Doing LS Swap - I have no idea what I'm doing!

[EagleChief]

Alright!! Got my radiator kit ordered and also the stacked plate oil cooler that is shown higher up in the thread from Summit! Everything should be here by the end of the week!

[biketopia]

Awesome! Making progress...even if it's just acquiring parts haha.

[EagleChief]

Originally Posted by biketopia

Awesome! Making progress...even if it's just acquiring parts haha.

One small step for truck, One giant leap for my confidence!

Going to be in the 100's here for temps, so I'm going to try and install this stuff after the kids go to bed. If I can knock one more thing of the list, that's a step in the right direction.

[biketopia]

It's been in the upper 90's with "feels like" temp well above 100 for the past 7-10 days. Super brutal, got a little bit done in the garage last week but been too hot to do much of anything the past few days.

[EagleChief]

Originally Posted by biketopia

It's been in the upper 90's with "feels like" temp well above 100 for the past 7-10 days. Super brutal, got a little bit done in the garage last week but been too hot to do much of anything the past few days.

We got lucky the last few days, as we've had some rain move through - outer edges of the hurricane. Unfortunately, the next 10 day forecast is showing 100+ with heat index in the 110+ with the humidity. Working in the garage will be like I despise July & August!

[biketopia]

We could really use some rain...we had .07" on the Fourth, before that 10+ days without rain. My yard is crunchy!

[EagleChief]

Well, here I am again with little to no progress. I did get the radiator put together last week. Shroud was a little warped, so made some minor adjustments to get that corrected and got the dual fans mounted to the shroud, and the shroud mounted to the radiator. I ordered some new radiator mounts which should be here this evening. If they are, I can get that checked off of the list!!

Man, I'm ready for this thing to be driveable again! But, we're going 5-6 nights out of the week with kids in sports/dance/horse lessons. It's tough to get things done.

[biketopia]

I have yet to touch mine in the past year. Sold some other hotrod parts and dropped the cab off to have the rust repair done so there is that. Hoping after next week when I get done with going to a swap meet to unload a ton of stuff it will free up some space and money to get back on it.

[EagleChief]

Sounds like you're still going in the right direction, though. Rust repair is a huge step to get done. And, a big chunk of change, as well. We had the floor done in my wife's truck and it ended up costing us more than what we thought it would - and that was with the family discount.

I'm going to try and pick up some radiator hoses this week to figure out how to get them connected. everything is on the passenger side, which is good, but doesn't leave much room to work my steam port connection in. I'll have to try and figure that part out.

[EagleChief]

Just checking in since it's been 9-1/2 months (Geeezzz!!). We finally made the decision to get the truck finished up by a friend of mine. I just am at the point of no time and at a standstill on what all I know what to do.

I did get the gas tank temporarily mounted into it's resting place, but my fabrication skills stopped there. Also, finishing up the wiring (hard wiring stuff into the truck) was an overload for me. I've tried soldering wires before and failed big time. I didn't want to test my luck with our truck. Exhaust... I have no idea - I was going to farm that out anyway.

Since the truck has been used as "storage" these last few years in the garage, we spent Sunday cleaning everything out of it and getting all of my extra parts in the cab or bed to send to the mechanic. He is going to pick it up either Thursday or Friday and work on it when he can. We'll walk through what I've done and what needs to be done, so we're on the same page - and, he can give me some ideas of what I could do, or need to do.

Hopefully, in a week or two, he'll have the truck running and driving and we'll be back to cruising after several years of sitting!

[biketopia]

That's great you're still moving forward, reaching out for help is still moving in the right direction. I had my frame blasted after all the suspension stuff was mocked up, and now have it sooo close to being a roller with the empty cab on it. But we just had our second on Monday evening so my "free time" has come to a grinding halt for the time being.

[EagleChief]

Originally Posted by biketopia

That's great you're still moving forward, reaching out for help is still moving in the right direction. I had my frame blasted after all the suspension stuff was mocked up, and now have it sooo close to being a roller with the empty cab on it. But we just had our second on Monday evening so my "free time" has come to a grinding halt for the time being.

Congratulations on your second!!!

[biketopia]

Originally Posted by EagleChief

Congratulations on your second!!!

Thanks! She's so much different than our son, she just eats and sleeps, no fussing, it's wild!

[EagleChief]

Originally Posted by biketopia

Thanks! She's so much different than our son, she just eats and sleeps, no fussing, it's wild!

It is crazy how different each child is, even though they will have some of the same tendencies, they will be different. It's like re-learning all you had to do the first, or in my case, second time. And, do it all over again. It's a blessing, though. I wouldn't change it!

Congratulations!

[EagleChief]

Making decisions on my truck the past few weeks and getting work done!

My driveshaft that was in the truck would not fit correctly with the transmission. I had just stayed with what was in the truck, and mated it up to the trans. It seemed to fit - to my knowledge - but, when my friend/mechanic/builder (whatever we want to call him) looked at it, the drive shaft was too long. So, we swapped it out with a 1-piece drive shaft. New seals front and rear - transmission and rear-end.

