Complete build change. Lifted 2wd

[Devil Pup]

Hey Guys. Figured I would start a build thread for my 69 C20. Im lifting it using he late model spindle method that others have done on the later model stuff. I have only come across a few of the 67-72 body style so figured why not. I have had the truck since I was 14-15 and always wanted it lifted, however I ended up baggin it a few years ago with plans to Z it and such but never wrapped it all up.

first day of having the truck. someone tagged the whole truck, including the bedsides as you can see prompting me to rattle can primer it "wish I wouldn't have done that. could have prob buffed it out."


Got it stuck a few times as a stock height truck and than lowered it anyway


Well long story short, I decided i was over the air ride and wanted a lift after all. So here goes.

Few shots of the bag set up it currently has and how it sits at the moment.




Since this frame is now modified and cut and I want to lift it, I decided it better to get a new frame to start fresh.
Picked up this frame which is also a 69 long bed C20 built in California from what I can find. It also included a 73-87 front half of a frame which has just the suspension I need for this swap.



I have wanted to do an LS swap for a vary long time and decided this would be a great time to do it. Searched the wrecking yards until I came across a 2000 Tahoe that was complete and just set out with a LM7 5.3/4L60E combo with harness and everything for under $500 bucks.

I couldn't pass it up

My nephew approved of the new motor


Few weeks later my brother and I came across a rear end in another wrecking yard with a 2001 Silverado that has a disc rear with a G80 Locker. pulled it a well for abut $200 bucks.

[Domingo]

I have a 1968 c10 that I been thinking of lifting. I'll be following this build

[toolboxchev]

Boss has one of those motors in an 05 truck. That combo will get up and move fast. Great score for what you gave for it!

[Devil Pup]

Originally Posted by Domingo

I have a 1968 c10 that I been thinking of lifting. I'll be following this build

Awesome! let me know if I can help with info when the time comes!

Originally Posted by toolboxchev

Boss has one of those motors in an 05 truck. That combo will get up and move fast. Great score for what you gave for it!

Should be fun, should definitely move better than the tired 307 that's in it now!

[Devil Pup]

Tested the motor on the stand thanks to a tip from youtube. Only had to give power to one wire and the main power terminal, made a homemade fuel injection tube for about 10 bucks at lowes. Motor Fired right up and idled nicely. Stoked to say the least! click the link below to check it out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kitr...ature=youtu.be

Got a LOT done over the weekend since we had a break in the rain for a day. Removed the front cross member and found out that the vary front support brace is bent. I don't think the rail itself is out of shape. I have a spare brace so ill be swapping that in.


Picked up some new Silverado wheels on Craigslist for free from a gentleman. Score. 3 of them match, one is a miss match but the same size so it'll work. ill have to figure something out there. My brother mocked up the new rear end with the axle saddles I got form Summit racing and we rolled the new rear end into place. Fit pretty good. Gotta pull it out and take the axle to my brother in laws to have the perches fully welded. Gonna be ordering some new poly bushings for the springs and shackles too. the old ones are worn.



I used some degreaser and a whole lot of scrubbing to get the frame rails cleaned up in prep for the new crossmember and suspension to go in. As much as I would like to powder coat the frame or even spray it with a real gun, this is a budget build and a driver so I rattle canned it. plus easy touch ups.
Some rusty metal primer

And a few coats of gloss black

[LockDoc]

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Looking good so far. Keep on it, you are making progress. Looks like you have some good help also...

LockDoc

[Devil Pup]

Originally Posted by LockDoc

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Looking good so far. Keep on it, you are making progress. Looks like you have some good help also...

LockDoc

thank you! Always great to have help, even better when you get time with the family!

Hoping to put the front suspension on next weekend. maybe get to see how much lift ill be looking at.

[kehstr]

Cool build!! I'm in to watch it, I've never seen a lifted 2wd!!

[Devil Pup]

Originally Posted by kehstr

Cool build!! I'm in to watch it, I've never seen a lifted 2wd!!

