Wtf did i get myself into 51 s10 swap

[White knuckle Garage]

nice build will be checking in

[lv2tri2]

The Delta drill press for $75 is good if it's only a switch problem.

[rtinniste]

No new updates but did sell my old frame, old cab, and 235. Ended up getting $900 and a case of blue moon so I'm happy. Now my cab and bed can go to media blast and some parts for my motor.

Also went to get a new windshield in the infiniti in the sketchy side of my town and lord behold found the mother load of AD parts. This salvage yard only deals with classics and he has at least a dozen 5 window cabs in good shape and about 2 dozen 3 window cabs. Not to mention everything else he has. Prices arent the cheapest around but he does have a business to run.
He sells the 5 window cabs for 1,000-1,300. So I might go back this week try to find a front bed panel since mine is bowed pretty bad.

[dug224]

Nice build...subscribed. dug

[Nut Case]

Does he have TF parts?

If so could you please share the: Name, phone number?

Thanks

Nut Case

[rtinniste]

Some updates since its been awhile.
I went back to that salvage yard and I swear the guy is smoking crack or something he wanted $250 for a beatup front bed panel. So ended up going to brothers trucks and getting one for $100.

A couple weeks ago I pulled my cab off for what seems like the millionth time but its the last time pulling it thankfully. Started shaving the fire wall and I'll be honest it looks like crap so I haven't been motivated to do the other half. I honestly hate doing bodywork but talking to my uncle his buddy is doing all the body work on his Ghia so I might haul everything down to Arizona to have him body work and prime everything I'm not sure yet.



Alot of other things were happening so the truck sat untouched for a while.

But ended up selling the Infiniti and all the extra stuff I had for it. Got my Dodge back from the engine builder and since its now my daily I ended up taking care of some stuff on it I've been wanting to do. New balanced motor w/ port and polished heads, serviced trans, shift kit, 4:88 gears, detroit locker, new rear end bearings, all new front end bushings and ball joints, full size matching spare. Still want to long travel it but thats going to wait I'm settling for mid travel for now should pull 10-12" of travel in the front and the rear can pull 19" with carli shackles and deavers

Truck is running great last weekend put close to 100 miles of dirt trails and powerline trails.




Woke up early Saturday worked a solid 12 hours thru 103 degree heat. Pulled the motor and trans out and got those put on a pallet. I had my front bags and brackets sitting in the cabinet for a couple months now finally decided to cut the spring pockets and finish dehumping the driverside arm.

Ended up trimming the lip off the inside of the spring pocket up to the weld and also flared the outside of the spring pocket I have a little more then a finger gap in the tightest spot.
Running boards hit the ground before the arm contacts the frame and I ran a die on the ball joint to fix the botched thread. Painted everything and bolted it up one last time.
Now with bags on the front I was able to throw some air in the front and roll the frame out to the street and de-grease pressure wash everything.




Now my dodge has to go back to the engine builder so he can fix a oil leak in the pan. And I have my motor out and on a pallet. The motor might just be going with the dodge to the engine builder and he might be turning my 350 into a 383 stroker. Still undecided between the 383 or 350 depends on how much of a price difference there is I still need to have my trans gone thru. But he gave me a killer quote for the 383 and headwork.

[Cuttin up]

Sweet! Glad to see someone with some progress going on since I've been caught up in honey do lists.

The worst machine expense with going to a 383 is the clearance for the rods but if you can do it, do it. More power is always better.

[joedoh]

any news?

[rtinniste]

Originally Posted by joedoh

any news?

Shifted some things around my garage, put the motor on the stand, and wired the compressor in on its own breaker after a year of it sitting around the garage lol does that count?

But in all honestly I haven't touched the truck in awhile I ended up buying a new 4runner so I've been going wheeling almost every weekend, and fun funds have been going into that and my other hobbies.


But I did sell the dodge for a decent amount, plan was to use the money from the dodge to finish the 51. Its just nice having that extra money in my savings. I'm just really stuck on where I want to go budget wise. I have a quote for $1500 to rebuild my 350 including a comp thumper cam, balanced crank, and ported and polished heads with roller rockers. My buddy is selling his full year old accuair e-level system with the bluetooth controller, dual air zeinth ob2's, 5 gallon aluminum tank, and accuair exo mount cheap also.

