'89 GMC C1500 build thread

[69c10stepside]

Purchased the rest of the parts I needed to feel comfortable enough to get the engine atleast bolted in the frame.. IE oil pan, crank pulley, starter, and some other things. Anyways, will be working on it tomorrow after church.

[69c10stepside]

I got the engine together the best I could Sunday. Put the oil pan on, valve covers, coil packs, flexplate, rear cover, and the driver side bracket.

Today after work I started working on fitment, just to see how much clearance I was going to have between the ground and the pan etc.. I ended up getting the motor/transmission installed. I took pictures Sunday, but I forgot the camera today.

I did have some trouble with the overall width of the motor trying to fit in the cradle, found that I needed to cut the raised parts out of the clamshell mounts that bolted to the motor. I cut them them out and everything went into place with the engine.

Took a while to get the transmission bolted to the engine, the dowel pins were the issue for me for some reason, I worked them over a little bit and it allowed for everything to slide into place.

My transmission mount crossmember is in the same place, but it acts like it should be forward about an inch or so. I was pretty tired by the time I got it back together, so I wasn't able to check the slip yoke or driveline etc.

I plan on getting the headers installed tomorrow, along with a reinstall of the carb and start on the wiring for the msd box. Also need to put TQ bolts in, dust cover and transmission linkage reinstalled.

Fun stuff!

[69c10stepside]

Pictures from Sunday:

[69c10stepside]

Monday pictures:

[69c10stepside]

Tuesday Pictures:




Took me 2 1/2 hours to get the headers installed.. They are fitted for this body style frame with the transdapt engine mounts I used, but they are a TIGHT fit. Had to test my patience a bit to get them in.. Have the MSD harness hooked up other then the map sensor ( don't have it plumbed in yet ) and mounting of the control box. Looks like the box will fit with out issue on the passenger side inner fender/fender area. Not real sure where yet, obviously

Need to come up with some bell reducers for 3/8 to 1/8 to get some factory sensors hooked up, along with fuel pump/lines, a/c bracket (coming in Thursday) along with a thousand other things I am going blank on right now.

[69c10stepside]

Forgot to mention, I am waiting on the ram air kit for my hood to come in, looks like I am going to clear everything by a good 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch. Went ahead and bit the bullet and ordered it and what I think I needed to make it work with my carb. Also bought what I needed to get my interior parts to match, I am going to be swapping out the 88-94 style dash I guess, but leave the old style column in for the sake of easiness of something in this project.

[jb1016]

Originally Posted by 69c10stepside

Forgot to mention, I am waiting on the ram air kit for my hood to come in, looks like I am going to clear everything by a good 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch. Went ahead and bit the bullet and ordered it and what I think I needed to make it work with my carb. Also bought what I needed to get my interior parts to match, I am going to be swapping out the 88-94 style dash I guess, but leave the old style column in for the sake of easiness of something in this project.

You deserve to have something go easy. Looking good man!

[69c10stepside]

Originally Posted by jb1016

You deserve to have something go easy. Looking good man!

I don't mind things going rough or tough, but hey, if I can make it easier on myself, why not

Before I forget about what I modded to make the transdapt plate work.. On the clamshell mounts that used to bolt to the block, there is a raised triangle in the middle of them. I cut that triangle out because it made the mounts sit about 1/8th of an inch out on both sides, which made the motor mounts not line up with the clamshell mounts. They could have probably been heated up and beat flat, I didn't do it that way.

[69c10stepside]

Update for today..

Set the other front clip on the truck I had for it, along with the 442 hood.. Didn't really try to dial in the body lines that hard, as I need to have the fenders back off again to paint anyways, but I set it on to check clearances. Looks like I have more then enough to spare for what I am going to try to do with the ram air kit, just as long as it doesn't come down off of the hood itself in a bad way. There is absolutely no pictures of that ram air kit anywhere on the web as far as what it looks like on the hood side, disappointing to say the least, but that will be just that much more traffic that can be generated to us here!

Going after a radiator tomorrow, a/c brackets are going to be in tomorrow also, going to start fab work on what I need there hopefully tomorrow/Friday. I would really like to fire this thing off this weekend if everything can keep up the pace it has been going so far this week..

Found a new radiator off of craigslist, was intended to be for a 97 model 454 truck, has transmission cooler installed, got it bought for 75. The guy has the receipt for it being 300+ when he bought it, but something happened to the truck before he could install it and its past the return time at the place he bought it. Worth a shot I guess, should be about 4-6 inches overall wider then my current radiator..

Anyways, that is the daily up date, I will post pictures tomorrow of the front clip on the truck for grins.

[69c10stepside]

And here is the surprise picture of the day.


