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the engine getting installed...

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the swan neck HURST shifter stick would not work as it would hit the dash when attempting to shift into 1st or 3rd gears, we even tried mounting it backwards, same problem

so we drilled some 3/8ths holes in the base of the generic stick that came with the shifter and mounted it up for the time being, but another HURST shifter is in our near future

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another problem was the donor drive shaft off of the 1988 short bed 2WD truck, turns out at 56" it is about 3 inches too short, so we need another one but at least we had something to shove in the tailshaft and see for ourselves if it would work or not, that means way more to me than stretching some measuring tape and reading that

but seriously I missed it by one year? remember our generation goes up to 1987

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turns out the truck wanted to spin the driveshaft even when the transmission was in neutral, so we had to pull it out and plug the tailshaft hole with a spray can cap and some masking tape and raise the rear end of the truck to keep the transmission fluid from dripping out ~ ROADKILL would be proud!

the only problem we had during our 25 minute camshaft break in was that the truck overheated after about 10 minutes, guess what, we had to pull the thermostat out to complete the break in so turns out Pontiac Mike was right when originally he told me not to install the thermostat until we break the cam in

that's why we ran for 25 minutes instead of 20 (varying the RPMs between 2000 and 2500) because we stopped to let it cool off to the point where we could yank that thermostat out and top it off with water, we ran water only intsead of coolant and I am so glad we did that, otherwise we would have sweet green coolant all over the engine and the garage floor, etc

we did not bolt up the power steering pump for the cam break in, there was no need plus the new water pump has a threaded hole for that bracket where as the original did not and allowed the long bolt to pass right through, I am going to see if there is a better way to mount the power steering pump than hanging it off that one exhaust manifold bolt, that is just silly

we ran the engine wiring quickly but just ugly enuff for the break in, I hope to nicely tuck it all away so that all you see is the spark plug wires

my '74 water temp sending unit was too big and would not fit in the Vortec head so I had to mount it in the intake manifold, I wonder if the Vortec sending unit will report properly to my '74 guage

we primed the engine with a drill to get oil to all the rockers

we primed the carb with gasoline so it didn't have to suck gas from the line while grinding on the cam

there were no other major problems during break in to report

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and a sneak peak at the newly painted radiator core support, yes the radiator shroud will be going back on but it was too dusty/dirty to find its way back on during the break in

and the headlight wiring harness will be hidden inside the core support

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and that's all the updates for tonight, again it was a long day, 12 hours with only 1 hour break for some delicious burritos, thanks to Mopar Seth and Pontiac Mike for helping out, but did I really deserve this? Clearly they are not Flowmaster fans!

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wow Jeramy you da man, thank you so much, that might could work if I can find a bit longer shaft

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here's my cynical take on the whole H pipe X pipe craze (for our street use people):

"How do we sell them what they already have?"

It's the cheese in the pizza crust nonsense.

They start out with single exhaust, and we gave them dual exhaust and they ate it up, now what do we sell? We need a gimick.

I give you the H pipe.

a few years later... hey man the H pipe sales are slowing down, we need a gimick

I know, lets give them the X pipe

Hmmm I woder whats the next "best" thing to simply get the dirty gases passed the passenger compartment?

oh by the way, Good Morning everybody, lol, take this with a grain of salt no need to start WWIII over it, ha ha

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Glad to see the puppy back in the cage. How I envy you. Grrrrr.

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thanks, lots of work bro lots of work!

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H and X pipes aren't a gimmick. By the same though process dual pipes is a gimmick.

H and X pipes help with sound and balancing out the pulses from the engine and can actually make things better. But too many people LOVE droning noise in the cabs or to be obnoxious with their exhaust.. *ahem*Flow 40s*ahem*

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x2. My friend's 6.0L swap picked up quite a bit of low end torque swapping to an X-pipe (dyno verified). They aren't just a gimmick.