Right now I've been thinking about just swapping the manifold, checking the bottom end and running the motor as is and getting a bench rebuilt 350 trans and running a manual valve setup for the bags.

Chassis wise I'm finished I need to get the bed on to finalize my bag mounts, since I moved the 4 link forward about 2 inches to better center the wheels in the fenders.



Pics of the new gold digger. Installed the bilstein lift, wheels and tires, cut the bumpers to clear tires, hid's, light bar, window tint within the first week of owning it. Planning on king's, total chaos upper control arms, and metaltech long travel rear spings and links by April.

Currently working on a on board air system picked up an air zeinth ob2 compressor from a buddy for free to feed a 4 gallon tank. Still have to fab the bracket to fit the compressor in the engine bay and find a safe spot to mount the tank either behind the front bumper or a pancake tank in the spare tire area. I also started cutting mounting plates for bolt on sliders.







But now I'm pretty motivated to start working on it again since I bought my dad all billet pulleys, a chrome water pump, and a chrome power steering pump for Christmas. So he's been wrenching on his c10 again so maybe this week I'll cut out a panel for the drivers side firewall finish that up.

[gigamanx]

When you were test fitting the dropped height after bags, is that how you figured out how low to put the running boards? I've just started my tear down of my 3100 and should be getting an S10 in a week or two. I have no idea how to determine how low to set everything. It looks like you took out all the springs and everything from the suspension and just let it sag to its lowest point. Def. interested in the build and in your process. Nice work!

[rtinniste]

Had a 4 day weekend which was nice. Weather sucked and my debt card has been turned off for almost 2 weeks while waiting for a new card from my bank. After work Thursday sold the running boards from my 4runner and went and picked up the rest of the fittings, regulator, filter, new longer hose, angle die grinder, a bunch of roloc disks, and a 50ft extension cord for my welder.

Now my compressor is up and running need a better filter system because I'm still having some moisture issues and it needs a new auto start module, it will kick on but won't shut off unless you bring it up pressure, turn it off, then turn it back on, then it stays and won't kick on until it hits 120 psi. Tried adjusting it and still nothing. But then again I've only pushed it to 180 psi since its a 175 psi compressor maybe the gauge is wrong? Just scares the hell out of me thinking about going any higher on it. And the longer cord I can finally move my welder around to any spot in the garage, side yard, and down my driveway to the street.

So with nothing planned for the weekend ended up working on my cab, I've never done any type of body work or sheet metal work ever and taught myself to weld so don't judge my hackery to harshly. And guess yesterday I didn't get any pictures of it finished. The upper panel pissed me off I regret paneling over it should of filled the holes instead I have no idea why I didn't it's only like 6 or 7 holes and just created a bigger headache for myself. Also the drain hose for the cowl I'm re-routing to the toe board since originally it drips on to the fire wall.


Passenger side I did maybe 6 months ago paneled over the whole half. Huge pain in the ass to do it that way espically since I wanted the panel sunk in and not completly flush and smoothed out. Trying to shape to blend that radius is a huge pain. Ended up calling it quits before I burn thru the sheet metal with the grinder, then using some body filler to see If I can blend it. Didn't block or really sand it just wanted to get a idea and plan on wiring wheeling it all out, actually already started. And the paint I just needed something to cover the raw metal since the cab was going to be living on the side yard uncovered.

Then the upper panel I welded and again with the stupid radius. Guess that what really separates the pros from some butcher hackjob like myself lol







I'll take a picture of it currently when I get home from work I ended up with another panel over the top to try to smooth it out completely and it fixed everything except for the top edge. Either I say screw it and just go with it and use some filler like the passenger side panel since the entire firewall needs a skim coat anyways or I'm going to cut that entire section out and replace it so its completely flat.

But everything is done on the firewall all the pin holes welded up and ground out and I'm happy with everything minus that stupid upper panel. Toe board should go pretty fast then wire wheel the entire firewall.

[lower50's]

I think it looks good!! working with sheet metal takes a lot of practice.