Ive only really seen this lift method done on the 73-87 body styles. Seen a few 67-72 but no real detail and not great pictures. so hopefully it is as large as I want lol

[Devil Pup]

Got a good amount of work done this weekend so figured id add a little update.
Bolted the crossmember in with some fresh Grade 8 Hardware.


The 73-87 frame i took the crossmember out of had these nice little reinforcement brackets for the crossmember that my 69 and previous 73-87 crossmember didn't have. They look to add a lot of strength so i used them on this frame considering that stress will be added with bigger tires.


ordered a bunch of parts from Rockauto. Shipping was vary fast but i ended up with someones used 88-98 ball joint. They actually fought me a little but took care of it and sent me a new one so no harm.


Installed the control arms, springs, spindles and rotors.


surprisingly had to jack the frame up more than it already was to fit the wheels on for a test fit. The wheel/tire set up is a 265-65-17 so i believe just under a 31.




At first glance i thought the tie rod was going to work with the stock sway bar but when turning i believe it will cause interference. So while i wait to get a reamer to change the tie rod to the top, i tarped the frame in anticipation of this weeks rain.

[Devil Pup]

On Sunday it was too cold to paint and since i still dont have a reamer i figured we could keep moving forward by getting the motor prepped.
Took the harness off to get to the smog equipment I'm going to delete.

There's a lot of wires here. A little overwhelming. Im not a wiring guy by any means so I'm relying heavily on my older brother here.


Used a doorman freeze plug with some silicon to block the EGR port.


The driver side valve cover removed it looked a little dirty to me. This is the side with the PCV valve so maybe thats why? anyone care to shed some light on this.


Passenger side looked really clean.


Plugs to me also looked pretty good. any motor gurus care to share their thoughts?


Took a whole can of degreaser and two of us with a scrub brush about two hours of elbow grease to get this thing clean. Fortunately i have a full seal set that a good buddy of mine gave me so I'm planning to tear it down further and at vary minimum, reseal it, and paint the block.



Still has grime in places i just cant get to with how it is still assembled but at least it is cleaner and i can scrub it as i tare it down bit by bit.



Same buddy hooked me up with a set of Trailblazer SS exhaust manifolds for this swap. I actually like the look of the truck ones better. Is there a performance reason to go to the trailblazer ones?

[onebigjohn]

Trailblazer SS has the best numbers for stock intakes for all LS based engines....even better than F.A.S.T. You would think that the exhaust would follow the program.
If you don't have the intake try to get it....It's ugly but works well!

[Devil Pup]

Originally Posted by onebigjohn

Trailblazer SS has the best numbers for stock intakes for all LS based engines....even better than F.A.S.T. You would think that the exhaust would follow the program.
If you don't have the intake try to get it....It's ugly but works well!

I dont quite follow. try to get the trailblazer SS intake? or the trailblazer manifolds will add power with my existing truck intake? Idk what F.A.S.T. is. im not a motor guy if you cant tell haha.

[onebigjohn]

Originally Posted by onebigjohn

Trailblazer SS has the best numbers for stock intakes for all LS based engines....even better than F.A.S.T. You would think that the exhaust would follow the program.
If you don't have the intake try to get it....It's ugly but works well!

I found the article to go with it...
http://www.hotrod.com/articles/20-ls...ifolds-tested/

[Deer_hunter_088]

Following!!! to bad you wernt closer, because i have a 4x4 ront axel thatd look perfect under this truck.

[Devil Pup]

Originally Posted by onebigjohn

I found the article to go with it...
http://www.hotrod.com/articles/20-ls...ifolds-tested/

Thanks for the link. that makes more sense now. As much as id love to swap the intake for more performance. Im trying to keep this as budget as possible. once all is said and done i might look into the SS manifold swap though so that helps for future. thank you

Originally Posted by Deer_hunter_088

Following!!! to bad you wernt closer, because i have a 4x4 ront axel thatd look perfect under this truck.

Haha thanks man. I wanted four wheel drive at first but now i think it'll be cool to be one of the rare lifted two wheel guys cruisin around.

