Markeb01 Build Thread

[markeb01]

Originally Posted by bj383ss

Sorry to hear about the cutout Mark. A lot of the guys on LS1tech run cutouts on Camaros, Firebirds, and Corvettes and have a lot of problems with certain brands of cutouts.

I can't remember what brand you bought. This is one of the reasons I went with QTP(quick time performance). I have had mine for almost 10 years and no problems.

Hope they get you fixed up.

Bret

I went with Doug’s because they were supposed to seal the best. I can attest to their sealing ability! They don’t leak that’s for sure! Although I’m annoyed by the failure after such a large investment, it’s too early to get upset, I’ll just have to wait another day and see how they respond.

Originally Posted by piratexpress1369a

guess you can not open it by hand

These electric cutouts aren’t the throttle valve style. There is a rotating gate inside a stainless steel housing and the only way to open them is electrically.

[Jmorales3181]

Thanks for posting pics from the show. Glad your new engine is running so well. Sorry to hear about the cutout... Hopefully they take care of you without a hassle.
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[markeb01]

I accomplished a few things today. I found my fuel system problem, installed new Hella H4 low beam headlamps, and have a constructive resolution on the dead exhaust cutout.

The headlights arrived today and were a simple plug & play installation except for needing to modify the rubber sealing boot on the back of the housing:



Specifically, this “spider web” over the back of the bulb blocked the receptacle from engaging the bulb terminals. If connected with this in the way, it just pushed the receptacle off the back of the bulb.



So I clipped off the “legs”, and sliced out the center piece with an Xacto knife:



The boot still seals around the back of the bulb, and the receptacle has dielectric grease applied to prevent terminal corrosion.

The finished assembly:



The shape of the bulb is unique. It looks somewhat like a sealed beam with a fluted glass lens in front, but the shape is somewhat flat with deep square sides. This shot shows a pretty good comparison between the shape of the Hella lens and a standard halogen sealed beam hi beam bulb.



At first glance it’s not obvious anything has been upgraded, compared to the lamps with a clear lens and shaped reflector inside.

It hasn’t been dark yet to see how they perform at night, but this pic gives a good idea how bright they are. This is on high beams with both lamps illuminated. The low beam lamp puts out more light, and is also brighter than the high beam bulbs. In real life looking at the filament from this angle will leave you with sun spots for a while. But where the high beam lamp shoots light all over, the low beam bulb has a very sharp cutoff to minimize glare to oncoming drivers. I’m really looking forward to finding out how much they improve night driving vision.

Both high and low beams are on here, and per usual placement the low beam is outboard:



Just before the bulbs arrived, I just finished installing an Edelbrock 1465 off road needle and seat assembly kit:



It’s designed to prevent the floats from spilling over during rough cornering and other abuse. It’s 90 degrees outside right now, but when it cools off later I’ll pull the truck outside and see if it needs any idle mixture or speed adjustments.

I also discovered where my surge/stalling at cruise was coming from. Removing the original inlet seats, I discovered they have tiny filters on the incoming side that are a friction fit into the inlets. They looked like they’d been caked with Moly assembly lube. A quick shower with carb spray had them looking like new. I didn’t know these little filters existed as I have never had a reason to pull the float inlets in 20 years. I forgot to photograph them, but they are shown as item 23 (strainers) in my owners guide printed in 1989. They are not listed in any of the other carb schematics I have. Considering how small they are and how long they’ve been in service with no attention, I’m impressed the carb still ran!



It’s just a handy thing to know if you happen to have an Edelbrock carb with stumbling issues.

Also – great news on the dead Doug’s Electric Cutout. Debbie at Pertronix is sending me out a replacement cutout on a nominal credit card charge, which she will credit back when the defective unit is returned. No questions, no hassle, just prompt and direct action for a customer issue. This should be the norm at every company, but I am surprised and pleased when a company steps up and behaves responsibly today. It hasn’t been the standard for many years. No matter how well something is made, anything mechanical can fail. Something breaking doesn’t get me upset. Refusing to fix it and blaming the customer is what gets me agitated. I’m happy to report Doug’s has a customer friendly response team in place, which reinforces my confidence in making the right decision to buy their product in the first place.

[Ta2Don]

As always, your attention to detail and explaining is Top Shelf!!! Filing the carb stumbling issues, I have a rebuilt edelbrock I will be using... Great Info, Thanks!!!
Also, glad to hear the Cut-out issue is being resolved... That is the way all customer service should be...

[66-PMD-GMC]

Nice!

