Well the home depot by my house was out of plexi that would be wide enough to make a single piece speed shield. But I think I'll just wait till I figure out whether I'm gonna do a tubecab and chop, or new cab and exo.

Drove it around for about 2 hours total today. Still got a little hesitation and lurch down in the lower rpm range. Hopefully it's just a clogged fuel filter, cause that thing is BLACK (and the funny thing is, is that I just replaced it about 3 months ago... Must be sediment from the tank from when I rolled it). So that hesitation is either a clogged fuel filter, or the carb is out of adjustment...

Now that I think on it though, it IS really hard to cold start it now. Been having to dump a little fuel into the carb to get it to start ever since I got it back. But once I get it started by putting fuel in the cab, it starts up on the 1st crank, So maaaaybe if I'm lucky, it is just that filter...

 

Glad you got it back and got the engine mostly figured out!!! Now hurry up and get to work on whatever your gonna do with the cab

 

Yeah yeah yeah I know. First thing on the list is actually the dana60s. May happen as early as this weekend if I can get it up to my buddy's property. Then (or at the same time) may still do that motor swap.

Noticed that the motor is flinging oil from somewhere on the front of the block. Dunno if it's the timing cover or what, but it's about a drop per minute at idle. Not noticeable on the dipstick.

But I did just replace the fuel filter today. Seemed to help a teeny tiny bit with that low end stumble/hesitation. But I think something may be going on inside the carb. I can hear it making a weird sucking noise when I push on the throttle linkage with my head in the engine bay. I just don't know enough about carbs to risk pulling it all apart. Might just let my buddy tear through it and rebuild it when he puts all my carb stuff on that 22re and plops it in the ST2.

Other than that though, I'm still up in the air about the whole cab thing...

 

Betcha $10 it's the oil pump seal (underneath the crank pulleys at the front of the oil pump housing), or the oil pump gasket (behind the oil pump against the block. My seal was leaking onto the pulleys and throwing oil all over the front of the engine. I originally thought it was my valve cover leaking because it was so far up and looked as if it leaked down all over everything. But after replacing the valve cover gasket, then removing the crank pulleys, I saw the oil seal was leaking.

 

Hmm. Kinda do a fine mist number? Cause the first time I noticed it was looking at my quarterpanels with the hood open. Then I noticed all the oil particles flying up in the air by seeing it in the sunlight.

How much of a pita was that oil pump seal?

 

Fine mist could be used to describe it when it's not leaking too terribly. Mine was bad. 20 miles and I was a quart low. The bottom of the hood had oil on it. My front diff, frame had oil on them. And apparently my front tires got oil on them and slung it up all along the sides of the body.

It was a little involved but really not bad.
- Take all belts off
- Remove 19mm crankshaft bolt (put truck in gear with parking brake set tight and hope your clutch will hold it while you loosen it)
- remove four 12mm bolts that hold the front pulley to the rear pulleys/harmonic balancer
- pull of all pulleys (you may need a puller but I've done this on two yotas now and have needed no puller.
- Once you pull the pulleys off the front seal is right there. You can probably tell by looking at it if it was leaking. You CAN pry it out with a screwdriver or something similar, but a seal puller (basically a screw driver with a hooked end) works best.
- While you're in there you might as well pull the oil pump and replace the rubber gasket. There are five 12mm bolts holding it on. Two are longer, remember where they go.
- Replace gasket. I used some high temp rtv in the groove to hold it there while I bolted on the oil pump.
- Reassemble.

Both the gasket and the seal were like $2 or $3 each. But you do have to lose some oil in the process of replacing the seal or gasket. Not sure how much as I just drained it all and replaced it anyway. The other truck I took the pump off of didn't lose much, but I don't know how much it had in it to begin with.

 

I had an issue with mine where one the bolts that holds the oil pump on back off just a tad and was allowing oil to run along the threads and out. Thought my oil pump or valve cover were leaking, but it turned out to be as simple as pulling the bolt, putting some sealer on it and retightening.

Good Luck!!

BTW: I'd take the cab your buddy offered you, then complete the Exo like originally planned. Just my opinion.

 

Well, I got my truck up to my buddy's property. I had every intention to not screw with anything but doing 60s first then worrying about everything. Then I hopped in my buddy's 88 yoter for a test drive, and I was sold.

Anyone guess what this:



+ this



= ???

I do

Lordy lordy. Then I should be getting a new cab (some of my body mounts were tweaked from the roll), and I'll just exo it. Then, I'll be getting me a nice set of duals here pretty quickly. I'm excited!

I'll figure out the 1tons later. I mean he does have 10 12 and some 14bolts galore out there, but I've always been partial to dana...

 

I'm just not looking forward to the 3" body I'll HAVE to do... I loath body lifts, but I guess if there's no way, there's no way.

 

The way you are on trucks, you dont need a body lift! Thats just an accident waiting to happen!! I would just cut a huge hole in the hood and do a scoop...probably a lot more work, but if your driving it, then I wouldnt do a body lift...what part of southern texas are you from?

 

It's not just the top of the block that would be sticking through, the aluminum LS1 rad that I'm using (smallest one we have available) won't fit through the frame rails, the newer style alt would be about 8" over the hood (so with the old style, it'll only be about 2" over the hood) the distributor would be pushed even more through the firewall and cowl, and you'd have to clearance the tranny tunnel a ton to get that bellhousing to fit. So just cutting the hood won't work, and even an aftermarket hood with a 4" rise wouldn't work. My buddy already went down this road when he swapped in his 350 small block. I just can't wait till he drops in his chevy 5spd and doublers, cause then I'll get his marlin dual ultimate crawler.

I'm just debating how hotly we should build the 350. Cause I probably won't do tons for a while, and I don't wanna grenade my g52... Probably just a 271 cam to get that nice loaping and to get the powerband where I like it (1500-4500), LT heads, 180# valves, and true duals. I really don't want more than 350 at the wheels though, so...

And I'm in San Antonio, but the truck is up at stonewall, which is about an hour north, in between blanco and friedricksburg.

 

Oh and lets not forget the hydro-assist

 

Beef the heck outa the body lift. I want to redo mine soon with grade 8 or higher bolts...

Make yer own lift blocks, make them as wide as you can....

You need to make the exo on this thing very very very very strong. we all know what you like to do!