Project: Over My Head

[iowaboynca]

Is it Karma? Going back to your starter problem, I think i'm having the exact same problem w/my 19yr old son's POS '96 saturn. I've changed every sensor, fuse and relay with no luck. I've got fuel to the rails and son said he had spark. When he would try to start it, he would say its smoking from the block. A little back story, my son, like most 19 yr olds, think he has all the mechanical ability in the world, but doesn't. So this past weekend, I happened to poke my head under the hood while he was trying to start it and low and behold, it looks like the starter might be burned out. I then had an "A ha" moment thinking about this thread.
I'll probably look for a starter this weekend. Keep up the good work on the build, there's a lot of us enjoying your journey.

[yossarian19]

Hah! Yeah, when I was 19 I thought I knew what I was doing, too. Now I know better (I'll admit I'm clueless)
I wound up using Ebay flanges, I think they are 5/16" thick and fit like a charm at $36 or so, 2.5" diameter pipe & Jones Exhaust 2.5" glasspacks around 24" long from Summit. $50 a pair, shipped. They seem like they'll offer only the thinnest pretense at sound control - I can see straight through them when I look end-on. The body is maybe 3.5" diameter.
When I got them from UPS (just 20 minutes ago) I held it up to the front pipe I'd built and said "Oh, no! They won't fit! Both ends of the muffler are female flared, and so is the end of my header pipe!"
And then the brain went "Oh" and the grinder went "BRZAP" and the welder buzzed a little bit... Et voila.
I'm running to the store for more straight pipe so I can get the passenger's side done, I'll get a picture of them both (questionable welding and all) this afternoon some time.

[dmack91]

Sounds like you just about have it done. You will be cruising the neighborhood in no time.

[yossarian19]

I've still got plenty to do before it's on the road but you're right, it's moving along fairly quick now.
The parts shop didn't have the pieces I wanted so I made do as best I could with what they had. Took a short section of pipe, cut a slit in it & made it an internal bridge between two female flared sections. Came out ugly as sin...

I'm hoping that with some grinding and going back over the welding, it will turn out "OK".
Most of the welding looked more like this

About 1" of decent, a spot of "oh crap" and stop, flip the visor, look at it again, another 1" of decent.
But hey, I've got my pipes on the garage floor & just need to hang them.

I'll let an exhaust professional add the 02 bungs & might even pay the guy to fix any leaky spots.
Now for some food before I go back in for the night class...

[ricott]

Man you are going to be riding soon! Love your build and can't wait for an audio of the engine running through you new exhaust system. But something tells me momma and you soon to be born child will not appreciate the noise as much as you do! Good luck with school.

[yossarian19]

Hah!
Yeah... I think this is going to be driven by me a lot more than her. It'll probably never have a car seat in it, either. Oh well. Maybe if I someday LS an Oldsmobile 88 she'll want to drive that one? She might be more of a Karmann Ghia sort...

[yossarian19]

Last update before I get something new done...
One of the pipes will have to be "adjusted" before I can call it "done". I put the pipes on it, though, and it sounds great! Throaty & no mistaking that it's a V8 but not deafening, no popping when I let off the gas.
Cooling system seems to work *really* well - it was all I could do to start getting it warm. Pleased.
I've got some wires & some lines to secure, a little more exhaust finish work & probably a dozen other things I'm forgetting : but damn, I think I can smell the tire smoke already.

[Kim57]

I admire the fact that you have the courage to try and do the things you haven't done before.
You're doing a great job on it.
Kim

[Baldeagle SR]

That aluminized pipe can be a buger to weld.
Rich
my build
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...67#post6579767

[Low Elco]

Originally Posted by yossarian19

Those guys that can weld on their backs inside a 2 foot pipe, fresh air being pumped to them? They earn every penny of that $35 / 40 an hour. I'm on my back under the truck and finding it enough of a challenge.

