checkin' out a '49 gmc tomorrow morn.

[BUXMAN66]

guy at work has a 49 completely done w/ a camaro subframe,355ci (w/4-71 old-school crager blower!!) th350,oak bed w/ s.s. stringers ) needs some TLC.... since his wife passed away he's not had much to do w/ it.he's asking $7500 for it.hope it's everything i remember it being when he drove it in to work one time. wish me luck!!

[BUXMAN66]

so much for a MESSAGE BOARD.....hell it echo's in here!!

[Phat]

Well did you bring it home?

[BUXMAN66]

well by golly hello to you too! lol well yeah, now that you ask i did agree to buy it. he asked me if he could sleep on it till the next day at work ...and he would let me know if he decided to sell it. luckily, as it turns out he said yes. we got a late season snow fall the other day so it's kind of put things on hold as to when i can pick it up. thanks for replying......was beginning to think no one was over here on this board!

[chevykid04]

PICTURES! PICTURES! PICTURES!

[solidaxel]

For that price that will be the best money you spend on that truck !!!!!!!

[BUXMAN66]

sorry, i still have'nt figgered out how to post pics.....! i (me and my g.f. if you can believe it!) took off the front clip last w/end ,completely tore down the existing set-up on the motor "old skool" crager blower(1967 vintage) and a 830 cfm holley carb. (they are for sale b.t.w.) took off the restrictive heads,"ram's horn" manifolds,and points style distributor. had a set of '70 corvette heads( given to me yuk,yuk!) totally dissassembled and put back together w/ a 3 angle valve job,new springs,keepers,retainers,etc.and then finished them off w/ a new coat of por-20 engine enamel.ordered a new "permastar" finish edelbrock performer eps intake manifold,new gm factory hei distributor,edelbrock #1406 600 cfm electric choke carb.,and just got done sand-blasting and then painting the "rams horn" exhaust manifolds a cast iron gray, also by por-20.also i took alan horvath's que and replaced the stock fan w/ a electric fan assembly. heck the fun ain't stoppin' here!!

[horvath]

Sorry about that, man ... this place is so quiet half the time that I don't check in as regularly as I'd like to!

That's the same carb I put on my truck.


Also, I'm gonna be doing a serious re-wiring job on that electric fan. I don't think the mechanic who put it in like electrical jobs -- he's a great mechanic, though.

Anyway, he put the fan temp sensor in the manifold and it *should* be in the bottom of the radiator. I've been getting some cool advice about it all at Hotrodders.com Check this thread out

I'm excited about putting an adjustable thermostat in -- there's a knob that goes in the dash area so you can adjust when the fan comes on! I LIKE THAT!!!

Also, MadElectrical.com has some real interesting points to make about using TWO relays on the fan ... I think I'm gonna try it out, along with some of their other ideas about running an 8-gauge wire from the battery to the engine area and feeding the electric fan as well as the alternator with it -- sounds like it would make for a much stronger electrical setup! You can read their stuff about the fan relays (scroll down to the electric fan heading) Here ... and you can read about that 8-gauge wire feed Here

[horvath]

PS -- That sounds like a GREAT purchase, bro'! I'd love to see some pics, too. You have to have pictures on the web ... then, you click on the "IMG" button (above the posting box when you're posting) and paste the web address of the picture into the prompt. That's it.

[solidaxel]

I read that also about the two releys, are they in series, it dosen't seem like two would be any better than just one!! YES you must run a reley with that much draw for a electric fan. Here in Arizona with A/C the fans run all the time in the summer.

[solidaxel]

I read that also about the two releys, are they in series, it dosen't seem like two would be any better than just one!! YES you must run a reley with that much draw for a electric fan. Here in Arizona with A/C the fans run all the time in the summer.

[horvath]

Yup -- they're run in series. I don't quite understand it, but they say with 2 relays the connections at the relays won't heat up, when the fan is running a LOT, like they will with only one relay. I'm gonna try it and see if I notice a difference.

I also want to try putting 2 relays in for my headlights -- one for low beams and one for high beams ... I believe that's gonna make a difference in brightness, and also, I notice if I leave my high beams on for long periods, the circuit breaker gets hot and kicks in. That means the wires need help -- they are a pretty small gauge for running all that distance (dash to front of truck) and headlight do draw a bit of juice, so I think relays are a good idea.

I just rewired my truck last year, so I want to do everything I can to make that job go 100%

[solidaxel]

Alan you have been driving that thing since last year you must have done a good job or it would have shown up long ago!!!!!!!!!

[horvath]

Oh, yeah!

The rewiring job I did is great ... but there are some improvements I can make, like running an 8-gauge wire to the firewall from the battery positive post and doing some redirections (as outlined in the MadElectrical link in my above post) to supply better power to the alternator and my fuse box, and like adding relays for my headlights.

That's what's so much fun about these trucks and cars, eh? >> Improving on things and feeling the rewards of knowing YOU did that!

I love this stuff!! LOL!

[BUXMAN66]

oh lordy,....just got done ordering new:chrome water pump,chrome 100 amp. alt.,chrome lokar pedals w/ new cbl. bracket & spring,billet rad. cap, chrome dipstick tube &stick, and more miscellaneous stuff!!! got the painless radiator fan thermostat and relay mounted today. yesterday we put on a new set of 1970 corvette heads, new "permastar" performer eps coated manifold from edelbrock,new #1406 carb from edelbrock,new gm factory hei distributor,new wires an plugs. took the whole front clip off and por-15'd the firewall, inner fenders and suspension parts. thank god for the 3 day w/end!(literally)! i can't say i'm a born again christian....but it was not intended to offend anyone w/ a flippant remark about easter!!!

[horvath]

WOW ... that's a LOT of improvement!

