Floating Doc said:bobzilla said:TBI works well enough. The heads and cam though? Turribel. Horrific intake ports, no lift, heavy as a house. 454 throttle body and injectors, vortec heads/intake and a decent cam make a very potent performer.
I've thought about all of that, but the prospect of tuning it....
Megasquirt it. done
I don't know how I missed this thread before, but I'm glad you're trying to rescue this truck. It's awesome, and I want it!
Nobody's commented on the old Doge my FIL has, visible in all it's primer glory in the third picture. He has two of them- the primer one there and a red D100. I offered to buy the red one and the Hi-po 360 he has in the back yard, but he's not selling either of them.
The 360 is slated to go into a 2 door '68 Belvedere that his mother bought new, and he still has. I didn't even ask if he was selling that, and he's been working on restoring it slowly, as time and money allows. He's slowed down a lot in the past couple of years. I won't say that he's unable to get that 360 into the car ('cause he absolutely can) but I don't see him deciding to do it by himself.
So, maybe we could enter that old Belvedere into the challenge, too. Documenting the actual value of that would be difficult. It was free to him for the obvious reason, and it's not in any kind of showroom shape- I don't think there is any paint left on it, just patina. The 360 Hi-Po was purchased for nearly nothing, too- unknown running condition, and it was sitting in an outbuilding for years.
I'm liking this plan more and more.
The title is MIA. I'll have to show up in person with the owner to do a title transfer. The logistics of this are going to be entertaining.
This is the part where you start buying lunch and doing what you're told as described on the previous page.
(Watching this truck with interest, BTW!)
I'll break out a build (really a "fix") thread once I have it in my greedy hands. Consider this a pre-build thread unless I somehow get it moved to the "build thread" sub-forum.
I'm probably going to drop it at my FIL's house before I bring it home since I accidentally-on-purpose won a turbo Subaru and have no space in the driveway. I'll investigate the transmission there. I've read that it could just be some kind of maladjustment on some sort of rod. I'm hoping that is what it is. Otherwise, I may try my first transmission rebuild, ever, to keep the budget down.
I'm going to absolutely get the older guys involved if they want to be. Even if they just sit back, listen to the radio, drink some Cokes and tell me what to do and never turn a wrench themselves.
Moved to builds in anticipation of awesomeness. 
This is gonna be berkeleying AWESOME!!!!
The first attempt to get the title for the truck was a no-go, because apparently a state issued driver's license is not actually a state issued driver's license unless it is plastic.
I have a temporary, paper ID since I just renewed my license. NC issues a paper document with your picture, info and embedded anti-forgery devices until they can deliver your permanent, plastic ID. The license plate and title department is different from the actual license bureau, and they won't take a license unless it is plastic.
So, I have to go back down to DMV next week and try again.
I did get to hang out with my in-laws and meet Dustbusterbd13 and his little girl, so at least it wasn't a wasted trip.
I did the paperwork to buy the truck today, and we moved it a few feet out from the trees.
A mouse moved in in the past month. Seed husks and droppings on the driver's side. The windows leak a bit. The door cards are not in the best shape, at all. It smells like an old barn.
It was covered in leaves. I'm going to have to run a shop vac through the hood vents, they are solid leaves. There was a polk salad plant growing in the bed. It was a beauty. Very healthy. The tires still hold air.
We didn't try to start it, as I want to spin the engine by hand a bit to get things lubed up. I still haven't opened the hood. It's like a surprise at this point in time.
On Christmas, we towed it up to my FIL's house. We pumped the tires full of air, searched in vain for a good spot to hook up the tow strap and had to improvise. We slowly pulled it out from under the tree. There was a horrendous screeching as limbs scraped down the side, but the paint is already rough, so whatever.
Our man concern was the brakes. We tested the brakes a little and they worked, but the disks were rusty, so getting a good bite was problematic. Dragging the brakes a little as we moved it seemed to help get them biting better, but we were still worried. We drove under 5 MPH up the street and got it pointed to where we wanted it parked. We unhooked it and my FIL operated the wheel and brakes while I gave it a good shove.
It rolled towards the designated area. I kept waiting for him to hit the brakes. He didn't until long past I would have. He stopped about 1/4 away from the fence. My MIL was shrieking. My FIL is insane, in a good way. I suspect he did it the way he did, just to aggravate my MIL. Good times.
I'm wondering what kind of mess I've gotten myself into. I keep saying "Just get it running and safe. Running, and safe."
I think the largest expense is going to be getting the transmission sorted out. My FIL can probably help me rebuild it, but the rebuild kits range in price from $31 to $400 at Summit, and I really don't even know what it needs.
Additionally, it looks like at some point in time a battery leaked on the truck. There is actually rust in that area that goes beyond the surface, but it still isn't "Northern" levels of tinworm. I hadn't noticed how bad it was until I started poking around under there. I was buying it no matter what, but it seems like it will need to be addressed before it gets worse. I will likely do it outside the Challenge budget.
Is it frame rot, or core suppprt/inner fenfer/tray? Because theres a lot of these trucks in Winston Salem pullapart.....
I went out there today and spun some wrenches. The goal was to remove the transmission pan and see if there was metal in it, and clean things up a little bit.
