Project Mr. Green Jeans (now 5.3 LS turbo build!)

[68Timber]

Man that sucks. Do you think its related to the trouble they gave you hanging the rods?

[bnoon]

Originally Posted by BRUISER

Man that sucks. Do you think its related to the trouble they gave you hanging the rods?

No, I think it's because I patched together my old HEI instead of buying a new one. Advance mechanism wasn't smooth and probably got hung up. Also, the exbaust is so loud I couldn't hear any detonation.

[Low Elco]

Aww...Maaannnn... Sorry to hear it.

[bnoon]

Good news! Turns out it was just a totally backed off exhaust rocker on cylinder 3 causing a HUGE backfire through the carb. So loud it was making the metal on metal sound I was hearing. I used a file to cut some teeth into the bottom of allen set screw, adjusted lash, reseated the pushrod (after checking it was straight and checking surfaces on the rocker) and reassembled. VROOOOOOMBA!!!!

[Low Elco]

Hooray! Nice feeling, to have dodged the bullet. Many happy miles to you!

[bnoon]

I found myself in someone's video of Power Tour 2014 in Bettendorf, leaving the Isle Casino grounds. I wish I would have done a burnout. I did one later for some kids on 18th street a little farther down and it was great. I was too chicken with the cops and congestion shown here though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsF2MDvmN9w. I come around the corner at about 8:35 mark in the video. Some really cool cars there.

[bnoon]

Getting ready to leave for Power Tour, on the road to it, then stranded... and how it got home. Thank GOD that it was only a loose rocker! Still running strong! I got the LP tank out this weekend as well.

[bnoon]

Also, died the center horn button back to black with this stuff. I'll show some "after" pictures soon once it's got a repainted center emblem and is reinstalled. Here's the cleared out bed. Eventually I'll do a spray in liner probably, but for now I threw in the old rubber floor from Julius from before he got the plastic liner.

[Hankster]

Looks good, Those wheels look staggered?

[bnoon]

Stock 15x8 front, Wheel Vintiques 15x10 rears. Painted white with no beauty rings.

[bnoon]

Got the other steering wheel installed from Julius after I finished the horn button partial restore. I liked the wood grain of this wheel, even if it is a little worn. Took about 4 or 5 coats of the black stuff above to get black again. I kinda wanted to repaint the GMC background, but making it look too new would just not look right for this truck. Finished this first because it looked like rain.

Sky cleared, pulled the carb to install the medium-hard secondary spring because they were opening way too early. Once I get them opening at the right time, I can worry about jetting and schedule some dyno time to do some wideband testing. Not going for all out tune, but something in the ballpark would be nice. Still got some lean pops every once in a while on tip in.

Replaced the leaky transmission pan gasket. Bought a cheap one before and paid for it. This time the Summit rubber with steel core went in. Didn't leak a drop yet, even on a fresh section of driveway! Yay! While I was under there, a new vacuum modulator went in as well. Few test drives had it shifting right about where I want it and some shift firmness returned as well.

I also got the AC about 90% reinstalled. I need to either buy or fabricate a bracket for the rear to keep it from flopping around when it's under load. Then, screw on the 134 adapters and charge it to see what I've got.

After that I installed the 1 7/8" ball on the bumper (previous owner had it mounted in one of the back corners of the bed, for what I have no idea). Also wired it for flat 4 and tested. While I was there, I refurbished the licence plate lights and used the chrome covers from Julius. One bulb is burned out... dang.

All done today... because yesterday was the Bacoon Ride, which was 70 miles and they had bacon treats at every town along the way. It was supposedly an "Even Calorie" ride if you ate everything!!! WOW! Named Bacoon for Bacon and Racoon River Bike trail promotion. Never again. I have a baboon's butt!!!