Wait'll you have to let all the air out of your chest to have another guy slide you under the frame of a 100 ton press on a piece of cardboard to weld all the pieces of a discharge chute together in place, then weld it into the machine. Then have them fire it up while you're under it to make sure it's all working. Is it bad when the (large, roughneck) guys you work with go "Man, you are one crazy SOB!"? Oddly, kinda miss that job.

Truck is coming along good! Glad you got it to fire. I've been soaking up as much LS knowledge as I can, preparing to take the plunge. Good luck on the first drive!

[OrrieG]

Originally Posted by yossarian19

Came out ugly as sin...

That is why the good Lord gave us grinders and JBWeld.... I used to be amazed at the quality of the fabrication welds etc on show cars until I saw an episode of Boyd Codingtons show where they were lathering all the joints with body compound. Only one they could not fake was the Alumacoupe.

[yossarian19]

Warning: this part is not super interesting but nonetheless an important detail with an LS swap.

The factory heater hose connections require change from 3/4 to 5/8 (I think) on the LS swap if you want to run a heater core.
Since my heater core leaked & I don't really care if my truck has HVAC (actually like the idea of it having windows & vents only) I just capped the heater fittings off, within the last 6 months, with some parts from the Dorman "HELP" line, like so.

You can see in the picture how long that's held up. The parts quality is garbage... no nylon reinforcment like you'd see in a built-to-last hose. I guess the assumption is that these caps are only supposed to be there until you fix the heater system...
The other option is to pull the water pump, yank the heater nipples out, tap them for 3/8 & 1/2 NPT respectively, then put in pipe plugs. Labor intensive, means buying tools I won't commonly need, also blocks off flow that is intended to go around the thermostat.
The water flow through the heater nipples goes around the thermostat, ensuring that you don't develop hot spots or overheat things in the engine while the thermostat isn't seeing enough temperature to open. Some people report over heating issues with these ports blocked off, others do not.

So as you can see, the best solution is to fix your heater core (not today) or run a hose from one nipple to the other. Dayco 87629, $8 on amazon. Built to last & fits just fine (with minor trimming)

It's ugly but for $8, what do I expect?
After that I went to burn my engine cross member into place and within ten minutes, I:
Hit my head on the headlight brow hard enough to take a knee,
knocked my knee un the underside of the truck (thankfully, I was already lying down on the creeper)
ran out of welding wire almost immediately
decided to call it a night.

So, to be continued...

[Kim57]

Nice info.
I've had days like that also with banging my head and running out of consumables.
Kim

[dmack91]

I am always sure to run out of welding gas on Saturday afternoon as the welding shop closes at noon and doesn't reopen until Monday.

Looking good. I can't tell, but be sure to grind any coating off of the pipe before welding it. The welds will get contaminated if you don't. If it I galvanized, it gives off a toxic zinc vapor that is really bad for you.

Looks great - keep it up and you will be cruising in no time.

[yossarian19]

Sure enough - my cheapo brake flare tool is bent, which causes it to brake mandrels. Broke two of them this evening, including my last 3/16". So I'm thinking it's time for a new brake flare tool, only, I've been on an almost non-existant income for a few months. Long story short, I think I'm going to rent a brake flare tool and put the truck on back burner a while for financial reasons. 'Course, I might have a lapse in judgement after a week or two idle...

[Kim57]

Originally Posted by yossarian19

Sure enough - my cheapo brake flare tool is bent, which causes it to brake mandrels. Broke two of them this evening, including my last 3/16". So I'm thinking it's time for a new brake flare tool, only, I've been on an almost non-existant income for a few months. Long story short, I think I'm going to rent a brake flare tool and put the truck on back burner a while for financial reasons. 'Course, I might have a lapse in judgement after a week or two idle...

