1985 Frankenburban Grassroots hauler!

Well based on your input and photos it looks my linkages are pretty good. I picked up a timing light with advance dial and went to set the timing...

I think something is off but I'm not good with piston engines, I'm lazy - which is why I own a rotary.

ANYWAYS!

The truck starts, runs and drives so so far its a huge improvement but when I get the timing light on it the harmonic balancer notch lines up with the 0 mark on the timing tab when I have the timing light set to 90* advance.

I know it wont run at 180 off but am I just 90 off at this point?

Could be one of two things happening.

Either you have the wrong combination of damper and timing pointer (they moved around a lot over the years) or you are timing it off of #2, which fires 90 degrees ahead of cylinder #1. 18436572. #1 is driver's side, #2 is passenger side.

Note that I am a FORD guy. But I work on cars for a living, so I end up doing a lot of repairs to Chevies, so I have the firing order immediately at hand. I don't remember Ford firing orders because they don't break

In reply to Knurled:

well to avoid the dampener confusion I ordered a new harmonic balancer appropriate for this engine and vehicle model year. They differ in part number from 86-91 and the 85 and earlier spec.

The crate engine came with 2 timing pointers but with the truck harmonic balancer being 8" it doesn't look like the other one fits at all. I can take a picture of both for clarification.

When I found TDC on cyl one I had the driver side valve cover off so I could see the rockers and make sure that both valves were closed at TDC 1 compression stroke for distributor instillation.

The balancers on teh front of these things are notorious for being off. There is something about the rubber in them that allows the outside to slip.

I had to remark the 0 degreee line on my malibu (it was off about 120 deg). I bought a new balancer after that.

Rob R.

And did you get the correct timing pointer?

The balancer mark was off, set it to true zero. Realized i had cyl 3 and 6 mixed up on the dizzy. Domt think the vac advance works on the dizzy and i broke the throttle cable i just bought.

Some days i regret buying this truck and having a trailer i never use, all my friends borrow it all the time and ive maybe used it 3 times.

Grrrrrrrrr. i dont even drive the rx7 anymore!

updates!

I've been way too busy but I've made some progress at least. Got it timed, replaced the throttle cable, used a different timing gun, verified that the vacuum advance works.

So I was able to drive it around! but I found out I needed a headlamp, easy 10 dollar fix.

Its almost ready for hauling and camping! But I won't have the time to break it in before the weekend's rallycross 2 day national tour event...

Also I have some running issue to sort out, it does NOT like a "heavy" load, it falls flat on its face. Sounds kind of like a lean bog but smells like a rich bog but that just could be the exhaust leak.

so I gotta check and make sure the secondaries are opening currently but before I installed it I did that and they were fine...

Now just a few more small steps and she is good to go!

It keeps wanting to "slip" the belt, but only part way. so I tightened down the bolts on the AC delete pulley and that seemed to help a lot.

This is the problem I have, I make things way to hard for myself for no reason.

When I did the serp belt swap I went stamped steel which was only a select few years. This issue didn't happen on the old motor (The January installed one) because of the variation in cylinder heads. The 85 spec motor (outside bolt valve cover) does not have a threaded hole for one of the mounting locations and I have lost the AC bracket brace or never grabbed it from the yard when I got the bracket in the first place. So now the accsessory bracket is less secure to the motor and when the tensioner tensions the belt it flexes a bit more in that region.

the 1/4" extension is point to the location of said mounting location that lacks a threaded hole behind it

it also doesn't help that recently its 95 outside and 150% humidity

I just realized this thread is longer than my car build lol.

cleaned up the grille, installed lower spoiler, got the carb and ignition dialed in, installed choke and cruised her around, now I have 100 miles on the engine, horay.

I picked up some brackets and so far the belt issue has gone away but a few more miles and I will know for sure.

the big running issue was that I had the distributor on full vac so it was running wierd. now that everything is hooked up right it runs really well and pulls pretty hard too once those secondaries open up.

1. Windshield
2. Fix accy or hot at all times power situation, IE no horn, cig lighter, dome light (this was happening before the wire gutting and motor swap too)
3. Find and install a radio/speakers
4. Find matching hella lamp and install on bumper.
5. Next tow date is Sept 14th.

fidelity101 wrote: 5. Next tow date is Sept 14th.