[bnoon]

Parking lot alternator replacement. The pulley was too worn on the old alternator and it had been chewing up the new belt ever since I put it together. I went one day too long... belt snapped and wrapped itself around the water pump pulley, causing the power steering belt to snap. No cooling, no power steering, no charging. Luckily an OReilly's auto parts store was 3.8 miles away. I left the hood up for about 20 minutes to cool it down, then made the sprint to the shop. Made it just as temp was gurgling the radiator overflow bottle, never overheated - WHEW!

Purchased a 15 dollar SAE socket set, new 3 year warranty belts (19 and 14 dollars), and a 1 year warranty alternator for 34 dollars. The alternator tried to throw me a curve with a 10mm nut for the power wire, but my multi-tool pliers were able to get it done. Finished just before a HUGE thunderstorm hit the area (ground is wet from small shower just before I broke down). God I love cheap parts and good timing.

[bnoon]

Got an Accell adjustable advance HEI distributor. Makes it easier to set a higher initial advance, then limit overall vacuum advance to avoid pinging at cruise. Installed, but not tweaked yet. Already runs way better than the broke down stock one from the 454. Sticky advance mechanism and no vacuum advance are things of the past!

Picked up a new timing light too since I killed the last one by letting the pickup sensor housing melt itself to the header pipe when I timed in the old HEI. Actually the timing light still worked... just wouldn't let go of the wire since the rest of the pickup was a melted blob!

Stepped the secondaries down from brown spring to plain spring. Brown and plain are opening too late compared to the stock shorter plain spring, so next softer one or two steps will be going in.

Got down my old AutoMeter Monster Tach too. I had it wired to a 6 cylinder last time, so a wiring redo is in order, then a general cleaning before I paint the housing and shift light back to flat black (silver to match the last car it was in). Thinking down in the corner of the dash by the bottom of the A-pillar.

[bnoon]

Idle down the main street of the Goodguys Heartland Nationals on Sunday 7-6-2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-zoSvAGG_A and also a couple of pictures of where I parked. Good times.

[2000Limited]

Nice build, I like it

[bnoon]

Tach. Because racetruck.

[Hankster]

Nice tach!

[bnoon]

Very old and very nice! I got that tach in 1997 and had it in my 1970 Corvette... then my 1999 Contour first with supercharged 2.5 v6, then 3.0 v6, then it sat on a shelf for about 10 years. I was just glad it still works!

[Hankster]

Nice! haha, my brother had a tach like that in his 81 GMC ..

[bnoon]

Had a good start to the weekend. Friday we went and looked at a possible new project... early K5 (73 or 74, they can't remember which). This is the same place that had Mr. Green Jeans... I knew they had the K5 and my girlfriend has said a few times that she likes the old "bigger Jeep looking things with the roof off". I found a couple of pictures of old Blazers and she said "yeah, those!" and I was like hey... I know where there's one of those. Misty's new toy? We'll see...

We went and looked at it and there is significant rust on the front floors, rockers, and lower fenders behind the wheel... as well as rear wheel arches. Have to think on it to see if we're getting it or not. This one also hasn't ran for at least 14 years and has a "bad transmission". It has 350/350 2 barrel with working 4x4, swapped in red bucket seats that can most likely be saved, and brown cloth/vinyl rear seat that's decent. The top is perfect and the rear window goes up/down. The coolest thing? Aftermarket dealer installed AC system! Uses a flat little pancake compressor and the long plastic fake wood grain collection of vents under the dash. Worth the purchase price to part this thing out as the parts that aren't rusty are very very clean really. Such a shame the rust holes are there.

[bnoon]

So then I worked on the 350 in Green Jeans... I used the little end gaskets under the intake manifold instead of the 1/4" strip of goo... the gaskets pushed out within a few hundred miles, so I've had oil leaks to the tune of a quart or so per week depending on miles driven... so, pulled the intake, cleaned everything off, and put it all back on with the goo this time. Was the easiest I've ever put an intake onto a motor... no shifted gaskets, smooth as butter and even all of the holes lined up on the first shot. I even told my dad when he called "Something's wrong, this can't go this smooth, I must have forgotten something..." Dad laughed and agreed... then it happened.

