Far North 67

[coldrider]

Last but not least, intercooler water inlet / outlets. The kit came with 8AN fittings on the adapter, which were far smaller than the openings on the supercharger so I opened up the adapter and welded in 12AN fittings.

[coldrider]

Mocked up

[coldrider]

Spring 2022. May 1st to be exact. I have until Halloween to get this done, otherwise she gets towed back to storage because snow sticks around after Halloween up here and my better half insists on having the garage free of the "toys" for winter parking.

Out with the (not so) old..

[coldrider]

And in with the new... well, at least for mock up. Y'all know how this goes, she'll be installed several times before all is said and done, but super stoked at this point

[mr.mud1]

WOW.what a truck!I like mine stock like the General built it but I like them all and certainly appreciate the work.this truck you are building is on another level all together. This makes me want to think about modern power for the next one?Beautiful.

[hewittca]

I second that wow! You are doing some cool modifications that I've never seen before. It shows you've really done your research on this stuff! I feel like we are getting close to caught up to present. Looking forward to seeing how this all turns out.

[coldrider]

Originally Posted by mr.mud1

WOW.what a truck!I like mine stock like the General built it but I like them all and certainly appreciate the work.this truck you are building is on another level all together. This makes me want to think about modern power for the next one?Beautiful.

Thanks! I've seen some over the top builds on here, so really appreciate the compliment. And as much as I love a clean restoration as much as the next guy, this truck was far enough off that track when I got it that I didn't feel too bad about continuing down the path of swapping in the modern stuff. After all these are General parts, too

Originally Posted by hewittca

I second that wow! You are doing some cool modifications that I've never seen before. It shows you've really done your research on this stuff! I feel like we are getting close to caught up to present. Looking forward to seeing how this all turns out.

Thank you! Its been a fun project so far and has come with a lot of learning curve. Seeing your comment about being close to caught up to present made me laugh. I remember when I started the swap in May I thought I could knock it out by July even though I gave myself the entire summer... I mean, the guys on youtube are swapped out in the course of a 10 minute video. Well, it's taken me a little longer than that, but I suppose I introduced a little more complexity with the blower and I also wanted it to look like a factory install, if that makes any sense.

[coldrider]

First things first, making sure everything clears. Using Dirty Dingo LS engine mount adapters and the engine all the way back (front set of adapter holes), the F-body body oil pan clears the crossmember by 3/4". The hood had plenty of clearance on the supercharger (1”+) and the Speed Engineering headers cleared the frame although passenger side is pretty close (1/4” or so). I left the transmission out for the first round of work so wasn’t sure how the trans was going to interact with the low hump floor.

[coldrider]

From there, I started with the fuel system. I dropped the rear-mounted tank and installed Tanks Inc’s PA-5 pump and EFI Line kits. Installation of the pump was straightforward.

[coldrider]

Installation of the tank back under the truck wasn’t as straightforward. A quick test fit confirmed I put the pump directly under a bed support where there is zero clearance when everything is bolted up. And as much as I didn’t want to have to cut into the truck, I also didn’t want to space the tank down off the frame so I ended up adding a small notch in the bed support.

[coldrider]

For the fuel pressure regulator, I didn’t want it mounted directly on the engine or fuel rails, nor did I want to drill new holes in the firewall or fenders unless I absolutely had to, so I built a bracket to hang the regulator and oil catch can off the master cylinder bracket.

[coldrider]

With the bulk of the fuel system roughed in, I moved on to the intake. The guys selling the blower adapters recommended using an Airaid U-build kit so I bought one in 3.5” but didn’t end up using it. While the kit offers plenty of bends, the inside diameter made it pretty restrictive, plus, to get things routed where I needed, I’d end up with clamps stacked on top of each other back-to-back-to-back. While it would’ve been a little quicker, I scrapped that plan and ordered a 3.5” aluminum elbow and made my own.

To keep the bend nice and tight to the supercharger, I had to sacrifice one of the threaded inlet/outlets on the injector rails by angle cutting and capping it. Doing this made fuel line routing a little more challenging, but the chances of getting fuel fittings to that corner would’ve been a challenge all its own.

The open end of the tube is where I'll hang the throttle body. I’ll figure out routing the rest of the intake & air filter once the TB and all other critical pieces are in place.

Yes, the final bit of tube isn’t level with the supercharger. It was but things pulled a little during welding. It still bothers me when I look at this picture. Which is why I don’t look at this picture.

[coldrider]

On to cooling. I went with the LS swap 67-72 c10 radiator/fan combo from Cold Case and immediately found that it wasn’t going to fit in the stock mounts. I probably should have stopped here and ordered 4 core mounts and worked on something else for a bit, but I didn’t. The cycle of ordering and waiting for stuff to ship gets old and I had a schedule to keep, so I simply made my own. I know hard mounting anything that gets hot comes with cracking risk so mounting holes are opened up a bit and bolts are just snug enough to keep things from moving around.

[coldrider]

For the supercharger, I wanted a decent size reservoir that I could tuck away better than the universal cube or cylinder-style tanks I was finding online. A little while playing with cardboard and I figured I could hide about 2 gallons in the front passenger fender next to the battery, again without having to drill new holes in anything except the battery tray.

