Also came across this old tool box that my grandfather made sometime in the 1940’s. It’s designed to stand up but it works pretty well laid down. The box is big enough to hold some tools, rags and spare fluids
Got the tool box mounted᠁30C is to hot to get much else done this afternoon. Laid down some black foam between the tool box and the bed to protect the bed wood/stainless strips
Went 9 inches in and 24.5 and 9.5 inches across on the box and drilled 2 mounting holes. Pulled 2 bolts out of the bed strip and amazingly the longer bolts dropped right in.
Have 65psi cold at idle᠁ let it warm up to 180 and the oil pressure dropped to around 40psi. I’m a happy camper with those numbers.
Plated it and took the truck for a spin around the block᠁ first trip I had the idle speed screws in a little tight᠁ truck stalled after coming to a stop. Backed them out half a turn and the second trip around the block went better.
Brakes need to be bled a bit more᠁ they are there but on the soft side.
Pretty sure my neighbors already hate the truck᠁ which validates it as a Hot Rod
Took the truck around the block, down the street and far enough from home to make me nervous.
Truck did all right᠁ had a slight bog/hesitation coming from a dead stop.. 1/4 turn on the idle speed screws and the truck cleaned up nicely.
I now live my life 1/4 of a turn at a time
Got home and it looks like I have a weep from the water pump side of the lower rad hose. I used one from a 69 Chevelle᠁ with some chopping. Thought I had that fixed but guess not.
I did accelerate rather briskly at one point᠁ seams like the truck is able to get out of it’s own way
Spent the better part of a day adjusting valves.. think I’m happy with where they are. Adjusted the shifter cable in an attempt to get consistent reverse.
Also not happy with the painless ignition switch᠁ at times the barrel rotates in the housing and the contacts aren’t that great. Ordered a Ron Francis is07 switch᠁ hopefully it’s better quality than the painless.
Had the alternator plug pop out. It’s a samurai alternator with an eBay plug and the fit could be better.. will need to keep an eye on it. Not sure how to enhance the fit.
Got the hood on᠁ will see what that does to engine temps.
1970 Chevrolet C10 Grandpa's -- My first truck -- In progress to shiny Follow the build in the Project Journal 1950 Chevrolet 1-Ton Dually "Ole Red Girl" In the Stovebolt Gallery More pictures here 1951 GMC 9430 1 ton dually--Shiny! | 1972 Chevrolet C20- Rusty- the puzzle box lid for the C10 | 1962 AMC Rambler American- my wife's Parts trucks- 1951 GMC 9300 | 1951-GMC 9430 | 1951- Chevrolet 1300
Took the truck to the local coffee shop and when I got back it was leaking from the water pump.. I forgot to tighten the hose clamp that runs from the pump to the intake on a bbc᠁ so as I do᠁ I forgot to check the other clamps.
Went to a local car get together which is roughly 25min each way of highway travel.
More self inflicted issues᠁ overflow hose clamp was of course loose᠁and the passenger side valve cover is weeping᠁ will tighten it down tomorrow.
On the plus side it ran around 180-190 at highway speeds and sitting in traffic, plus it has 20psi of oil pressure at idle when hot.
Truck got a fair bit of attention and at least a few people were taken with it.
Sounds like you're having fun, the first few trips are always a shake down. The ingintion switch sounds like a manufacturer defect, I'd at least let Painless know what's going on. She sure looks sweet, course some ladies always look sexy in black!!!
~ Craig 1958 Viking 4400 "The Book of Thor" Read the story in the DITY 1960 Chevrolet C10 "A Family Heirloom" Follow the story in the DITY Gallery '59 Apache 31, 327 V8 (0.030 over), Muncie M20 4 Speed, GM 10 Bolt Rear... long term project (30 years and counting)
Come Bleed or Blister, something has got to give!!! | Living life in the SLOW lane
Grabbed Dad and had the truck out Thursday for a 2hr there and back drive.. to an A&W cruise in. Was a fun drive᠁ burnt a spark plug wire and the passenger side motor mount loosened up. That was interesting
Took it out today and realized my traction bar looked off᠁ lost the rear u bolt. Quick fix was to hammer a muffler clamp into shape᠁
Oil leak out of the valve cover appears fixed᠁pretty sure this is going to be a weekly event making sure everything is still in place and securely bolted
Loaded gramps toolbox with hopefully enough junk for roadside repairs.
Martin '62 Chevy C-10 Stepside Shortbed (Restomod in progress) '47 Chevy 3100 5 Window (long term project) ‘65 Chevy Biscayne (Emily) ‘39 Dodge Business Coupe (Clarence) “I fought the law and the law won" now I are a retired one! Support those brave men/women who stand the "Thin Blue Line"! Hug a cop! USAF 1965-1969 Weather Observation Tech (I got paid to look at the clouds)
Took it on a 3hr tour and the truck did reasonably well. Had an odd misfire for no apparent reason and one episode of a hard start after stopping for gas.