I start the truck and take it down off of the ramps. Timing is a bit off, so it pops and sputters a bit, dies as it's rolling backwards off of the ramps. No biggie. Put the ramps away, go to restart it and nothing... Tried a few more times and the key now feels as if it's not moving anything inside the column. Damn, there it is... the setback I could feel coming.

Pulled apart the top of the column and found a broken slide that connects the ignition switch rod to the cylinder. Damn. Trip to the salvage yard only has an 82, and 86, and an 87 to choose from. The two newer ones are way different, but the '82 just might work. The good part is that someone has removed all but the under hood support, the shaft, and the hole trim plate... So I take it home for $50.91 after a little work.

Once home I find the connectors are just a little different on the turn signal wiring and the cruise wire had been severed. After breaking it all the way down, I swapped over all of my good wiring parts and start to put it in the truck. That's when I realized the shaft was different... splined on the '74 and oval with two flats on the '82. Damn. Back to the yard to grab the intermediate shaft. No charge on this piece.



I get back home and get the column mounted in the truck and go to install the "correct" intermediate shaft that I went back for... the end for the steering box is different! ARRRRAAAGHHHHHH! I see that I can swap rag joints, so bang those rusty bolts loose just barely, clean them up and reassemble... I get it almost together and see that I installed everything so that the wheel would be upside down. Son of a mother trucker!!! Pull the intermediate shaft again, reposition it 180 degrees, and hook the battery back up. Horn works, accessories work, signals work... no start. I swap out the ignition switch, still no start... I swap out the park/neutral switch, still no start. Damn. Now I have to raise it up and start checking voltage at the starter/etc. Didn't have time to go after it further. Felt like banging my head on a concrete wall. Continue tonight.

[bnoon]

Couple more of the Blazer...

[bnoon]

So Thursday night I had a friend come over and we tested the voltage going to the starter. Had a full 12 volts. Dang. Up on stands and pulled the old stock starter out. A few pieces of insulation material came out of the geared end, so I knew it was toast, but I still bench tested it... Just hummed. I guess it didn't know the words.

$119 plus $49 core for a gear reduction starter and I was in business. They even let me return my non-gear reduction starter for the core. Saved 15% just by purchasing online and picking up at the store vs. walking in and asking for it. Advance Auto = WINNING!

It starts so much easier with the gear reduction starter it's not even funny. Even makes a cool little "wheeeeeeee" noise as it winds up and spins down. Smoothest starter I've ever heard.

I also cleaned up some extra wiring under the dash, re-ran my HEI power wire from the fuse block, and rewired my yellow fog lamps a little cleaner. I'm going to go back into this wiring one more time to put the 3 way toggle switch into true 3 way mode to go back and forth from the clear fogs to the yellow fogs. I've got my 87A relays ready to go, just need to sit down and design the circuits. Been too long since I wired them, I can't even remember their pinout off of the top of my head like I used to. Don't use it, you lose it!

[bnoon]

Well, the 350 runs great, even has a new Summit Racing Stage 4 intake on it... but a turbo 5.3 just keeps calling my name. I made the first step last night, buying a 130,000 mile 5.3 out of a wrecked 2000 Silverado. I got the running engine (still dead quiet on cold start up), all accessories, brackets, harness, sensors, ECU, etc for $550. Just got to wait for them to pull it (I might help if they're still working on it tonight after work).

Plans are to check the mains, rods, and bores, then re-ring along with fresh bearings and seals. Cam swap with a turbo friendly grind, then some ported 243 heads to put on it. Some 1.75" stainless OBX headers and eventually... a rear/mid mount STS style home built turbo setup. It will be a little while for that last part, but it will come...

[Hankster]

Sounds like you've got you a plan worked up!