Family Project 65 C10 SWB "Old Blue"

[JamieGallien]

And so it begins. I got this old truck when I was 17. Drove it for quite a few years through college. It originally has a 283/th350 combo. Once the 283 wore out I put in a 305 from a Monte Carlo SS along with a 700r4 trans.

About 2 years ago I gave it away to a student in my church youth group to see what he could do with it. After 2 years of it sitting in their yard, his dad gave the ultimatum: start work on it or give it back. Teenager priorities being what they are (girls, xbox, sleep, girls, etc) he never got started on it and the truck was delivered back to my house by rollback a few weeks ago.

Backstory behind us, here are a few pics of the truck as delivered, along with a few shot of 4 of my 5 workers who will be helping out with the rebuild.






Current plans are to repair the brakes, replace tires and get the 283/700r4 combo in it and running since I already have the truck setup for it. Nothing like cruising on the highway in an old beater running 2000 rpms at 65... More to come!

[Ta2Don]

Welcome aboard! Looks like your help are eager to get rockin' on your project... Great background story, and the teenagers skewed priorities dropped a great truck back in your lap. Have fun and the bonding time with the young ones is Priceless!!!
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[JamieGallien]

Thanks for the welcome! I'll post up more "before" pics later as well as pics of what I have laying around the garage that I plan to put into the truck.

My daughter (12) will be the first one driving it and she's determined that we will NOT be painting it. She wants it as-is. We're going "rat-rod" with it I guess. I figure that's a good excuse to spend more money on the drivetrain

[JamieGallien]

I figured "Allan's Classic" build worked out great, so I'll start out my build with some construction too!

My garage is filled up with junk (priceless junk to me, but my wife thinks different), so I'm building a 16'x24' add on to the back. This will enable me to put mowers, tillers, gokarts, dunebuggy, etc, etc out of the main garage but still out of the weather. This will give me the room I need to take off the bed, cab or whatever to make the truck easier to work on. Who knows? It may even help me find some of my tools that are scattered all over the garage...

I got started last weekend and hope to get to work on it some more next weekend.



More to come!!

[McMurphy]

and to the site, with any luck this will snowball on you and you will share the whole thing with us here !!!

Good Luck !

[JamieGallien]

Time for an update I guess. I got a couple of rafters up for my garage add-on. I hope to get the rest this weekend, get it finished and get some junk moved out the garage and Old Blue moved in.



I was about to go get the other 16 rafters I need but my 72 decided it wanted to pump more fuel on the ground than into the engine, so a new fuel pump it is. I also took the time to replace the points and put in a pertronix unit. That worked out well.


I drove the truck about a mile to my dad's house to use his timing light to check everything. Apparently the timing is way out, because the truck overheated by the time I got over there. That's never happened with this truck before. We threw the timing light on it, but the timing mark is WAY advanced, about a quarter of the way around the balance from the timing gauge. There was no way to turn the distributor enough to get the mark where it should be while keeping the engine running. Any ideas guys? I'm wondering if my harmonic balancer is coming apart and the outer ring has rotated? The truck runs ok when I adjust the timing by ear, but I can't seem to use the light to adjust it "right"...thanks for any thoughts...

SOOOOOO this led to our fir st work on Old Blue together...nothing big, but we removed the temo gauge from the old trio set. We're going to put it on the old 72 so we can watch the temps on it when we get to work on it later this week...

Proud papa moment!

[JamieGallien]

Originally Posted by McMurphy

and to the site, with any luck this will snowball on you and you will share the whole thing with us here !!!

Good Luck !

Thanks for the welcome! I HOPE it snowballs.... my wife hopes it doesn't! LOL!

[Jeff La]

Welcome to the forum, and if all those wild children are yours CONGRATS, they look great. LOL

[McMurphy]

Your Harmonic Balancer is notch/tabbed to fit only one way on your crank shaft, there is no way it could have "slipped". I have seen where they have disintegrated, but that was an isolated event, I think....

More than likely, your distributor is 180* off. You will need to take off the retainer yoke, (the Y shaped clamp holding it to the engine) and rotate it a half turn and re-seat it.
There are many posts (some on this site) on how to do this.

I am 99% sure that is your timing mark problem.
Good luck !

[JamieGallien]

Thanks for the response mcmurphy. I get what you're saying. The problem is the distributor was not turned or removed when I installed the pertronix kit. What I was referring to is that I've actually seen a balancer (the rubber between the two parts) disintegrate and allow the outside to move. That was on a sb chevy though. The balance on this six looks solid.