That can't be right, our next event is August 24th.

Or Sept 7th for the Duel in the Dirt.

In reply to EvanB:

I got family stuffs those weekends. I will aim for an october event with you guys though, maybe late september if you got one...

I don't think we have anything happening in October due to Nationals.

Not much happening in September, either.

In reply to Knurled:

Maybe I'll just go to nationals then...

however, about 2000 miles at 3.40-4 dollars a gallon @ 10-14mpg + cost of racing expendables sounds like an expensive weekend...

fidelity101 wrote: In reply to Knurled: Maybe I'll just go to nationals then... however, about 2000 miles at 3.40-4 dollars a gallon @ 10-14mpg + cost of racing expendables sounds like an expensive weekend...

That's why I drove 24mpg RX-7 last year.

In reply to Knurled:

the rx7 with fixed back seat for 2000 mile journey is rough, 18mpg is still pretty bad but not too shabby for carbd but thats about 70-75mph. Driving the truck is like driving a couch, it also steers like one lol.

got about 500 miles on the new engine. runs good probably recheck-and adjust timing soon now that its broken in a bit. Commuting 40 miles a day in this back and forth to work is pretty annoying at times but I'm used to being stuck in traffic in a small car now I can see whats going on ahead at least and try to avoid it..

It was also funny driving around my Japanese co-worker in it on lunch the other day.

anywhoo, replaced the rear bumper!

Thats the only damage/rust on this beast, if I knew how to fix it - I would. But thats not important now...

and added some nuts because I got them as a joke gift a while back.

Got the rear AC system reinstalled correctly it is functional however it only works on high and I have no air compressor but its nice to know its there. Resto mod continues...

next up:

windshield! (next week) bilstein shocks (september) body mounts (TBD) radio (september) thinking of painting it back to white...

Should have done this months ago...

Now to fix the wipers... (they don't work when it rains )

Okay its been a while but here are some overdue updates and some very recent updates as well as what to expect in the future!

1. I fixed the wipers, not exactly sure how mostly wiggle some connectors and witchcraft I guess. They used to not work in the rain but now they really only work in the rain/snow. Go figure.

2. Bilstein shocks! one GREAT improvement over the 20+ year old blown shocks. Rides much better for a huge ass truck.

I had some issues with summit keep sending me the wrong front shocks but after a month of back and forth and some customer service they got it straightened out, gave me a free t-shirt and 25 dollar gift card for my troubles.

now onto the interior!

it was starting to rip around some areas and I picked up one of these blankets at a garage sale and secured it to the bench seat with some bunjee cords, pretty rad I know... (also very billy)

I thought that the gauge cluster needed some freshening up so I snagged this at a local pick n pull. Couldn't resist the classyness of psudo wood grain.

I also moved my oil pressure and water temp gauges into the "stock" locations so that that they are easier to see while driving and a much more cleaner look.

Now current project is locate spare funds then locate exhaust shop to do this:

2.75" inlet and 3 or 3.25" outlet with nice tips. But upon closer inspection you will find...

Current exhaust is 2.5" so adapting shouldn't be too hard, I may have to have rear exit on these but however it goes in the easiest way is fine by me.

blue oval eh?? I wonder what these could be from?????

If you guessed 2012 mustang GT 5.0 you would be correct, roommate purchased this car recently-ish and had them laying around since within a month of buying it he did a cat-back on this thing. These 2 mufflers cost me a 6 pack of beer because he was just going to scrap these...

Whats next?

1. blower motor and resistor need to be replaced, motor bearings are worn and it makes some awful noises from time to time and some fan speeds work better than others. (next few weeks)

2. Radio/CD player (spring)

3. repaint white/replace grille trim/bezels (summer)

4. maybe some proper sized 33"s on aluminum wheels? (TBD)

5. add aux hella fog lights (I have 1, I just need to get a matching one to it)

This has been an awesome thread!!! Keep up the good work and keep us posted....

I keep forgetting to take action shots with the rig hauling the rx7, wont be for a while but one of these days...

So some more updates:

Well I gave up on the washing it idea because O-Reillys had the blower motor from VDO for 26 bucks with wheel! Hard to beat that.

