Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Looking forward to it myself along with the multitudes of others on here.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I have no idea why they painted it silver, but they did, so something had to be done about that, and judging from the quality of the paint job, I'm sure their surface prep didn't go beyond, shake can, LOL

naturally today was the windiest day of the decade so I had to paint the shaft inside the garage

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

4K tv! Wow thats the most expensive painting box I've ever seen!

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

... and here's a clever way to show off the blacked out front end without admittin' you haven't put the hood back on yet, ha ha

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I think you had good intentions with the black but honestly it just seems like far to much and looks really weird and unfinished.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Congratulations. March Madness comes to a close and you got it done.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

We need a review on the engine upgrades and transmission.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Awesome

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

CNN headline version:

engine runs strong, got it idling at about 750 RPM with 12* degrees advance, still runs a bit hot but that's because I am still running only water, will drain and fill up with coolant tomorrow and report back - remember I could not screw in my water temp sensor in the Vortec head as it is too large for the hole, so I screwed it in the intake manifold and am reading the temp off of the intake manifold, just an FYI

transmission shifts good, getting used to actually starting in First Gear, which is Up and away from you, instead of always starting in Second Gear (down and towards you) and avoiding the Granny Low on the SM465 Muncie, the (3.09:1) first gear seems about the same as the Muncie Second (3.58:1) my speedo cable is too short so I don't know how fast I am going vs RPMs, will pick up a longer speedo cable tomorrow as well

Flowmaster Series 40s exhaust sounds fine, not too loud at all

the stock GM shifter stick feels about 3 inches too short, and I have long arms, I do sit with the bench seat all the way back though

more as the news develops

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

with the heavy lifting out of the way sort of speak, I was able to relax and have some fun fabricating, (I am terrible at it I know, but I really enjoy it, ha ha)

first I bent the shifter boot ring to fit the contours of the transmission cover tunnel, I called it death by a thousand C clamps

now those of you not familiar with my master fab skills, would think wow he really beat up that ring, he will have to repaint it for sure, but those of you who have seen my expertise work clearly know that those scratches were deliberate, aka built in patina to give it that aged look (YEAH, RIGHT!?)

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

naturally I decided to make a cup holder out of the old shifter hole opening, using non other than that air breather plastic bracket thingie I just picked up at the Chico junkyard last Thursday, hey you know the saying: "Fab with what you brong!" well something like that

I had two tunnel covers and made a perfectly round hole out of both of them, the white piece is bigger than it appears

hey man I'm just having fun, that's all, if I find something more of the professional looking cup holder variety at the junk yard next time I go, I will replace my hockey thing and so be it

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Your temp at the head is going to be even higher. It's right next to the combustion chamber.

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Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I was a wonderin' about that, plus the driver side cylinder head has the hole at the front of the block (not sure the diff) the passenger side (being a symetrical has it the back of the bloc (I would think the rear would be hotter, who knows) I know of some people who read from both holes and have two water temp gauges

anywho, AutoZone lists the OE thermostat at 195* F which is the one I am running, part #3009

http://contentinfo.autozonepro.com/z.../3009/image/4/

http://contentinfo.autozone.com/znet...009/3/image/4/

http://contentinfo.autozonepro.com/z...009/2/image/4/

http://contentinfo.autozonepro.com/z...009/4/image/4/

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I am thinking about switching to the 1999 Suburban thermostat also rated at 195*F though it is a different part number 4119, hey for $7 bucks its worth a try

http://contentinfo.autozone.com/znet.../4119/image/4/

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I like the cup holder idea, but I think that you may be better served by using that cold air inlet as it was intended. Cold air is a big benefit to consistent carburetion and horsepower.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I like the cup holder but I hope you can seal it off somehow. I also hope the heat doesn't melt or distort it. I like the way things are coming along. Looking good.

Re: Restoring Rusty - Removing the Tailgate
 

That's funny! I guess I'm completely the opposite 'cause it wouldn't bother me at all. I've been searching for a replacement tailgate, too. I've been checking the inventories of several pull your own junkyards around here and, finally, a GMC square body showed up at one of the locals. I cruised over there to see if the tailgate was there and would it be in good enough condition. Sure enough, it has an excellent tailgate. I scored it and all the hardware for $45. I rushed home all excited and put that baby on my truck content that, at last, I didn't have to worry about stuff flying out the back.

Then, when I went to show it off to a friend, I noticed that it said "Chevrolet" on it. Yup, the junkyard had the truck listed wrong.

Re: Restoring Rusty - Removing the Tailgate
 

what a funny story, thank you for sharing and wow, $45 bucks for a tailgate with hardware, that is a great deal!