[markeb01]

Saturday we hit the Spokane swap meet and came home with a few toys and some air filters for my truck. After all the recent modifications to the carb, I’ve been re-reading the owners manual, all the articles I have, and a bunch of threads on the internet. Edelbrock suggests the carb is designed to operate with a 14” open element air cleaner. They also mention a 10” air cleaner won’t mess with the mixture settings, but will cut down on airflow.

Since I have an old 14” air cleaner with a new filter, I decided to spruce it up and see how it looked, perhaps adding a factory 300 hp/327 decal. The 20 year old chrome showed a lot of pits, so I hit it with a D/A, and shot a coat of etch primer. Blitz black followed and came out looking every bit like a factory finish. I plopped it on the engine and thought it looked terrible:



(And yes the lid is sitting on top of the filter on the near side. It’s not bent I just didn’t take the time to fit it correctly). It’s too big, too black and looks lousy with everything else under the hood. So it came back off and I started rethinking the process.

My 10” air cleaner was originally fitted with a 10x2.25 or 10x2.5” filter. I didn’t want to pay $10-$15 for a correct replacement (which didn’t appear to be all that high quality anyway), so I bought some close out Wix filters from Amazon for about $2.00 each. They are 10x1 7/8”, or just shy of 2” in height. They seem to work well and look good in my opinion:



This filter will be in place when we go to car shows and rod runs. I still think it looks best.

So I have all this in the back of my mind as we’re wandering around the swap meet, when I spot a stack of three air filters marked 10x3 for $6.00. I don’t really care for how they look, but this does provide equivalent airflow to the 14” version. And it turned out they are 10x3.5”, so they’re even taller than I expected. I’m not crazy about the appearance, but I’ll be running this setup all of the time until we get ready for a show, at which time I’ll swap the stud and filter for the short version. After going to the hardware store and buying a $400 piece of 1/4x20 all thread, (which included a few things for the wife’s landscaping project) this is how the new setup looks:



With that out of the way I pulled the dead exhaust cutout, as the new one is out for delivery and due to arrive today. This allowed me to make up a template so my son can fabricate a pair of cutout caps to carry in the truck, in case one (or both) of them ever fails in the field. If they stick open it will be a relatively simple matter to pull off the electric valves and add mechanical caps.

Without the electric cutouts, the mechanical portion makes for a cool looking sneaker pipe setup by itself:



Had I not added the electric cutouts, I would have rotated the flange to be pointing straight up instead of to the rear, but that would have made the electric valves hang down at an odd angle.

Both my wife and I haven’t been particularly happy with the retractable seat belts ever since they went in. The push button style buckles were originally designed to be depressed in the center of a lap belt (as in pushing toward the center of the stomach). Having the buckles mounted on the side of the seat makes it more difficult to depress the release button with bad fingers and arthritis. So they are being replaced with “end release” buckles like the belts in our CRV which are super easy to get out of:



Those are also due to arrive today, so the existing belts were pulled yesterday awaiting the replacements.

I also found an outfit that sells bead chain by the foot. Missing a few balls worth of this heavy duty chain (100 lb pull strength) I haven’t been able to reconnect the cruise control since the carburetor isolator plate was installed. The chain is scheduled to arrive tomorrow, so it could also be a busy day.

[1963c-10]

Great collection of trucks there Mark. Thanks for posting the pics. Sorry about your mechanical bugs, but I have no doubt that you will resolve them.

When you did your Novak conversion, are you using the older style bellhousing w/the frame mounts or the newer style with the trans mount?

[markeb01]

I did mine with the trans mount. I was lucky enough to find a factory crossmember, even though it turned out to be too wide and needed to be sectioned. The only thing I could think was they must have two different types, perhaps one for shortbeds and a wider version for long beds. Photos and details are shown in this thread:

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=369663

[bj383ss]

I really like the way the tall element looks. Makes the engine more muscle looking. But then again I might be biased.



Bret

[markeb01]

You do have a point there!

[1963c-10]

Ok, thanks for the link. I'm going to be using the factory bellhousing w/the frame mounts. I have spoken with several engine builders, and so far all prefer the bellhousing mount as opposed to the trans mount for my application. I was just wondering if you had the same issues I've been dealing with. They are not anything I cannot fix, just lots of little ones. I've had the machining done for the slave assembly and I'm working on the clutch fork clearance now. I'm having to file the opening a little so that I can use the clutch fork boot on the clutch fork. The OEM clutch fork was 1" and the Novak fork was 1 11/16". I could have used a newer bellhousing with less effort, but i'm already invested in this bellhousing.

