'78 K20 to C10. Almost 20 years in the making.

[bluex]

That fitech sump thing overheating pumps is something I heard about a lot. One of the main reasons I went with an in-tank pump. I hope they take care of it for you....

[cruizin01]

Originally Posted by bluex

That fitech sump thing overheating pumps is something I heard about a lot. One of the main reasons I went with an in-tank pump. I hope they take care of it for you....

Yeah I knew about that ahead of time that's why I modified mine to cycle the fuel back to the tank. Most guys don't have any issues using it that way.

I found out why mine failed. I ran the truck for a few minutes, shut it off. I pulled the return line off the sump and fuel sprayed everywhere. This should not have been under pressure. I put a little bit of air through the line and realized it was plugged. I don't know what was in it but I was able to bump the pressure and clear whatever was in the line. The low pressure gauge now reads next to zero pressure which makes sense as the fuel is filling and then returning to the tank once its fills. Previously it was reading 5-6 psi.

The system now runs a lot cooler. I don't expect any future issues.


edit. The pump got pretty hot ;-)

[cruizin01]

Realized a couple days ago that my backup lights were not working in reverse but only in drive. So I assumed my neutral safety switch was out of adjustment. After spending some time trying to adjust it I realized there wasn't enough adjustment in the switch. So I slotted the ends to get just another 1/8" or so that I needed. Works fine now. I assume the custom shift rod and aftermarket shifter lever is causing the issue. Sorry I forgot to take pictures.

[cruizin01]

Made another voyage to work and back and some errands yesterday without any issues. My sump is still getting nearly 120* when in stop and go traffic but Im guessing the fuel isn't anywhere near that. It should just be the outside of the housing. When I tested the fuel temp coming from the sump when diagnosing the problem it was only 80*ish.

Im getting a weird noise when braking and coming off throttle so last night I decided to check the exhaust. Im pretty certain my H pipe is hitting the bottom of the cab so I pulled it off. Im going to rework it today and hope that fixes it.

[cruizin01]

I reworked the H pipe on the truck Saturday. I had to run to Napa and get a tight 90* bend to keep the pipe closer to the trans.

This was my original pipe I made a couple weeks ago. I had crushed the top of it to clear the cab but I wasn't happy with leaving it like that. I wasn't able to get my hand in between the 2 so I wanted to fix that.



I found a piece of scrap metal to weld the ends together so that when I cut the center section out it keeps the angle and length close to the same.


Welded back together with the new pipes.


And repainted.



Ive been getting a noise in the rearend that I've been struggling to figure out. Its like something was shifting when applying the brakes or getting hard on the throttle. It also did it when shifting into reverse.

So I got under the truck and started rolling the truck forward and backward and I got it to do it. I realized the whole damn axle was turning inside the flip kit. As in the flipkit was rocking back and worth because it didn't fit tight up into both sides of the leaf pad. I had mentioned this to RideTech when I was installing the kit and they thought it would be fine. Obviously it wasn't.

So I went about adding a tab to lengthen the bracket. I cut a small section of scrap frame I had. Drilled a couple holes and welded it into place. My new Hobart welder was awesome to weld this 3/16'ish steel with.





I painted it up and reinstalled it and the noise is gone. Pretty simple fix for an awful noise.

[cruizin01]

After driving the truck around for a bit I decided I had to do something with the exhaust drone. Around 1600-1900 its just obnoxious. The 3" is obviously way too big for my engine combo but Im trying to work with what I've got.

I decided to leave the 50 series flowmasters and install some Vibrant Ultra Quiet resonators after the axle. I also wanted to move the tailpipes closer to the rear bumper as I've read that helps noise as well.

You can see in this first pic how I was able to move the tips out further. The nearest tip is before adding the resonator.





These resonators only come in stainless so it was a struggle for me to weld them. I didn't have the correct wire to weld but read you could get by with whatever the standard is. The struggle I think came down to how thin the stainless resonators were. It melted quick! I also had to fill a bit because the original exhaust pipe wasn't completely round because of how it was bent so there was small gaps between the two pipes. I got it done but Im not pleased with the results of the welds.

It was late when I finished so I didn't get to drive the truck but the initial start up and idle is a significant improvement. My wife said, "well the house didn't shake when you started it up"

If this doesn't knock the sound down to my liking Im not exactly sure what Ill do.. Maybe weld some J-pipes in the front pipes or something...

