1984 C30 CC/LB "Daily Dually"

[Andler2008]

So I bought this 1984 C30 just over a month ago for $900. The 454 was long gone due to a thrown rod and it had some rockers left as well as a size 12 hole in the Driver side floor pan. The SM465 was still in there too, so that was a plus.

Backstory: I had been looking for an older chevy crew cab dually for about 3 years prior to this one and I always missed out on the good deals, or they were just priced well above what I had available, until now. I only happened to be able to get this one because I had been saving cash for a Magnum T56 for my 2003 mustang ls swap. Well, as you can see, I have a dually and no T56 lol

So far, I bought the LS Flywheel, SM465 clutch, LS7 pilot bearing and all of the associated ARP hardware to get it all bolted together. I installed the motor last night and bolted it down to the SM and used Dirty Dingo conversion mounts to use the OEM truck frame mounts.

I'll be installing the PS pump, alternator, intake and manifolds in the next day or two. I ordered 2 rockers from each side, both rear cab corners and the driver side floor pan last night. Once those arrive and my new spot weld cutters come in, I'll be getting the old ones removed and putting the new ones on.

[Andler2008]

Also, here's some info on the motor, wiring and stuff that I did prior to purchasing the dually.

I parted out a 2001 Suburban to get the motor and wiring. I ultimately made money on parting it out, and was able to keep the engine and wiring, so I definitely came out way ahead.

Engine Prep
-LS9 7 layer headgaskets installed
-ARP head studs installed

Electronics/Wiring
-Modified OEM suburban wiring to be stand alone, using info from LT1tech.com
-Leash Electronics Big Dog II fuse block for the stand alone and additional accessories
-Purchased the HP Tuners Pro Suite and a new laptop. Built a bench harness to eliminate VATS and change a few things before hooking it up to the truck.

Fuel System
-Already bought tons of fittings and 20' of Braided -8AN hose from Vibrant Performance
-Using a Walbro 400 LPH pump, this may change depending on if I use the saddle tanks or go for a single 30 gallon from an older suburban.
-Using the OEM FPR from the suburban on the OEM intake

As far as my plans for the truck, I plan on bagging the front and rear. I have no plans on laying body at the moment, but it's not 100% out of the question. I just want to get the truck running and driving, then fix up the body and remove the rust before doing the big suspension stuff.

Things seem to be moving a lot quicker than I initially anticipated, so I'm getting very excited as more things get completed.

[Warrens69GMC]

Welcome aboard and congrats with your new project!

To post pictures here i take them with my phone, which uploads to google. I then view them in google and save them to my computer.

When you want to post them, I click the "go advanced" button on the post, and click the paperclip in the top header. Select the photos you want to post, then press "upload", then "close this window" in the upper right corner , then you can hit "post reply"

[Andler2008]

Originally Posted by Warrens69GMC

Welcome aboard and congrats with your new project!

To post pictures here i take them with my phone, which uploads to google. I then view them in google and save them to my computer.

When you want to post them, I click the "go advanced" button on the post, and click the paperclip in the top header. Select the photos you want to post, then press "upload", then "close this window" in the upper right corner , then you can hit "post reply"

Yeah, I know how to get them on there, but it seems I do not have access yet. I assume I have a minimum post requirement before I can post pictures.

[Warrens69GMC]

Your pics...

[Andler2008]

Originally Posted by Warrens69GMC

Your pics...

It just let me upload them lol Thank you though

[Andler2008]

I got 4 rocker panels (2 left and 2 right) and both cab corners in last night. Looks like the floor pan and the spotweld cutters will be here today.

I will be ordering an EFI 31 or 40 gallon suburban tank with the fuel pump assembly. I have a walbro 400 that I'll put in place of the OEM pump, so that will be an easy swap to get my 58psi at the rails.

I'll be super busy with my son's football scrimmage tonight and practice tomorrow with a game on Saturday morning. Then I'm taking the wife and kids to the Good Guys 1st Kentucky National after the game on Saturday. Hopefully I'll get some time in on the truck on Sunday as my wife has designated it as her "Sunday Bumday" this week lol.

[BigDooley77]

Looking forward to updates. I'm also building a CCDW.