Basic stuff:

Blower motor resistor and new blower motor.

Less Basic stuff:

1. The food mechanic! (it fixes hunger)

2. Retrofitted/installed a modern windshield washer system

This is the food mechanic, it is an idea we had while at pikes peak this year because we got hungry wheelin around the woods.

There are bolts welded onto the front bottom corners. the front are bolted to that flat piece of metal you can get at the local hardware store and bent to fit the curvature of the inner fender.

The other mounting provision is hole that is by the hinge that is upward in the ammo box to the wall of the inside of the fender structure (or whatever it happens to be)

Still not sure what it is? let me open it for you...

Basically we interupted the heater core to have a U bend pipe that is in a sealed ammo box to act as an oven. This is only slightly classier than using a tin can and shoving it on the exhaust manifold. Obviously you are not going to roast a turkey in this, meerly grab some easy microwavable meals (and tin foil) or canned soup and shove it in there!

Just set it and forget it! (WARNING DONT ACTUALLY FORGET IT!)

and #2. the windshield washer system....

Problems with current.

1. pump motor is bad/dead

2. washer tank is small

3. small washer tank has many cracks in it and a small hole

4. switch only provides 5v to the motor (the trucks wiring is a mess)

I work for a company that is a supplier to vehicles for headlamps and occasionaly headlamps require cleaners and those washer tank cleaners are integrated into the windshield tank system/assembly. So I retro fitted a 2013 Toyota Highlander washer system for a cost of less than 8 dollars.

Tank assembly with motors was free.

I just had to buy an inline fuse and some new washer tubing then junkyard pick the right electrical connector with pigtail. Luckily Toyota uses alot of the same provisions for pump motors and connectors so a quick swap was easy and grabbed some backup ones just in case (and I was already there)

Here is it next to the food mechanic, the new tank is not fragile and has easy mounting points for easy fab.

The new tank holds about 1.5 gallons, much better if I should happen to run into a mud pit or driving on snowy roads (sno*drift is coming in 1.5 weeks...)

Whats next?

Sourced a 2" aluminum carb adapter (needs to be cleaned still)

Exhaust gets repaired/replaced this week.

Radio for summertime when windows go down for "A/C"

You know, I was thinking of doing something similar food-wise, but $5 subs at Subway win out every time.

Now if you could put a coffeemaker in that thing, shut up and take my money!

This build gave me a case of the lols, awesome! I particularly love the blanket and the food mechanic, pure hillbilly genius!
Two questions from the first post: what concentration muriatic acid did you use and what was your sanding process/speed/grit?

Knurled wrote: You know, I was thinking of doing something similar food-wise, but $5 subs at Subway win out every time. Now if you could put a coffeemaker in that thing, shut up and take my money!

Yeah but you can re-heat your sub while at rallycross!

Also, I am working on the coffee part, nothing clear comes to mind yet...

chknhwk wrote: This build gave me a case of the lols, awesome! I particularly love the blanket and the food mechanic, pure hillbilly genius! Two questions from the first post: what concentration muriatic acid did you use and what was your sanding process/speed/grit?

Thats the best part of this truck, its my first domestic build so good parts CHEAP, especially coming from audi repair or rotary bits.

I used straight up muratic acid and I had a 120 grit and full bore of a heavy duty body sander. I basically opened the jug of the stuff, put it into a bucket and brushed it on. Gave it 10 minutes then sanded and hosed it off.

my advise is do it somewhere where you don't mind having the ground stained like rust for about a year. Also mask the windows with a plastic trash bag, the acid did a little etching to my side windows but not too bad. Just looks a little funny up close.

Truck is at the shop right now for the exhaust, the place was pumped when I told them what I wanted done lol. Maybe while its in there I may get the body mounts replaced and or 1" lift. the mounts are pretty rotten and I want to tow on the highway with better RPM range (mpg concern) so putting proper 33s on (summer) may have fender issues.

This build is why I scan CL for old Suburbans. My wife would hate it and I can't race it, but it just speaks to me.

Great support vehicle, tons of space for your tool box, spare parts and 3 sets of wheels/tires and still room for friends, a dog and a cooler or two. Not to mention repairing it is easy and cheap (except electrically I want to gut and re-wire this whole beast but thats another day)