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just wanted to show you how the 833 transmission sits in the tunnel and how far back the shifter sits, see how we had to notch it about 1.5" around the shifter mechanism

I am wondering if the 80s trucks had a longer transmission tunnel than our 70s counterparts, maybe one of youz with an 80s squarebody could share a pic with us or some measurements of your manual transmission tunnel please

note the stock generic GM stick, I need to take it in to a place to have them thread the tip for me, I think CarQuest still has one machine shop around here

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As the guy I quoted said. They allow you to use slightly larger pipes without the performance and noise penalty usually associated with going too big.

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so where are we on this project, let me give you some updates

First I returned the 1988 drive shaft as it was 3 inches too short, and as I learned, the drive line shops do not lengthen tubes, they replace them, so all I could use out of the drive line was maybe the transmission yoke, the U joint at the rear was the wrong size to mate with the differential

so I took today off and hit four junkyards

I picked up this 70" long, long bed driveshaft from a 1976 GMC (here we go again a GMC to GMC transplant) this shaft measures about 3.5" thick in the middle and tapers down to about 2.75 at each end, note that, it is important

Pros: both the spline end in the front and the U joint in the rear are correct (well not exactly, yes the rear is the right diameter 1.063 but at only 3.246" it is too narrow for the diff yoke)

Cons: the shaft is too long and it is damaged [revised: and the rear U joint is too narrow]

Lesson Learned: The drive line place/shop only installs straight pipes and not tappered ones, so I can't use the ends from this shaft to get a new tube installed, I would need new ends, spline yoke and U joint, more on that later, and since I basically exchanged my 88 one for this one, this lesson cost me nothin'

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then I spied with my little eye this other long bed 70" shaft off of a 1976, but I punted on it cause it's ends were also tapered and if I was to shorten it to 59" I would need new yokes and U joint ends anyway

plus this truck lived a hard life, it looked like Death on Wheels

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so then I happen to walk by a 1983 El Camino and thought ah what the heck lemme check if it's a boy or a girl

and very interesting it has a shaft that is 61 inches long (only 2 inches too long) measures 3 1/4" in the middle section and tapers down to 2 3/4" just like the long bed one

Pros: although it is also tapered on both ends it has the same taper 2 3/4" like the long bed one, and there is plenty of room to shorten it 2 inches, and it was plugged in to a Turbo 350 so we are good on the front end / yoke spline thingie

Cons: it is only a 3 1/4 thick drive in the middle, and the back U joint is the wrong size, at 1.125" the diameter of the roundy rounds is a bit too big for the yoke in the differential

Plan: have this one shortened and use one of them combination U joints with 2 caps of one size and the other 2 of a different size, or just have the proper new U joint thingie installed by the drive line shop

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so here is where I find myself, I am a proud owner of three drive shafts right now

1. my original two piece Muncie SM465 one (backwards in the picture I think, LOL)

2. the 1976 long bed damaged, too long, with the wrong U joint one

3. the 1983 El Camino just barely too long one with the wrong U joint

I know some of you may be rolling your eyes but I enjoy learning about this stuff this works much better for me than reading a book or a manual, I have physically touched these drive lines and I know what they are and what they do now, I think that is pretty cool

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here is how close we are with the El Caminio 61" drive shaft installed, just 2 inches away from a test drive, ha ha

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Here's a thought for you Rusty...get the yoke off of the El Camino rear end and put it on yours. They are both 10 bolts right?

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OR......if the tapered end of the Elco shaft is the same diameter of yours, use the yoke of your drive shaft on the Elco shaft after you have it shortened.

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thanks, but mine is a 12 bolt, I got the beefier rear end (wait... that didn't sound right, you git what I mean, ha ha)

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all good suggestions, but mine is a 2 piece so its thicker I think 3" and the Elco taperes down to 2 3/4, LOL

I am having fun, love figuring out this sort of stuff

again thanks for all the suggestions guys n gals, that's why I share

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Remember these guys?