[TKCR]

I do like the look of putting the pipes closer to the plate. Looks GOOD!!

[cruizin01]

Been a minute since my last update. My wife and I went off to Sedona for some hiking/offroading and relaxation last week.

The new resonators are awesome! They cut out a ton of drone and noise. Really happy with that.

So the Saturday before I left I went to cars and coffee in the morning. Small turnout but got to talk to a few folks, etc. I needed to stop off at whole foods to pickup an Amazon package before our trip. I run in, run back out and try to start the truck and it just GRINDS loud. Like the starter gear was rubbing up against the ring gear or something. I beat on it with a 2x4 I had, even went so far as to walk over to my work (couple blocks away) and got a socket and breaker bar to turn the engine over. Nothing helped.

So I waited 2 hrs for a Flatbed to come drag my ass home. Frustrating.


Anyway so I get it jacked up and take a gander. The gear is engaged on the ring gear when I first look at it. So it doesn't make any sense why it was grinding and not turning the engine over unless something failed inside the starter.

As soon as I loosened the starter the gear retracted. I bench tested it and every 4 or 5 times I spun it up the gear stuck. So something in the solenoid was sticking. So whatever. While I was off I ordered a gear reduction unit from Summit. I installed it yesterday and everything is good now. I did have to extend the wires to the new starter as the terminals are farther reward.


A couple weeks ago one morning I realized I didn't have any heat inside the cabin. The truck was getting plenty warm but no heat. Yesterday I flushed the heater core to make sure it wasn't clogged. It was fine. After looking around the net for a bit I realized I had my heater hoses routed wrong. I had the inlet side to the heater core coming from the return side of the water pump. So it wasn't flowing any coolant. So I had to move fittings and sensors around on the intake to get that working. Gets HOT now.

My heater controls aren't functioning now either. I have 13-14 inches of vacuum at the back of the unit but seem to have a leak somewhere as I can hear it bleed off when I shut the truck off. So I need to get a hand vacuum pump to try and diagnose that. fun stuff.

Oh and the truck has a lean misfire at around 3500rpm now under full load. Need to run some diag on the Holley and figure that out. It seems to have started sometime after my fuel pump replacement but that doesn't make any sense as the fuel pump Im using should support 2x the HP my truck makes.

[cruizin01]

Worked on the vents last night. I ran over to harbor freight and picked up a mighty vac hand pump. I pulled the vacuum lines off the selector and checked each one by one. All held vacuum so my leak wasn't in the lines. So I plugged the head back in and went out to the track and pulled the main vacuum line and hooked up my pump. I had my wife run the pump while I was inside. The leak was coming from the vacuum selector at the back of the heater control unit. So I decided to take it apart and figure out what was going on. Of course the clip broke that holds it all together. The "seal" was a little hard but I cleaned it up and lubed it up and made up a small bolt/nut/washer setup so I could adjust the tension on the seal. I then plugged my vacuum lines back in and everything held vacuum. I was able to actuate all the flaps. So that's fixed!

[MTCK]

Nice work on the hvac. I would have struggled to find enough patience to solve that one!

[aggie91]

Great work trouble shooting. I'm with Marcus, I would not have the patience to get that job done...

[Mike W.]

I just ready this thread from the start. Excellent work. I will have a build starting very soon and you have helped me plan for my own.

[cruizin01]

Originally Posted by Mike W.

I just ready this thread from the start. Excellent work. I will have a build starting very soon and you have helped me plan for my own.

I appreciate it. More to come.

[cruizin01]

Enjoyed the couple days of nice weather we had over the weekend. Drove the truck around for a bit. Then the alternator failed... I initially thought it was a wiring issue because when running the exciter wire only showed 4V. Spent several hours diagnosing it. Eventually got frustrated and ran to the parts store to get an alternator and it fixed it.

[cruizin01]

Since driving the truck I hated how the throttle pedal felt super heavy. The spring tension on the sniper is too much imo. So I read around a little and decided to try and adjust the leverage on the cable. So I made a small bracket to bolt up to the sniper that gave the pedal cable more leverage. Wow, what an improvement for such a little part. My air cleaner is a little too close to it but I "modified" it enough to clear everything. Such a good, free mod.

