Scott's '51 Build

[jocww]

Originally Posted by Scott2

Christmas pic with the ‘51

love it

[joedoh]

looks perfect!

I had to disconnect the springs on my 49 too, they would pop the back of the hood up when connected, no adjustment fixed that.

[mongocanfly]

Nice..!!!!! merry Christmas.. and happy new year

[jocww]

Forgot to ask hows the burnouts going?

[Scott2]

When I got my my truck programmed the tuner said it would perform much better with lower gears and a looser converter. I tackled the gears this last week switching from 3.50’s to 3.89’s. I pulled the center section and went to Front Range Drive Line here in Denver. They did a nice job and I got it back together today.

[Scott2]

While I had the truck in the air I decided to fix my gas filler setup. I put the filler in the left fender and the pipe settled a little leaving it uphill into the tank. The gas backed up while filling. I took the opportunity to pull it apart and trim enough out to hopefully get the angle right.

[mongocanfly]

Nice Scott...how do you like the new gears?

[8man]

Very nice.

[Scott2]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

Nice Scott...how do you like the new gears?

They’re good - it’s a little quicker off the line and accelerates pretty hard. It still seems loaded down right off a dead start. I think the 4L80e trans takes a fair amount of power to get rolling and my chassis plants the rear tires really well so almost no spin which means the motor takes a little time to get on the power band. My tuner says a bit higher stall converter will transform it. Might try that after I save up a little more.

[mongocanfly]

id agree ...a convertor should wake it up

[jocww]

Looks great. Is your motor stock? If so my 4l60e cant be that easy to spin compared to the 4l80. My converter is a bit loose, but stall is way under 1400 no idea what it is but it doesnt flash high. And if I want to burn out even at 20 or 25 mph i just roll on it. Mine were 89s as well installed by tci

[Scott2]

Originally Posted by jocww

Looks great. Is your motor stock? If so my 4l60e cant be that easy to spin compared to the 4l80. My converter is a bit loose, but stall is way under 1400 no idea what it is but it doesnt flash high. And if I want to burn out even at 20 or 25 mph i just roll on it. Mine were 89s as well installed by tci

Motor is a stock LQ4 - only change is to add the Hooker cast headers and whatever the tune does. Stock is ~330 hp, with the mods, maybe 340-350? However - and this is a giant however - I am at 6500' here in the Rockies and really didn't give this proper credit before.

HP Loss = (elevation x 0.03 x horsepower @ sea level)/1000

That's worth a whopping 68.25 HP! So I have an ~270-280 hp turd running behind a 4L80e with a solid chassis with 4 link that plants hard! WAIT! -- I think I just made a damn good argument for the wife to let me change the converter - maybe even add a cam? Hah! Maybe I'll post her email and you can all send encouraging notes for the changes. Post virus of course....

Side note here regarding the hp loss - I previously had a '69 Camaro with a built 408 - AFR 210 heads, healthy roller cam, Victor Jr intake, etc - desktop dyno said 525 hp which meant ~425 at my altitude. Up here it was pretty healthy. Sold it to a guy in Iowa at near sea level who complained that he couldn't stop the tires from spinning all over.

Moral of the story is I need a looser converter and more hp - or I have to move to Iowa...

[OutlawDrifter]

Atmosphere....you need to force the air in! I grew up in Western NE @ 4000' elevation, so I understand the struggle.

[Scott2]

Originally Posted by OutlawDrifter

Atmosphere....you need to force the air in! I grew up in Western NE @ 4000' elevation, so I understand the struggle.

A turbo - that's a fine idea. Adding it to the list...

[jocww]

Scott what have you done about the brake pedal? Mine is super high i think i need to cut it. Speaking of brakes my front lines broke and i crashed about a month ago. Got the truck back with new lines 2k in damage later im back to square 2

[dsraven]

joccw makes a great point here. and please don't get me wrong, I'm not pointing fingers at anybody, just saying we all need to make sure our stop and turn is as good as our go fast. before we drive on the roads with the rest of the wives, families, etc.

[Scott2]

Originally Posted by jocww

Scott what have you done about the brake pedal? Mine is super high i think i need to cut it. Speaking of brakes my front lines broke and i crashed about a month ago. Got the truck back with new lines 2k in damage later im back to square 2

Sorry to hear about the crash! Were the front lines the originals from TCI? How did they break? I'd like to avoid the same thing!

So far I left the brake pedal location alone. I have thought about lengthening the lever but haven't yet and I'm pretty used to the location now so will likely leave it as is.

[Scott2]

I've been driving the '51 now for a while, just enjoying it! Most things are settled in, had to go back for minor tune adjustments to get the cooling and shifting right, and I have a small fix-it list, but it just runs great!

One thing I'm looking at is front tire size. I am running Nitto NT555's w/305/30R20 rear & 245/35R20 front on Foose Legend 20x10/20x8.5 wheels. The truck is low but not really low, about 5-3/4" to the front of the running board, 7-1/2" to the bottom of the front bumper. The front tires rub pretty hard when turning if I'm not going slow and careful.

The chassis is a TCI chassis with a 4 link setup on the rear, set to the lowest ride height setting, and TCI's version of M2 up front with drop spindles and the Ridetech coil overs adjusted to raise the front about an inch.

I am thinking about switching to 225/40R18 front tires on 18x7 wheels. This should pull the tires in, lower the height - which will give me a little more room and also drop the front ~7/8".

Thoughts?

[Scott2]

Also, while I'm on tires - I pulled the rears wheels/tires off to do a nut and bolt tighten check. Found this little bit of wear on the inside of the left rear tire. Any ideas where this comes from?

[jocww]

Originally Posted by Scott2

Also, while I'm on tires - I pulled the rears wheels/tires off to do a nut and bolt tighten check. Found this little bit of wear on the inside of the left rear tire. Any ideas where this comes from?

maybe your camber /caster is off. Check your jonny joints.

[jocww]

Originally Posted by Scott2

Sorry to hear about the crash! Were the front lines the originals from TCI? How did they break? I'd like to avoid the same thing!

So far I left the brake pedal location alone. I have thought about lengthening the lever but haven't yet and I'm pretty used to the location now so will likely leave it as is.

Just seeing this!!!!! Front lines were from TCI, they said that I put them on wrong and it wasnt their fault. The shop I had do the finish work said that they didnt mount them and so it wasnt their fault. The an fitting was pulled away from the stainless soft lines. TCI did send me up some new lines. I had the shop do my rear lines as well because I had a "flat" spot from where the frame hit the rear axle when i had the bags all the way deflated. So all 4 were done as I wanted everything new and double checked. Im getting old in my age cause before I would have just left the rears alone.

[mongocanfly]

almost looks as if that tire was barely hanging on the edge of the pavement lip...
kinda like when you run off the road or get up on a curb
but the being the tire closest to the center of the road and on the inside, I doubt that's what caused it

[74project]

So glad to see your build. Im going to sell mine. Sad but need the cash. Great job.

[Scott2]

Originally Posted by 74project

So glad to see your build. Im going to sell mine. Sad but need the cash. Great job.

Bummer on selling your truck. That’s a nice truck and I’ll bet you put a lot of miles on it!