[markeb01]

Had I gone straight from the V6/stick to a V8/stick, I would have preferred keeping the original bellhousing mounts myself. I also REALLY like the original two piece cast iron bellhousing with the removable tin pan underneath. I absolutely hate the one piece aluminum models that require so much extra work to change the clutch. With the original you can do a transmission swap in about 10 minutes.

Unfortunately I went from an SM420 to a Turbo 350 for about 15 years before I went back to a stick. I'm really looking forward to seeing yours running with the 427. That's going to be fun.

[1963c-10]

Thanks for the info and kind words Mark. I too can't wait to get it running. My trans has the following gears....2.41, 1.57 & 1.00. With a big block it should be fun. The current rear end gear ratio is 4:10, which may have to be changed. I don't do much highway driving, mostly around town, but I would like to be able to reach 70mph without redlining. One thing at a time, but its getting there. Im lucky to have the spare rolling 64 frame sitting there, so I can at least mock up the drivetrain from rear end to engine in a few weeks.

[markeb01]

I know big blocks are torque monsters and you probably don’t “need” such a low rear end gear, but it may be a real blast around town. I also have a 4.10 rear axle ratio and rarely drive my truck on the freeway either. It can leave a dead stop like a rocket if needed.

With 29” rear tires my engine normally spins 3000 rpms at 60 mph. Last weekend the truck went farther than it’s been in 15 years, an hour out and back almost all at speeds between 60 and 70 mph. 70 only required 3300-3400 rpms, and with the HE268 cam the engine really liked cruising at the higher rpm.

Before changing anything you might see how it behaves with the gearing you have. If you can tolerate the low gear, they can certainly add to the fun factor.

[markeb01]

The new exhaust cutout was bolted in place and connected to the harness. It works perfectly. I’m hopeful I can say that several years in the future.

The new seatbelts were installed today and are a 100 point hit with my wife (and me too for that matter). They pull out of the retractors smoothly and easily, don’t get hung up part way and have to go back in. They are also super easy to release. And the male end of the belt in the retractor bumps into the end of the housing like it should:



The previous belts showed this same end style on the website, but what I received looked like this:



The buckle end is too narrow and will retract completely into the housing, so they added a loop of belt fabric below the buckle, causing it to flop over on the side. They looked stupid. I should have sent them back the minute I recognized they weren’t as advertised.

The receptacle end of a new set works just like a new car. The red button in the end is depressed and the latch pops right out:



The new belts are like night and day better and I’m happy to have them.

By the way I bought the first belts from Seatbeltsplus.com. The new belts came from Seatbeltplanet.com.

[Ta2Don]

Seatbelts look great, thanks for the link...
Now it's time to seriously play with the cutouts...

[markeb01]

Apologies in advance to all that follow or visit my build thread, as it may be somewhat of a mess for the next several weeks. After 6 increasingly disappointing years with Imageshack as my photo host, I’ve finally had enough. Periodically and for no reason they have randomly dropped dozens of my photos. Restoration of the pics into the threads required hours of research identifying what was missing, finding the original photos, reposting to the host, and editing the new link into the damaged threads.

I’ve rebuilt the larger threads on 3 separate occasions, consuming days of effort each time. I recently discovered there are many hundreds of newly missing photos, around 15% of everything I’ve posted, and I have a paying account, not a freebee. This is completely intolerable.

The volume of broken links is now so extensive I’m not making any further repairs with Imageshack. I’m switching over to Photo Bucket which will require reloading every photo on a new server, and replacing every photo link with a new one. Having over 6300 posts, this may be an impossible task, but I’ll start on the big threads first and see how far I can get.

If anyone finds one of my threads of particular interest with critical missing photos, please let me know and I’ll prioritize the threads needing repair, and rebuild them as best I can.

Since yesterday I’ve invested about 9 hours creating a new file with all the photos that belong on page one of my build thread. As soon as these can be loaded on Photo Bucket the new links will be inserted into page 1, and all the Imageshack links will be deleted. Hopefully this will be completely transparent to visitors, but in case it isn’t please be patient – and do yourself a favor and invest your photo hosting effort into some other website than Imageshack.

[66-PMD-GMC]

I don't use any of those online places Mark. I use the upload feature on the site.. just for the reasons you stated

[markeb01]

Maybe I'll give that a try. I've uploaded a bunch of pics to Photobucket easily, but all the links are grayed out providing no access to post anything!

[Bomp]

Will you be showing your truck at the Spokane Good Guys show?
I'd like to see your truck live.