[coldrider]

Mounting the heat exchanger in front of the core support only required a little modification to the center grille support. Can’t really see it in these pictures, but I welded a flange around the perimeter of the notch to keep it rigid and maintain a stock-like appearance.

Bulkhead fittings and 90 deg. pre-formed heater hoses will get coolant from the reservoir through the core support to the exchanger and then back again from the exchanger to the varimax pump on the driver’s side.

[hewittca]

Wow, that's quite the series of updates! I like all the custom work you are putting into this truck. I see you added clamps to the fuel line fittings. Is that personal preference or from experience? I don't have clamps on mine since the instructions didn't call for it, but now I feel like I should add them.

[coldrider]

Originally Posted by hewittca

Wow, that's quite the series of updates! I like all the custom work you are putting into this truck. I see you added clamps to the fuel line fittings. Is that personal preference or from experience? I don't have clamps on mine since the instructions didn't call for it, but now I feel like I should add them.

Thanks, just trying to get caught up to where I'm actually at with the truck today!

On the fuel lines, it's just personal preference. I figured it couldn't hurt and the oetikers go on so quickly, I used them just about everywhere I could

[coldrider]

At this point, most of the big fitment items have been addressed and the engine is pulled and waiting on the torque converter to arrive, so I spent a little time on ECU placement and ended up thinking that the best place for now is under the glovebox. I found a small terminator x mount on ebay but once I decided on the glovebox, I wasn’t sure how much weight/stress the paperboard would take without distorting, so I broke up a larger aluminum mounting plate for a bit more structure.

Went rattle can paint job here and it shows. If / when I go to Vintage AC, I may need to ditch the glovebox altogether and move the ECU up into this space so I didn’t bother with powder coating the thing. But maybe I should have, because for now this a fair-weather truck and fair weather here is 60-75 degrees so little need for heat or AC anytime soon. Maybe this quickie bracket will live under there for a while after all.

[coldrider]

Speaking of Vintage AC, I ordered heater block-off panels from Full Custom Fab, which were pre-cut for the VAC setup. But since these were bare steel, it was time to figure out what color my truck actually is so I could shoot the plates to match. The PO directed me to his painter, who wouldn't return my calls.

Since I happened to have the glovebox door off for the ECU work, I grabbed it and went to a nearby paint shop to see if we could match things up. Turns out Toyota 058 ‘Iceberg White’ was a great match. With that, it didn’t take them long to mix up a spraymax can and for me to get the firewall cleaned up.

You can also see the electrical pass through I installed in the firewall recess. This is made by Sharpe Performance and allows for passing through the large connectors on the Term X, and then closes things up nicely with two clamshell type covers. It’s pretty slick but I almost didn’t need it since the supercharger and intake elbow hide just about everything back there.

[coldrider]

One last detour before dropping the engine in… I decided to go another round fighting the steering setup. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it, I just hate having the 3rd u-joint & center brace in the mix. So, with the engine out of the way, I wanted to see if I could “fix” it. Without ordering a new column and going completely down that rabbit hole, I took a stab at tweaking the rack mounts so the rack input shaft angle would be steeper (i.e., pointing more towards the column), hopefully to the point that I could remove the 3rd joint altogether.

Using a cutting wheel on the mounts from underneath, I was able to slice out a wedge out of each side and pull the rack down about 10 degrees (pivoting the input shaft up by 10 degrees) without taking anything apart. To go much further, I’d need to cut the mounts completely off the crossmember and I didn’t want to go there, so I welded everything up and called it good.

After all was said and done, it was a nice try, but not enough to take the 3rd joint out. Eventually I want to add a “short” tilt column from ididit or flaming river. Maybe when that happens, it’ll finally be enough.

[coldrider]

Alright, back to the fun stuff. Time to install this stuff permanently

[regan wilson]

Dang that is Cool.

[coldrider]

Originally Posted by regan wilson

Dang that is Cool.

Thanks Regan. Where I'm going with the truck may not be for everyone, but I'm glad you took a look as I'm definitely leaning into the performance side of things right now. Traction is definitely an issue I'll need to deal with, but your avatar shows that getting a truck to hook is possible!

Thoroughly enjoying your Storytime thread, btw.

[coldrider]

With engine/trans in place, I was able to get a new driveshaft made. And from there could start to set and check drive line angles. I don’t have any photos of me not enjoying that experience, only a few pics of the end result.
I mentioned before this is low hump truck. In order to get drive line angles to work, the tail end of the transmission needs to come way up and you can guess where this is going. Yep, the 4L80E needed just a little more space than the low hump would give.

Was I really going to take the time to remove the seats, belts, carpet, etc? Nope, no time for that. Let’s just razor blade down the middle of the carpet and get into it with the angle and die grinders.

Some butyl rope seal, rivnuts, and a little POR15 for the exposed edges and we’re back in business. Well, that and getting the AMD high hump bed-lined to match the rest of the underbody.

Carpet will get replaced some other time

[coldrider]

I forgot to mention that the only other thing that had to happen to get drive line angles dialed in was to shim the rear drop blocks, but rather than order shims, I had a friend mill a couple of degrees into the 2” lowering blocks.