Guess what followed me home from Illinois?

[Scot_Douglas]

Originally Posted by awbrown

Better post a few pics for me ....lol

Check my build thread - there are pictures early on in there.

[awbrown]

Well , I got the bed corner replaced , I really had quite a time getting the old one off .. the PO had welded it 3 ways to here there and everywhere .. also they made a crude post for the tailgate to rotate on and they welded it so much that I had to get out the torches and burn all the weld off the rear cross member so the new post would slide over it ... A small part of the end of the crossmember needed a patch so I welded that in .. Doin this job reminds me why I am not going to ever have a perfect truck .. I tried my darndest to cut the old one and new one the same.. but when I postioned it it came about as close as if I had done it with torches .. got the top the same length as the other side and started to weld it , the big mistake was the bottom should have come in to , I forgot to measure the bottom .. Oh well it is on there now , for good ....maybe a picture tomorrow ............

[iehotrod]

Like the truck. I have a 63 and a 62. and I wish they were both 63's. Keep us posted.

[awbrown]

Well I could not leave well enough alone ... I had a running truck ... now I have a lot of work .. The other engine was a bit on the loose side , and a customer gave me an engine , so I figured since it had a/c and p/s on it it would be a good candidate ... only problem is I think since I made my own p/s hoses I may have wrenched the retun hose on the back of the pump , it looks like it is on the punky side .. this was suppose to be an easy swap , yeah right ...I got the p/s box mounted last sat. night and worked on it tonight til I found the cab has settled enough that I need to notch the firewall to lift the column up a bit so it is a straight shot for the box .. I will fix it right if I tear it appart this winter.... this is the old engine ... this is the only shot of me that didnt include the balding head , kids think that is funny... it isnt..

[Scot_Douglas]

nice!

[awbrown]

Well I did complete the install on the new engine .., I bought the 184 aluminum radiator and it is to be mounted in the forward most set of holes in the front crossmember.. I really did not like the look of it sitting so hi , so I did what the PO of my other truck did, just notch the frame on both sides for the radiator tanks ... the reason I did this is because I will be adding AC soon and this gives me a lot more room to mount my condensor... the late model engine must have had some real low rpm gears because all I hear is fan noise .. so I suspect I will have to get a smaller lower pulley ,if anyone has done this I would be interested in knowing what pulley to look for ... My AFB was not up to the task so I installed the holley for the other engine and it runs well... I think the balancer is the wrong one because I pulled a pile of timing out of it to get it not to ping ....now it is at about 2 degrees ,it never has started hard so I am not sure what is going on .... I will try to post some pics tomorrow ,just ran out of time today ..

[Scot_Douglas]

When I needed a smaller crank pulley (for clearance reasons), I went with an underdrive set - but I have a serpentine set up of an 80's Camaro.

How about you bring that radiator to me, we find some Taurus fans and build you a custom shroud? Ditch that mechanical fan altogether.

[awbrown]

I do have an electric fan , just didnt want to install it now , was waiting to do the AC .....But I should take you up on the offer...I have a bit more faith in this engine than the last ....so I should come an visit..........

[aerotruk63]

You ever notice how few 63 grilles have their headlight bezels on them!

[awbrown]

not sure why that is ......

[awbrown]

Well I got some more done on Ol'blue tonight... first , I had an issue setting the timing.. I now know what that issue was ..Comparing it with the one I shortened it was off by an inch and a half.. The underdrive pulley set I got came up long so I swapped out the balancer for one I modified by cutting the hub back .360 , and amazingly enough it appears it had clearance for the seal and backspacing to the cover was sufficent.. After that I started playing with the electric fan I got for it and figured I would see if my sheet metal skills were still as bad as they ever were.. I think it will work alright ,I just need to pick up some weatherstripping to make sure none of the sharp endges damage the radiator.. and come up with a good way to mount it , ideas are welcome...

[Scot_Douglas]

Looks good! When I did my shroud, I made the bottom hook into the lower radiator mounts and I have brackets I added up top.

[erock805]

Nice work!

[awbrown]

Well it has been a while since I have posted about my own truck .. But I did get it out of storage a few weeks ago and yesterday I replaced the steering box and changed the oil to 20-50 because this new motor is anemic on oil pressure.. It was about 5lbs hot , now it is around 15 psi hot idling and about 40 going down the road ... I thought last year when I got the truck it would be 2 or 3 weks and I would drive it to work .. Well that didnt happen til today .. it cruised well with traffic and made it the 15 miles to work and 15 back home ,had to use the old girl because the exhaust on the 97 silverado lost its tailpipes on the way home from Georgia.. it made for a long trip ...

[awbrown]

Well I decided to go to the Woodward Dream Cruise , since it is only 10 minutes from home .. I normally take Ol'blue and drive up it once , then park at my buddys place and hang out on the side of the road and watch cars.. Well this time we had a few problems .. It quit in the middle of traffic , you know the kind that uis travelling at 2mph .. Luck we were on the inside lane so we pushed it onto the median .. found a wire had shorted out and caused a splice in the wiring to let go .. lucky I had a length of wire in the back of the truck and and a screw driver on my key ring .. so my son and I got that fixed and started crusing again and I noticed I didnt hear the fan for the radiator running .. turns out it fried .. so we decided to head home .. at 30mph it cools just fine with out the fan ... so at all the lights before the highway we just shut it off and fired it up when it turned green... made it home and now I have to decide what wiring system to buy ,and what BRAND name fan to install..... other than that it waS A GREAT TIME WITH MY SON..........

[MikeS.]

AW, glad to see ya posting back up on this.

[awbrown]

Well I removed the junk radiator fan and replaced it today with one I have had on the shelf for years ..I think it was something I had years ago when I had my salvage yard and just happened to keep it .. I think it came off a citation,it has a date of code of 03 of 85 .. it was way too much work to make brackets so I just drilled 4 holes ,one in each corner and used tranny cooler zip strips to mount it .. it works and it draws way less current than the other one .. so remember this,if that aftermarket part starts with the letter P and ends in the letter P , it probably is a pc. of poop......

[awbrown]

Well , it has been a while so I figured I would post some updates on my saga with ol' blue .. I installed a sway bar last fall , I like how it handles much better , did some corning in the parking lot near the house and could not believe how much it helps... Last fall when my son was attached to the truck I moved it around the driveway and brake pedal was almost on the floor , so I taught the No. # 1 son how to adjust brakes .... he stopped driving it because it used so much gas .. More than likely the holley that was on it has a bad power valve .. So I built one of my favorite carbs for it , you probably would not guess that that would be a Quadrajet .. With an electric choke of course ... after dialing in the choke you hit the gas once turn the key and it runs with out any drama... Cruised it to church a few times in the last couple of weeks and I am really happy with how it runs.. Next on the list is a set of wires .... I will have to update with a few photos when I get the time...

[awbrown]

Since this has been my daily driver since July 4th I have had to do more and more little things to it , like Saturday when the trans didn't want to shift out of 1st .. turns out the previous owner must have replaced the selector shaft seal and forgot to tighten the inner nut on the shaft ,(th350) so the s link fell out and I had to get towed home.. Fixed that , put an accelerator pump in the qjet and replaced some vacuum hoses and gas lines and it is ready to drive to work tomorrow... It also has developed a miss every once and a while , the 2 front plugs are getting a crusty brown buildup and it starts to skip.. I just built a new engine for the 98 2500 I picked up so Ol' blue may get a test here in a while ... then I can work on fixing the brake lights that don't work......