[Andler2008]

Originally Posted by BigDooley77

Looking forward to updates. I'm also building a CCDW.

lol I literally just commented on your thread. Looks like you've got a good truck to start with.

[BigDooley77]

yeah its something to start with lol its got some rust but not much this summer I'll start tearing the body apart but before I start all that I want as much road time as possible.

[BigDooley77]

Are you going to use a Pollak fuel selector and run 2 separate fuel pumps? or 1 saddle tank? or go suburban rear tank?

[Andler2008]

Originally Posted by BigDooley77

Are you going to use a Pollak fuel selector and run 2 separate fuel pumps? or 1 saddle tank? or go suburban rear tank?

lol I literally just ordered a 31 gallon fuel tank and fuel pickup from a 1988 R20 Suburban on rockauto.com. Total cost was just south of $200. I don't like the saddle tanks and switch. Between the location outside of the frame rails and the additional wiring and plumbing for the switch, I'd rather just use 1 tank in the rear between the rails.

I already have the 400lph fuel pump and the proper in tank fuel hose. Now that I've got that ordered, I may put the body work on hold until I can fab up some mounts for the new tank and get it plumbed and installed.

I have 20' of -8AN braided fuel hose, a whole bunch of hose ends, the adapters for the OEM LS truck rails, 10 micron fuel filter, etc. I made sure that the sending unit I got had the threaded o-ring ends that way I can just adapt some AN hose end fittings to it for ease of installation. Hopefully

[Andler2008]

So I got my fuel tank and fuel pickup as well as the tools needed to help drill out the spot welds on the OEM body panels.

I handle staffing for a national logistics company and I'm working with our 2nd shift team to figure out why they cannot meet our Service Levels set in place. I typically work on 1st, but this week I'm on 2nd so it has really thrown me through a loop. Sleep isn't terribly different, but now that I can sleep in until noon, I have been taking advantage lol so no work is getting done until the weekend.

I did have my wife try and help me push the truck into my shop so I can get working on it, but the rear wheels were locked up for some reason so I assume the E-Brake is hanging up. I got it angled towards the front door, but not through as it's a tight space between the attached garage and my shop.

I am hoping to get my father in laws wrecker over to the house to help pivot the rear end and push it into the shop.

I plan on removing the bed as soon as I get time when the truck is in the shop and I'll start removing the saddle tanks and looking to install the new suburban tank. Can't wait to get working on this project.

[BigDooley77]

HAHA yeah these things suck to move mine was right outside the shop door with 3 of us pushing and it wouldn't move so I just finished hooking up what I could had the kid manually select the gear under the truck and then drove it in. I like the saddle tanks but the rear tank is nice too you can hinge the tail light and have the fill neck behind it kind of like an old Cadillac.

[Andler2008]

Originally Posted by BigDooley77

HAHA yeah these things suck to move mine was right outside the shop door with 3 of us pushing and it wouldn't move so I just finished hooking up what I could had the kid manually select the gear under the truck and then drove it in. I like the saddle tanks but the rear tank is nice too you can hinge the tail light and have the fill neck behind it kind of like an old Cadillac.

Yeah I have been considering doing the behind the tail light fill cap. So we shall see.

[BigDooley77]

Any updates?

[Andler2008]

Originally Posted by BigDooley77

Any updates?

I got the truck in the shop I started the disassembly process for the bed. There is a ton of scale rust so it's ridiculously messy and time consuming trying to loosen up the hardware. I will say though, nothing is breaking or NEEDS to be cut off. I am going to cut the bed bolts though as they're rusted enough that I can't easily get them off and I can't get the impact inside the frame channel.

I also did decide to cut the tubes off the top of the fuel pump assembly and install -8AN bulkheads in their place to allow me to direct bolt my -8AN fuel line instead of adding a bunch of adapters. Similar to the picture of my mustang fuel hat I made for that LS Swap. It worked well for the mustang so it should work well for the truck, especially since there is a ton more space in the tank. I have a long term plan of twin turbos, so -8AN feed and return will be plenty for my plans, and I'll only have to plumb fuel lines once.