[cruizin01]

I've been messing around with the idea of adding some sort of button or paddle shift to the truck since the HGM controller has the ability to do so. I've been fiddling with the shift logic and haven't got it quite where I want it. Some of it has easy adjustments that I still need to fine tune and the other is a bit more complicated. Its mainly how to get the downshift when I want and the truck upshifting too early.

Anyway, I searched around on eBay one day looking for some cheap paddle shifters. I ran across these decent looking, simple Lexus paddle shifters. They were 3 wire just like the trans controller was setup for. 1 signal wire for each shifter and a common ground between the 2.



I then had to come up with a bracket. I found a piece of scrap 1/8" aluminum to bend up. Not having a band saw or anything nice to cut it with I had to use a recip saw and it was ugly. I cut a couple pieces and had a friend glue them together for me with his tig. Im not 100% happy with it but functions, just isn't pretty.



I fed the trans harness up through the column and drilled a small hole in the column to run it through.



I took the stock harness for the shifters and modified it and used a connector from work to connect everything. Its not completely hidden but you can't see it unless you look under the steering wheel.



Finished everything this morning. Pretty stoked about how it turned out. I have like $35 invested in this modification.

I got to drive it tonight. Now I read from HGM that these transmissions can't engine brake electronically. I wasn't sure exactly how that would work. So I took it out and manually shifted it up through the gears. I love how the trans works when your manually upshifting. Now the downside is like I said when you click it down it wont jump the RPM's up like it would if you pull it down with the column shifter. It feels sorta like its in neutral when you shift it down and get back on the gas. I'm not exactly sure whats happening. I only put a few miles on it. So that stinks but Ill take what I can get with a junkyard trans and a $35 shifter mod. If I figure out more with it, Ill update.

[bluex]

I had to do the same thing with my sniper and the throttle arm extension. So much better to drive and such a small amount to raise it made a huge difference.

The shifter paddles are a pretty cool mod man. Looks nice....

[cruizin01]

Finally got the Tee-Ruck back from the body shop this week. Im happy with how it turned out. They got the oem hood reworked to about 90% and got the paint matched up and blended with the fenders. The fitment is pretty close. The hood sticks up just a wee bit on the drivers side but they got it as close as possible without having to cut anything up.

Really glad I went through the hassle of finding a usable 73-78 hood and having it blended in with the fenders.

[TKCR]

Looks great!!

[bluex]

The hood does look good, it was worth the effort for sure.

A heads up on the sniper throttle, after power tour this year mine picked up the habit of not returning the throttle blade to fully closed. It would stay 2-6% open after I left off the pedal. For a while I could just tap the pedal and it would drop back to 0%. It progressively got worse the more I drove it. I cleaned the bores, throttle blades and lubed the shafts and that helped a little. In the end it took adding an additional light return spring to get it to return to 0% all the time. It didn't effect the throttle pedal feel at all. I haven't got to drive it as much as usual this fall though because it's been down since September with suspension damage.

Sorry for the novel just though it might save you a few steps if you run into the same issue.

[cruizin01]

Originally Posted by bluex

The hood does look good, it was worth the effort for sure.

A heads up on the sniper throttle, after power tour this year mine picked up the habit of not returning the throttle blade to fully closed. It would stay 2-6% open after I left off the pedal. For a while I could just tap the pedal and it would drop back to 0%. It progressively got worse the more I drove it. I cleaned the bores, throttle blades and lubed the shafts and that helped a little. In the end it took adding an additional light return spring to get it to return to 0% all the time. It didn't effect the throttle pedal feel at all. I haven't got to drive it as much as usual this fall though because it's been down since September with suspension damage.

Sorry for the novel just though it might save you a few steps if you run into the same issue.

I appreciate the input.

[cruizin01]

Just a couple of notes incase I forget to post about them.

I pulled the hinge springs off and installed the WAM rod shocks on the new hinges the shop put on with the new hood. I still struggled with getting the hood to sit flush with the fenders. The springs were way too stiff and I was worried about kinking the hood so I have to use the shocks. If I push down on the hood on both sides it sits down nice and flush and stays. So Ill just keep doing that for now. Until it bothers me enough to fool with it.