Passenger side valve cover decided to leak just as I got home. Waiting on cork gaskets to arrive, so in the meantime I’ve gone from twin breathers to one breather and one pcv.
Swapped out my rims since I was checking lug nuts and adjusting the rear brakes.
Had the truck out tonight and it was doing fairly well... I could feel it hesitate once but it moved right past that. Came a stop and it stalled out on me as i left the light, adjusted my hot idle in N up to 1000RPM and once in gear it drops to about 850. I'm hoping that's enough to get the truck moving away form the light without an issue. Definitely needs more fine tunning and I appear to take 1 step forward and 2 back.... and at 1000RPM the inside of the Truck is starting to get very loud.
Single 4 barrel on a low rise manifold sounds delightful at this point. At least the truck takes a decent picture.
Should probably wash it at some point...it's rather filthy
Waited for the truck to cool down a bit and pulled a couple of easy to get to plugs᠁ read a little rich. So backed down the warm idle to 800 in Park. Moving the idle speed screws fwd a touch.
Well the truck broke me today.... it's acting up more frequently. Will look at the timing again, but in the mean time I ordered a new intake/carb. Went with an Edelbrock Performer RPM Air-Gap and a Holley 750 0-3310S.
At this point I'm just looking to get the truck in a consistent state of tune....sigh
Really enjoying following your progress. Thanks for taking the time to post. I've got a feeling you'll be happy with the single carb set up. You would have probably needed a very high rpm stall speed converter for the tunnel ram set to work properly. Especially at the lower engine speed.
And for the record, your truck takes an excellent photo.
1966 C-10 Short Stepside HiPo Step-by-step ~ and on-going resto build in the Project Journals
Thanks...hoping the single 4 barrel works out. It's supposed to be here Monday, so I should be up and running again by the middle of next week...right when we're supposed to get some much needed rain.
In the meantime I've been collecting parts for the engine, incase I decide to go through it over the winter.
So far I've got these parts on the way: Summit Racing Camshaft SUM-1796 Summit Racing Billet Steel Timing Set SUM-G6610R-B Chevrolet Performance Hydraulic Flat Tappet Lifters 12371044 Summit Racing Oil Pan SUM-G3605 Proform Chevy Bowtie Timing Chain Covers 141-216 Plus all the gaskets and little bits that go with it
Forgot to post the Last video I took of the truck before dismantling the tunnel ram
Truck has lost a good amount of it's cool factor... new intake and carb showed up. Went up from a 72 main jet to 74, added the quick change cap for the Vs spring, currently trying the purple spring and changed the accelerator discharge nozzle to a 35.
Really i probally could have solved my hesitation by changing out the accelerator pump discharge nozzle to 35's on the 600 carbs. Haven't given up on the Tunnel ram yet... but I'm hoping ot get adecent baseline tune with the single 4 barrel.
And becuase I really suck at this car thing... ordered the wrong twin feed fuel line, so hack job to make this one work for the time being. The ultimate fail was bolting the intake on and then remembering I'd left shop towels in the valley... you know to keep junk out of the engine.
Throttle cable is now about an inch to short...of course. Hoping to have everything sorted out by the weekend
Well the weekend didn’t go as hoped. Mounted the single 4 barrel and the truck fired right up᠁ ran great for a little while᠁ then it started stumbling, coughing and back firing.
Went over the timing and dwell.
Added a spacer to keep the carb cooler, went back to a 31 pump, redid the lines to include the regulator again and lowered the floats.
It’s 33C here so it’s currently too hot to break down᠁ testing will have to wait until later.
In the meantime fedex showed up with some more winter project parts.
Been a while since I’ve updated this disaster᠁so here goes.
Afr gauge is in and I really like having it in the truck, something I should have done earlier.
Had an issue with the 750 which led to lots of adjustments that got me nowhere᠁ ended up with a stuck seat/needle valve. Picked up a rebuild kit locally and in the meantime I stuck on one of my 600’s.
Got the 600 installed and running᠁ oil pressure had dropped. Took out the dipstick and the oil is diluted.
So I’m at the point where I need to change the oil᠁ but I have new pan/pump to go on. So I figure if I’m going that far then I might as well take the truck off the road and start tearing into the engine.
Such fun᠁ but oddly I still love this train wreck of a truck
That's an interesting location to mount the AFR gauge I know it all comes down to drivability, but DANG that tunnel ram and 2 4's looked good. Keep plugging away at it !
~ Craig 1958 Viking 4400 "The Book of Thor" Read the story in the DITY 1960 Chevrolet C10 "A Family Heirloom" Follow the story in the DITY Gallery '59 Apache 31, 327 V8 (0.030 over), Muncie M20 4 Speed, GM 10 Bolt Rear... long term project (30 years and counting)
Come Bleed or Blister, something has got to give!!! | Living life in the SLOW lane
Most of my parts showed up᠁ still waiting on the second cylinder head to show up. Ordered and shipped at the same time but somehow they got split up.
Got everything in place to pull the engine tomorrow᠁ at least that’s the plan.