I use Photobucket. I've gone over the 10GB bandwidth thing once. I haven't upgraded (paid) so all my pics went blank until the month started over.
I felt popular for just a moment.

[likaroc13]

Mark, not sure if it's related in any way, but I've seen a few folks post about having issues posting pictures lately. It was said the site is switching to a new server.

On another note, I have Photobucket. I'm almost at the limit for my free 2.5GB, & I really didn't want a monthly fee. So I'm moving some stuff over to Flickr. I will say that Photobucket was giving me issues not long ago, as they were switching to a new version. I couldn't organize my pics, which was driving me crazy. They finally got if fixed though. Another thing with Photobucket is, don't dare link & later rearrange your pics or the links will get broken. That's what led me to starting a new build thread for my truck.

Hope you get everything straightened out, because I know it's a headache trying to fix that much lost info.

[likaroc13]

Mark, not sure if it's related in any way, but I've seen a few folks post about having issues posting pictures lately. It was said the site is switching to a new server.

On another note, I have Photobucket. I'm almost at the limit for my free 2.5GB, & I really didn't want a monthly fee. So I'm moving some stuff over to Flickr. I will say that Photobucket was giving me issues not long ago, as they were switching to a new version. I couldn't organize my pics, which was driving me crazy. They finally got if fixed though. Another thing with Photobucket is, don't dare link & later rearrange your pics or the links will get broken. That's what led me to starting a new build thread for my truck.

Hope you get everything straightened out, because I know it's a headache trying to fix that much lost info.

[markeb01]

Originally Posted by Bomp

Will you be showing your truck at the Spokane Good Guys show?
I'd like to see your truck live.

I use Photobucket. I've gone over the 10GB bandwidth thing once. I haven't upgraded (paid) so all my pics went blank until the month started over.
I felt popular for just a moment.

Yes we'll be at the Spokane Goodguys event this year. A few hours on Friday and most of the day Saturday.

I didn't accomplish anything else on the computer stuff today, my brain hurt after hours and hours of putting things back together!

[markeb01]

Originally Posted by likaroc13

Mark, not sure if it's related in any way, but I've seen a few folks post about having issues posting pictures lately. It was said the site is switching to a new server.

On another note, I have Photobucket. I'm almost at the limit for my free 2.5GB, & I really didn't want a monthly fee. So I'm moving some stuff over to Flickr. I will say that Photobucket was giving me issues not long ago, as they were switching to a new version. I couldn't organize my pics, which was driving me crazy. They finally got if fixed though. Another thing with Photobucket is, don't dare link & later rearrange your pics or the links will get broken. That's what led me to starting a new build thread for my truck.

Hope you get everything straightened out, because I know it's a headache trying to fix that much lost info.

I've read some of those issues too, and I believe this site is currently restricting sizing to 600 x something, and all my posts are at 800x600. I've been posting for 6 years now and have only used up .7 gb on Imageshack. I'd like to stay with a free site if possible, as I'd like my posts to be around for future research after I'm gone. If I have to use a pay site everything will go away once the payments stop. Thanks for the input.

[markeb01]

I reconnected the cruise control a few days ago, since it recently developed the habit of disconnecting unexpectedly and sometimes rather violently. I assumed this was caused by the addition of the carb isolator plate, but it appears now I might have damaged the wiring either during the engine swap or while running the wiring harness for the exhaust cutouts. It was $30 for a new pulse generator/harness, so I ordered one from Summit. I probably would have just checked and replaced any bad wiring, but the new unit has a much shorter and beefier adapter connecting the hall-effect sender (for the electric speedometer) to the pulse generator for the cruise control.

The older unit came with what was essentially two ends of a speedometer cable. This made the device long enough to rattle against the transmission crossmember.

Here’s what the old adapter looks like:



And here’s the new version:



Once the new piece is in place I can remove a bunch of tie wraps and a clutch pad I currently have under this mess to minimize the rattling:



Regarding the build thread repairs, I ended up on Flickr. I loaded 129 photos in Photobucket the first time. It claimed there were 129 loaded, but only displayed about 2/3rd's of them. So I deleted the album and reloaded 10. It displayed 6. So I gave up and investigated Flickr. It appears to be much more simplified and everything can be manipulated manually. The biggest complaint I'm finding about Photobucket is that it previously was user friendly, and was "improved" to the point it's nearly impossible to find what is needed by people with years of experience using their site.

So now that I have something that will hopefully work, I'll try repairing the first page of this build thread over the next few days and see how much work it takes.