. I had been working on a tight deadline of being ready to pull out of Reno on December 27th. So, by the 11th of December I had it running in the driveway, just no speedo yet, the only leak I had, I fixed and started putting the front end back together. On the 15th, we dropped it off the jack stands and were ready for a test drive. I got the speedo wired using pin 18 on cluster harness(FYI), which was the last major hurdle.

My dad was with me for the maiden voyage and it was a disaster. It backed up and onto the street and then wouldn't move. They live on a really busy street, so he and I jumped out and pushed it back on the driveway. At this point one of my worst fears had come true. I bought the transmission from a guy who said it was a GM reman that had never been run. Before I installed it, I had a shift kit and new torque converter installed on the bench by my trans guy and we both wondered if he shouldn't tear it down and check it from stem to stern. At the last minute I decided that the budget was getting tight and I really didn't have the money to do it.



Guess what? I had to find the money now. We had to tow it over to the trans shop and have him rush everything to check it out. Turned out to be bad forward clutches. So, 24 hours and $400.00 later I got to drive it home. That was the on the 16th. That's when I learned the mufflers I picked, under load, were excessively loud. All I could think of was that by Wyoming, my wife would want to kill me, and we would both be deaf. They were loud, but more on that later. While all that was going on, I had friend come into town that afternoon for a surprise birthday party I helped his wife put together.

Coming home from the trans shop I noticed the temp was looking a little high, but I had no idea what would be normal on this thing and it didn't get over 220, but it was making me nervous. That evening we drove it around prior to his birthday party and it started to overheat, alot. I had purchased ScanTool.net's OBDLink SX Scan Tool Software and thought that the ECM would tell the whole story. It did and was right around 200, so I thought okay, I'm just jumpy due my previous experience(see first post).

Well, that night on the way to the party we had the laptop hooked up and watched the temp on the ECM jump from 195 to 250 and back down again. It was jumping all over with no rhyme or reason. I was doing my best not to panic. On the way home from the party it was really dancing all over the place and gauge on the dash was really high.

I have to be honest, it really scared the hell out of me and it did it in less than 2 miles. The next morning I swapped radiators, because this was the radiator that was in it when I had all the problems with the 454, and no change. I had several gauge clusters collected for this project and we started swapping them over to see if it was the gauge. I was shocked at the difference. 5 clusters, 5 different readings. I was now paranoid that we would miss our deadline as I still had to get the trailer from my house and get it serviced and loaded. The last ditch thing we could think of was to swap the t-stat for a new one. Voila! It was indeed a bad t-stat. What a huge sigh of relief.

We then picked up the trailer and delivered it to the trailer mechanic to have the bearings, brakes and tires changed. That's when we discovered that this thing has plenty of power, but with the 12" long magnaflow mufflers it was so loud you couldn't hear the person sitting next to you talk with it under load. So, I took the truck back to the exhaust shop and got the mufflers replaced with Flowmaster 50 series. So much better.

My wife quit her job, we started to pack and I took the truck to get new rear tires. We got the truck and trailer back to my parents and started to put the interior back together. I got my headliner recovered and reinstalled.


My dad used to do custom upholstery and still has his setup in the basement.



New carpet installed, front seats were bolted down for the final time and I hooked up the stereo.



Got the ECM bracket fabbed up and mounted. Finished my wiring up under the hood. The interior was almost completely finished, and then the fun began.

A quick back story. You see, my family is small but close. My brother, who got me the job in North Carolina was driving out to Reno with his wife and kids towing a trailer to put my wife's HHR on to take back with us. We were going to caravan back in case we had a problem. My aunt and grandfather were to join us for Christmas as well, coming from my childhood home in Idaho. We had a great plan and it was going to be a great Christmas and probably our last together here in Reno. My grandfather was 88 years old and we lost my grandmother a year ago in January, so we didn't think he would make it on another road trip after this. It was looking good.

The day before my brother arrived from N.C., my grandfather slipped and broke his hip as they were getting ready to leave, so they weren't coming. However, he survived the surgery, which the doctors said he wouldn't, and my brother and I decided we would detour through Idaho to see him on our way back to NC, right after Christmas. It would still be a good Christmas.

Little did I know.

By now the trailer was loaded, the truck running great and only the back seat needing to be installed, we were 2 days ahead of schedule. We got up Christmas Eve morning had breakfast and were ready to work. Then for reasons I'm still unsure of, all hell broke loose. Suffice it to say, Christmas was not fun for anyone, my wife and I are still in Reno, my brother and I are not speaking and I'm working on my house again.

I was in a state of shock for most of the next couple of weeks, hence the lack of updates, and my folks went to visit my grandfather. I slowly began cleaning the garage and swap area and was driving the truck around. Luckily, my wife was able to get her job back, and things were getting back to normal.

Then came the call from my dad that we had better get to Idaho, ASAP. We made it just in time to say goodbye to an incredible man and influence in my life. It's still hard to believe he's gone, even though we knew it was coming.

So, needless to say, I hadn't spent much time on here until this last week. Other than when DirtyLarry contacted me about doing the same type of intake I made some updates, mainly because I had put the wrong part numbers up, but couldn't bring myself to spend any more time than that on here.

Now things are really getting back to normal, so I will get some more photos taken and upload my parts list. I have to say, with that trailer fully loaded with our stuff and the race car in it, the trailer is freakin' heavy.



But, the truck pulled it up all kinds of hills to get to our house, and OH MAN! Wow! The trailer is quite a bit heavier than it will be when we go to the races and it did it just fine. The truck's first real road test came in early March when we traveled to Bakersfield for the March Meet drag race, without the trailer. Due to the weather on the day we left, we had to put chains on and drive 30 mph. It took us 5 hours to travel 90 miles and we were pleasantly surprised at how well it did. Us, well not so much. The rest of the trip it averaged 12 mpg and since we hit 1000 miles on the swap while we were in Bakersfield, it consumed a quart of oil. I am very happy with it. Other than body work and a paint job, it's a new truck.

I'll get some more photos taken of the interior and under the hood. I will also try to get some video of it running and get that posted up this weekend.

[DirtyLarry]

Thanks for the update Blake. Glad to hear things are somewhat getting back to normal. Thanks again for the help with the air intake recipe.

Here is how it turned out…


Funny, I went through the same issues with temp gauges as well. My original ’78 cluster was the most accurate but when I swapped in a ’89 Suburban cluster the gauge makes it seem like it is running warm as well. The Tech 2 says it is running normal though.

I'm looking forward to your videos!

PS: I installed a new EP381 fuel pump last week in place of the EP241 then adjusted the fuel regulator to 65 PSI. WOW! What a noticeable difference in power. If you have an adjustable regulator, give that a try and see how it works for you. I can't remember which fuel pump you ended up using.