Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Thanks brother, I appreciate that, the best feedback I got was at work from one of my buddies who is no joke when it comes to LS wrenchin', helps a local guy here in Sac who actually beat one of them fancy Street Outlaws in a heads up race which they conveniently didn't air, LOL, anywho he said "Looks like it belongs!" that meant a lot coming from this dude.

Re: Restoring Rusty - First Drive After LS Swap
 

first drive into work, post my LS swap, so exciting, fingers crossed... keep grinding fellas you can do it!

UPDATE: Ok if you are reading this today, I made it there and back, well it over heated on the way back but that was a bone head oversight on my part, forgot to tighten lower radiator hose clamp. The point is that I am being flat out honest with you all here and not hiding anything to make myself look good, no build is perfect, there are just too many moving pieces, it's like we are putting together a 3D organic moving puzzle, and most often doing it by ourselves. So it's ok, that's why we do a shake down run, and yes I drove it around the neighborhood first slowly to see if anything falls off, ha ha before I took it to work, but I always feel until you make a real run with your rig, to school, work, or your girlfriend's house (shhhh don't tell the wife, jk), it's just not done till then.

FYI: Took 2 months but I spent like 2 weeks redoing my entire exhaust cause I wasn't happy with it and wanted it to go over the rear axle, but using Magnaflow mufflers still.

Biggest Challenge: Adapting all the metric fittings to standard: trans cooler lines, power steering lines, oil pressure sensor, etc. seems the smaller the part the longer it took, ha ha, but everyone on here was super helpful, thank you so much.

Don't ask yourself will there be set backs, but ask yourself how will you handle them, (music helps, beer really works)!

Most Fun: Buying, Learning and Tuning using HP Tuners.

Advice: Buy the most you can in one shot: engine/accessories/transmission/wiring harness/computer/MAF/(drive by wire throttle) or risk getting nickle and dimed to death.

Budget: come on you guys, what? and risk my wife seeing this ������ Formula for success = come up with an arbitrary budget amount, than double it, then plan to exceed it! Question being how fast do you want to spend? ha ha

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I swear I am going to paint this truck one body panel at a time, lol, I already painted the old hood, then the passenger side fender, than the hood again, well a new hood, and now you can totally tell the difference against the driver side fender which is going to get replaced and painted, oh the inner fenders were painted as well, I wanted a cherry engine bay in a rust bucket hooptie

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

and then on the way home this happened! the lower radiator hose took a piss and the temp gauge jumped to 224* F

Um, did the Installation Tech forget to tighten the lower radiator hose clamp? [asking for a friend]

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

can someone explain to me please how one cuts his forearm by putting water in the radiator, LOL

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Those hose clamps are brutal!!!~!!!~

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Look at it this way. If you rank injuries by how little they hurt while simultaneously looking badass, cuts on the forearm are top of the list!

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

well shoot in that case I'm going back in for one more, LOL

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Cut?...what cut?...that's just a scratch for me....I usually get real cuts doing the simplistic things...

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Ha ha, my people!

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Thumbs up...

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

AND!!

Thoughts, Input, Comments for anyone who is thinking of doing a swap like this???

Was it worth it?

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

OMG 1,000 x Yes! and way easier than I thought

easier starts
better MPG
no leaks
no noises
better feedback more data more gauges
overdrive 75 MPH @ 2100 RPM
more power / more power potential

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

So I don't pay attention for a bit and Rusty goes LS. Oh, the humanity! (insert slightly tilted head with winking eye and sarcastic just kidding grin smiley here)

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

LOL, it's what you get when you leave The Greg unsupervised, ha ha, reminds me of a time my wife went to Vegas for a girls weekend out, somehow my seventh motorcycle showed up in my garage, :bike:

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

LS Truck doing LS Truck things

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Yeah, really! What the heck happened to those multiple Gen I small blocks?

Hope the LS thing is going well. Which trans are you running now?

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

And that was probably only some of their their equity in the CA house!

Prices are going nuts out here in North Texas, but still way less than CA. I'm looking to move to a more rural area north of Fort Worth where they are building new 2400-3000 sq ft homes on 0.5-0.7 acre lots for around $150-$160 sq ft, including 3-car garages. 3-4 years ago it would have been $120/ft.

A good thing is the city ordinances allow "outbuildings" such as 2-car garages behind the house. :)

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

practically gave them away, sold the original '74 four bolt main to some kid who's rebuilt 383 stroker got stolen, and sold the '99 Suburban roller cam block to some other guy

absolutely loving the 4.8L and running the 4L60e behind it, they came as a set and I didn't want to complicate things, this being my first LS Swap, but you know I prefer a stick

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

watch out for HOAs (Home Owner Associations) latest thing in Sacramento is the city is trying to pass a law restricting home owners from wrenching on their on cars in their own garages, mother _________!!!

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I know a guy who lives in a subdivision where you can't work on a car in your own garage. Absolutely nuts! God forbid you open you hood to check fluid levels.

And my daughter just bought a house where cars can't be parked overnight on the street. Not sure what that means for overnight guests.