[99 to Life]

sheetmetal is some tedious stuff, but once learned it will make you a better welder and fab guy. Make sure you let it cool and dont get it too hot. Your upper firewall patch you made is alot of weld. So in areas like that just weld an inch on one end then jump over to the other end. Watch the heat stains in the metal. A piece that large is very easy to warp. Same goes for when you knock the weld down for finishing. don't let it get too hot, as your metal will thinner and hotter when you grind it down. Thus making those pinholes harder to fix. Overall you are doing good with what you have shown.

[rtinniste]

Originally Posted by 99 to Life

sheetmetal is some tedious stuff, but once learned it will make you a better welder and fab guy. Make sure you let it cool and dont get it too hot. Your upper firewall patch you made is alot of weld. So in areas like that just weld an inch on one end then jump over to the other end. Watch the heat stains in the metal. A piece that large is very easy to warp. Same goes for when you knock the weld down for finishing. don't let it get too hot, as your metal will thinner and hotter when you grind it down. Thus making those pinholes harder to fix. Overall you are doing good with what you have shown.

Thanks guys appreciate the positive feedback definitely have alot to learn doing sheetmetal all I have to go off of is what I read online and learning from my mistakes. That's why I started with the firewall before moving into the cab corners and shaving the passenger cowl vent.

As for keeping the heat out of the panel. I tacked all 4 corners, then the center, then overlapping tack welds for about a inch off the original tacks in a star pattern (like tightening lugs) until I had every tack overlapping.

I really should of just filled each hole or at least make the patch panel slightly bigger because the double rows of weld was so I can have something to blend into. Which in the end turned out to bite me in the ass when it came time to grind everything down.

I ended up using my die grinder with a cutoff wheel then blend with the angle die grinder with a roloc on that panel. Not happy with how it turned out but did learn a lesson about being lazy.....

Currently I'm on the fence about cutting that entire section out and and replacing it.

[rtinniste]

Forgot to post this after I cleaned up the top panel the best I could. Need to pick up a pack of new tips for the welder since I've seemed to misplace the other pack I had. Might as well grab a spool of .025 since I've been using .030 this entire time should help with sheet metal. And hopefully my bed, tailgate, and running boards will be getting blasted in the next week or 2.

<a href="http://s376.photobucket.com/user/rtinniste/media/IMG_1677_zpsvw8l8gmy.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i376.photobucket.com/albums/oo206/rtinniste/IMG_1677_zpsvw8l8gmy.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_1677_zpsvw8l8gmy.jpg"/></a>

[pedro6371]

hi just looking your built pretty cool like to know if you can give me some hints I'm going to start s10 swap into my 48 where are you in la I'm in the san fernando valley thx.

[rtinniste]

Hey guys nothing really exciting moved to a new house so I've been busy with remodeling there. Finally got some time to work on the truck a little.

Last time I checked in I was just finishing up shaving the firewall.
Now the firewall is stripped down to bare metal and ready for a skim coat and blocking.

Started digging into the motor really don't want to spend the money to have it rebuilt so we will see how it checks out. Plugged up every hole and soaked it in oven cleaner on a sunny day then pressure washed it which worked amazing.

Pulled the cast iron intake manifold off, pulled the cracked starter, pulled the dented oil pan. Sigh of relief when the pan came off and I see the 4 bolt mains, I've had this motor sitting around over a year and never pulled the pan to check.

[rtinniste]

Now question I have what would you suggest to clean out the bottom end anything I can spray in there since there is a little bit of sludge?

Also anything else you'd suggest replacing or checking so far this is what im planning
check the crank bearings
replace the head gaskets
check condition of cylinder walls
edlebrock performer intake manifold (already have)
summit stock oil pan
new oil pump and pick up
felpro intake and oil pan gaskets
new brass freeze plugs
new double roller timing chain and gears
chrome timing chain cover

Still haven't figured out what starter to get I'd like something smaller since its close to the frame. All the front accessories I have already and thinking a hei distributor

[Cuttin up]

I feel ya on the remodeling stuff. Just when I think I'm done the wife finds something else.

