2 for 1 Part II...

[aggie91]

Got my adapter plates yesterday. They are not perfect, but for the price I paid, I am not complaining. I can sand them down and paint, they will hardly be seen anyway.

Here they are with the stock mounts laid out on my work bench with the grade 8 bolts I would like to use. The ones with the nuts/washers are 3/8"-16 x 1". The bolts without the nuts are metric (10mm) for the one bolt that is shared by the adapter plate and the mount/clam shell.:


I put the parts together finger tight to toss on the block to check for interference with the bolts for the square body mounts and the block. Here is the passenger side on the block. The motor is on a stand and upside down since I just replaced the oil pump pick up tube o-ring:


The adapter plate does not sit flush on the block's mounting bosses. Doing a little checking, I need to change one of the bolts from a hex head to a button head or even counter sink the hole for a flat head bolt in one location on each side. Here is a pic of the offending bolt head and rib in the blocks casting. I could grind the rib in the casting, but GM put it there for a reason and I am not going to find out if it really needs to be there...:


Today will get a couple of button head and flat head bolts to work out the interference problem and get those plates and mounts cleaned up and painted.

[aggie91]

Got the plates countersunk for a flat head bolt in the offending locations and proceeded to clean them up and get a coat of paint on them. Cleaned and painted the passenger side clam shell while I was at it. Man I wish I had a small powder coating set up at the house. The parts where not dry before I called it a night. I will put them together today after work and get them on the engine. I'll post pictures then...

[aggie91]

Here is a few pictures from where I left off:
Adapter plates with Flat Head bolts welded on and painted:


Clam Shell mount hit on the heads of 2 bolts holding the plate to the block so I clearenced them:


Clam Shell and Adapter bracket mounted on LS Engine block (Passenger Side):


Driver's Side Mount and Adapter on LS Engine Block:


That get's me caught up to where I started this past weekend.

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by aggie91

The adapter plate does not sit flush on the block's mounting bosses. Doing a little checking, I need to change one of the bolts from a hex head to a button head or even counter sink the hole for a flat head bolt in one location on each side. Here is a pic of the offending bolt head and rib in the blocks casting. I could grind the rib in the casting, but GM put it there for a reason and I am not going to find out if it really needs to be there...:

Today will get a couple of button head and flat head bolts to work out the interference problem and get those plates and mounts cleaned up and painted.

Karl,
When I made my adapter plates for the 6.0 I was planning to install @ one point in time, I counter-sunk the plates & used a flat/beveled bolt for those 2 holes as well.

[aggie91]

Spent sometime on this project this long holiday weekend. Started out on the 4th with cleaning the frame/firewall and the inside of the front boot.

Started with this:




You can see in this one that the left side in this pic, that I have started cleaning the white part of the firewall:


I got Owen involved taking off the small parts mounted to the firewall to make cleaning easier. We also removed the wiring harness from the fuse block that runs along the firewall:


We got everything cleaned and to this point before we cleaned ourselves up to go out to dinner with the family:





After dinner, we headed over to Home Depot to pick up some spray paint for the frame rails. I used Rustoleum Satain Black. Three cans of paint and one can of Rustoleum Rust Reformer, $21.46.

Got back home, and sprayed the frame rails to finish off the day at this point:



Friday was a long productive day on this project! I am leaving the firewall alone at this point. That is the factory paint and seam sealer on there and it looks ok for this project.

[aggie91]

Since we are in the process of selling our house and buying a different one, I spent the Saturday morning packing boxes and culling out crap in my shed to get ready to move.

After lunch the goal was to get the engine and trans mounted in the truck. Owen helped me again for awhile to get it in place. He and I got the motor on the hoist and in between the frame rails, but it would not slide over the mounts. I knew from my calculations that the motor would be about 7/16" closer to the firewall, but I thought it would still fit. Well, I was WRONG . No biggie, just take a brake and figure out what to do.

Part of what was wrong, was that the transmission dip stick tube was hitting the flange at the bottom of the firewall. I thought about jsut clearancing the flange with a big hammer, but that was too getto for this project. I decided that my plan to use the factory 4.3 V6 mounts was not going to work. I looked around at what I had on hand and remembered that I had a set of Moroso Tall and Narrow solid motor mounts in the shed. I had made a "frame stand" along time ago and these where left from that...Sorry no picture...

So, with those and an extra set of adapter plates, I made new mounts while the motor/trans was hanging on the hoist in between the rails. I bolted the trans to the crossmemeber and bolted the that in place in the frame rails. This locked in the motor/trans inplace front to back.

I removed the factory frame brackets and then removed the shell and mount from those. I put them back in place and then looked at what I had to work with. Long story short is that the motor is in and has good clearance at the firewall and the headers I will be using fit on the Passenger Side with no issues. The driver side on the other hand, hit the factory mount near the frame rail and hit my homemade adapter mount. Again no pictures of the offending areas...