[QKENUF4U]

plugs look lean to me but maybe its the lighting....

looks super clean under the valve cover to me...

[Devil Pup]

Originally Posted by QKENUF4U

plugs look lean to me but maybe its the lighting....

looks super clean under the valve cover to me...

well considering there is 3 bolts broke off in the heads for the manifolds id say you are probably right when u say its lean. hopefully i can get that fixed when i get the broken studs removed.

I was just worried more about the driver side. not that it looked filthy, just noticeably darker than the passenger side. but was pleasantly surprised that there is no sludge built up.

[1972RedNeck]

Subscribed

[Devil Pup]

Well didn't get as much done as i would have liked this weekend but made a little progress none the less. On Saturday had a busy day running around scoping out a new location for our office at work before running back to town to help a family member move. By the time we finished it was too late and raining so i decided to work on my airbrushing. another one of my brothers wanted to give it a shot. he gave up after a few minutes. lol.


On Sunday my oldest brother and I hit the junk yard. Came across this home built mini truck on what looked like a full size frame. thought it was interesting so i decided to share haha.


I was also able to score a wheel which matches the other 3 so now i have a full set. wheel looks straight, tire is no good but this size wont do anyway. got this wheel, a fuel injector pig tail "to clean my injectors on the bench" and some bumper brackets for $22 bucks.


I have a whole bench full of parts ready to go on the frame/motor but cant seem to catch a break in the weather. My brother is prob going crazy with all the parts laying around his garage. Even have parts stuffed in the cab of his Ford project lol.



Cleaned and painted a few more things until the wind/cold set in. still sticking with budget paint.
73-87 motor mounts

Sway bar mounts and Moog tie rods

1-1/4 inch sway bar. man this thing is beefy.


Shackle and spring eye bushings are destroyed. I was planning to run Poly but can only find them in 1.5 ID. My spring and shackles are 1 1/4. so looks like Moog rubber is gonna be the answer.

[Devil Pup]

I realize this isn't the fun part of the build for you guys to watch. Cleaning and cleaning some more lol. but the fun stuff is about to start next week or so. In hopes that this helps someone i will post my findings on parts that i had to research and source because no one offered a "Kit". My leaf spring bushings and shackle bushings are 1-1/4" rather than the 1-1/2" that seem to be common? No one makes a kit, at all. I searched and searched and couldn't find anything. My brother gave me a part number to Daystar and their bushings were almost perfect but required some trimming. I havent installed on the truck yet but test fitting everything is working out so far. Take a look at the diagram i drew up. hopefully this helps someone later.

Quick shipping and not a bad price



Surprisingly some of the bushings were still pretty solid. Heated up the rubber just enough to use a socket to tap the inner sleeve out and the rubber followed after.


Took the axle to my brother in laws to have him finish weld the axle saddles that we mocked up for the rear end swap.


You might have noticed these little sleeves in the first picture. These were recommended to me by another good friend and my brother also has used them with good success. They are from Roughstuffspecialties.com They are tapered to match the one ton tie rods. We drilled the spindle to 7/8" and they drop right in. I cant even explain how well they fit. That tie rod wont move at all in the hole. Vary nice product.





Started working on removing the broken exhaust manifold bolts from the head. 2 came out without an issue, the third destroyed the threads. so looking into helicoil for that.


Last, spent all day cleaning the rear half of the frame so we can assemble the springs and axle to finally get onto the fun stuff. Too cold to paint after i finished but that will be done this week.

[Devil Pup]

BTW how do i get this moved into the build section rather than the Message board? i tried requesting an admin to move it but its still in the wrong section

[Deer_hunter_088]

Looks good!!! cant wait ti see this runnin and drivin!

[Devil Pup]

Originally Posted by Deer_hunter_088

Looks good!!! cant wait ti see this runnin and drivin!

Thank you. I cant wait either. its taking all my weekend time haha.

[c10-72 II]

I'm liking the stance! What year control arms spindles and rotors did you use? All people told me to do to lift my c20 is get one ton springs.