Project racing $$$. 1968 GMC SWB 5.3/4l60E Build

[imsuchaman55]

Originally Posted by kmdracer

Love the gauge cluster. Now you have me wondering if I could do something like that with my '76 C-10. Hmmm, I have a'99 Z28, a '91 RS, and a 76 c-10....

Thank you! I got the gauges all wired up, and tested the power for the blinkers, dimmer, illumination, and bright switch. They all seemed to work, but I am a little stumped on the fuel gauge wiring. From research Ive done, It seems the fuel level comes from the OBDII wire from the PCM, not directly from the fuel level sender, but I already pulled the pin for the fuel sender into the PCM, so I need to figure out what I need to re-pin to get it to work, if it will even work. Also, I see in my notes that the PCM has an input from the tank fuel sender, and a ground that I assume in with the harness grounds. I removed both of these from the directions on LT1swap.com, so I need to figure out if I can put them back in and get the fuel gauge to work.

[99-2door]

To clear up the DBW throttle body issue:
The 00-02 DBW was on all 6.0 AWD models and any 5.3s with traction control.

My 2001 C3 had that same throttle body with the LQ4.
If you don't have the TAC module for the DBW you must have one from a 00-02, 03+ is not compatible with the RED/BLUE PCM you have. The pedals will interchange though.
If you ever want to upgrade to the 4 bolt 87m throttle body, the 00-02 DBW system can run it without the expensive adapter module that is necessary for the 03+.
I am running a 87mm TB with a TBSS intake manifold.

[imsuchaman55]

Originally Posted by 99-2door

To clear up the DBW throttle body issue:
The 00-02 DBW was on all 6.0 AWD models and any 5.3s with traction control.

My 2001 C3 had that same throttle body with the LQ4.
If you don't have the TAC module for the DBW you must have one from a 00-02, 03+ is not compatible with the RED/BLUE PCM you have. The pedals will interchange though.
If you ever want to upgrade to the 4 bolt 87m throttle body, the 00-02 DBW system can run it without the expensive adapter module that is necessary for the 03+.
I am running a 87mm TB with a TBSS intake manifold.

Thank you, I have the TAC and the original pedal from the truck the engine came out of, so hopefully it all works the way its supposed to. I havent started it yet, took the cab off the frame, wire wheeled the entire frame, flipped the rear leafs and built a C-notch. I will post more updated pics soon. It should fly together once the frame is done painting. The big LMC order showed up this week....

[imsuchaman55]

Updates with lots of pictures. My little brother and Dad have been jammin on this truck, and its all going together. Wire wheeling the frame is not a fun job, but makes everything look soo much cleaner.


didnt realize how bad the frame and suspension was until the cab came off.


My brother busted the whole front end apart, and dropped them in Pool acid (muric acid I believe) and it stripped them like new metal.



Neverending wire wheeling. Nasty job. did all the inner frame rails and underside of frame


Primer


All done. Drop spindles and disk brakes in front with flip kit and lowering shackles in the rear.



firewall all cleaned up and painted satin black.



Underside all cleaned up and sprayed


Getting ready to drop the cab. Put in all new polyurethane bushings also. Gotta love the lift for jobs like this


all dropped in and on the ground. Looks much better than before. Im glad we took these extra steps.






I seems we might have clearance issues with the calipers and wheels with the disk brake kit now. I havent bolted a caliper on yet, but the spindle arm that holds the caliper touches the wheel weights on the inner part of the rim just barely. I really hope I can make these work, because I dont want to have to buy new tires and wheels, and I paid extra for these wheels and tires the first time around.

What do you guys think??

[VA72C10]

Really nice work! Frame and cab look great as does the cluster.

And yes...I am jealous of the rust free metal you all have out there...plus it's easier to unbolt everything when it's not as rusty...

[imsuchaman55]

Originally Posted by VA72C10

Really nice work! Frame and cab look great as does the cluster.

And yes...I am jealous of the rust free metal you all have out there...plus it's easier to unbolt everything when it's not as rusty...

Yea I definately would not be doing this if the cab or frame was in the condition of other trucks I see guys on here building. Makes much less work for us. The P.O. had previously done a little cleaning and painting, but this way we were able to get everything down to bare metal before we primed and painted it.

If all goes as planned, we should be able to get this running by the weekend. We havent started the engine yet, Im just praying I dont have any wiring issues with the harness or PCM or other problems LS swap guys have.

[68 TT]

How much axle tube to frame clearance did you have with just the flip kit?

[imsuchaman55]

Originally Posted by 68 TT

How much axle tube to frame clearance did you have with just the flip kit?