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Congrats on getting the engine/transmission upgrades done. Other than sorting out the engine temp issue do you have any other plans for the truck?

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

tons still left to do, we are in year 2 of a 3 year upgrade plan, culminating in a POSI rear end, how fitting wouldn't you say

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

something I've been meaning to make for the longest time is floor mats, and I can't believe how simple this was and it only cost me under $30 bucks, in the first pic the mats are stacked upside down, don't ask me why the Home Depotians do that

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

so we start off with a 4 foot by 3 foot rubber garage mat from Home Depot and than we simply trim the edges off of it, I do this so that the entire surface is even, aka the edges are not different texture than the rest of the mat, no big deal really

then we just cut it in half, and whalla 10 minutes later we have two perfectly fitting floor mats

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I did remove the pesky low/high beam headlight floor switch on the driver side, all I kept doing was just kicking it anyway, and I don't recall the last time I needed high beams in the last 30 plus years of driving

apologies for the sun in the pics, I hate my West facing garage, never buying a house like this again

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I always enjoyed having a high beam switch on the floor. I don't know why just did.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I *added* a second high-beam switch to the left of the original, but this one is momentary. I connected it to the contacts on the windshield wiper cam. When you push the switch, the wipers run. When you let off on it, they finish the current swipe and park. No more rooching around on the dark dash looking for the wiper switch while driving one handed in the rain.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

so that you can blind people with both hands on the wheel, lol, going hey it wasn't me, look my hands are up here, ha ha

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

alright back to the Overheating Issue

so this morning went over to AutoZone and picked up a thermostat for the 1999 Chevy Suburban (since that's where my cylinder heads came from)

it came with a rubber seal, which I ended up not using as it would not fit/seat in the hole properly, common problem for these little rascals according to the reviews

yes ValueCraft, nothing but third best for Rusty, ha ha

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

it is a bit longer ie sits deeper in the intake manifold cavity but both are rated at 195* degrees Ferenheight

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

here I'm just trying to show you that the water reaches to the very top of the thermostat hole, so it really don't matter how deep by stat is, but the point is that there is / was no air pocket

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

as I said earlier, the rubber seal that came with the thermostat would not allow it to seat properly in its little hole/opening so I had to reluctantly revert back to my "Poser" chrome water outlet as they call them, it comes with a recessed rubber ring and requires no gasket, that part I like

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Re: Restoring Rusty
 

so I peeled off the Magnaflow sticker off the back window my buddy Mike put on to prank me, and that Welders one as well, that one was on there for 40 years and it took me 2 years to finally get rid of it, then I washed that glass, and had a few beers...

ah a clean canvas, that's more like it

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

then I had a few more beers while Rusty sun bathed

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

folks, sometimes you have to walk away from the problem to have that Eureka moment

so I got to thinkin', why does my truck overheat now when it didn't overheat before this project, I mean I know the heads are different, I know the intake manifold is different, but what else

hmmm, remember we used to run the heater core and now we don't?

Well, we are blocking off the port on the intake manifold and we are blocking off the port on the water pump, what if we STOP blocking them off and run a bypass hose as a happy compromise?

and so we did just that

Note: we had to run the hose 5 foot high to prevent it from kinking, hey its a temporary solution to test a hypothesis, the zip ties don't hurt either

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

now running the bypass hose was harder than I made it sound, first of all the hoses are of two different sizes, the smaller one is 1/2 inch I think the larger is 3/4, which means the nipple fittings are different, the one in the intake manifold is smaller than the one in the water pump which is bigger

so I had to go to the parts house and get another 3/4 aka bigger fitting figure I better run a larger hose than a smaller one

but the two fitting sizes were only my first problem

Where do I put the water temp sensor if I have to dedicate its current hole/port to the bypass hose fitting?

Well aint there another port on the other side of the intake manifold? Why yes there is, it is directly under the upper radiator hose and the sensor won't fit

So I considered getting another "Poser" chrome water outlet, one that points straight forward rather than to the driver side, but that would mean getting an upper radiator hose pre bent the same way, etc

So I found that the 1972 water outlet has a port right in it for the water sensor, but they were out of stock, ok how about the 1981 water outlet ($7 bucks) it has not one but two ports right in it, AWESOME, we can screw in our water sending unit right into the thermostat housing, how interesting, problem solved

Note: Eventually if I get super geeky I will run both the old and the new sending units off of this water outlet and into two separate gauges and stare and compare their readings, should be fun.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I would put the temp sender in the intake manifold not the water neck. If the thermostat doesn't open you could overheat before you get a trouble indication.
The threaded hole you plugged directly under the radiator hose on the LH front side of the intake is a good location or you could drill and tap the unthreaded boss next to the heater hose.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

What he said. This is a good spot for the sensor.