I definitely will read any HOA rules, but they tend to be minimal or non-existent in semi-rural areas where homes are built on 0.5-2 acres lots.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

My advice to anyone is to avoid buying property in an HOA altogether. IMHO They're a petty dictatorship put in place by developers that want to direct the use of and continue to collect rent from property they no longer own.

If properties in an HOA become more difficult to sell it'll kill them off.

I have two pieces of property spanning a road outside of town. No bloody zoning and no bloody HOA.

I can maintain my machinery in the driveway, barn, or garage or on the bloody lawn if I feel like it. I restrict this activity to the barn and garage for the most part but I don't have to. If the tractor, mower, baler, etc dies in the meadow I can fix it and continue mowing or baling without some officious jackwagon being able to tell me I have to get it flat-bedded to Haverhill for their brother in law to fix at $200/hr.

If I feel like replacing the roofs or the garage doors or barn doors or replace the siding or windows or re-surface the driveway, or plant trees, or plant firethorn and thornapple along the rear and sides of my property I don't have to ask some bloody wanker from an HOA, city, town, county, or state for permission and pay them a bribe to allow it.

I could let the bloody barn or garage or house fall down or all three if I wanted to. I could denude the property to the dirt by spraying herbicide on all of the grass, cut every tree and shrub to the ground right up to the property lines and push the buildings into a hole for a big ole weenie roast if I felt like it.
I wouldn't do that because it would cost me a bunch of property value and where would I put my stuff... but no bloody nanny can tell me I can't.

It's called freedom. You folks that live under petty dictators should try it out. It might grow on you.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

can I get an AMEN!

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Maybe you wouldn't do it, but others would. I can say from past experience that it only takes one trashy neighbor to ruin the entire neighborhood.

I have no problems with some entity telling us to keep the trim painted and the grass cut and trimmed, but city or county ordinances can take care of that. That's how it used to be back before HOAs.:(

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I don't care if my neighbor has 40 junk cars and trucks behind the barn. They can have 100 tanks and Bradley armored vehicles or a used up tractor trailer collection for all I care.

I double don't care if they keep the bloody trim painted and what colors they choose for the buildings on their property. Whether they keep the lawn cut is none of my bloody business either.

Telling someone else how to live isn't real high on my list. It's not even on my list. I have enough of my own problems. I don't have time to keep track of my neighbors activities and I wouldn't if I had the time.
It's none of my bloody business.

If you have enough leisure time that you can worry about the neighbors activities, how they paint the buildings on their property, and how they keep their yard you need to find something else to occupy your time.:lol:

I live in a very rural area so I don't have to worry about people that have that kind of free time complaining to some officious jackwagon about me changing my own motor and transmission oil and taking the results to the local garage to burn for heat instead of pouring it on the ground.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Well, OK then.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I'd keep on wrenching and lawyer up.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

meanwhile... after 5 years of dealing with an annoyingly whistling DOOR, I took my buddy Mopar Seth to lunch one day and he in 5 seconds goes, hey your triangle's making funny noises and nailed down the source of the problem

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I know this is silly, but it has bugged me for 5 years so here's how I finally narrowed it down

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

and having tried to fix it from the inside, this is how I drive around now, what a hack?

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

What an awesome thread, I can't believe I was able to read the whole thing while on the clock at work. Suckers!

Your attention to details, ingenuity, and humor were all appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to log it all.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Those vent window seals are b!tch to replace, but you can do it with patience and soapy water or silicon spray.

Be sure to leave the old seals and tape in your front yard because that's your absolute right.;)

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

FWIW, I have seen Gen I SBC t-stat housing gaskets do the same thing. The leaks actually were worse on winter days after the truck had been sitting for days! Could be a difference in expansion rates of the metals, so as the temperature changes, the gasket isn't thick enough to compensate. However, those LS engines have some very nice gaskets, compared to GEN I gaskets, right?

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I'm a fan of making it work right and enhancing driveability. You can aesthetic-ize it later.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Puddles like that are why my 73 is manual steering now. Hate puddles under truck, like an untrained puppy

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I'm with you on leaks. They drive me nuts.

However, I must be lucky because I converted my 69 C10 from manual to power back around 1990 using a steering box, Pitman arm, pump, and hoses from a junkyard truck! The only thing that's been replaced since then is the return hose, because the old hose was looking pretty nasty. But I've never had a leak.

My 82 C10 came with power steering from the factory, but I did replace hoses and pump in 2015 when I converted the truck from 250 six to 350. No leaks there yet, but it's probably good for another 20 years. :)

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

What an awesome feedback, I can't believe I was able to write the whole thing while on the clock at work, JK JK!

May I please turn you on to some of my other works: HP Tuners Tutorials

this one is guaranteed to cure your insomnia if and when it flares up ha ha INNOVATE DLG1 Wideband O2 Oxygen Sensor Tuning Diagnostics Logging Air Fuel Ratio etc

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

LOL, duh, where else would I put em'?

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

100% agree on that, if nothing else the redesign of the LSx enjins is superb, tall cylinder heads with shallow lids for example to keep the oil in the enjin for example, ha ha, also smart intake manifold gaskets, no more running the beads of toothpaste on the China walls!!!