Here is the clearance at the firewall:


Motor is setting in the frame all bolted up:



Here is an in process shot at the mount I fab'd up on the Passenger Side:


Here is an in process shot of the Driver Side, the Yellow tape is marking where the header tube is hitting:



That's it for now...When Korbin came home and looked at what we had done, he questioned my thinking on using solid motor mounts for a street truck. I played along with him, but I have a plan to fix that. Young Grasshopper still has a lot to learn.

I will get a few pictures of the finished mounts when I fix the solid mount issue. I am just glad that it is in and we can put the front boot back on and mount up some rollers to move it over to the new house. We close on the new place August 1st!

[2000Limited]

Congrats on the new house.

[aggie91]

Originally Posted by 2000Limited

Congrats on the new house.

Thanks! Its not really a new house, it was built in 1969. But it is bigger and has a pool. Someday there will be a shop too!
Had our inspection done yesterday on it and there was no major issues with it. Only one or two items that we will ask to have repaired before closing.

[aggie91]

CORRECTION to a note in post #31.

I said I found a set of Moroso Tall and Narrow mounts that I used. I was wrong, they are the Moroso Short and Wide mounts.

I will be replacing them with stock style rubber mounts from a '71 Chevelle with a 307. The motor mounts are Anchor PN 2142 at Auto Zone and are $7.99 each. I just got a $10 rebate card in the mail from them yesterday, so it will be about $7.30 out of my pocket for the pair.

[y5mgisi]

Subscribed.

[aggie91]

Originally Posted by aggie91

CORRECTION to a note in post #31.

I said I found a set of Moroso Tall and Narrow mounts that I used. I was wrong, they are the Moroso Short and Wide mounts.

I will be replacing them with stock style rubber mounts from a '71 Chevelle with a 307. The motor mounts are Anchor PN 2142 at Auto Zone and are $7.99 each. I just got a $10 rebate card in the mail from them yesterday, so it will be about $7.30 out of my pocket for the pair.

Well I go the new mounts from AZ on Saturday and it turns out those are $4.99 each so it cost me $0.80 out the door with my rebate gift card. So I spent some time trying to install them on Sunday. I must have some hybrid Moroso Mounts as they do not match the dimensions of the Short and Wide SBC mounts or the Tall and Narrow BBC mounts. They are kind of between them sort of a Tall and Wide mount.

Neadless to say, those did not work. I am going to get the Tall & Narrow mounts today (PN 2283 from AZ) and see what works. If nothing works, then I will put the solid Moroso Mounts back in since I KNOW these fit...

[aggie91]

Well nothing new on this truck, but since I posted here that we were moving to another house, figure to tell you why this truck has stopped for now.

The house we had a contract to close on this coming Friday ended up falling thru because the owner did not have clear title to the house and could not get it corrected. That happened on the 23rd, so we scrambled to find a place to live since we close on out current house on the 1st. We found a new 10yr old house and finalized a contract on it this morning.

Now we just got to firgure out what to do between the 1st and the end of the August for a place to live...

Once we have every thing moved and settled in, than maybe I can put some time in on this truck...

[C@rnut001]

I like the direction you are going with this truck. I had not read all of this build yet, so that is why I am just now commenting. Good luck on getting into your new house and figuring out what to do for the next month. Does anyone in your area do short term rents? I know someone who had to put their stuff in storage and rented a long term hotel room, but that would get crazy after the first week or so. Hope you get it figured out soon.

[aggie91]

Well its been one heck of an ordeal with the house over the last month. We finally closed on our new place August 22 and started moving in. Spent our first night there on the 23, school started on the 25th for the kids ( I have a 6th grader, a 7th grader, and a Senior this year). We are still moving and living out of boxes, but that is by choice right now as we are doing some updates to the flooring and paint before we move all of our furniture into the house.

I ended up going back to the solid mounts as the various stock style rubber mounts did not work with the stands I made. I did not feel like redoing those stands to make the rubber mounts work and I was getting ready to move anyway, so I went back to what I knew worked and bolted it together. I'm OK with that...

I had a bit of time to order a few parts for this truck so I am making progress even though I have not touched it except to move it to a storage lot...
I got the following on hand for when I get back to work on it:

GATES 356240 Power Steering Pressure Hose $ 20.79
BOSCH 69225 Fuel Pump $ 52.79
SPECTRA PREMIUM / COOLING DEPOT STR01 Fuel Pump Strainer $ 2.38
WIX 33481 Fuel Filter $ 9.94

Got all these from Rock Auto, so with my 55 discount and shipping I spent $91.51 for these parts. I already had a new Spectra Tank and sender for a 1987 SWB truck, so I just need to get the fittings for the tubes on the sender to have the fuel system complete...

So, for this swap I have a total cash outlay of $111.51 not including the paint and oven cleaner I bought for the frame. I sold the TH400 kickdown harness to another forum member for $25, so I am out of pocket $86.51 so far...