Your plan of attack is what I've always done. Look it over, clean it, check for play, re gasket, and go. Depends on how much sludge is in the bottom end, I'd just hit it with brake clean. Just make sure you get all of the oil passages clean. As for a starter, I've not had luck with the mini starters (too much compression, it would push it away from the flex plate) and have always had to go back to the big ol chevy starter. HEI is the way to go, just one wire to hook up and good to go.

[rtinniste]

Originally Posted by Cuttin up

I feel ya on the remodeling stuff. Just when I think I'm done the wife finds something else.

Your plan of attack is what I've always done. Look it over, clean it, check for play, re gasket, and go. Depends on how much sludge is in the bottom end, I'd just hit it with brake clean. Just make sure you get all of the oil passages clean. As for a starter, I've not had luck with the mini starters (too much compression, it would push it away from the flex plate) and have always had to go back to the big ol chevy starter. HEI is the way to go, just one wire to hook up and good to go.

Yea its honestly never ending and I still need to wire lights and 220 in the garage

The sludge isn't to bad just a couple clumps inside just wasn't sure whats safe to spray in there. Any other tips on cleaning the motor up would be greatly appreciated.

That sucks to hear about the starter, I have about half a inch of clearance between the frame and starter on the lowest setting. I'm just worried with running rubber motor mounts the motor torquing over and the starter tapping the frame rail. I can always run poly bushings also I guess.

[99 to Life]

The ol sbc crapshoot. Been through so many of them it seems. I'd suggest just tearing it all down and rebuilding it yourself. Will take 30-40hrs atleast. If you clean it all by hand. If you have the block dipped you could save some time. or... just degrease it the best you can and hope it turns out ok. I wouldn't do that unless you hook up and oil gauge and prime it. If you get 50ish lbs on a prime, I'd run it. If you are getting 30ish, I'd tear the whole thing apart. Or back burner it and find a running one for a few hundo that you can hear it run and watch it get up to temp.
The sludge doesn't scare me, I'v witnessed so much sludge in the oil galley of a 305 and that thing had so many miles on it. When my friend put it back together it ran like a champ. I couldn't believe it.

[Dave_The_BMXER]

Not sure how I just found this thread. Great work so far. I wanted reverse supremes too but the wife wants steels. Probably rock those for a bit then order supremes or claim they shipped the wrong wheels haha.

Looking forward to seeing this one done!

[lower50's]

I second the brake clean just prime the oil before you fire. Also I would put a new water pump on.

[rtinniste]

Originally Posted by Dave_The_BMXER

Not sure how I just found this thread. Great work so far. I wanted reverse supremes too but the wife wants steels. Probably rock those for a bit then order supremes or claim they shipped the wrong wheels haha.

Looking forward to seeing this one done!

Lol because I'm lazy and have been dragging my feet and never have any updates
Do it! I've only seen one other AD running supreme's online. I got them thru summit pretty cheap. Rear fits perfect with the blazer axle hammered the fender lips flat and its prob 1/8" clearance, front I'm running a 1" spacer and looks like I can still turn with it dumped at the ride height I want.

Originally Posted by lower50's

I second the brake clean just prime the oil before you fire. Also I would put a new water pump on.

Right on still haven't gotten around to it! I did put the cab and front clip back on my frame to clear up some room in my garage.

That's the plan I have a new chrome shortneck high flow water pump with a billet impeller, chrome single wire alternator with billet brackets, billet pulleys stored away.

whats needed for the motor currently if my bearings look okay
- new freeze plugs
- gaskets
- new oil pan
- paint block, heads, and edelbrock intake manifold
- glassbead and polish my m/t valve covers
- ceramic coat my headers
- edelbrock carb
- batwing air cleaner
- timing chain cover
- double roller timing chain and gears
- 12 point intake manifold bolts

planning on leaving the cam alone since that can be done later with the motor in the truck

[rtinniste]

Still slowly chipping away on this. Cab is down to bare metal and only rust is in the rear cab corners inside and outside both had rot. Didn't get pics of the inside panel patches but got the drivers side done. Need to do the passenger side and also shave the heater vent on the passenger cowl. Hopefully in the next week or two the doors will be on and the entire cab primed and blocked.