What I can afford, when I can afford it... 70 Chevy LWB

[KSWes]

Originally Posted by ZouchaR

Couple of tricks that I learned with my blasting cabinet.

#1, take the grate out and cover it with aluminum window screen. This allows the media to fall through to the bottom and keeps your media MUCH cleaner and it last longer between clogs.

#2, get a small light with a bright bulb with a spring clamp hanger to put inside the cabinet, the light inside is terrible.

#3, if you can get them, classifier screens that are used for gold prospecting work PERFECT for cleaning your media. They fit into a five gallon bucket and allow you to pour your dirty media into them and it classifies the large junk out.

Good suggestions! I haven't done this yet but I found this (Link) it's an upgrade kit for the Harbor Frieght blast cabinet. The kit comes with a better gun and better pickup up tube (american made) and you can order the replacement parts easily. I haven't bought it yet but it's on my Christmas wish list. The best thing I did to ensure a good running cabinet was to keep the air pressure high and keep a water separator on the air line.

[ZouchaR]

The aluminum screen will save you SO MUCH time... it really is a must..

What I did, took the screen and just wrapped it around the grate and overlapped it on the back side and used sheet metal screw to hold it together. Worked great. Then punch a hole in the screen where ever you want your media siphon to go through.

[KSWes]

Had the trim rings for the wheels and I hadn't decided to put them on. Had a little nudging from my brother and I'm glad I did. The trim rings bump up the appearance a bit.

Also have to add one more little thing to the overdrive set up on the truck. Since I kinda pieced my lockup kit from what was already in the transmission and some switches and relays. It works great other than the TC wants to lock up right on top of the 4 gear shift. So if you're still accelerating it'll bog down the motor. So I found this little gem on ebay for 30 bucks. Adjustable vacuum switch.

I haven't installed it yet, but basically you can wire it as normally closed or normally open. Since my torque coverter lockup circuit is energized normally, I'll wire normally closed. I have a switch for towing so I can turn off the lock up circuit and it's what I've been using other than when I'm just cruising down the highway, since it hasn't been working like I'd initially hoped. The only time it will lock up is when the 4th gear pressure switch inside the transmission has pressure, and now with this new switch if I'm still accelerating when it shifts to fourth the low vacuum will keep it from locking up the TC. Additionally I have it wired through the Normally Closed side of the brake switch so stepping on the brake will unlock the torque converter also. Waiting until it's not 20 degrees outside to get it installed. It'll be a quick fix. Just clip the lockup wire attach the terminals in line plug them in and run a vacuum line from manifold vacuum. Should make it much smoother operation on the highway.

[KSWes]

So after a little road time there are a couple of things that needed to be addressed. And the first one was the truck running rich and very poor fuel economy. Talking to several folks and spending a little time tuning the carburetor, the 770 Street Avenger is too much carb for my intended purpose with this truck. Which is a highway cruiser/round town occasionally hauling a camper trailer. I'm sure that there are ways to jet down the Holley to get the desired result, but probably not without several hours on a dyno and paying someone who is good with carbs to get it dialed in. I'm not complaining about the Holley, it ran good and when you hit the throttle it wants to go fast. Faster than this truck will ever go.

So I decided to go with the new street avenger 625 cfm which promises good fuel economy, outstanding drivability and easy tuning, they just released the black ceramic painted version which is just a little more than the ball burnished one. I decided to go for it since I have more black under the hood than shiny bits.

Installed pretty quickly. The Holley Throttle bracket even works on this carb. It's a tight squeeze but it does clear the linkage. It was getting late so I could only do a quick fire up to make sure there were no leaks and it was going to run. After priming the carb I no more than hit the key and it was running almost zero cranking. Install was very simple and quick, initial start up was better than expected. Idle was very smooth with no adjustment yet, I'll hook a vacuum gauge to it this weekend and make sure the idle air is where it needs to be, from how it was idling it's gotta be really close and I'll get it out on the road if the weather holds up. I sure hope it lives up the hype, so far so good. Going to put some new plugs in also as a good measure.

[Low Elco]

Looks good !

[mcbassin]

Digging the look of the new carb. Hope it works out the way you want. Love the rallies and trim rings. More pictures.....

[KSWes]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Looks good !

Thanks Chip!

Originally Posted by mcbassin

Digging the look of the new carb. Hope it works out the way you want. Love the rallies and trim rings. More pictures.....

Thanks Mike! I'll get some more pics loaded up.

Getting the tuning very close to 100% dialed in. This carb is very crisp and responsive so far. Decided to switch the distributor vacuum advance to full manifold vacuum off the ported vacuum which seem to have really helped the idle and partial throttle. All the reading I was doing about the HEI distributor. I kept coming up with people saying that unless you're running EGR you want to do manifold vacuum not ported. Which makes sense I guess. New plugs, and wires tomorrow and an oil change, and I'll keep track of my mileage on this next tank and see where I end up with this new carb.

[KSWes]

Was out goofing around on my grandma's land this afternoon and decided to snap a quick pick. Turned out way better than I thought it would.

Also I've been reorganizing and cleaning the garage. Temps are going to be in the single digits tomorrow night and I want my wife to stay happy and not have to scrape her windows anymore so I got her side of the garage cleared enough to get her car parked. She seems to be pretty happy about that.

