Project "You thought yours was bad!" '78 C10 Stepside

[Nick_R_23]

It definitely is.

Also, Christmas bonuses came in and my dad also wanted to buy my '66 Lemans project, so I went ahead and ordered my Holley Sniper EFI kit yesterday! It's currently at 6-8 week lead time, so I'll probably be seeing it right at the end of January, but that'll give me plenty of time to get the rest of the truck, specifically the fuel system, ready. I also ordered a nice set of spark plug wire looms. With this and the EFI kit, total build cost is only $4097!

[Nick_R_23]

Still waiting on the other one to come in, but I had to throw this one on!

[jott_06]

I have the same decal in silver on my Suburban.

[Odaroloc]

I just read through your entire build so far. It looks amazing! Before i joined the military i was going to come look at your lemans haha, but sadly ive had to sell all my projects except one when i left. Im really looking forward to seeing thus beauty done!

[Nick_R_23]

Originally Posted by jott_06

I have the same decal in silver on my Suburban.

Awesome! It's very fitting

Originally Posted by Odaroloc

I just read through your entire build so far. It looks amazing! Before i joined the military i was going to come look at your lemans haha, but sadly ive had to sell all my projects except one when i left. Im really looking forward to seeing thus beauty done!

Thank you! And man, that sucks, but I did the same thing when I moved into this house, I sold off about 20 projects. In the end it was nice to get down to one though, makes it much easier to focus on it and channel money towards it. And you should definitely come check it out sometime!

[evan]

Originally Posted by Nick_R_23

It definitely is.

Also, Christmas bonuses came in and my dad also wanted to buy my '66 Lemans project, so I went ahead and ordered my Holley Sniper EFI kit yesterday! It's currently at 6-8 week lead time, so I'll probably be seeing it right at the end of January, but that'll give me plenty of time to get the rest of the truck, specifically the fuel system, ready. I also ordered a nice set of spark plug wire looms. With this and the EFI kit, total build cost is only $4097!

Nice! Looking forward to seeing how it goes.

[Nick_R_23]

Originally Posted by evan

Nice! Looking forward to seeing how it goes.

Thanks! I'm excited to see how well this system works as well.

The other sticker showed up yesterday. My favorite one!

[Nick_R_23]

My R&M specialties spark plug wire looms showed up today from Summit Racing. These were the only set I could find that I liked with the centerbolt valve covers. I also like that they were available in black/black, I still want a somewhat stock-ish appearance engine wise. Now that I have these, I can route my spark plug wires and fit them to the right length!

[Nick_R_23]

I found some time today to get these suckers installed. I definitely like this setup, much cleaner than many of the other "centerbolt" options out there. It is definitely very tedious getting the washers and nuts installed for the looms, if I was to do it over I would "preinstall" everything on the brackets and leave the hardware loose so I could pull the wires back and forth as needed, instead of trying to mount them after the brackets are installed.

Someone in the reviews mentioned that these hit their headers in the back. I'm not sure how that's possible. Maybe they shouldn't install their headers upside down!





The plastic loom holder thingys were advertised to fit a fairly wide range of wire sizes. The problem with that is that they become very tight with the larger wire sizes (I'm running 8.5 mm), almost to the point that I would worry that they were damaging the wire. My solution was to drill these out a step larger and also eliminate the 'nubs' inside the loom, so I would have some adjustment with moving the wires around while they were clamped down. An 11/32 drill bit worked perfectly for my MSD wires



Here are the looms installed on the bracket, the spark plug socks installed on the wires, and the wires ran through the looms in their general position. Very clean routing, I'm definitely a fan!





Here, I'm trimming the wires to length with everything ran with appropriate slack and clearance everywhere. Also starting to crimp on the ends





And boots are installed along with the wire number clips. Custom fit wires are definitely worth the effort! I'm still up in the air on how I want to wire #2 and #3. I would love to route them between the terminals similar to how Chevy did it with the TBI wire routing, but I'm a little worried about crossfiring between wires. Around the cap would eliminate any possibility of that, but wouldn't look nearly as clean.

[evan]

I thought those wire looms were overkill when you first showed them but now that they're installed you've changed my mind. They look good.

[Nick_R_23]

Thanks! To tell you the truth, I probably wouldn't have gotten these other than the fact that I saw them on another member here's engine and I loved the look of them actually installed. I would definitely buy another set.

Also, purchase of the day! I've been rolling around in my head what type of air cleaner I wanted to use, and I could never find an aftermarket one that popped out to me. I've always wanted a dual snorkel air cleaner but the repro ones are very expensive! I ran across this one on Ebay the other day, and picked it up for a very reasonable price. I may modify it to remove the vacuum domes, or just leave them in place and remove the guts to keep a stock look. I might even source some original C10 cold air tubes and see if they fit. I think it will fit well with the "stockish" appearance I'm going for.

[Nick_R_23]

Woooo first update of 2017!

So in the meantime I've been ordering a few parts here and there and things are starting to show up. I haven't had much of a chance to work on the truck with the below zero weather we've been having and my poor little garage heater just can't keep up.

I made a spacer for my coil bracket, it wouldn't wrap tightly enough around the coil when the legs were far apart enough to bolt onto the intake manifold. I used the rubber liners off of two 'P-clamps', and trimmed them to fit. I like the additional vibration dampening they will provide as well.



From the top



Coil mounted to the intake manifold. I also finished up the last couple wires for the distributor, and picked up some wire separators to help keep the wiring clean at the back half of the engine. I can also make my coil wire now that I have it bolted in place.



