1973 K20 Build Thread

[TheWhiteElephant]

Got a little more done today. I'm close to getting it running again, but this home stretch is taking for ever. I painted all the power steering brackets and put the pulley on the new/reman power steering pump. You can see the new detent cable installed. You can also see the wiring on the firewall and the wiring down next to the oil pan.

Again, I used Adel clamps. These things are great to help clean things up.

[TheWhiteElephant]

I installed the alternator, power steering pressure line, and spark plug wires. I was having second (and third, and fourth) thoughts about the non-subtle, super bright blue plug wires but they've grown on me in the past few hours. I'm going to route them underneath the manifolds for a clean look.

I put in new fuel lines from the pump along with a glass fuel filter. I'm a big proponent of glass filters. Very helpful when diagnosing. You can also see a new intake heater hose fitting I got from the good ol' "Help" section @ Oreilly's for $5.49. Much better than the $11.59 they want for it from Classic Industries.

[nbpro]

looking good man

[TheWhiteElephant]

Originally Posted by nbpro

looking good man

Thanks so much, I appreciate the kind words!

[nbpro]

does that thermostat housing have a temp gague built in?

[GMC Guy]

that thing looks great!
how much you have invested so far? i love the build on budget trucks

[cvalcore]

that engine is look pritty good. could you do me a huge favor could you give me a messurment from the ground to the bottom of the frame right under the cab if you could do that i would really appecate it thanks

[TheWhiteElephant]

Originally Posted by nbpro

does that thermostat housing have a temp gague built in?

It is a screw-in unit that I bought a few years ago from Moon. It screws into the thermostat housing. I'll post some close-ups soon.

[TheWhiteElephant]

Originally Posted by GMC Guy

that thing looks great!
how much you have invested so far? i love the build on budget trucks

Thanks. To be honest, I wanted to keep things very low cost, but I am pushing the budget just a bit. So far I probably have a little over $1,000 in it, but I could have definitely kept the cost much lower. I didn't really need the Milodon oil pan and timing chain cover, the valve covers, or the fancy transmission dipstick, so you can see I'm pushing it a little. I WANTED to replace the starter, alternator, PS pump, and fuel pump. It NEEDED a complete tune-up, belts, hoses, and the exhaust manifolds, and I really wanted to clean up the engine and spray it.

All this could definitely be done for much less than $500 if you want to skip the fancy stuff and only replace the needed items. And do the work yourself, of course. I have all the receipts and may tally them up at some point.

I have a few things in store for it but mainly I want to get it running reliably so that I can enjoy it while work on it simultaneously.

[TheWhiteElephant]

Originally Posted by cvalcore

that engine is look pritty good. could you do me a huge favor could you give me a messurment from the ground to the bottom of the frame right under the cab if you could do that i would really appecate it thanks

Sure thing. It measures 15" from the bottom of the frame right at the front cab mount down to the ground. The truck has 225/75/16 tires with the stock 3/4 ton suspension. Let me know if you need any other measurements.

[nbpro]

Originally Posted by TheWhiteElephant

It is a screw-in unit that I bought a few years ago from Moon. It screws into the thermostat housing. I'll post some close-ups soon.

cool Thanks

[cvalcore]

Originally Posted by TheWhiteElephant

Sure thing. It measures 15" from the bottom of the frame right at the front cab mount down to the ground. The truck has 225/75/16 tires with the stock 3/4 ton suspension. Let me know if you need any other measurements.

thanks i realy needed that measurment.

[kikkegek]

WOW! really good job for just being in the driveway and not the garage.

couple question for ya:
- did you put anything under the car when cleaning the engine of grease? because otherwise you would sting the street like hell?

- what do you mean by "intake heater hose fitting"? I am pretty newby, sorry.

When temperatures go up again (right now it is freezing at night) I want to take up cleaning the engine too. Right now the greese nicely protects it from all the salt they are gonna put on the roads when snow or frost comes along! terrible for corrosion of my car.

[TheWhiteElephant]

Originally Posted by kikkegek

WOW! really good job for just being in the driveway and not the garage.

couple question for ya:
- did you put anything under the car when cleaning the engine of grease? because otherwise you would sting the street like hell?

