Complete build change. Lifted 2wd

[Devil Pup]

The Cherry picker sank into the dirt when the cab was lifted which actually made it vary sturdy and easy to roll the new frame under it.
With the cab on we set the front clip on just to see how it was gonna look. Pretty happy with it.

My brother is 6'2" so you can compare how tall the truck is to him.

Im thinking this will come down slightly when the motor is dropped in and when the rear is raised to match the front. But for now on 29" tires the fender opening sits at 42-1/8".

[kehstr]

what are you going to do about the bed, since the floor was raised to fit the bagged frame?

[Devil Pup]

Originally Posted by kehstr

what are you going to do about the bed, since the floor was raised to fit the bagged frame?

Well thats been kinda a headache as of recent. I want to save the original sheet metal because my dad gave me the truck when I was young. The bed was only really modified on the inner walls but it was somewhat a lot. Been looking for patch panels but cant seem to get a deal on anything. A buddy has a complete bed that I might just settle on for $250 bucks.

Other option is to just run it as a raised floor for temporary. Not ideal but it would match and still function.

[kehstr]

Originally Posted by Devil Pup

Well thats been kinda a headache as of recent. I want to save the original sheet metal because my dad gave me the truck when I was young. The bed was only really modified on the inner walls but it was somewhat a lot. Been looking for patch panels but cant seem to get a deal on anything. A buddy has a complete bed that I might just settle on for $250 bucks.

Other option is to just run it as a raised floor for temporary. Not ideal but it would match and still function.

If it's important to you to keep the original sheet metal then you could always cut the bedsides up from the bed you have now and the bed your buddy has to make your bedsides good. Not ideal and would certainly make the purists on this site go crazy (especially if the other bedsides are in good shape), but would most certainly work.

[Devil Pup]

Originally Posted by kehstr

If it's important to you to keep the original sheet metal then you could always cut the bedsides up from the bed you have now and the bed your buddy has to make your bedsides good. Not ideal and would certainly make the purists on this site go crazy (especially if the other bedsides are in good shape), but would most certainly work.

I've considered it. Just not sure what to do there. For now its last on the list. I can run it without temporarily while I work that out. Still need to get it running and driving first haha

[Devil Pup]

Small update but feels like big progress. Finished making the brake lines up to the master cylinder. Gotta give credit to my brother, he really did well on all the bends I asked of him in my opinion.

Just need to get some more clamps to finish tidying them up. bled the system and only had one small fitting seeping, tightened the fitting and no leaks. I got brakes!


Onto the Parking brake cables. Ideally I would have liked to have them not run across the rear end but I wanted to use the stock mounting points for the frame to keep all the other cables on the truck factory, So we used 2 Driver side E-Brake cables from the newer silverado. They function well so this is how they will stay.

Hooked into the stock cable and have full adjustment

The cables have little mounting tabs which allowed us to mount the cables and keep things from flopping around.

Next is to install the motor and start the wiring!

[NewType72]

Sometimes you gotta do what makes ya through some areas of the build, no worries as we all have faith that'll you find a better solution but over the rear end is no biggie. Keep truckin!

[noteron]

Killer build so far. I plan to do the same to one of my C10's soon. Subscribed and taking notes

[Devil Pup]

Originally Posted by NewType72

Sometimes you gotta do what makes ya through some areas of the build, no worries as we all have faith that'll you find a better solution but over the rear end is no biggie. Keep truckin!

True that! Its gonna stay this way unless it becomes an issue with exhaust or something. fingers crossed!

[Devil Pup]

Originally Posted by noteron

Killer build so far. I plan to do the same to one of my C10's soon. Subscribed and taking notes

Thanks man, Ill keep it updated in hopes of helping others looking to do the same!

[RRR18]

Following.

[Devil Pup]

Picked up some inner fenders from a buddy and started the prep for them to get installed. Pretty solid other than a small amount of rust on the passenger side front

Driver side is in great shape and cleaned up nicely

used a spray on bed liner for the under side. Looks really nice in person, has a good texture to it and seems durable. we'll see how it holds up.