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They must have come after Ren & Stimpy

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Pinky and the Brain. hah never really watched them but I remember from my kids watching them. For me it was the Bugs Bunny and Road Runner show

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LOL, you give me too much credit, mine is only held on by the two big bottom bolts with the rubber bushings and maybe one bolt on each side on top to each fender, just enuff to mount the radiator to run the engine

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sharing is caring so here we go, so a little secret for you all, sometimes I like to take a Thursday off work and work on my truck in piece or go to the junkyard, you see the wife is at work, the kids are at school, and it's just me, Rusty, and Bud in the garage

ok, having said that, last time I went to Pick n Pull not only did I get a couple driveshafts, I also bronged home two more transmission crossmembers

now what in the world did you done that for Greg?

well I wasn't too a happy with the way I was mounting the trans with my old crossmember so I thought I could do better

so here is my collection

1. my old original Muncie SM465 4 speed cross member aka da Double Humper for 2WD

2. Turbo 400 TH400 automatic transmission for 2WD cross member

3. Turbo 350 TH350 automatic transmission for 2WD cross member

4. automatic transmission cross member for a 4x4 aka 4WD

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ok Greg, I am confused here, what is it that you are trying to accomplish here?

well our trucks came with the New Process 833 overdrive transmission in the early to mid 80s so I am looking for the crossmember that will allow us a simple bolt up with no modifications no holes to be drilled

lets review, the the one in the forefront in the picture, the nice and black one, that is one for a 4x4 truck and it won't work because it does not have the two holes to mount up the transmission bracket to, and the single hole bracket don't align with any of its holes, plus it sits too high, so we punt on that one

the second one from the front is the TH350 trans and when we compare it to my old one (the double humper) we see that though they look different they sit the same height above the bottom rail, about 2 inches above it, this one looks promising lets give it a go

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and here is the New Process 833 overdrive transmission held in place with the Turbo Hydramatic 350 TH350, it works, it fits, BUT...

lets go over a few lessons we learned whilst (yes I do use the word whilst from time to time, it's a lost art really) installing this automatic cross member

first I did not like my old crossmember because it did not align the two transmission bracket holes with it nicely, the transmission sat about 1/2 inch to the passenger side, well, same goes for this TH350 crossmember, so maybe there is nothing wrong with my old crossmember, maybe the transmission is crooked, yep, sure enuff

LESSON LEARNED: don't tighten mounts / brackets / anything super tight until you got everything fitted

we loosened the engine brackets and the transmission shifted into place nicely, about 14 inches is the center between my frame rails

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so the TH350 transmission cross member fits but...

but it don't play nice with long tube headers / dual exhaust (2.5 inch to be specific) hard to tell in the pictures but we need at least 1 inch more of clearance

hewk I could have had my collector extension pipes modified, or had some new ones bent, but why if I could just [wait for it] go back to my awesome Double Humper original cross member

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man I just about had enuff of crawlin' under the truck today and had to do something different, something above ground, and so I did

I decided to give it a go and cut out a hole for the shifter in the ol' transmission tunnel

it ain't perfect, needs a bit of biggering but it's a nice start

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not a big fan of how the shifter protrudes on that curved edge, wish the tunnel was about 3 inches longer

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Looking good Greg.

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thank you, I appreciate that

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2. re assemble our new Flowmaster dual exhaust (that we took apart to try the TH350 trans cross member) - DONE with Honors

I even went out to Home Depot to get some brand new 3/8ths lock washers, was aimin' for at least Grade 5 (nothing but second best for Rusty, Grade 8 being best, lol) but I had a bit of sticker shock, they wanted $1.18 for 3 stainless steel washers, thats nearly double for what they want for the lame grade 3 Zinc ones, so we got a baggie of 12 zinc ones and called it good enuff

I decided to sandwich the collector extension union with washers on both sides of the bolt, one on the head side and a second one on the nut side, I have seen these joins come loose all too often ~ note the bolts facing leeward as per the concour de elagance specs

Funny Thing: the header extensions come with 1" bolts (too short) and Home Depot sales 1 1/2" ones (a bit too long) I would love to have some 1 1/4" ones. The Greg will toss and turn over this for 6 nights, one per bolt, ha ha

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check out this super cool Bolt Size / Wrench Size table they have at Home Depot, someone a while back mentioned that generally you use a wrench that is three sizes bigger for the bolt you are a screwin', so lets do a fact check on this Presidential Election style

what bolt size does our most popular 9/16ths wrench turn?

a yup, 3/8"

you may wanna commit this here table to memory as it will be on the quiz on February 31st next year