And some of the parts that started showing up! My Holley Hydramat came in, along with an assortment of Earls fittings. The 90* fitting on the right is a bulkhead (pass-through) fitting that will become the return line into my fuel tank. The one beside it is a compression to AN fitting that will let me go from the hard line on the pickup tube to my Hydramat. The hose and fitting on the left are my in tank return line section that will direct the returned fuel onto the pickup directly. I still have a few fittings on their way as well as a few more I will need to figure out once the actual Sniper system comes in, but this should allow me to get the fuel system set up inside my tank at any rate!

[moregrip]

Originally Posted by Nick_R_23

It definitely is.

Also, Christmas bonuses came in and my dad also wanted to buy my '66 Lemans project, so I went ahead and ordered my Holley Sniper EFI kit yesterday! It's currently at 6-8 week lead time, so I'll probably be seeing it right at the end of January, but that'll give me plenty of time to get the rest of the truck, specifically the fuel system, ready. I also ordered a nice set of spark plug wire looms. With this and the EFI kit, total build cost is only $4097!

interested to see how this efi works out for you!

[Nick_R_23]

I'm very interested too! Hopefully it will be off backorder soon.

Few other parts came in, and I found a better way to actually mount the Hydramat to the sending unit. Would you believe Holley themselves actually show a 73-87 Chevy fuel tank as an example of installation? I just didn't see the exact fitting I needed, so now I have the correct one on the way.

The braided UltraPro fuel line came in! Two 10' sections WERE NOT CHEAP but should be more than enough for the truck.





AC Delco Detent/kickdown cable showed up from Summit too:



Ordered the correct outlet fitting for my fuel pump:



Aaaaaand the correct fitting for the Hydramat to the solid line shown in Holley's install example:



Also ordered a universal crossover exhaust system and header flanges from Summit, for the price and shipping with other parts I just couldn't beat it. I figured I'd give it a shot at making my own instead of paying a shop to build one. I think the only thing I'll need to outsource is the driveshaft!





And finally the new sending unit came in! I picked this one specifically for the large, blank spot in order to modify it like so for the high pressure return line:



First, mark where the hole is to be drilled:



Hole drilled and deburred:



Pass-though fitting and seal installed (UltraPro hose end shown threaded on here):

[Odaroloc]

Looking great!

[Nick_R_23]

Thank you!

The exhaust showed up today, along with my fuel pump fitting. Should be able to get started on this tomorrow!

[Nick_R_23]

I couldn't wait, haha.



"Pre-assembled" the exhaust on the kitchen floor just to get an idea of how I want the layout to be. The front section with the short couplers will connect to a pair of 3" Header Buddies, along with another pair of Header Buddies welded to the mufflers, connecting to the flanges that will be welded to the rear. This setup will allow me to easily drop the exhaust if needed, or easily change to a different muffler, while also completely eliminating gaskets from the system. I also ordered up 6 Walker exhaust hangers and 2 Schoenfeld 3" turndowns for dumps right off the mufflers.

[Nick_R_23]

It was pretty warm outside today, so I fired up the heater out in the garage and got a few things done. I jacked the truck up off the ground to prepare for the next few things I'll be getting done underneath the truck, mainly the fuel tank, taillight and transmission wiring, and exhaust work. I also removed the rear bumper brackets to repair the damage from the cutoff wheel back when I removed the gigantic trailer hitch that was welded to them. I also took this chance to straighten out the bumper filler plates, as one was pretty bent up.



Cuts welded up and ground down



Painted and hanging up to dry. I also touched up the last few inches of frame I wasn't able to paint until now.



More exhaust parts should be showing up in the mail tomorrow about noon, so I should be able to get the main portion of the exhaust system welded up!

[lowbrow454]

Looking forward to seeing how that exhaust will turn out.

[Nick_R_23]

I'm sure you'll be able to tell one way or another the first time I get it fired up. And everyone else in between!

[Nick_R_23]

More exhaust parts showed up today! This should allow me to at least get the main crossover section of the exhaust done up until the last few pieces come in.

New exhaust hangers, and the first set of Header Buddies



And this is how the Header Buddies work. They simply sit right against an existing header collector flange, and mate up to them very similar to a ball-and-socket style connection. This gives you a quick way to disconnect the pipe from the headers while eliminating the gasket and any chances of leaking at the same time!

[Nick_R_23]

Partway done!

Header Buddies welded to the 3" coupler





Hand tightened up to the headers. The drivers side header has a slight down turn, compared to the passenger side, which appears to be level. Unfortunately this means I need to have the drivers side leg on the X-pipe turned to the side a little to compensate and make it all level again. This means a little less clearance, but ultimately shouldn't be a major concern, as long as it sits a decent ways off the ground!



You might be able to pick that "bend" up here in this picture. The exhaust is sitting upside down (Driver's side to the right). It has a little bit more "kick up" than the other side.

[Nick_R_23]

Picked up some 18" extensions for the back, trimmed them down to 13" and welded them on as well along with the rear flanges.



Exhaust is "mounted" and fitting for the rear hangers



Here is the angle from the driver's side header. I don't particularly like it, but that's what I've got. It looks a little exaggerated in the picture, but as you can tell it's not great.



Rear hangers welded on



Shot from the back



And from the passenger's side (You can see the driver's side doesn't appear quite as bad from here)



And how it hangs below the body. I'm sure with a higher end set of headers, I would hope that this wouldn't be an issue. Either way, I'm at 4.5"/6" and not going to be offroading it, so I think I'll be okay.

[Shucks]

My headers hang down like that and it scares me to death driving somewhere . No problems yet! Truck is looking good!

[Nick_R_23]

That's good to hear. How low is your truck and how many miles are on your setup?