And just a small thing to state.. Looks like I can use an older (think TBI) style alternator on it and it match up correctly. I also really like the storage box and windshield washer pump assembly that this 96 front clip has on it.. Just enough different to keep me interested i guess.. More later!

[jb1016]

Wow, it's looking like a truck again! You are moving right along.

[89muscletruck]

Wow!
that LS looks just right under that hood!

[scotts62]

Looking very good man nice work!!!

[69c10stepside]

Thanks guys!

Is it just me, or can anybody else see the last picture (should be a picture of the truck with the grille in it?)? Nevermind. I reuploaded the picture so it should show up now after updating the link. :double edit:

Picked up the radiator tonight. Guy wasn't kidding me when he told me it was only a month old, looks great! I will take a picture of it and the old one to compare the two.

[69c10stepside]

Today's progress was pretty slow.. Went to pull the hood cable this morning to start work, and of course, the cable end (cab side) broke. Was going to change it out for the later style anyways, but I didn't want it to go out like that, last act of defiance maybe? Started the mock up on the a/c bracket along with the supporting brackets for it. Had to get everything close for I could measure off the total amount of belt length I needed (which is somewhere around 107 inches) Also went on a parts run for a battery, battery cables, oil, transmission fluid, all of those things that seemingly add up faster then expected.

Anyways, plan on being done with the ac bracket tomorrow first thing, then going back underneath for the oil filter/trans filter, TQ bolts, starter, and transmission linkage. Then back up top for oil/transmission fluid, along with the throttle return spring, radiator hoses (which I am having to take two splice into one kind of thing), radiator, engine coolant, and some more wiring. The radiator I bought last night sticks above the radiator support about an inch, inch and a half. Must have been out of a 3500 hd, or something similar that had a deeper radiator support. I am going to cut out the section of the support that the radiator sits on and move it down for the radiator can clear properly.

Another thing I am going to have to be ready to "rework" is the ram air kit when it comes in, as the a/c lines off of the receiver/dryer come up on to the fender now for how the brackets work. Will show that in a picture or two, but that will be for tomorrow not tonight.

[69c10stepside]

YouTube- Gen III 6.0L Carb'd with L92 heads and...

YouTube- Gen III 6.0L Carb'd with L92 heads and...

YouTube- Gen III 6.0L Carb'd with L92 heads and...

Still a work in progress, need to reloom some wires, and put some wires in a loom as far as that goes. This thing is LOUD. Nothing is quite as sweet as the cackle it has, makes me feel kinda funny (like climbing the rope in gym class? name the movie). It hits you in the chest, makes your arm hairs move. The sound completely overpowers the camera I was using to record the truck running. Its great

Sorry for the big hairy arm in the movies, had my nephew start the truck for me a couple of times. Power steering pump appears to be bad, going to have to double check I have the steering sector plumbed in correctly before I remove it and put another one on. Still need to fab or re-engineer something to hold the radiator, along with finishing up the ac lines. Transmission mount is going to be modded to get the mount to work correctly, while I am there, I am also going to adjust the carrier bearing to make up for some of the lost slack in the transmission yoke.

After all of that is done, I am going to start working on the interior of the truck.

[jb1016]

WOW, that sounds good.

[scotts62]

Awesome!

[fencepost]

YaaaHHHOOOO! lets see a vid of it getting sidways in the road

[69c10stepside]

I have to get the driveline lengthened about another 2" inches total before I start getting crazy with it

Got it out, ready to send off tomorrow if, *IF* I remember to call the company before their delivery van goes by tomorrow morning.

Pulled the rest of the dash components out of the '96, going to start cleaning them to get them ready for color stain.

:edit:

Added pictures of the brackets etc on the 6.0 for those of you who don't like using youtube.

[fencepost]

Did the A/C bracket I showed you on that web site work?

[69c10stepside]

Yep, I used it as the basis for how I did mine. I will have to find the link, on that guys website he said he found the writeup on ls1tech, and between it and his, I made it work.

I am going to make a bet that a powersteering pump from an 88-95 truck or anything else with that saginaw style pump, will work in these brackets too. Going to have to get one pulled and try it out, one I got with the truck bracket is for sure bad.

[Rimshot1911]

After wiping up the drool spots on my keyboard I was able to subscribe to this thread! HAHA

[69c10stepside]

Driveline in and finished.. Some point in time, I developed a transmission leak.. appears to be the tv cable grommet. I have one to put in it, that part isn't a big deal. The big deal is the fact that the passenger side header completely covers that area now compared to what the exhaust used to look like.

[scotts62]

Originally Posted by 69c10stepside

Driveline in and finished.. Some point in time, I developed a transmission leak.. appears to be the tv cable grommet. I have one to put in it, that part isn't a big deal. The big deal is the fact that the passenger side header completely covers that area now compared to what the exhaust used to look like.

yeah its always something huh.