1966 C10 Project Truck

[aggie91]

Just checked out your thread. Cool truck. I dig the Army vibe. I kinda miss my old 6 banger from years ago. I bet the 5 speed was a great upgrade.

You are gonna love the power of the 5.3, it has great power for a stock engine.

[scoot_mcgrute]

Originally Posted by aggie91

Just checked out your thread. Cool truck. I dig the Army vibe. I kinda miss my old 6 banger from years ago. I bet the 5 speed was a great upgrade.

You are gonna love the power of the 5.3, it has great power for a stock engine.

Thanks! The 5 speed was awesome. While I never drove it outside of the neighborhood with the 3 speed, I can only imagine that it would be not nearly as fun. I'm so excited for the 5.3 to go in, parts should start arriving soon


I don't think I ever posted this here, I got a GoPro for Christmas so I took a little video on the way to my buddy's place around New Years. It so fun to drive!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryDZ2UCNh-o

[scoot_mcgrute]

Parts are starting to roll in for the 5.3. To say I'm excited is an understatement!

[mattfranklin]

Awesome truck. Glad to see your V-8 moving ahead.

When you mentioned rough running with your 6 after getting warmed up and missing grounding straps, it reminded me about a Jeep vapor lock story.

We had a 1954 Willys M38-A1 that had that warm running vapor lock issue even on cold days. I had done some work myself and ignored those "dumb" grounding straps because they didn't look cool. As it turned out a mechanic friend diagnosed it and said the *fuel line* was acting as the ground and getting hot and boiling the fuel. When he reinstalled them the problem went away. Embarrassing for me.

Originally Posted by scoot_mcgrute

Best advice, ever! Soon enough

Everything seemed well on the way home until I stopped at the grocery store. From there to the house, it was idling rough again. I know I can get a thicker carb mounting gasket but will that really help?

I'm wondering if a 1/2" spacer would do me better but I'm not sure. I do know that the E10 gas has a lower boiling point, super helpful in the not vapor locking side of things. Not!

What say you guys?

[scoot_mcgrute]

Tinkered on the old truck yesterday. Not sure why but after lowering the truck down, the brake pedal got really soft. I've re-bled, replaced parts and even checked how the brake lines are routed and it's better but still not what it was. I'm still plugging away on that, my next thing to check is to get some shorter brake lines for it.

Before bed last night, I went and got the 5.3 on the engine stand and took the intake off so I could start sizing up what I needed for the car intake. Good and bad things happened. It turns out that before the guy sold the engine, he decided to wash it but not plug any of the holes. Bad to see water in it but good that it's at this stage. Everything is still in great shape, it just came with a little extra water

It sure has a great stance now!




First thing I saw when I pulled the intake, this is looking down the head


Oil pan was cracked, I'm glad I don't need this one




It sure made a mess when I turned it over!


All in all, it looked scary and disappointing but things really aren't all that bad inside. Run it and see what happens

[1966c10LS]

Your truck looks great! It does have a great stance. I'll keep watching your progress. Thanks for your input on the instrument questions I had.

[scoot_mcgrute]

Got quite a bit done yesterday. My buddy and his nephew stopped by and helped get the motor back together and the front clip off the truck. The 5.3 was super dirty but it's like new now! It's surprising what a few minutes and a little elbow grease will do. I yard ed the heads off when I found some loose head bolts on the intake manifold side, turns out those aren't critical to keeping the head on and I could've just retorqued em. Oh well, new LS9 head gaskets are on and will last a while. A few other friends stopped by throughout the day, at one point there was 6 of us tinkering!

Tomorrow dad and I will get the motor and tranny out of the truck and even the bed off if the weather plays nice.

[scoot_mcgrute]

No turning back now, I can't wait!

[mehoff400]

Do you know the history on the engine? Willing to part with power steering?

[scoot_mcgrute]

A little progress tonight! Got the engine and tranny put together and dropped it all in the frame. A few little things popped up but nothing is a show stopper. I'll need some new exhaust manifolds, likely going with the Hooker block hugger manifolds and I'll need a new accessory bracket because my rack and power steering pump want to share the same space. I'm really happy with it!

[Captainfab]

Did you have any difficulties mating the T5 to the 5.3?

[scoot_mcgrute]

Originally Posted by Captainfab

Did you have any difficulties mating the T5 to the 5.3?

None at all. I'm only running 5 bellhousing bolts since the 5.3 has a slightly different hole pattern but that's not a big deal at all.

For the flywheel, I picked up a Sachs NFW1050 flywheel and was able to bolt my existing 11" clutch right to it. It's a metric flywheel so I had to get new pressure plate and flywheel bolts as well as open up the holes in the pressure plate for the larger M10 bolts.

It all went together super easy and looks to be working like it should.

[outfield]

Looking good Scott!

[scoot_mcgrute]

Originally Posted by outfield

Looking good Scott!

Thanks dad!

[outfield]

When are we doing an LS in the '69??

[scoot_mcgrute]

Originally Posted by outfield

When are we doing an LS in the '69??

LS in that would be sweet! Sean and I will have it figured out by the time you're ready

[Grizz1963]

Lovely no the second to last pic in post 232.


Progress is always progress.

[scoot_mcgrute]

Here's the weekend update. Friday night, the pushrods and rocker arms showed up so I got those installed. I was a little apprehensive about this job because I had found 3 different methods to install them and horror stories from each method. I took my time and everything turned out just fine.