Drove the truck into work today and tried to keep my foot out of it as much as I could and on the way in it did really good, I can't actually see the gas gauge moving any more while driving. I decided to get an accurate read on the way home and filled up before getting on the highway and reset the trip. and filled up again as soon as I hit town. just under three gallons used 47 miles total miles driven so right at 15 mpg. with the new carb. It has 3.73 rear gears. All and all I'm thrilled with that kind of fuel economy. I think I need to add a couple more degrees of timing to help with a very slight hesitation off the line. I feel like I'm getting about as close to perfection with the tune as you can get with a carb. Very smooth on the highway almost forget the truck design is 46 years old this Demon carburetor lives up to the hype if you ask me. For something you're going to drive in traffic and need great idle and part throttle response that'll lay you back in the seat when you need to accelerate. You feel the secondaries open up it's a little scary but pretty awesome too.

Next is Dynamat inside bring the noise level down some so me and the misses can have a conversation without yelling going down the road and I'll bet she wants to take it out more often.

[SaltyC20]

Just read through your whole build thread, looks great.

I really liked your solution to the kick panel vents. I had been dreaming about doing the same with my truck. Having put a few miles on it, are there any downsides to cutting out the bottom of the cowl/ kick panel vent area?

[KSWes]

Originally Posted by SaltyC20

Just read through your whole build thread, looks great.

I really liked your solution to the kick panel vents. I had been dreaming about doing the same with my truck. Having put a few miles on it, are there any downsides to cutting out the bottom of the cowl/ kick panel vent area?

If you plan on using them for air vents then cutting out the bottoms wouldn't allow much air to get into the cab through the vents as you're eliminating a pretty big part of the duct work that delivers fresh air into the cab. there's that. But I have not had any regrets so far, and my wing windows provide plenty of breeze going down the road if I want some fresh air.

Before the restoration if I opened my kick panel vents I'd get a bunch of leaves and twigs swirling around in the cab, that and all the leaves and twigs that don't blow into the cab just sit there and rot and hold water and grow rust. There are too many places in these cabs that like to rust, and I'm hopeful I eliminated one of those places for good.

Thanks for checking out the build, I'm very happy to have it back on the road and have already put a couple thousand new miles on it. Mostly on trips to and from Home depot. I've had a couple guys ask me if I'm nervous to get it scratched up, and the good news for me I've already got a few scratches inside the bed so I don't have to be nervous about it anymore.

[KSWes]

Thought of one other thing if you don't seal your vents up, and you have an exhaust leak around your manifolds or collectors, and you cut your vent ducts similar to mine you could be allowing a significant amount of carbon monoxide and other engine vapors into your cab.

[hotroddin]

I just read through your whole build, great work! I'm sure I missed it but what is the green color that you painted your truck?

[mcbassin]

Your truck looks great Wes. How about some new pictures?.....

[KSWes]

Originally Posted by hotroddin

I just read through your whole build, great work! I'm sure I missed it but what is the green color that you painted your truck?

Thanks for reading through the build hotroddin! The color is med olive poly. PPG paint code. 504. It is an original factory color code for 1968-72 GM trucks.

Originally Posted by mcbassin

Your truck looks great Wes. How about some new pictures?.....

Thanks Mike! I have a few pictures to share, I did some sound deadening a few months back and never put pictures up not much exciting to see with that though but here's one for the heck of it.

Also did the ball joint mod talked about in the No Limits build (Link) it worked beautifully with some help from a buddy with a lot better welding skills than I have. A few pics from that process. At the end of the day over 5-6 degrees positive caster. I couldn't afford a new set of lower a arms to add caster so I did this, and thus far I'm thrilled with the drive-ability and control. I can drive the truck with one finger now if I want to and feels much better at higher speeds holds the road like a much newer car.

(**note** to anyone considering something like this before tackling make sure you or whomever is doing the welding has skills and equipment to make sure the welds are strong and safe, because there is a lot riding on those welds.)

The truck also got to be in a St. Patrick's day parade for the radio station I work for, so that was fun momma and baby came along too.

I've been using it to haul a lot of stuff lately for a house project that's been keeping me very busy in my spare time. Not a whole lot of scenic pics lately because it's been all work and no play

[KSWes]

So it's been a long time since I posted any thing here I'm not sure if anyone will see this but what the hell. I haven't really done much with the 70 other than drive it enjoy it. But over the years since I finished I've never really been thrilled with the carburetor experience. I've been driving it and really in the back of my mind was considering an Vortec 5.3 or 6.0 swap, in addition to getting the drive-ability of the fuel injection. I wanted to upgrade to a computer controlled transmission. But really hadn't decided to pull the trigger until a few weeks ago. I've had the opportunity to locate a donor Iron Block LS. I just have to pull it out of a wrecked van. So I sold my 383 last week end and was left with this vacancy.




My goal is to have it back on the road in a few months, but hoping to do a few additional upgrades while I'm at it. Really want cruise control, some suspension upgrades, and a few wiring tweaks, I'll include updates as I go. while I'm into fix up mode. If anyone is paying attention I'd love some engine color suggestions. The Chevy Orange is fine, but could probably be talked into some other options too. I'm not in love with Orange. And also it seems like a lot of folks don't like painted aluminum heads. Opinions? I'll take them.

[grndcont]

good luck with the swap! nice truck.

[KSWes]

Originally Posted by grndcont

good luck with the swap! nice truck.

Thanks! going to be stalking the boards to get good info about what all is involved. From first glance it looks pretty straightforward.

[Low Elco]

Good to see you, Wes! Swap is pretty easy, the LS board on here has tons of information, and LS172nova's Rusty thread is a great place to start.

[KSWes]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Good to see you, Wes! Swap is pretty easy, the LS board on here has tons of information, and LS172nova's Rusty thread is a great place to start.

Thanks Chip, I'll take a look, I haven't driven it as much as I would like over the past few years. Little things that just were bothering me that needed to get resolved and no money to put towards it. But this motor swap should resolve the issues I was having. Hope you're doing well!