The body shop did a great shop on everything except for whoever washed and cleaned the truck up. They swirled a large majority of the rest of the truck.. ugh. But I did a small test spot with some fine polish and they are coming out so they should remove easy but it sucks I have to go back over the whole truck. Ill get add the sealant to the hood and fenders to match the rest of the truck.

I took the wife out Sunday morning to get a xmas tree since it was almost 60* here in Ohio. The truck ran good except I keep getting a lean misfire under heavy load about 1/3 times I go WOT in 2 & 3rd gear. Im going to plumb up a fuel pressure gauge to the windshield so I can drive it around and keep and eye on fuel pressure. My fuel pump is plenty big enough but I dunno if my fitech sump is causing issues. If it is fuel pressure I've made up my mind that Im dumping the sump and going to make my own sump that fits inside the existing fuel tank. Most likely using an '87 sender and some AN fittings and lines. I regret thinking I could make that sump work correctly. I feel like the misfires started happening after I switched pumps but don't know for sure.

I was able to fool around with the shift paddles a bit driving the truck around Sunday. I also had made a phone call to Compushift to try and understand the capability of the controller and trans. So the paddles will downshift the trans in manual mode as long as there is throttle input. Its a little weird to do in person but it works without any issues. Its not fast by any means but it works easier and better than using the column shifter. You can upshift as normal and its pretty quick and fun. At anytime you can put the trans back in auto mode by holding either paddle "in" for like 3 seconds.

I decided I wanted to be able to see the trans controller to see what gear I was in and to keep an eye on trans temps. I didn't want something permanent so I just mounted it to an existing hole on the bottom of the dash. Its not pretty but its mostly out of the way and easily viewable.



And the best for last. My wife didn't have super awesome ideas for me for xmas so she said just to pick something out for my truck that I wanted... So I pulled the trigger on a TrueTrac differential and some 3.73 gears along with an install kit. The more I drove the truck with that solid locker the more I hated how it drove. It didn't want to steer at all! So Im hoping this is a big improvement. Now to figure out whether I want to attempt the install or take it somewhere.

[cruizin01]

I got a few different things going on with the truck lately.

Ive been collecting/contemplating another fan setup on the truck. Im sure Im over thinking it all but you can't really have too much cooling right?

I picked up a Lincoln mark viii 2 speed fan on ebay a couple months ago. I had planned to add another relay to my dakota digital controller and run both speeds. I went up attaching it to my existing shroud. I wasn't excited with how it fit. I had a pretty large gap on the side and it didn't feel very secure. Along with the fact that after I test fit it, it didn't fit in the truck. Not enough space between the radiator and the water pump. Shucks



So I start looking a the motor itself and the motor on the jeep fan. The mounting and overall size was pretty similar. So I decided to try and use the lincoln motor and mount it in my jeep assy. I struggled removing the flade from the motor. I basically had to cut and beat it off. I enlarged the hole just slightly and welded a nut to the motor so the blades couldn't turn on the shaft.




I forgot to take a picture of it all assembled. It did fit together in the truck so that was good. But when I spun the fan up I realized I had done damage to the motor as it was super noisy now. I guess beating the old blade off wasn't the best idea. "sigh"

So, back to square one. I read around on the net about different fan combinations and a couple threads mentioned old dodge intrepid fans had high cfm. I find an NOS set on eBay for a $100 so I ordered them up to try. I put them side by side with my current jeep fan and they didn't pull nearly as much air as the jeep fan did. I also would have had to make a whole new shroud. So I returned them.



In the meantime I found you can order just Lincoln replacement motors. So I found one from VDO. I thought I could use it has I had with the original setup. Come to find out the replacement motors are made slightly different and it doesn't fit my jeep fan. UGH. I think Im striking out big time.

During all this I decided that regardless I would be using the jeep blades and the stock chevy shroud together. The blades were slightly smaller than the shroud so I would like to fill that gap. I found a couple old storage shelves and went to work.






I think it turned out pretty nice. It should pull more air now that its forced through the blades. I decided just to run it as is for now. If the truck still gets warm after the new shroud and a colder tstat Ill maybe go with an aluminum radiator or something.

So as I was messing around with it on the floor I got lazy and wasn't paying attn and stuck my thumb in the back of the fan blade while it was running! That was a lesson on the torque and grip a plastic blade has at speed. OUCH!