We build a c notch into it, and took a lot out of it, but reinforced it and plated it. We were worried about it being weaker, but once all welded up, had 2 300lb'ers jump on the rear frame rails and got no flex, so we figured it would be plenty strong. The stock frame flexes a lot, and with the c notch and plating the rear is much stiffer. There's about 5 inches clearance in there now
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[imsuchaman55]

Got a few more updates pics....

The P.O had a DIY bedliner rolled on the fender wells, so we stripped all of that off and painted them satin black to match the firewall.

Original on the right, partially stripped on the left.


all stripped, ready for paint

[img][/img]

Primer


A before and after comparison


Engine is all cleaned up and ready to go in, finally


Me doing work on the tranny mount...


Finally got it in after wrestling with the motor mounts for an hour. The engine seems to have too much angle from front to back, so were going to shim up the tranny to try and level it out some. Ive searched all over to see if anyone else has the same issue, but no luck...


Front shot


Side shot


Side shot of the fender mocked up to see how much clearance we have


The front grouping all painted and ready to get installed


Also, just got these in the mail. Ordered them off ebay, but they dont seem to fit like I thought, so may have to fabricate on the right side engine stand some to make them work...


My brother is working on the underside of the bed now, then we will get it onto the frame. Then the entire truck is going back onto the lift to mount the fuel pump and filter, space up the transmission, connect all electrical plugs, connect torque converter, and whatever else needs to be done under there. Then hopefully we can see if this thing fires up. I pray we have no problems, because trying to trouble shoot the wiring would be a nightmare.

[VA72C10]

Nice progress! Looking great!

[68 TT]

Chevy puts a 3 or 4 degree slope to the engine to achieve the angle change needed so the needle bearings in the driveshaft U-joints work properly.

Chrysler moves the engine to the passenger side to do it and Ford offsets the pumpkin to one side to do the same.

If you think it is too much angle for some fitment issue then level the trans pan to the frame rails. This part is always level and will let you know if there is an issue with a mount location or height.

[imsuchaman55]

Here's a few updates with pictures. the truck is getting really close to being all back together. We decided the engine angle was fine, since the tranny pan is level with the frame rail. We got the Walbro fuel pump mounted on the frame rail and attached all of the fittings to the feed and return lines.

We had clearance issues with the headers, so we notched out the motor mount and plated it to get the strength back into the mount once we had proper clearance. We also braced the inner frame rail where it is clearances by the collector.


We also ran all of the power and grounds. I have read that these newer engines have to have good grounding, so we went a little overboard, but its better to be safe than sorry. Ran 0 gauge for all power and grounds. Ran negative from battery to frame, frame to head, battery to front grouping, rear of block to frame, and frame to cab. We shouldnt have any sort of grounding issues anywhere now. Also, we are using the fuelbox that came with the 5.3, so we built a tray on the driver side to hold the stock fusebox, PCM, and TAC module. It all gets covered by stock fusebox cover.








The leather seats showed up last week also, but they ended up being a different color than we thought they would. We tried matching the color the interior was already painted, but they are more of a burgundy color than a bright red.


Here they are mocked up in the truck. As you can see, the color is a lot different.


We ended up taking the seat to a paint store and getting it color matched, and are going to repaint the interior to match the seats. A huge step we were trying to avoid, but with the seats being the wrong color, we really didnt have a choice. We have redone everything else on the truck, might as well make it all look correct.


Door panels stripped of the red the P.O. did. It was pretty nasty when looked at up close, so my brother stripped all the old paint off.


And stripped the entire interior. This poor guy has wire wheeled just about every inch of this truck to remove old paint. Only thing he hasnt done is the body.


He also did the dash. Wire wheel, then 240, 400 then 600 grit sandpaper on the entire interior so no scratches show through.


My brother ordered this double DIN touch screen, I think it's overkill, but he says he is going to buy the truck when its all finished, so he wanted it. He better make sure he gets a badass alarm for this thing then because they are so easy to steal. He is going to make a new radio panel and cut a new hole for the radio.


Inner fender well paint stripping and painting






also wire wheeled the under side of the cowl. Primed and painted.


Got the bed on and started prepping all of the holes and need to be filled, and the prepping the clearance lights. We are shaving the front and rear clearance lights, the front emblems on the hood, and the chrome trim ring around the grill


Heres a side shot of it with the bed on and a front fender mocked up. Once we get the engine running we will bolt the front fenders on for good, but in case we need to get in there and fix something, we left them off.


We ended up putting stock shackles in the rear to even the rake out, the drop shackles were way too low. Also got a brake booster and master cylinder from Krazyray here on the site, and a foot pedal e brake to replace the under dash hand e brake.