Part of ditching the tunnel ram was for ease of roadside repairs᠁ I used the gates power grip radiator hose clamps the first time everything went together. Super clean looking install, work beautifully but man are they a pain to cut off when you need to change a hose.
I’m going back to standard clamps once the truck’s back together᠁ no way I want to deal with those clamps on the side of the road.
Current state of affairs᠁. Engines out. And a bit of a rant
Customer service from a major vendor that amounts to we’ve got your money, part of your orders missing in shipping᠁come back in two weeks and we’ll submit a claim.
So my "new" head will ship on the 18th...not so fast. Due to the value of the missing item we can't guarantee how long it will take to process the claim.
Summit rep tells me it's no big deal that the items late and missing᠁ or having an impact on my timetable᠁I just need to wait.
I think a lot of these vendors just handle "Drop Shipments" from other suppliers, they take your money fast enough though. I had an issue with CPP, I bought a steering gear that they manufacture and was told it was out of stock. After a couple of months going back and forth with their Customer Service they finally told me if I could find it some place else then just buy it there. I tried to tell their Rep that they were the source for the part, he didn't seem to care. I did find one eventually , in stock at another warehouse... I'm sure being in Canada doesn't help the logistics either.
~ Craig 1958 Viking 4400 "The Book of Thor" Read the story in the DITY 1960 Chevrolet C10 "A Family Heirloom" Follow the story in the DITY Gallery '59 Apache 31, 327 V8 (0.030 over), Muncie M20 4 Speed, GM 10 Bolt Rear... long term project (30 years and counting)
Come Bleed or Blister, something has got to give!!! | Living life in the SLOW lane
Ah yes shipping to Canada.... I akin that event to divorce.
It's messy, complicated, expensive and in the end you get roughly %50 of what you've already paid for.
What really sucks is that I had planed on having the truck back together by next week. Unless I go back to running the OE heads, there's not much chance of getting it all back together before the insurance expires on Oct 3.
Spending some of my unplanned downtime righting some previous mistakes᠁ Chevy orange for the block using Duplicolor DE 1620. Was going to paint the head’s orange too but thinking I might leave them alone. Well at least the one that i currently have᠁grrr
Just on the Phone with Summit and I'm less unhappy. Was told the date to start a claim would be Monday the 11th... not the 18th and that the head should be shipping on the 11th. Faith tentatively restored
Less happy᠁ the original cylinder head had travelled back across the country and once again is headed west᠁ in the meantime summit hasn’t shipped the replacement.
Got my timing marks aligned, mounted the timing cover and got the dampener on. Using a Moroso tool 61741 and can highly recommend it᠁ dampener went in like butter.
Figured I’d put the oil pan on᠁ 1 front bolt refuses to go on᠁ spent at least an hour attempting to get a single bolt in᠁ break time when a single bolt defeats you.
Chased the block threads with an an head bolt. Turns out the BBC block is 7/16 by 14 and my taps are 7/16 by 13. Mucked about with some play-doh...pretty sure I would fail grade 3 art class. On the plus side my valve to piston clearance appears to be good. No HG and head bolts tight but not fully torqued.
Used some Permatex copper spray gasket on the head gaskets... figured it couldn't hurt. Heads are torqued down to 75ftlbs expect for the 4 short bolts that get 65ftlbs. Waiting on my torque convertor fluid to arrive. Once that's here the engine can go back into the truck.... Progress of sorts
3 horsepower Briggs and Stratton lawn mower engines have bigger head bolts than that!
'57 GMC 102, Original 347 V8, HydraMatic, 3.08 rear gear, added A/C, disk front brakes, HEI, AFB carb, '98 Honda Black Currant paint. T-boned and totaled 10/12 '52 GMC 152 Stake Bed, Original 228, SM420, added A/C, HEI, disk front brakes, '67 Chev 3.55 rear gear. Gets used as a real truck.
Big Block Chevy head bolts are 7/16-14. That's standard coarse thread pitch for that size.
Kevin 1951 Chevy 3100 work truck Follow this saga in Project Journal Photos 1929 Ford pickup restored from the ground up. | 1929 Ford Special Coupe (First car) Busting rust since the mid-60's If you're smart enough to take it apart, you darn well better be smart enough to put it back together.
Typo that's been corrected. Not sure why I typed 1/4... must have had it on my mind for something else. More shocking is that someone's actually reading this stuff
Typo's usually the result of "stubby-finger-itis" - LOL! A common affliction for many of use wrench turners.
BTW - I may not reply all the time, but always read and following along. Love the detail of your work!
Dan
~ Dan 1951 Chevy 3 window 3100 Follow this story in the DITY Gallery "My Grandpa Carl's Truck and How it Became Mine" 1966 Chevelle (Wife's Hot Rod) | 2013 Chevy Silverado (Current daily driver) US Army MSG Retired (1977-1998) | Com Fac Maint Lead Tech Retired (1998-2021)
I know it all comes down to drivability, but DANG that tunnel ram and 2 4's looked good. Keep plugging away at it !