Set the motor in. Fought us a bit but we got it done. Unfortunately we are planning to pull it again to do the harness. We haven't done an LS before so we figure it would be easy to miss a sensor or something if we try to wire it without the motor sitting in front of us in the garage.


I do have a question if there is any experts. The motor seems to sit slightly higher than others i have seen. The pan is only about a 1/4" below the cross member. No clearance issues with the firewall or anything. I have a 73-87 cross member and 73-87 motor mount towers, 73-87 clams and Poly motor mounts with 3/8" thick adapter plates. Does anyone see this being an issue or just sit slightly high? Hood still closes also.

[Devil Pup]

Started on the wiring. Turned out not too be as terrible as we thought it was gonna be.

Basically done but we are not finalizing anything until it is in the truck and we know where the PCM is gonna mount exactly.

Also turned out that the manifolds my buddy gave me were not TBSS. They were off a F-Body. I test fitted both and the truck manifolds fit with such little adjustment and have the O2's in the down pipes already that I'm gonna run those.

Starting to come together. Im just ready to drive this thing.

Started work on moving the battery tray to the driver side. Ended up tacking it up in the dark and its sideways add that to the list of stuff to do. It's also a little rustier than I would like. Might get a replacement or patch it. Not sure yet.

[Devil Pup]

Well Photobucket officially deleted most the first page pictures in this thread. if anyone needs any info or wants to see anything specific just ask and I'll repost it.

Picked up a new battery tray thanks to my buddies at Brothers trucks. Good group of guys and quality parts, fit like a glove and saves me a lot of time.

loosely fit the fuel lines onto the motor for a test fit. looks like I can use the stock lines from the motor all the way to the frame, will adjust the bracket slightly but i will even be able to use the stock fuel filter.

Harness is completely figured out. just need to tie up loose ends, put the plug on the leads that are going into the cab and its ready to go.

used two of the doorman fuse blocks because I plan to run dual electric fans,power windows and a light bar and such in the future.

Got these nice connectors from ebay so the wires that run into the cab can be easily unplugged if needed. http://www.ebay.com/itm/2x-Set-of-8-...53.m2749.l2649

Also fabricated a bracket to mount the PCM up under the inside lip of the fender by the battery tray. Its coming together. lots of stuff still to do but one step at a time its slowly gettin done.

[Devil Pup]

Made a ton of progress on the truck since last updated this thread. Hoping to be driving it within a month.

Stock transmission linkage worked simply by moving the frame mount back about an inch. Actually lines up perfect on the gear shift indicator on the column and I'm able to get from Park all the way to 1st without binding or issues. "Need to clean and touch up the frame"


Chopped up the stock 2000 Tahoe pedal and used the stock 69 pedal bracket mounting holes on the firewall. lines up pretty good. will look into either changing the chrome trim pad that I have for a standard waffle pad, or upgrading to the chrome trim gas pedal once its driving.


cleaned up, resealed the diff and topped off the fluid.

[Devil Pup]

Ended up abandoning my 31 gallon gas tank in favor of a 25 gallon tank out of the 87 and later EFI blazer/suburbans. Going to run the stock Silverado pump I have in this tank since it is baffled.

It tucks up in the frame much better also. It is the same physical dimensions of the 31 gallon tank, just shallower so all we had to do was shorten the straps. Sits above the hitch now, which is also a huge plus.

Received my Champion CC369 Radiator also. Looks too pretty for the truck its goin in haha. A plus with this radiator is it has a heater return which will work great for the steam lines on the LS.

Test fit the Ford Windstar fans. As other members have said, they fit really well. Unfortunately these fans are junk. Got them from eBay and when received, tested them and the motors/bearings are bad. got a refund, and purchased some brand new ones from Amazon.

Got my Rancho's installed. hopefully get a nice ride out of em.

[Devil Pup]

More progress
Stock fuel lines from the back of the motor down to the frame. Uses the stock fuel filter for the LS and connects right into the fuel rail on the intake.