We had a 1 piece drive line made, and should be starting it today if all goes well. Need to make the tranny cooler lines, bolt in driveline, and fill all fluids.

Once that is done, we have a bunch of hushmat we are going to use to sound deaden the floor, rear cab wall, and on top of the cab where the headliner is, so it doesnt sound like were driving in an empty drum. Then its carpet, headliner, fuel tank carpet, speaker kick panels, install seats, steering wheel, and gauge cluster.

Also, we are going to shorten the steering column 2 inches for more room, thats about the most we can go without the wheel rubbing on the thigh, or moving the neutral safety switch outside of the firewall.

It should all be coming together really fast this week, and should be driving once the interior is all installed.

For paint, we are planning on going a satin black, a little shinier than the flat black on there now, but not really glossy. Sould be around the same gloss as the firewall and door sills. I think some old school pin stipping with the burgundy color would look good, but not sure if that what we will do or not.

What do you guys think?

[67cheby]

Sweet project !

[low69chevy]

Very nice progress coming along real quick GL on ur project
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[imsuchaman55]

Well we got all fluids filled and tried to start tonight, but the stock fusebox from the donor truck ended up missing fuses and terminals. I should have just made my own relay and fusebox as described on lt1swap.com. I'm pretty frustrated but will try it again tommorow. The pcm didn't seem to be getting any power, any gauges hooked to pcm wern't moving, and fuel pedal had no response.
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[BossHogg69]

Great job so far. Everything has turned out very nice - I'm also jealous of the shop!

[68Redhead]

Wow, everything looks real nice! The wheels and primer give it a sinister look. Where did you get the seat from? Hope to see more pics!
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[hahjoel]

Nice! What are those seats out of?
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[imsuchaman55]

Thanks guys. The seats are new from discount van & truck in san diego. They were pretty pricey, but are really comfortable and bolt right in, plus theres a mini ice chest area under the center seat, haha.

The stock fuse box really had me frustrated last night, especially since we custom built a tray to hold everything in the stock box, but maybe I can make my own fuse/ relay bar and stash it in the same box.

I will get lots more pictures soon, but here is one from yesterday when I was adding all of the fluids. Everything turned out really nice and clean, Im glad we ended up stripping everything and repainting. Now If we can just get the damn thing to fire



The final paintjob will be a little glossier than the flat black on there now. Satin black. We are shaving the front emblems and trim piece, and maybe do a little pinstriping like the truck in the pic below.



I really like that old school look with the pinstriping and mag wheels, I think it looks more natural on these older trucks than 22s.

My brother is painting the interior of the truck and it is turning out awesome. Once that is done then we can get the carpet and seats in.

I will get tons of pics soon, I know how everyone likes pics!!

[68Redhead]

Originally Posted by imsuchaman55

plus theres a mini ice chest area under the center seat, haha.

I'm sold! Lol
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[68 TT]

Looks great. That center ice chest in the seat is a great idea and will come in handy.

[mark69SB]

What r the seats out of
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[Maxxd07]

Great build!

[imsuchaman55]

Well we got it fired up. the fusebox was our problem. We wired all switched 12+ and Constant 12+ to the hot terminal and it fired right up. I ran around this weekend to get the relays and fuses to make my own fusebox so we dont have that problem anymore. We couldnt rev it up though because the shop here in town that reflashed my PCM didnt know it was a DBW, but that will get fixed later on today.

I am also having some issues with the gauge cluster. I removed the fuel gauge from the original cluster and epoxied it into the camaro cluster, wired with original truck wiring, and it works great. I am getting power to the volt meter, power for illumination lights, and have oil pressure wired directly to sensor, but I cant get any reading from the serial data wire for the tach, water temp or the odometer screen. The odometer screen wont even light up, which makes me think its a voltage issue. I dont know if it isnt getting a signal from the serial data wire, or If it doesnt have the proper 12+ voltage.

When I wired it, I didnt have a constant 12v under the dash, so I wired the constant and switched together, and I think this could be my main problem. Also, in the cluster plug. Pin B5, Starter relay coil voltage, I didnt connect to anything. I am going to try wiring the constant 12v to the battery, ignition 12v to switched power, and the coil voltage to the starter wire, maybe this will fix my problem.

I have searched all over, and cant find any info to see if the odometer screen will light up without a signal from the PCM, or if it needs a signal from the serial data wire to work. Also, could it be possible the PCM isnt sending a signal out of the serial data wire, maybe something from when the PCM was flashed?

[68PitbullChevy]

the gauges are cool