I have to investigate the wiring to my new electric fan more thoroughly -- something isn't right! Everything works okay, but yesterday I was adjusting my electric choke on the Edelbrock #1406 carb and so the truck was in park, idling for a few minutes ... next thing I know, my anti-freeze is starting to boil over! I run and look at my temp gauge; it's way UP! I look at the fan; it isn't running! I shut off the engine (stupid, I guess) and anti-freeze starts boiling! In a cloud of white smoke, I'm replacing the 30 amp fuse between the battery and fan relay.

I started the truck back up and took a spin ... she cooled right down and all was fine ... but WHAT made the fuse blow during idle???

Any help?

[BUXMAN66]

shoot man you got me on that one......my first reaction would be to look at my thermostat, check it in a pan of boiling water on the kitchen stove w/ a turkey thermometer in the water to keep track of the opening of the 'stat vs. what the temp. was reading. was the rad. fan kicked on when this all started to happen? possibly a voltage spike kicked the fuse and would'nt enable the fan to come on at the prescribed temp.?i'm just throwin' some possibles out there.....

[horvath]

I found out what the problem was ... thanks to this GREAT web site:
Mad Electrical

Scroll down to Electric Radiator Fan Systems -- I used a “cartridge type” in-line fuse, and they say that these will fail constantly! I've replaced it with an 18 gauge fusible link and all is normal again.

[BUXMAN66]

cool, i'll have to remember that w/ mine.i have a dedicated power wire coming from my battery to a circuit breaker (standard 2 pole breaker) i mounted on the firewall,and then from the circuit breaker to the relay mounted on the fender near my electric fan.actually right beside the headlight wires mounting strip on the drivers side fender.when they say mount the relay's in a series how do you connect the power wires (both constant and switched ignition ) and the wire leading to the temp sensor....now how do you wire these in a series? splice into the existing wires that are already run to thier respective places...?(constant power,ignition/switched power,ground, temp.sensor) this part of wiring really confuses the crap outta me!

[horvath]

I'm gonna be ordering the relay kits from Mad Electrical today. Once I get them, I'll have the wiring diagrams and I'll post all the info on my site.

I had a circuit breaker set up the same as yours when the electric fan was installed a couple of weeks ago, but I was getting terrible power surges when the fan came on ... so, just out of curiosity, I bypassed the circuit breaker and took a ride. Everything went normal! I don't know if the circuit breaker was partially grounding out or what, but something sure wasn't right! That's when I put the in-line fuse in and it seemed okay ... but these electric fans draw a LOT of juice when they kick on (more like 60 amps) so the fuses don't last long.

This guy at Mad Electrical is really cool and likes to talk, so I'm gonna get all the info out of him that I can today. I know he uses 18 gauge fusible links instead of a circuit breaker, and NOW I think I know why.

I'll fill ya in later today.

[solidaxel]

We are all waiting to see you spend your MONEY first, and thank you and spare us the time with the vendor.

When you say a 18ga. fuse is that 20ga. link, or a 8ga. with a 18ga. link. and you are saying that a 30 amp circuit breaker is TO small for the inital start spike and will POP ?

[horvath]

LOL! Okay, I'll spend the bucks and do it right ... then fill y'all in.


That's an 8 gauge wire with an 18 gauge fusible link. Not a 30 amp breaker ... but a 30 amp bladed FUSE will not hold up very long to the spikes of an electric fan -- the fan may be 30 amp, but when it kicks on, it may spike as high as 60 amp, and a bladed fuse will break down continually. The 30 amp breaker I originally had was acting strange -- like it was partially grounding out at times, or something like that -- and that's was started me on this rampage.

[horvath]

I just got off the phone with Mark Hamilton of Mad Electrical -- what a NICE guy!

Re: The 30 amp circuit breaker ... he doesn't use them because they do become faulty and he's seen cars burn up in flames from old ones, etc., etc. ... he uses 18 gauge fusible links, he says, because they LAST for years and do the job well; they save your vehicle and protect all the important stuff from getting fried, and the ONLY time they fry up and need to be replaced is when something REALLY IMPORTANT needs attention -- like a bad short somewhere. Mark says, when a fusible link goes, you need to find out the cause -- what made it fry -- and it's usually a freyed wire that's shorting out; something that needs serious attention.

THAT, along with me having a bad (brand new) 30 amp circuit breaker that I didn't trust to begin with, convinces me that the fusible link is the way to go.

Most guys don't want the hassle of having to repair a fusible link, but what does it take to keep a small spare length of 18 gauge wire and some connectors in your ride, and as Mark points out, you're not ever going to have to repair a fusible link unless there's something terrible happening that you wouldn't want a breaker or fuse "masking" your attention from.

Makes sense to me.

I bought all kinds of stuff! About $175.00 worth! But I got relays for my headlights, relays for my electric fan, a couple of his books about wiring, a kit to wire up my 3-wire 12si alternator the "right" way, a bunch of connectors, shrinkable tubing, fusible links, 10 feet of his 8 gauge "Tuff Wire"and two terminal boxes.

Hey - I spent 10 days rewiring my truck with the EZ-Wire kit ... now I'm augmenting all that from the battery to everything under the hood and making that job 100% instead of 85%.

[solidaxel]

BUXMAN66 did you sell that blower kit yet, a guy was asking me the other day if I had one for sale !!!

[BUXMAN66]

nope, i still got it yet. i just have'nt had time to put it in the local tradin' post classified ads. it has the 830cfm dbl. pumper holley carb. and the blower unit itself is an "old skool" craegar (same people as the rim/wheel) from circa 1967-68 or so i'm told. has the belts ,bottom crank pulley,tensioner,and intake w/ it for a complete set-up. i'm asking $800 firm. if it's not sold it will go in the parts cabinet for a future project.