This weekend I started rewiring most of the engine buy. I had some wires from the harness that GMACHINZ built for me that needed removed that I wasn't using. I also wanted to just clean things up. Most of my wires terminate under the battery and I wanted to reorganize that. I also decided to do away with the Fitech Fuel Command Center and do an intank setup. I need to remove and move and add wiring for that. I also had some wiring to add for things like AC kick for the Holley and the fan controller. I needed to mount the Hyper Spark controller and integrate the wiring for that as well. LOTS of stuff going on.



This is my mess under the battery tray. About to look a lot cleaner.

[cruizin01]

Some more updates for anybody following along.

I finished up the wiring in the engine bay for the most part. I havent loomed it yet as I want to make sure the wiring is ok with the sniper before I close it all in. But Im happy with how it turned out. The cheapo fuse box I got from Amazon worked out well. And it'll all be hidden under the batter tray.




This past weekend I got quite a bit of time in the garage to work on the fuel system. I had originally planned to build some type of venturi sump system in the tank but just decided to go with a Holley Hydramat instead. It seems over priced for what it is but everyone says it works really well so I went with it.

I started at the front. I used a compression fitting to tap into the hard line running up to the sniper. I used the old inline filter and added a tap for a cheap gauge I got from Summit. I was initially gonna run the fuel line down the back of the engine but since my hardline was right near the mech pump I just decided to leave it and plumb it from there. Especially since the Snyper has a front inlet that made everything neat and tidy for the most part.




I pulled off the mech pump and plumbing as well. Picked up a decent block off for it from Summit as well.



Then on to the pump setup. I picked up an 87 assy from amazon since it has wiring that I can use for the new setup. I removed the original pump and installed the walbro pump. I had to trim the bottom of the sender to clear the pump and the hydramat. I used a hose clamp just to make sure nothing moves around. I did have to change the connector to match the new pump.

before

after


I decided to test the sender before installing it in the truck and Im glad I did because for whatever reason the new sender didn't work. I read these are all the same as far as Ohm resistance but the new one measured over 1k ohms regardless of where the lever was. So I just decided to reuse the old sender. So I cut it off the old assy and tacked it in place on the new unit. Works great.



The new sender still uses barb/tapered fittings for the hoses so I had to come up with a way to get them to AN fittings. I cut the small brackets off the sender and slid these tube adapters up onto the sender. Both lines are -8an.



I then used some right angle to pushlock fittings to get me plumbed into the truck.




I mounted a vette style filter with built in regulator on the crossmember nearest the tank. I used another tube adapter to quick connect adapter for the filter out. I then used a couple summit quick connects to AN to connect the supply and return. I still need to finish up the filter bracket but its sturdy as is.



So the factory harness on the pump and sender is a 2pin connector and 1 wire ring terminal for ground. Since I had to run a power wire for the pump from the fuse box anyway I decided to run a ground as well. So I ran the grey (12v+) and the ground into a new connector and used one side of another connector to connect the sender wire. (brown and purple)



And everything works. I had one leaky fitting that Summit sent me a replacement and it fixed it. Other than that the fuel system should be done. It reads right at 58-60psi at the gauge as it should.

I have a couple more things to swap before the hyperspark goes back on and the truck running again. Ill post more soon.

Oh and I can't forget to post this little sign/wall art my mom made for me for xmas. How cool is that?

[cruizin01]

If I hadn't mentioned it, I picked up a intake manifold on CL a few weeks ago. A coworkers dad does a lot of powder coat so he offered to do it for me. Turned out pretty awesome.



I waited to get it back before I went about installing the new Hyperspark distributor and coil. So I pulled everything off the top of the motor and positioned the new intake, etc back on the engine.

While installing the new distributor I was having trouble getting it to sit down in the motor all the way. After fighting with it for some time I decided to remove it and crawl up on the engine and take a look. Found this little guy sitting on the oil pump drive.



Not sure how it stayed on there. And I was really surprised I was able to get it up out without dropping it. Everything fit together as it was supposed to afterwards :-)

Its mostly back together now. I had to order a new fitting for the waterpump bypass to alternator hose. Nothing I had fit correctly. I should have everything back together and be able to fire it up this week. Once I make sure everything is working correctly I can finish tidying up the wiring.