After that, I went and picked up the fuel filter setup and headed over to a friends house, he wasn't home but his neighbor was so I stopped in and ended up helping get a motorcycle motor in the frame. Went pretty well until we had it all bolted in and he realized he forgot to install the rear drive coupler and it won't go on after the motor is in


Saturday, I dropped my harness and computer off to get reworked and had lunch with my mom before I loaded my welder up and brought it back home. When I got home, the ICT accessory brackets were waiting for me so I got those installed. They are pretty slick and look like they'll work perfect!


After that, I remade my transmission crossmember, this one doesn't hang under the frame at all and is pretty simple like the last one. It works great!


I also cleaned up the gauge bezel that I'll be using, I'm converting from warning lights to gauges. I used aluminum colored paint and it looks pretty shiny when it's wet but it mellowed out and looks pretty good after it dried.


Sunday, I was working pretty hard to find some motivation to get in the garage. I started cleaning up a bit from Saturday and doing some small tinkering. I got my electric fan setup on Saturday and mocked it up on the radiator. Northern does a great job, I'm impressed with the quality of work for sure!


After that, I had a buddy swing by to check up on the progress and BS for a bit. When I put the truck throttle body on the car intake, the PCV hose barb was in the way of the throttle cable bracket. I was able to heat it up with my heat gun and rotate it down out of the way like it is on the LS1 throttle bodies. Had nothing to lose and it turned out perfect.


That was about it for progress, I should have the remaining parts show up this week, maybe next weekend I can get the fuel system and harness figured out and fire this bad boy up

[scoot_mcgrute]

Just plugging away at the old girl. I'm not really in a rush to get it done so I'm taking my time and making sure it's all done right.

The factory exhaust manifolds didn't fit like I had hoped so I picked up the Hooker exhaust manifolds and they fit way better. I have to massage the brake lines and the frame towers a little bit but I'm happy with them.




Last night, I got my Bosch tachometer in the mail so I put the gauges together. The bracket from rideblue00 makes the install nice and seamless. I'm happy with how the gauges turned out!

[aggie91]

Looking Good Scoot!

Is that a 2010 and up Camaro water pump? Does it use the truck spacing on the accessory brackets?

[62stepside longbox]

Looking good Scott

[scoot_mcgrute]

Originally Posted by aggie91

Looking Good Scoot!

Is that a 2010 and up Camaro water pump? Does it use the truck spacing on the accessory brackets?

Yep, it's a 2010 Camaro pump, it does use the truck spacing. Only downside, well not really a downside, but it doesn't have provisions for the mechanical fan so you'll have to run an electric fan setup.

Originally Posted by 62stepside longbox

Looking good Scott

Thanks man!

[siggyfreud]

Would love to come check out the project sometime! I'm not too far from you in the Hillsboro area. I'll eventually be doing an LS setup in my project.

[scoot_mcgrute]

Originally Posted by siggyfreud

Would love to come check out the project sometime! I'm not too far from you in the Hillsboro area. I'll eventually be doing an LS setup in my project.

Cool, I'm always down for visitors. I'll shoot you a PM

On Friday, I decided to play hookie and tinker around on the old truck. Wasn't planning on it but it worked out. My exhaust manifolds hit the frame towers for the engine mount so I needed to clearance them. I was able to use some scrap tubing I have laying around and it turned out pretty well.

Making the marks, you can see the scratches on the left side where it was hitting


No turning back now


I used some 1.75" tubing and welded it on both sides. It turned out really well once I ground it all smooth.


Hard to see but there's a bunch of room around the exhaust manifolds now. Perfect!


I also got the power steering pump on. I picked up a kit to reduce the pressure for the Mustang II rack. That was an easy install and so was putting the pump in the brackets. ICT has really done their homework with their LS swap components.


I didn't do a whole lot on Saturday, I picked up the engine harness and sold the 292. Found out that the injector plugs didn't get swapped over for the LS1 injectors so I'm working through that right now. No biggie but a little bit of a setback.

Sunday, my dad came over for a little bit and helped me get the CaptainFab clutch pedal linkage on. The install went smooth and the clutch operates a lot smoother now too. I can't wait to see the difference when I actually drive it.


Last night, I tackled the rear tank install. In lieu of pulling the bed, I took the bod wood out. Seemed to work great and way easier for one guy to do it. I was pretty surprised that it was a no-drill install, I kept asking myself why I didn't do this a year ago.


Tucks up nicely, I won't be worried about it hanging down too low.


That's what I've got for the weekend progress. I need to get a winch put back together for a buddy this week and pick up a couple more parts. Stay tuned!

[scoot_mcgrute]

Motivation has been on the low side the last couple of weeks but I'm still plugging away on the pickup. Last night, I bolted the intake back on after I had my buddy fix a mistake that I did, buttoned up the new under dash harness and just had to see what the gauges will look like. The gauges look awesome and I can't stop sitting in the truck and looking at them!



Since I was here, I tied the parking light wire in with the running lights. Super easy thing to do and should help the other people on the road see the truck at night. I hope.


Here's what the gauges look like. They turned out nicer than I was expecting


Later this week, my buddy is coming over to help me get the truck wire harness setup for the car intake. It'll look 110% better once we are done!