Dusterbd13- : There is some rust on the bumper, a bit on the fender liner and I'm not sure where else it went, yet. It's still well below northern truck levels, I think. I won't know for sure until I pull the front apart. The frame, from what I looked at today crawling around under there, is pretty good from the oil pan back- just light surface rust. The bed is in decent shape, which was surprising, because there were 3" of leaves in it. It also had:
The tailgate latch is hit or miss in terms of operation. I need to pull it and see what is going on.
On to the transmission! Who knew there were so many metric fasteners on this truck? The transmission support connection to the frame is 18mm. The transmission support to the tailshaft is 14mm. My FIL has a tonne of SAE tools, but a very limited metric supply. We got through it- he had a set of 3/8 metric sockets. Much PB Blaster was expended, with some wait time to let it work. Next time, I'm bringing my 1/2 set down, and I know what he's getting for his birthday.
We got the pan dropped, and only made a bit of a mess. The fluid was a bit dark, but there was no obvious metal in the pan. There was a fine layer of gray almost powder fine dust in the bottom. That's about as far as we went, because the exhaust is going to have to come off. The fasteners connecting to the headers came off with no issue. After that...
It looks like the cats were removed and 2.5" tubes were used all the way through, with resonators and/or pre-silencers before the mufflers. YAY!
I found out there are Flowmasters on the truck! YAY!
The mufflers are welded in, and the tubes are welded, too. BOOO!
Some time with a grinder and chisel didn't get the driver's side, which looks to be the only side that needs to come off, completely disconnected before we ran out of daylight. We're going to need that gone in order to drop the transmission and see what happened. A concern I have is that it looks like something exited the dust shield for the torque converter at high speed. There is an exit wound with the ragged edges pointing outward, not inward. Maybe that's why the transmission isn't working?
That's about all I know. I still haven't tried to start the truck, yet. That'll happen sometime. I want to flush the tank and such, first.
So, the Dodge D-150 has a transmission rebuild underway to get my FIL's daily back operational. I made some progress with the C-1500, but we have a lot of work to do yet. I'm going to try to take a day off this week, if the weather holds and get back down there with the Dodge transmission and help him get that back in, and maybe work on the Chevy some more if we have time.
Got into it a bit more today, but the entire process was a series of gotchas and wait-a-minute work. The mixture of SAE and Metric fasteners on the truck had me sliding out from under it to change the tool I thought I needed more than a few times. Additionally, this thing has never had an underbody wash, ever. It's in sand hills of NC, and has some leaks. So, there is a fine crust of an ATF/oil/sand mixture all over the underbody that falls into your eyes whenever you touch anything. At least it isn't rust, but I had to de-grit my eyes a ridiculous number of times, even with safety glasses on. I just pulled what I hope is the last of the grit out of my eyes just now, 5 hours after stopping the work on the truck.
We had to cut the exhaust to work on things, so that is going to get an ugly splice or flanges welded on, I'm not sure which one yet. Once that was out of the way, I was able to remove the torque converter shield and get the bolts out of the torque converter. Everything seemed in order there, so I'm not sure where the gash in the shield came from, yet.
Once I had the bolts out of that, a slow but steady drip of engine oil started flowing down the flex plate, so the engine oil had to go. It was surprisingly clean
Getting the TV cable out of the transmission took way longer than it should have, but we got it done. I think with another 30 minutes of good daylight, we'll have the old transmission out, which is good, because I'm under a time limit. The junkyard unit I picked up only has a 30 day warranty on it. I'll probably return on Monday. It's supposed to be near freezing, so I'll have to wear layers. I'll have to find my silkies, too.
Budget so far:
Truck: $750
Junkyard Transmission/Torque converter: $350
Total: $1100
I still have quite a bit of room to play around.
Glad you saved that truck. I'm a big fan of the GMT400 series trucks. If you need pointers or have a weird GMT400 specific question shoot me a message. My daily is a LS swapped 88 Sportside.
SyntheticBlinkerFluid said:In reply to Knurled. :
In terms of 90’s truck customization, yes. I was a little kid in the early 90s, but I was forced to go to several street truck shows and my mom thought it to be a good idea to get me a Sport Truck magazine subscription at the age of 9.
I have every issue of this rag from;92-96...these were my source of inspiration for the 3/5 drop on my '91 ext cab short box I currently have.......yes by all means retrieve this NOW!!!!
I may be going down tomorrow for more fun time!
Yeah, it's in the 20s. I'm not doing anything outside today.
34 at my house!
Until you factor in the wind chill...
I got the transmission out today. It involved the use of a stuck bolt remover kit.
When I removed the old transmission, I took the TV cable out though the bottom while the pan was off, and I'm not sure I did it correctly. I wound up with a plastic end piece with a hole through it on the end of the TV Cable.
The replacement transmission TV cable was cut at the junkyard. There seems to be no way to remove it from the top. Is this true?
Still not mobile, but the junkyard transmission is mainly bolted in. The TV cable is easy-peasy if you do it right with the pan off. Thanks, Curtis, for the tips.
The tires are shot, but I can't even get the cap off of the passenger back tire to get some more air in it. I'm going to have to use the spare to move it around, I think.
I think it should get started within 8 hours- then I'm going to have to spend 10 cleaning the thing.
Standing by for more.
Such a good looking truck
I should've said 8 hours more work. That will happen next weekend, at the earliest.
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