[rusty76]

I really dislike moving. Can't find a darn thing. Right before we moved into our house my wife, stepson and myself were living in a very small apartment. So small we had to step outside to change our minds. So when we moved we really didn't have a ton of stuff to move, but almost everything was in boxes. I moved 90% of the stuff myself, after work and on a two day weekend. Finally got moved in and still four years later I'm looking for stuff in boxes that I honestly don't remember where I put this or that....lol. But I'm glad we moved at the same time. Nice to be able to work on something without your neighbor in her moo-moo staring at you like a piece of meat. Plus it is warmer in the garage in winter.

[aggie91]

I agree, its tough living out of boxes. For 10days between moving out of our other house and getting to move into our new one, 4 of us lived in a 30' 5th Wheel RV at a park on Lake Hawkins. It was nice to relax between moves, but tight and the shower in that RV is TINY...

Hopefully, we will order the carpet today after work, so that will be one more item checked off the list...

[aggie91]

Well just a quick update for what's going on around here.

We are still moving into our house and making it our own. We painted a couple of rooms last weekend before putting down the new floors in those rooms. I might start on the floors this weekend, we will see. The carpet for our room is scheduled to be installed around 9/26, so we are on hold for setting up our furniture in that room until then.

The custom double door for our daughter's room came in this week, so that will be installed this week and maybe even her flooring so I can check that off the list of stuff we are doing.

The cabinets for the kids bathroom are due next week, so those will get installed next weekend.

On the truck side of things, I had to order some parts for my DD so to save on shipping I ordered two replacement turnsignal/parking light housings/lenses for the front. Another $39.69 to Rock Auto for those. I shopped around the internet and ordered the fittings for the fuel sender, I found the best pricing on Amazon for them. They are standard red/blue AN tube adapter fiitings, a total of $23.62 for the two fittings for sender.

Once I have some free time to spend on the truck, I am going to do a write up on the fuel system I am putting together for it. I will include all the part numbers for what I used and take pictures of the process. I will put that in the LS Swap section for future reference for all to see. I will only include the highlights here in this thread.

So for now, I have at a total of $149.82 spent on getting this truck running with no progress since placing the motor between the frame rails.

[aggie91]

Well I have been collecting parts and pieces as I go getting ready to get this one on the road. The latest score is an electronic speedometer cluster out of a 1990 Suburban. Got it on ebay for $76.95.

My total spent to date is now $219.77

Here is a pic of the cluster from the ad:


Later...

[aggie91]

Well not much progress has been made besides collecting parts to put this thing on the road. I bought a set of new rebuilt drum brakes from Keith (Bennett68C10), this will save me some time and headache even though I had already purchsed some of the hardware to redo mine. I got those in yesterday. I also ordered an adapter fitting for the oil pressure sender and a set of 2.5" dropped spindles off of ebay. Should have those items next week.

I have been working on the wiring for the engine compartment and getting my info together to put the '90 model suburban instrument panel in this truck. At this point I have all the parts except for a drive shaft to get this this running under it own power. I plan on having a short build thrash a few days the week of Thanksgiving. We will see what happens...

[GAc10boy]

Sounds like good progress to me, karl! I know all about the "acquiring parts" phase. Makes me appreciate it more though (or so my wife tells me).

[Bennett68C10]

Just read through the build Karl, I'm in for sure and look forward to seeing how you do the LS swap. This is something I definitely want to do to mine once I get it painted and back together, but am a little intimidated about everything I will need to do the swap. Hope the drums make things easier on you too.

[73Super8]

Great job! Subscribed.

[aggie91]

Well I brought the truck to the house the day before Thanksgiving. While frying a turkey Thursday morning I started to work on this beast again. I got all of the front suspension disassembled.




Out with the old...


Before the Thanksgiving holidays, I worked on preping the swap parts for paint and got them painted for install. New ball joint and bushings installed too. New 2.5" drop spindles for 1.25" rotors.





By last night, I got the A-arms installed and bolted down. I went to get the new rotors and bearings, but they did not have the oil seals at the AZ close to me, the other store had them, but I did not want to drive across town to get them. I will get them on my way home from work today. Plan for tonight after work would be to get the coil springs, spindles, and brakes mounted up on the truck. I am still waiting on the tie rods and idler arm to come in to complete the front suspension rebuild.

[aggie91]

If you can't tell from the pictures, my work shop is the great outdoors next to the house. I am doing this build the old school way, in the grass/leaves/dirt, no lights other then the sun, and no power tools. So far so good. It does suck that it gets dark at 5:30 or so...

Oh, we also named this project...my wife even thinks its fitting given the "conditions" I am working in...



"White Trash"

[aggie91]

Also, I worked on the fuel system. I got the '87 sending unit upgraded to -6 an fittings and a new LSx 255 lph pump installed and ready to go into the tank.




I am working on a How To for this set up and will post it in the LSx section when I get it done.