Hard lined using 3/8 and 5/16 line with inverted flare unions.

Fuel injection soft line double clamped onto flared hard line.

Stock 4l60E transmission cooler lines, routed in the stock clamps on the bottom of the motor and leads directly up to the core support where we needed em surprisingly. . used two of the same line. cut the ends, flared and clamped soft line to connect to my existing cooler.

I really need to remake that mounting bracket for the cooler. . a shop did that if you can believe that ha. I hadn't ever looked at it til this weekend. looks pretty terrible but its working I suppose.

[Devil Pup]

Picked up a new side post battery for the driver side to fit the ls harness and test fitted the radiator.

Installed the new push on Dodge Dakota door seals.

Really surprised how well these fit.

Finished making the EGR Block off plates for the exhaust.

Adapter for the oil pressure line installed. Almost time to fire this thing up and see how she runs.

[Devil Pup]

Some simple brackets to mount the fan shroud to the radiator.

Got everything put together and ready to start it for the first time and ended up having to pull the transmission again because of one little mistake! I wont do that twice. That sucked!

Jumped the fuel pump and a few other connections to see if it would fire. We had a few things that stopped it from firing the first time and it was pretty frustrating but once we realized our little mistakes it fired up and ran perfect. Hooked up the obd2 port and scanned for codes. . All clear so far! Had roughly 30-40 psi of oil pressure on my gauge. Not bad for a junkyard find!
Heres a video of it firing up if you wanna check it out
https://youtu.be/TbCFCHbjBWQ

Next is wheels and tires since the stockers that are on it hit the tie rods and are much too small for the lift. Gonna run Mud terrains on one of these two wheels. Just need to make up my mind.
Raceline Clutch

Raceline Defender

[Devil Pup]

Test fit the wheels off my Titan to see how a 33" would look on the truck. obviously not a good looking wheel on the Chevy and the front body panel isn't bolted up and aligned yet but there is plenty of room for a 33".

My brother finished up rewiring under the hood and we got power back into the cab. . its coming together.

[Devil Pup]

had to say goodbye to the white gauges in the truck this weekend.

The gauge conversion kit from LS1Nova and the box from CaptainFab made things really easy. Literally bolts in and aligns everything.

Speedo face cut out and fit into the cluster and the tin sprayed back to satin black like original instead of the white.

Added a "check engine" light and a "Tow" light since the tow haul is activated on my motor swap.

Cluster complete,the pic angle makes the speedo look off center but its actually really really close and centered nicely. .Also you can see the high beam indicator we added in the original spot as well as the colored LED's for the check engine light and tow haul light.

[Devil Pup]

Big update!
Aligned the doors, front end and hood. I've never done that before. Much respect to the guys who get perfect gaps! Mine are not perfect but I'm okay with it until we paint it ha.



Had my A/C lines made on Saturday. If anyone is in So Cal and needs lines made, the shop to go to is Air and Hose supply in Bloomington.
those dudes knew their stuff and had a great price. In and out in 30 minutes

Installed. Connects into my OldAir Products (ColdAir products) system. just need to charge it and should be ready to go for the rest of summer. wiring wasnt done in this pic. its cleaned up since this.

We finished up all the loose ends, put some fluids in her, ran it up to temp. Fans worked as they should. idled really well. and did a small test for the transmission in the back yard. not much room back there but we got a 1/10th of a mile on the odometer. real test will be after we get the wheels and tires so we can see if she shifts. fingers crossed!

she drives under her own power!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2V_...ature=youtu.be

Wheels and tires to come this week. Than an alignment and some exhaust and should be ready to go. Also got a buddy with a bed for it so probably gonna pick that up asap.

[Devil Pup]

Well, truck is up and runnin

[Devil Pup]

Well doesn't seem like I have much interest from anyone but ill update this for myself to look back on. Almost 200 miles on the odometer and puttin it to work already.
Picked up a bed from a buddy

[Dieselwrencher]

Nice work on the truck! It looks mean with those wheels and tires on it! Great work. I have to say I love the new look of it!