Re: George...
 

Thanks Chris! I actually have more done, but trying to juggle my life, working on projects, and spend time with my little boy gives me even less time to post. I hope to catch the thread up soon.

You still at HAFB? I was raised in Brigham City and had family that worked at the museum at the base there. If I ever get that way I would love to meet up, look over the truck at whatever stage it is at, and pick your brain about a few things.

Re: George...
 

Still here another two years. Hit me up if you're ever near. I fully understand the lack of forum/truck time...

Re: George...
 

Hey Hey! So whats going on with George! I had lost this thread for a long time and had always wondered what happened! Hope you're still kicking.

Re: George...
 

After 3 years of hearing my wife mock me about taking George out for a drive and having a second kid, I have finally made it a priority to get this truck back on the road and out of the garage!

To catch everyone up I did buy another set of Dirty Dingo Mounts to lift the engine back up that 3/4 of an inch. I only did this because the electric fans from my 1500hd were too big for the radiator out of the white truck and I will be using the mechanical fan and shroud form the white truck. Interestingly the radiator, shroud and fan will work perfectly, but they engine needed to be raised just a little so the fan wouldn't interfere with the bottom of the shroud. Even more interesting is that the radiator from the white truck will bolt right into the old radiators location with out any modification needed, making all of the prep work I did to remove the bottom radiator mounts and clearance to the core support in anticipation of certain modifications a complete waste of time.

Currently, I am focusing on the 5.3l power steering pump and the mods that are necessary to make it function properly with the 69 gearbox.

Re: George...
 

Newer power steering pumps have higher flowing systems due to different valving inside the pump. This is good for modern steering systems designed for higher flow rates and it keeps the fluid from getting as hot, but the 69's steering system cant handle that capacity and it makes the steering feel too light and twitchy. Luckily there is a cheap fix so that you can use the factory pump on the 5.3, keep good steering feel with an older steering box, and allow you to use the old pressure line on your vehicle with out any fancy adapters or custom lines.

I don't know when the General changed, but some time in the 80's I think is when they started using an o-ring fitting on the pump end of the pressure hose and older pumps used a double flare system. I also don't know if all o-ring pumps are high volume/pressure, but I doubt it... But, stay with me here because, I do know that the double flare fittings are all lower volume/pressure. Told you there wold be a payoff for continuing.

I sold the previous engine with all of the accessories on it, so I didnt have my old pup to part out, but I did go to the junk yard and pull this baby out of a pile of junk. It has the double flare fitting I was looking for.

Re: George...
 

You can see the difference in the fittings on the back of the pump in this picture and all you do is swap out the spring, the valve, and the fitting form the back of the old pump and into the back of the new pump. To the best of my knowledge if the fitting isn't an o-ring style the fitting is a -6 AN double flare fitting. I almost forgot, i didnt get any pictures of it, but the spring in the valve is a different color (the old was grey and the new one was blue) and there was a clear difference in the size of the orifice in the fittings (the old one was smaller). I also kept, the newer spring and valve just in case.

Re: George...
 

Transmission and Power Steering coolers are mounted and plumbed in. I am using the factory lines from the white truck for both. For the power steering I just cut a hole in the core support to run the hoses through, shortened the rubber hoses a little to fit George, and modified the lower cooler bracket to fit my trans cooler cross brace. I don’t know if the cooler is needed, but I did read an article in some Chevy magazine where they talked about the high amount of heat a GM ps pump produced and since I had it figured why not.

The trans cooler mounts to a piece of angle aluminum in the same fashion the factory mounted it on the white truck, for the lines I relaxed a few bends by hand and used my tubing bender in a few spots to increase a couple angles, but it did not need much finagling to make all the lines work.

Finally I gave it a scuff, wiped it down, etch primed it and sprayed some black on it just to make it look good through the grill.