I think a lot of us have been in this situation at one time or another I know I have.
Things will turn a round and get better.
Just keep doing what you can and don't give up.
Kim

[oldman3]

Originally Posted by Kim57

I think a lot of us have been in this situation at one time or another I know I have.
Things will turn a round and get better.
Just keep doing what you can and don't give up.
Kim

Good advise, don't give up. I know I went a couple times with 6 months not working on truck, due to family issues...Jim

[dmack91]

My local O'Reilly's store loans out their brake flaring tool for free. Used it a couple of times. Just a basic tool, but the price was right.

[yossarian19]

With the materials already on hand I patched the old master cylinder access hole in the cab & with the free-with deposit brake flare tool I got the brakes re-plumbed & bled. Side note : the 10 lb spool is 3.5x as expensive as the 2 lb spool. Kind of a no brainer, right?


As you can see the gaps wind up a little larger than I'd have expected, then again, they were big enough to shoot welding wire through from the outset. Anyway, I think one good coat of paint and you'd never know it. Something to practice further before I get into the rest of the bodywork (around 2020, I think)
I'd had to re-plumb the proportioning valve to make it work with the bracket that came with it. In my haste to get this sucker onto the trailer I put the prop valve with the rear output facing the rear brakes. Since my MC is backwards from what the bracket designers expected, the thing wouldn't work - and the vibration transmitted to the valve while the engine idled was going to fatigue and break the lines in about 10 miles. So my least favorite part of any project, brake plumbing, came back around.
Just another illustration of the prime lesson this truck has taught me: haste is, ultimately, self defeating.

[Kim57]

Nice job on the patch.
Kim

[yossarian19]

I'll get a few pictures in the AM.
Today I got the gas tank strapped into place for the last time (at least until I can pull the bed off & do some framing on the back end) and even managed not to damage any wires or fuel lines (I hope)
I also finally came up with a fan mounting solution that will really work, after many failed attempts to mount a just-too-large Volvo fan. Just a little bit of welding & a few feet of wire and the fan will be "there".

[yossarian19]

This isn't a great picture but I think you can see what I did here.

The gist of it is that I needed a place to mount fans in front of the radiator. I found some fully threaded 5/16" bolts about 2" long and used them for the bottom four bolts holding the radiator to the support panel.
This left four threaded studs poking out the front of the panel. I wound some nuts onto them and added washers. Then I measured the width, drilled some holes in pieces of flat stock, added tabs in the needed places, welded in some bolts from the back side & the fan had a home. Since I am recycling the fan from another build and the mounting tabs were trashed, I wound up modifying carriage bolts & small shelf brackets to do the job for me.
This particular bit of fabrication won't get me on TV but it will get me down the road and I learned something from it.
Now I've got fan wiring, a double check of brake hydraulics, secure a few wires & fuel lines, replace trans mount & I'm on the road.
In other news, spring break starts Friday - so I should be making the neighborhood a noisier place by the end of the month.

[Kim57]

Nice fab work on the fan mounting.
Are you just going to run the one fan?
Looks like you have enough room for another.
Kim

[yossarian19]

I could probably squeeze 2 12" fans in there and may someday do so. Right now I've only got space for a 10" before I run out of radiator and the fan hangs over to the sheet metal. I may someday be opening up some more space under hood with F-body accessories and a change of engine mounts, in which case I'll be running a "puller" fan setup.
I just changed the oil (gas contaminated) and zip-tied a few wires out of the way. Thinking about taking it around the block... there's work left to do, but I'd like to at least sweep the garage and get my Jeep in there for some TLC.

[yossarian19]

In the back of my head I've been thinking "Gotta replace the trans mount, one of the bolts is stripped..."
To get the output shaft angle correct, I had to make a spacer. Forgot to take pictures along the way but really, it's just 1 1/2" square tube. I closed the ends off with sheet metal I had around, ground it smooth, painted it with the first rattle can that came to hand. Fun little learning project and it all fit right the first time, which is how I know my fabrication skills are improving.

Along with the trans mount I've got a few bags of line clamps so I can keep the fuel lines, for instance, from rubbing through. I might or might not get around to those today - I've got all of Spring Break (self imposed deadline) to get that done.