Knomadd '71 SWB C-10

[knomadd]

Originally Posted by suspect

Dang, your truck looks clean. I like that steering wheel. Looks smooth and simple.

Thanks! The wife and I like it too.

Originally Posted by Bennett68C10

Tail lights look really good installed.

Thanks, I'm happy with them! I think they'll look great on yours too!

Originally Posted by TexasLS1

I love your truck and what you've done to it! Were you able to get the valve covers installed yet??

Thanks! I haven't installed them yet. Haven't really done any more work on it since tuning it. The wife took it and the dogs for a few days to her parents deer camp a couple hours away (40+ acres of undeveloped land). That was last week-weekend, so I haven't had much chance to do anything to it.

We did drive it to dinner last night, or I should say she drove it and I rode along. When we got there I noticed a few drips on the pavement that followed her parking path. Turned around and saw a puddle forming... Turns out the water pump is finally giving out. Drove it home and the temps were very hot when moving slow, but cooled down at highway speeds. Made it home, but I'm going to be tearing it down to do the frontrunner swap starting this evening... Who said good things don't come from bad situations?

I am going to have to modify an A/C compressor bypass pulley to mount in place of the compressor since I haven't done my A/C install yet. That's going to be interesting, but I think I've found a close starting point with a factory part from a 2004 Bonneville. We'll see how that goes.

[knomadd]

Started the tear down today. After work I decided to paint the new water pump, then tear into the engine. Before (minus upper rad hose):


Once I had the old water pump off, the pulleys off, and after a long fight with the power steering pump bracket that attaches to the motor mount (who came up with that bright idea? What a pain in the @$$!!!) I painted the front of the engine, keeping with the blue and black theme of the truck thus far, I stayed with semi-gloss black.




More tomorrow. I'll be starting the install! Long list of things to put on...

1 - Front runner and all it entails
2 - Modify A/C compressor bypass pulley bracket (need this until A/C is installed)
3 - Electric fan
4 - Wire electric fan (need to find a diagram for relays so I can do it right)
5 - replace valve covers, breather and pcv valve
6 - new spark plug wire looms
7 - redo the spark plug wires
8 - bleed the power steering pump / hydroboost
9 - make sure nothing leaks
10 - change oil

I don't have to do 5-7, or 10, but while I'm at it...

Edit: Oh yeah, I also replaced the drivers side header gasket since I've got exhaust leaks. Figured I'd do it now since I had to take two of the bolts out to get the alternator bracket off. Still need to do the passenger side. I guess that's #11 on my list.

[screaminchevypickup]

Sounds like some nice upgrades..

[77ChevySharkBite]

Looks sweet Duane!!!

[knomadd]

Thanks guys!

I started today by removing the old valve cover and much to my surprise...





Looks like I've got a fairly healthy build in this one.

[knomadd]

Valve cover installed...


If you look closely, you'll see the wire looms along the bottom of the valve cover. These are billet specialties items like the valve covers. I also relocated my temp sender to the drivers side, so I can install the heater hose in the intake like it should be.

It's too bad the headers look like $#!+ though.

[knomadd]

I ran into a snag during the front runner install. I found out the bolts for the power steering pump bracket wouldn't attach to the block. I took the bracket off and put the bolt in and found out the threads were way back in the block, but the old bolts held it in place just fine. I figured the PO had drilled them out to accept larger bolts, so I went and bought a rethread kit. Drilled them out, tapped them, installed the helicoils and put the bracket on. I couldn't get the top bolt in all the way and it was really difficult to get it in, so I pulled it out and the helicoil came with it. It chewed up the stainless threads so I ran my die on it to clean up the threads, installed another helicoil and tried again. This time it hung up and I didn't force it. Tried the other bolt and again, it wouldn't go in. So I tried to chase the threads....


THE TAP BROKE INSIDE THE BLOCK!!!!

I went ahead and continued the install and here is where I finished the day..


Sitting here posting all my updates has me changing my mind. I'm going to pull the front runner back off and use a carbide bit on my dremel to grind the jagged tap flat so I can drill and tap it again. It's bugging me that I didn't get it out and install the bolt. I'm worried it will come back to bite me later.

[C10_ustacould]

Sweet valve covers! I love how symmetrical the front runner set up makes the front of the engine, very nice!

[screaminchevypickup]

Looks great Duane!! Sorry to hear about them problems with your bolt holes..

[hotsy]

nice lookin build,i love everything you have done , i see u had a cpp steering column,how is it holding up ?I recently purchased one for my 71 c10 and after receiving it I decided to do a reviews of it online and heard badd things about quality and about steering loss and scares the h3ll out of me using it esp while riding my 4 yr old son around in it,maybe they fixed their probs hopefully,just looking for any pros or cons of recent cpp column installed in other members trucks,anyone else using one that has put many miles on one ....

[mcbassin]

Man, those new parts look great. Bummer about the bolt problems and now a tap problem. Those can be a real pain to get out. Wish I could help you with it.

[knomadd]

Originally Posted by Bucks68

Sweet valve covers! I love how symmetrical the front runner set up makes the front of the engine, very nice!

Thanks! I'm excited to get it done. I think it looks good so far.

Originally Posted by hotsy

nice lookin build,i love everything you have done , i see u had a cpp steering column,how is it holding up ?

I haven't had any issues with it so far.

Originally Posted by screaminchevypickup

Looks great Duane!! Sorry to hear about them problems with your bolt holes..