My craftsman 60gal oil less compressor threw another rod. So it's out of commission and I've been using a backup 5 gal compressor. It's so painful waiting for it to pressurize after every single bolt lol A new compressor is in the books very soon.

[dmack91]

After I blew up my oilless craftsman 60gal, I picked up a cheap older 3hp oil type horizontal comp. I just cut the comp and motor assembly off the tank and mounted it on my 60 gal tank. Much quieter and used it for 5 years before I upgraded to a newer comp. Only had $30 into the swap.

[LT7A]

Andler, great truck. Look forward to watching it come together.

[LT7A]

Originally Posted by dmack91

After I blew up my oilless craftsman 60gal, I picked up a cheap older 3hp oil type horizontal comp. I just cut the comp and motor assembly off the tank and mounted it on my 60 gal tank. Much quieter and used it for 5 years before I upgraded to a newer comp. Only had $30 into the swap.

dmack, this is brilliant. Never thought of combining the two.

[Andler2008]

Originally Posted by dmack91

After I blew up my oilless craftsman 60gal, I picked up a cheap older 3hp oil type horizontal comp. I just cut the comp and motor assembly off the tank and mounted it on my 60 gal tank. Much quieter and used it for 5 years before I upgraded to a newer comp. Only had $30 into the swap.

yeah I have considered doing this, I just haven't found a compressor that isn't $200 or more. Where did you source that compressor from?

Andler, great truck. Look forward to watching it come together.

Thank you. Hopefully more progress will happen tonight as I will have a few hours to get some stuff done now.

[dmack91]

Older 220v compressors on cl aren't that popular these days so I just bookmarked a couple and waited . $25 lowball offer accepted and cost me around $5 in parts to do the swap.

[Andler2008]

Originally Posted by dmack91

Older 220v compressors on cl aren't that popular these days so I just bookmarked a couple and waited . $25 lowball offer accepted and cost me around $5 in parts to do the swap.

Nice. I'll have to keep an eye out. I may just wait a week or two and grab a twin cylinder from harbor freight if I can't find a used setup on CL.

I did get some work done last night on the truck. Got the heavy ass metal bumper and the hitch removed. Gave me enough space to fit my angle grinders in and cut the 4 most rearward bolts out. Glad I didn't even try unbolting them. I ended up using a mix of my 9" and 4.5" angle grinders to get the bolts out. Took less than 30 minutes once I had the space.

I had to stop when I got to the last 2 bed bolts. They're on top of the saddle tanks, so I started to remove the passenger tank before I gave up for the night.

Turns out, there is a ton of scale rust that came off the frame and hitch and made working on my back SO MUCH FUN!!! My impact and hammer made so much come off that now it's damn near ready for POR15 prep. I'll get the bed off this weekend guaranteed though. Then on to tank mount fabrication.

[Andler2008]

I got some work done on the dually this weekend. I had random blocks of 2-3 hours that I had free so I could work on it little by little.

First off, there are 8 carriage bolts holding the bed to the frame. I have had 4 short bed trucks in my life, and they were all 6 bolts. This is my first long bed, so I just forgot that most long beds have 8 bolts. I spent 20 minutes looking for my handy dandy crow bar thinking the bed was rusted to the frame, then spent 2 minutes unbolting 1 bolt and cutting the other when I realized my mistake lol

There were also 4 bolts holding on the gooseneck hitch, only 2 had to be cut off and I only had to cut off 2 of the carriage bolts on the bed. All in all, not a bad deal. There is a ton of scale rust on the frame underneath the bed, but under the cab. Used 2 2"x27' ratchet straps tied to diagonally across the bed to lift the bed off the frame. Worked like a charm.

[Andler2008]

Started mocking up the tank and I was planning on moving the fuel filler neck to the rear license plate, but I think I may just move it behind the passenger side dually fender. It'll allow me to use the stock vent, filler neck and filler cover on the bed. I'll be making the mounts to hold the tank sometime today or tomorrow.

Still undecided with the fuel feed and return. Wanted to run the -8AN bulkheads, but the fuel hat doesn't have tons of space to allow 2 -8AN bulkhead fittings. So we shall see once I get the mounts mocked up what the best way to go will be.