I'm clueless how this is happening. In troubleshooting I rotated the engine to tdc compression, moved the engine a bit more to get the timing mark on 0 on the timing tab, took off the cap, noted where the rotor was pointed, moved the dist so #1 was right at the rotor, replaced the cap. The engine would not even think about starting set like that. I have to turn the dist quite a bit before it is time where it will start. When I check it with a light, this setting shows the timing mark on top of the balancer instead of the 2o clock position where the timing tab is. I need to post in the help me tech forums I guess. There has to be something I'm missing.

Thanks again.
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[JamieGallien]

OK, so I just have to say I love this forum!!

I found another post with someone having the same problem here http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=417526

Originally Posted by raycow

If the engine runs best when the timing mark is obviously off, it means the outer ring on the balancer could have slipped. The only thing holding the ring is a rubber to metal bond which can deteriorate over time.

Don't worry about timing the engine on the exhaust stroke. The timing mark will be on 0 at TDC on the exhaust stroke but the engine just plain won't run like that. You would be off by a full revolution and firing #6 instead of #1.

Ray

That's what I was thinking in my brain, just needed to hear someone confirm it...

I guess for now I'll set the timing where it will run and then test drive and adjust until it runs and accelerates right.

If my parts truck keeps breaking every time I replace something on it, this may turn into the "Old Yeller" (the 72) restore thread instead of old blue....

More to come soon. Now that I have the 72 running ok I'm picking up the other 16 rafters for my garage add on. I hope to have that up and roofed this week to start clearing out my garage for old blue!

[McMurphy]

Well, alrighty then !!

Just an FYI, and this may end up working best for you too:
An old feller once showed me how to set the timing on my IL6 using a vacuum guage, instead of a timing light.
This method seems to work much better, especially at higher altitudes.

I just hook the vacuum guage up to a vacuum line, and adjust the timing to reach max vacuum.
It is far easier than trying to use a timing light all by yourself.
Car runs like a champ!

[JamieGallien]

I'll try that. Although getting vacuum on this old engine may be a problem...may have to rebuild the whole thing just to get enough vacuum to set the timing! LOL! Talk about snowballing....

[JamieGallien]

I made a little progress last night. I finally listened to my dad on timing the old 72 (he is of the school that says if it starts and runs - it's timed) and just set timing by ear. It still needs some fine adjustment but it's running good enough for what I use it for. Used the 72 to go pickup some more 16' 2x8's last night. Got 4 more up last night. I'm 1/3 of the way there! (sorry no truck pics this time, gotta remember to sneak a truck pic in with these updates, lol)

Yes, I know I need to mow my grass...lol...we've had about 6 inches of rain in the last week...

[JamieGallien]

I found one more pic of old blue that I haven't uploaded...

[Jeff La]

Them boys sure look like their having fun

[JamieGallien]

Originally Posted by Jeff La

Them boys sure look like their having fun

They love work when it doesn't involve WORK, lol!

[1963c-10]

Looks like you have plenty of helpers.

[JamieGallien]

Picked up some new shoes for Old Blue this weekend. Factory 2007 z71 with 265/65/18 tires. Look so nice!

Ordered 6x5.5 2" spacers with 108mm hub opening and 14x1.5 lugs today. Should be in next week and i get to mount them wheels!

[JamieGallien]

We'll see how this goes. I haven't seen many folks on here using the factory wheels, I just think these look as good as any aftermarket wheels I've seen. I'm hoping all my math comes out looking right with these spacers installed. I know they're strong enough; there are 4x4 guys around here that hillclimb with these in their trucks.

[JamieGallien]

The adapters worked great; my daughter and I installed them this weekend. For anybody wanting to use late model wheels, the adapters I used were 2" spacing, 6x5.5 bolt pattern, 108mm hub, 14x1.5 studs 1.5"long. The wheels are 2004 Z71 18" with 265/65-R18 tires. Worked out perfect! See for yourself!

[JamieGallien]

So, I am happy to announce that this build thread is officially an "LS SWAP" thread!

My dad, daughter and I went Saturday to look at a 2004 5.3/4l60 for sale...slipped up and bought it! Came with harness, computer, pedal assembly, fuel lines, coils, drive by wire box, and tons of other stuff. This old truck is gonna be sweet!

The guy I bought it from is the one who removed it from the wrecked Tahoe. He was meticulous about labeling everything and removing it all without damage. I have everything I need for the install except a computer flash, mods to the harness, and fuel pump/return lines. Can't wait!

[Jeff La]

Your daughter is smiling because of what's going in HER truck, no doubt. LOL

[JamieGallien]

Originally Posted by Jeff La

Your daughter is smiling because of what's going in HER truck, no doubt. LOL

Yep, she's a happy girl!

[1963c-10]

Always nice to bring home new parts!!!