57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Great work! Now you'll have it in the way, and bothering you. Just wishing someone would borrow it. (wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more)

Exactly what I was thinking! If I only knew someone that needed to borrow a jack to pull the transmission out of their truck, I wouldn't have the dang thing underfoot. Hmmmmm

[Vic1947]

Dual 11" Spal fans are mocked up. It was tricky getting them packaged in the available space, but they're gonna work. I had to give in and take the fan shroud/support to a local machine shop (Lindsay Machine) to have the circles waterjet cut. I fixtured the material up on my little mill but didn't have the right tooling for the job. Took the part to them on Friday and it was done this morning. They also cut the bolt holes in the exact locations as well. Went together like a Swiss clock. Their WJ machine is accurate to .0001" which is much more precise than I figured it would be. Technology - you gotta love it.

Making progress on the wiring front as well. The Holley Terminator X Max harness needed some revisions to a few of the Metri-Pak plugs. Also, some of the wires were either too long or too short, so those have been modified. Now I just need to get the harness situated. I drilled and tapped the driver side fuel rail for a fuel pressure transducer. The Holley software will use the input if it's available. I had planned to thread the sender into the regulator, but the harness dictated that I place it up front near the throttle body sensors. I didn't want to tear the harness that far apart to relocate the plug so this will have to do.

[Vic1947]

After all the work I did to weld in the high flow cats, I was finally ready to install them. When I got everything in place, the flanges at the front of the mufflers where the v-band clamps fit had about a 1/8" gap on both sides. There was no way the band would draw the flanges together enough to seal up. It seemed the only solution was to remove both sides and lengthen the tubing the amount I needed. However, after I pulled the assembly off the passenger side and started to remove the driver side, I could tell that without being attached via the H-pipe, it fit perfectly. I lightly tightened the muffler clamp and the exhaust manifold flange bolts with no issues.

So, I carefully reassembled the passenger side and found that back to the H-pipe, it was right on the money. From the H-pipe to the muffler was a different story. I had a bit over 1/4" gap now. It appeared that the muffler on the passenger side had moved back after I originally disassembled the tubing. I knew I'd scribed marks on the tubing to make sure the cats didn't alter the overall length. The good news was that I only needed to modify one side. I cut a 3/4" section out of the tubing between the H-pipe and the muffler flange and replaced it with a 1" section. Fits fine now.

The fan assembly is finished and the radiator + a/c condenser and lines are back in. The Terminator X Max is mounted under the dash and the wiring is nearly complete. I'm about ready to set it back down on all fours again. By the first of next week, it should have the intake on and hopefully in the not-too-distant future will be ready to fire up.

[Vic1947]

Got sidetracked a bit. A member of another forum suggested that it might be a good idea to add a heat shield around the cats to protect the transmission and floor pan from the high heat. Seemed like a really good idea, so I got to work.
I have the heat shield on one side complete and installed. Haven't started on the other side yet. Kathy asked me to assemble her new Christmas tree and fix a couple of her music boxes she sets out for the holidays. That takes precedence over car stuff this time of year.

I didn't have a piece of stainless sheet in my scrap bin big enough to make the shield in one pass, so I sandwiched two pieces together. It's .037" thick material so it will probably twist up like a pretzel when it gets good and hot, but it should be sufficient to serve as a barrier to the heat radiating from the cats.

[Ol Blue K20]

Looks good Vic!

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

Looks good Vic!

Thanks, Dale. Driver side shield is now complete also. Time to let it down off the jack stands.

[Low Elco]

Looks great, Vic!

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Looks great, Vic!

Thanks Chip, I'm making progress.

A buddy sent me this which explains a lot if you cut your teeth on a stick shift.

[mongocanfly]

Haha...that's a good one..

[Vic1947]

So, a couple of weeks have passed during which I finished up the do-over on the EFI. The Terminator X Max controller just barely fit into the space where the other controllers sat in the past. I not only had to build stand-offs to position it further away from the firewall, but also had to machine some long hold downs to attach it. Couldn't get my fingers into the available space to start regular nuts. But after all that, it's in and wired up. I also spent some time revising the fuel lines. None of the lines fit after I modified them for the dual quads. The upside is that I repositioned the regulator and fuel pressure gauge for better access. I tested it for leaks and to my surprise, I didn't have a single one. Usually, there's at least one fitting that requires a bit more oomph to seal it up.

I had a local Holley expert, Andrew Borodin, over to the house last week to help me with the initial startup calibration. He also gave me a wiring diagram for the IAC kick and AC shutdown relays. The software will temporarily boost the idle when the AC is turned on and shut the AC off at a specified throttle position (like 75% WOT). He spent about an hour going over the fuel and spark tables explaining them and making some tweaks. My short-term memory is so shot that I don't remember a lot, but I was impressed with his knowledge. He'll be back when I'm ready to fire the engine the first time with this new setup. Said it will take another hour to tune the engine for best performance. It's turned cold so I'm planning to wait for the next warm day.

Meanwhile, I have a new project to keep me occupied. I decided to punch louvers in the side panels I made for the inner fenderwells. I'm thinking ahead to the summer and doing all that I can to help lower the under-hood temps. I did some research on commercially available dies and they're pretty proud of them. While online, I ran across a video showing a homemade set of dies and I'm going to give it a try. I only need to punch a couple of dozen louvers, so I don't need tool steel. I'll show you the results - good or bad.

