Barn raising

[mcbassin]

Glad to read it was just a plug wire. It's always good when it's something simple.

[NewType72]

So glad to hear Tommy Boy is living life strong and healthy with a few jokes to keep it lively around there we had the same with one of our plugs popping off on the 73 after she ran so well for the first month. They certainly like to give us heart attacks don't they?

[Possmguts]

Great job you've done here. I especially like the tires and the work you put into doing them. I did a google search on side pipes and ended up on your build.
Not sure if you're still around or not but just wanted to say how much I like the look you have gone with.
I have seen some of the big letter NASCAR style tires in yellow lettering I had thought about doing, but after seeing what you did, I may rethink it.

Not so sure about the side pipes now though. Not knocking what you have at all, it looks great on Your truck, but I'm just not so sure on doing them on the look I'm going for.

You have done a great job on this truck. Its always nice for me to see them done without the bags.

I went 5 inches in back and I don't know if I will actually HAVE to do a notch or not yet.. I've heard yes I will and No I wont have to... Like you I don't plan on hauling anything, so we'll see I guess.

[Mike Bradbury]

I actually Just hauled my 1000# lathe home last month and it rode well with no bottoming out.
I have 300# springs on the coil overs.
I ended up with a 6/4 drop and I did a small notch and it has been plenty of space.

[mcbassin]

Very nice load you have in the picture! congrats

[poor_mans72]

just found this, awesome job, truck looks great

[slick copper]

Good to hear things are still going good. Throw us a pic of it at a car show or just a cool spot off the side of the road sometime. Keep on truckin!

[nuke82]

Hey Mike, what stroke do you have on your coil-overs and what's the free length of your coils? Oh, and how much did it squat with 1000 lbs? I'm curious how smooth/rough it rides without a load.

[Mike Bradbury]

The shocks are Bilstein 16" coil overs. The springs are 12" 300#. I believe it ia around a 3" travel to the bump.
It rode really nice with the load in the back. If you notice from the pictures of my rear suspension, the coil overs are quite a bit further outboard from the standard spring location. This has a lot to do with the stability of the ride.

[Mike Bradbury]

Here is the best shot I have of it with the lathe loaded in the back. It still rode pretty level

[Mike Bradbury]

To be honest with the updated rear suspension with 300# springs and the updated front suspension with the 1.125" sway bar, it handles like a slot car. My next improvement is going to be a rear sway bar.

[nuke82]

Thanks! I'm currently looking into the Fatbar 4 link and it has the coil overs in a similar setup and was concerned about the coil-overs either being too soft and reducing the payload or being too stiff and killing the ride. Glad I found your build thread, I was about to just go with leaf springs.

[Palf70Step]

Very Nice!

[crakarjax]

Do you have your fuel system and electrical planned out? I'd love to see how you're approaching this. My install is pretty far off but I like to be prepared -- I've got my fuel system put together ($300 all-in) and will probably re-work my harness but I'd like to flash my own ECU... and that doesn't really seem feasible without dropping several hundred dollars. I want to be able to tune my engine but maybe that's just because I've been tweaking carbs and distributors for 15 years :\

[bs46488]

Looking good.

That LS dropped right in there.

[Mike Bradbury]

Originally Posted by crakarjax

Do you have your fuel system and electrical planned out? I'd love to see how you're approaching this. My install is pretty far off but I like to be prepared -- I've got my fuel system put together ($300 all-in) and will probably re-work my harness but I'd like to flash my own ECU... and that doesn't really seem feasible without dropping several hundred dollars. I want to be able to tune my engine but maybe that's just because I've been tweaking carbs and distributors for 15 years :\

Jayson is the man when it comes to computer stuff, not that he does the flashing but he has the knowledge and the contacts to make this swap painless. About 30% of the computer functions go away (mostly smog stuff). As far as the fuel system goes I am going with an external pump and filter. JEGS has one with a regulator and AN fittings already installed.