He relocated the wiring harness and mounted it inside the cab, under the dash. Which, helped clean up the engine bay. He has filled in holes that were on the firewall and replaced grommets in holes used for wiring. New tubing for oil pressure. New lines for coolant temp and voltage. Cleaned up the engine bay and removed unneeded wiring and hoses.

Gas tank is mounted and filler neck is being fabbed in.

New belts, spark plugs, and wires.

New power steering pump and hoses/fittings to go to the new steering box.

Starting on exhaust so he can get the O2 sensors installed and we can try to start it.

We're hoping that it will be ready to go next week!

[cj847]

That will be great to finally hear it fire up.

[LS short box]

The cool thing about if you have every thing done right the LS typically starts scary quick.

[biketopia]

Super exciting you're getting close to hearing it fire up for the first time!

[EagleChief]

Originally Posted by cj847

That will be great to finally hear it fire up.

Originally Posted by biketopia

Super exciting you're getting close to hearing it fire up for the first time!

You have no idea! Well... you probably do, but... you have NO idea!

It'll be fun to see my son's face light up when we get to drive it again. He's already asking me to drive him to school in it.

[biketopia]

Originally Posted by EagleChief

You have no idea! Well... you probably do, but... you have NO idea!

It'll be fun to see my son's face light up when we get to drive it again. He's already asking me to drive him to school in it.

That's awesome! My son who's 3 is kinda taking an interest to hanging with dad/ cars and asked the other day for me to show him what's under the hood 😂. Our 2 month old will go on a tear and get crazy fussy, I'll bring her bouncer out to the garage and 8 out of 10 times she'll chill right out.
Can't wait to share it with them... plus maybe actually do some work on it haha

[EagleChief]

Originally Posted by biketopia

That's awesome! My son who's 3 is kinda taking an interest to hanging with dad/ cars and asked the other day for me to show him what's under the hood 😂. Our 2 month old will go on a tear and get crazy fussy, I'll bring her bouncer out to the garage and 8 out of 10 times she'll chill right out.
Can't wait to share it with them... plus maybe actually do some work on it haha

Love it! It's always a nice feeling when they want to join you in the garage with it. My boy would always grab some of his plastic toy tools and lay under the truck when I've been doing something to it and act like he was fixing something.

"Cutting something there, hammering something else over here... daddy we need to fix this part to make that part work..."

I have a great picture that my neighbor took of us working under the hood. I'm leaning over the grill and he's sitting on radiator support looking in the engine bay with me. He was probably 3 or so at the time.

[EagleChief]

Another progress update this morning with my buddy. Exhaust is finished up. Everything seems to be going well. I had a video sent to me over the weekend of the truck running. It sounds good and seems to be running good. He's taken it for a shake-down drive to see if all is well, and so far, everything seems to going good. Running a few oil changes through the motor to flush any crud out of it since it's been sitting for so long.

We are ALMOST there!!

[biketopia]

That's awesome to hear, congrats!! I'm hoping to get cracking on mine for a few days next week, fingers crossed!!

[EagleChief]

The journey (at least this part) is over!! I picked up the truck last night. It's a mixed set of emotions, though. The truck runs great, sounds great, and drives great!!!

The motor is quiet and very smooth, and very responsive! My first test drive, I had to nudge the throttle a bit... the tires started spinning and I didn't even realize it until 2 seconds later. I looked in the rearview mirror and saw 2 sets of rubber tracks on the road! The exhaust has a nice rumble to it, but isn't too loud, until I get on it.

We did a full 2-1/2" exhaust with a X-Pipe and dual Flowmaster mufflers. Just after the mufflers, the pipes turn down and slightly out - right before the rear axle. I didn't want to see the exhaust from behind the truck, so we kept it hidden up under the bed.

The CPU and OBD2 port were moved under the dash on the passenger side - up next to the glove box. That helped clean up the engine bay from where I originally mounted it. The battery is in the original location with custom wiring. I used an inexpensive Amazon air intake which has one of those cone air filters - it resides on the driver side area behind the headlight.

Driveshaft was upgraded to a one-piece with new seals on the motor and rear-end. New U-joints, and yokes.

We kept my Wrangler gas tank, but mounted it slightly different than what I originally had. Lowered it a tad in order to help with fill ups and the fall angle for the fill tubes. My filler neck is in the back corner of the bed with a fabbed filler set-up.

Wiring is mostly hidden in the engine bay. It looks much better than what it did before I took it in.

All in all, I'm really excited to have it back and driving again!! It was a permanent smile while driving it home last night!! It cruised down the highway at 65 with ease! The best part, I had my son with me - he had his window down, arm resting on the door with a smile on his face!! Now, I get to enjoy this truck until he turns 16 and takes it over!

I'll try and get some pictures this weekend and get them posted.

oh... the mixed emotions - as much as I enjoy it and am happy to have it back... the final bill was about double what I was expecting and budgeting for. That caused a bit of an issue with my wife and was a rocky coulple of days.

[Thealien]

Congratulations on getting it back and enjoying driving it.

Sadly, it seems everything cost twice as much now.