[Ol Blue K20]

That's a lot of wires, they make my brain swim looking at them! I can't wait to see the louvers.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

That's a lot of wires, they make my brain swim looking at them! I can't wait to see the louvers.

What you see isn't even the half of it, Dale. Seems to take me forever to do wiring anymore - plus I need to lean on my brother-in-law and other knowledgeable folks for help. But the good news is that it's all done, and we'll find out soon whether it's hooked up correctly.

[sduckworth13]

Looks awesome Vic, wiring job looks super clean!

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by sduckworth13

Looks awesome Vic, wiring job looks super clean!

Thanks, Scott. I did have one wiring hiccup, but it was easy to fix. Andrew Borodin - Holley tuner extraordinaire - came to the house yesterday and got everything sorted out. We ran into a bad reading from the MAP sensor and when we traced the wires, it turned out that, despite all the research I'd done, the wiring wasn't correct. When I replaced the Gen 3 plug with a Gen 4, I picked the wrong info source for the pin locations. Such is the way of the internet. We used a de-pinning tool to swap the wires into the correct slots and just like magic, the engine cranked up.

After about two hours of shop/driving time Andrew had the engine running like a little sewing machine. The trans works great too. It's hard to tell if the cooling system issues are completely gone because the ambient temperature was much less than it was last summer. However, in the shop, fan 1 would come on briefly and then cycle off less than a minute later. So, the switch to the 11" Spal units seems to have been worth it. On the road, the temp stayed at 183 (180 degree thermostat) and the trans temp never got over 160. Tripling the size of the trans cooler was probably a good move too.

I have a few remaining minor things to do, and then we'll be ready for cruising. Back to my louver project...

[sduckworth13]

That’s great too hear, sounds like it will be smooth sailing. You’ll definitely will be bringing home some hardware whichever show you go to with that beauty!

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by sduckworth13

That’s great to hear, sounds like it will be smooth sailing. You’ll definitely will be bringing home some hardware whichever show you go to with that beauty!

Thanks, Scott. From what we've seen so far, people seem to like it - which is what matters most. It was lots of fun this summer talking to folks about the various mods. But most importantly, we have some long-distance road trips planned for this coming summer. Maybe by then, the bug will be in the rear-view mirror, and we can relax and have some fun rubbing elbows with other car nuts.

The louver project is halfway done. The dies are finished, and I tested them on a piece of scrap aluminum. I plan to use the homemade English wheel that I was given by good buddy, Jonathon Cornell. I think I can remove the wheels and locate the dies, so they punch thru the aluminum sheet consistently. I'll post photos of the setup when I've sorted it out.

[Low Elco]

If nothing else, there's always A2 and the good 'ol redneck heat-treat. Got any used motor oil?

Heard you got with Andrew, glad it went well and the gorgeous wagon is gonna go down the road!

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

If nothing else, there's always A2 and the good 'ol redneck heat-treat. Got any used motor oil?

Heard you got with Andrew, glad it went well and the gorgeous wagon is gonna go down the road!

Thanks, Chip. Next up after a few more tweaks will be the World of Wheels in March. Talked to your pops this morning and it sounds like he's rounding up a posse of fellow trucksters to swarm Bartle Hall. Should be a fun get together.

I think the dies will work pretty well for the little dab of work I have planned. My test piece was a louver I cut from a leftover panel I used as a pattern and it's a little ragged around the edges. Below is a louver I actually punched out of a fresh piece of .063 aluminum with the dies I made.

[mongocanfly]

That looks great Vic...nicely done

[Ol Blue K20]

Nice looking set of dies you made. The test louver looks good.

[Vic1947]

Thanks, guys. I finished my homemade louver press. The "English wheel" I used as the frame for it deflected too much, so I had to tack a piece of channel to the front of it make it solid. If I ever need to use the wheel, I can zip the channel off with a Dremel cutoff tool.

After getting the dies aligned, I punched a test panel. Looked pretty good, so I proceeded to the real thing. Both side panels are now louvered and ready to prep for self-etching primer and a coat of matte silver to match the fenderwells. The anodized finish was pretty close to the rest of the inner fender, but it was hard to keep clean. The painted surface is much more forgiving. Hopefully I can get a decent color match but regardless, it should be better than what I had.

I'm not sure how much the louvers will help, but I don't reckon they can hurt. I believe the best mod I made was the larger, more powerful fans, but summer will be the real test.

[mongocanfly]

Very nice!!!!!

[Ol Blue K20]

I like the louvers a lot....

[Vic1947]

Thanks!

I put one of the panels in temporarily to see how it looked and I think it works pretty well. Today I'm prepping the panels for epoxy primer and matte silver paint. Weather is a bit cool, but I can spray outside then bring the panels back in to warm up. I have a heat gun setup to force dry them a bit. I'll post pics when I'm finished.

My buddy Chip called me this morning to let me know his dad, Vern, passed away yesterday evening sitting in his easy chair. Vern (or Boppa as many knew him on the forum) was a dyed in the wool truck guy. I talked to him just yesterday and we had plans to go for coffee and sandwiches after the first of the year. Ya never know what the day holds for you when you crawl out of bed. I realize it's a cliche, but we need to treat each day as a gift. I'm going to miss him.

[Vic1947]

Here are some photos of the finished panels installed. The matte clear I used was still too glossy to suit me, so I used a 2000 grit foam backed pad to knock them down a bit more.