[mcbassin]

Bummer to read about your engine taking a crap. On the bright side, welcome to the LS dark side. You will love the start and go of this drivetrain. I have a little over 2700 miles on mine and it's still a blast to drive. Pretty good on gas too, even though I can't seem to keep my foot out of it...

[Mike Bradbury]

What is your gas mileage? I have heard mid 20's I got the 4L60E tranny and I have a 350 rear gear.

[mcbassin]

Originally Posted by Mike Bradbury

What is your gas mileage? I have heard mid 20's I got the 4L60E tranny and I have a 350 rear gear.

The best I've gotten was 20 mpg. But that was on a short road trip. Mine has 3:73 gears, so it runs higher rpm at 75 mph. I think I could get better mileage but it's so hard to stay out of the pedal when I drive it....
My son has the 5.3/4L60 with the stock 2:72 gears in his 86. It's turd on take off but it will get 22-24 mpg consistently.

[Mike Bradbury]

It is official. I am now in the LS conversion crowd. I don't have any pictures of it yet because it I literally just got it done. I drove it to work to shake out the kinks and it really drives nice. The old 350/700R4 had a corvette shift kit in it and it really shifted hard. it was nice when you really wanted to nail it but just around town it was pretty jarring. This 5.3/4L60E combo is super smooth. I have driven about ten miles and I am very impressed. I learned a ton on this install and I am looking to get a WIFI enabled OBD2 scanner with an iPhone app so I can read all the vitals on the fly. I also converted my stock gauges to run with the new computer based platform so I have the best of both. Dialing in the tune is next, I hear that can make quite a difference.

[mcbassin]

Originally Posted by Mike Bradbury

It is official. I am now in the LS conversion crowd. I don't have any pictures of it yet because it I literally just got it done. I drove it to work to shake out the kinks and it really drives nice. The old 350/700R4 had a corvette shift kit in it and it really shifted hard. it was nice when you really wanted to nail it but just around town it was pretty jarring. This 5.3/4L60E combo is super smooth. I have driven about ten miles and I am very impressed. I learned a ton on this install and I am looking to get a WIFI enabled OBD2 scanner with an iPhone app so I can read all the vitals on the fly. I also converted my stock gauges to run with the new computer based platform so I have the best of both. Dialing in the tune is next, I hear that can make quite a difference.

[crakarjax]

Originally Posted by Mike Bradbury

It is official. I am now in the LS conversion crowd. I don't have any pictures of it yet because it I literally just got it done. I drove it to work to shake out the kinks and it really drives nice. The old 350/700R4 had a corvette shift kit in it and it really shifted hard. it was nice when you really wanted to nail it but just around town it was pretty jarring. This 5.3/4L60E combo is super smooth. I have driven about ten miles and I am very impressed. I learned a ton on this install and I am looking to get a WIFI enabled OBD2 scanner with an iPhone app so I can read all the vitals on the fly. I also converted my stock gauges to run with the new computer based platform so I have the best of both. Dialing in the tune is next, I hear that can make quite a difference.

That's on my list of to-do's; did you find any single good howto for the conversion? I've seen about a million different installs and each seems pretty unique.

[mcbassin]

Looks great Mike!

[Palf70Step]

Glad to see the ole girl is still being used and improved upon!

[Mike Bradbury]

Just a little headlight update.
I had chosen form over function with the old headlights because I never really drove the truck at night. Recently I have started driving it more at night and it was pretty dangerous. The lights were little candles at best but my form over function frustrations were from liking the chrome half eyelid that the old lights had during the day time and the light that it restricted at night time.

I came across these LED projector lamps that have a great retro look but are modern LED projectors with crazy bright white light but the light comes out in a semicircle (flat on top, curved on the bottom) array so the super bright light does not blind oncoming traffic like a round wash array would. I am very happy with the look and the performance.
I had to cut the back of the bucket they sit in and I also had to toss the three pin stock plug but it was not too much trouble to fit in.