Originally Posted by mcbassin

Man, those new parts look great. Bummer about the bolt problems and now a tap problem. Those can be a real pain to get out. Wish I could help you with it.

Thanks guys! I think I might have the problem solved. I've got a couple carbide dremels that I'm going to use to grind the tap as flat as I can. I also ordered left hand drill bits that should be here Wednesday. Hopefully while I'm drilling it out, one of them will catch and back it out. If not, I can just drill it all the way out and tap it again. Hopefully this will be the end of it.

[knomadd]

The dremel is going to take forever. I spent about an hour on it yesterday and couldn't even get halfway done. I was afraid the dremel would burn up before I got it smoothed out. So... I ordered a tap extractor from McMaster-Carr ( THIS) so we'll see if this works instead. My research last night also came up with an idea to use a can of compressed air, turn it upside down and use the liquid to freeze the tap to make it brittle, then smack it with a punch to break it. Not sure this would work well and not damage the block so I'll try to do without this method.

[knomadd]

So I finally got the memory card out of the camera... Here's the engine as I left it on Sunday.




Should get the tap remover kit today. Hopefully I'll be able to have some truck time this evening to try it out. Wish me luck!

[ksbrktracer]

Good Luck ...... Broken tap can be a serious pain in the rear for sure.

[slowcpe]

Just went through your build. Very nice truck! Really liking those valve covers. That's my one big gripe with LS motors, not many options for cool valve covers.

[knomadd]

Yeah, the valve covers and the front runner are going to make my engine bay look bad. My intake and water neck need some attention for sure.

[knomadd]

Well, I guess it's back to the slow going carbid burr to grind out the tap. I tried the broken tap removal tool and it got mangled...

These should all be straight with no bend or twist at the bottom, and the same length.

[Bennett68C10]

Sorry to hear about the issues your having with the broken tap but those valve covers and that front runner system look great.

[knomadd]

Thanks Keith.

I got the tap out finally. Had to grind it out with the dremel the whole way. Once that was done, i drilled out the heli-coil and retapped the hole for a new heli-coil. I was extremely careful this time. It all worked out so I continued to install the frontrunner. Enough with the words. On to the pics...



I also used braided wire wrap on the radiator and heater hoses, like I did with the wiring, steering hoses and vacuum hoses.






Now I need to do the new spark plug wires, fill the power steering pump and bleed the system, and install the dual electric fans I had laying in the garage from my GTO. I'm about to start looking for a relay diagram for the fans.

I'm so glad I got that damn tap out! What a relief

[Hart_Rod]

Everything looks great! Where did you get the kit to cover all of the hoses?

[knomadd]

Thanks Rob! I don't believe there's a kit out there. I liked the look of the Painless wire wrap and found a company by the name of Tech Flex that had similar products, but more to choose from. They have some pretty cool stuff. Check them out. I just bought all the different sizes from Amazon, and used heat shrink tubing to keep the ends together so it wouldn't fray. I used the split style Flexo F6 for nearly everything. It likes to open up on tight bends so for hoses, I would use something like this or this

[knomadd]

I finally got the (temporary) electric fans installed. I've got one fan wired up to a thermostatic switch and both to a manual override switch (each fan on its own relay). Eventually, once I figure out where to install the second temp switch, I'll have both fans wired to thermostatic switches. One at 185 and the second at 195. That might have to wait until I replace the fans with a fan/shroud combo that fits the radiator. As it sits today, I've got about 1" on each side and 1/2" top & bottom of the flex-a-lite dual fans.

I have one of the head ports used for the gauge temp sender and the other head port used for the 1st temp switch. If you look in the pics above, there is an opening in the intake available for the 2nd switch, but it's directly below the upper rad hose. No way I can make that work as-is. Thought about a swivel type thermostat housing and a different upper hose, but not sure yet. Wondering if anyone has one and if they seal okay. I'm worried it might leak. Anyone have any experience with a swivel type water neck?

[knomadd]

hmmm... I've got a leak that I'm not really sure where it could be coming from...

I went with a co-worker to lunch today. It's raining, and fairly hard, so lots of water coming down. We leave the restaurant to go back to work and as I'm pulling out of the parking lot, water comes out of the glove box! He opens the glove box and sure enough, there's water inside the liner. He pulls all my paperwork out and uses a rag I had in the cab to soak up some of the water. We get back to the office and I pull the rest of the stuff out and soak up as much water as I can.

So here's where I'm stumped. Where's it coming from? The top and sides of the glove box liner are dry. No trace of water leaking in from above. The windows were up and the glove box was closed. There's no water anywhere on the top of the dash or on the face of the glove box. The only thing I can think of is the hole from the antenna cable, which wasn't filled when the PO deleted the antenna, but the lack of water-soaked upper glove box liner has me baffled. Any ideas?

[TexasLS1]

I noticed the same thing in mine the other day after washing it last week (I just got the liner put in the glove box) - I opened the glove box and it had a small amount inside the liner but the top was dry. The only thing I've figured so far is that maybe the PO didn't seal the windshield well, and it's dripping onto the top/side of the liner, running down the side, then seeping inside the liner in the bottom corner where the bottom piece and right side of the liner overlap and are stapled together (the reason I believe this is bc i could tell where the water was seeping in between the two).

I hadn't thought of my antenna possibly leaking? At some point I'll pull the liner back out, put a small bucket in its place, and slowly pour water on the antenna and windshield to try to pinpoint....