- what do you mean by "intake heater hose fitting"? I am pretty newby, sorry.

When temperatures go up again (right now it is freezing at night) I want to take up cleaning the engine too. Right now the greese nicely protects it from all the salt they are gonna put on the roads when snow or frost comes along! terrible for corrosion of my car.

Thanks for the kind words. Yes, I really made a HUGE mess for about 3 days straight. All the grease fell on the driveway, rolled onto the street, and effectively drained into the drain on the street. (not proud of that, by the way, but it had to go somewhere)

A buddy loaned me a very strong pressure washer, so I'm going to tackle my driveway as soon as I get the truck rolling again. I don't want to leave any stains on my relatively clean driveway. The fitting on the intake is the one to the left of the glass fuel filter in the picture above. The heater hose from the firewall goes into it. The original fitting was very rusty so I needed to replace it.

The nice thing about South Texas weather is that you can work on your vehicles year round. Right now the weather is perfect. Only bad thing is it gets dark by 6 pm, but that's ok.

[THE "10" SILVERADO]

Just checked out your build thread after you replied to my thread...so far I'm loving you engine...this was what I am planning on doing with my engine.....right now it looks like what yours did in the beginning....well actually maybe worse...I can't tell all of it because the previous owner took a can of black spray paint to it before I bought it so I don't know what is lurking under some of that.....I'll be bookmarking this for reference later.....just wondering though....how were you able to paint the lower sides of your engine with the red paint so well? Did you go under and get to them? Looking good though!

[Dieselwrencher]

Very nice truck to start out with! You are doing a great job on bringing it back to life as a DD. Keep up the great work!

[79gmcclassic]

this is guna be a cool build

[C25 Farm Truck]

This is a great thread! It's inspiring to see a build without a big shop or a complete teardown. It makes me want to go borrow a power washer and get to work!
One question - how did you repaint the engine while it was still mounted? Did you mask off for overspray or just aim carefully?

[TheWhiteElephant]

Thanks so much for the kind words, folks. I'm a big believer in elbow grease, and I didn't want to pull the engine in my driveway (see my above comments). I don't have a cherry-picker and I don't have a big garage or shop to work in, so I made the decision to basically take EVERYTHING off the engine while it was still in the truck.

Then I just cleaned, and scrubbed, wire-wheeled, scrubbed some more, and masked what I didn't want sprayed. Yes, I had to get under the truck to paint the bottom of the engine. I carefully masked the engine mounts and sprayed around them. Since I changed the oil pan, valve covers, and timing chain cover, I was able to paint around those without having to mask them. Aiming carefully and going over in several coats helps.

Make no mistake about it--good quality rattle can spray paint and hard work go a long way. I'm on a pretty tight budget, but it still takes some cash to replace what really needs to be replaced. I appreciate the comments.

[Dieselwrencher]

For not removing the engine, you did a really good job. It looks great!

[MTCK]

Solid build - I'll be watching this one!

[palposity]

Looking good!

[Pop's C-10]

that motor is looking good man

[Catfisher']

Dang, that looks good! I was thinkin bout paintin my engine orange. How hard is it to do?

[Dru]

Looking very good, after just cleaning a dirty old farm motor out of a truck, I can imagine the work it took to get around everything while still being inside.

Originally Posted by TheWhiteElephant

One of the things I've learned if you spend too much time on your vehicles, something else has to give (namely, family time), so I'm going to keep this on a budget of time and money.

I completely agree with you, material objects will come and go, but you can never get lost time back.

Originally Posted by TheWhiteElephant

I live in a neighborhood with a homeowner's association and am doing all this in my driveway, so I don't want to upset the neighbors with my junk in the driveway (my wife is embarrassed enough as it is).

lol, I'm surprised you got away with it, I have heard stories about neighbors getting irate because someone left their trash can out, in neighborhoods with associations. I live in a historic district myself, and its not quite as bad as some of the fancy neighborhoods, but I dont think they would appreciate me out in my driveway with a cherry picker. Have found a good solid tree in the yard to use back in the older days.