Spooky. My super slow truck build

[TheWarBeast]

After having a tree fall in my work area ( before the tent went up) some bolts got lost. Having to scramble around and hunt for them. Makes things more interesting.

No Exhaust manifold

This engine came out of a van. I didn't realize the difference in the manifolds until I had them both on and the one of the drivers side was a good 8 inches in front of the passengers side. Since the original engine was smogged I had to fight the smog line out of the manifold and I will go find the right sized plug for it. It appears the passengers side is identical except for the bung for the smog line.

Alternator will look better in a while. I put Vaseline over the black. It will wash off and look better.

More stuff on.

I like to have never figured out how those stupid sensors went on the bracket. I played with it for about 30 minutes. Finally I found one picture in the Haynes manual that happened to have the sensors in it.

Passengers side all dressed up.
Gunner inspecting my work.

Waiting on paint to dry.

The original manifold was nasty ( and the other side was already painted) so I painted it. I will get it on later tonight.


At this point it started looking like a monsoon was rolling in on us. I was drenched in sweat anyway and it was about 5:00. Rain never happened. I will go out later and stick more parts on.

 

[TheWarBeast]

And an aside: I finally found the wheel for that engine stand. Now if I could find the nut.

 

[07Burb]

Right now I am keeping it in tall grass. LOL. Sux I can't even mow the yard.

Let's pretend the tall grass is helping keep it preserved

 

[TheWarBeast]

Only thing left is installing it.
Ran out of paint on the passengers exhaust manifold. Oh well, it ain't a show truck.

 

[TheWarBeast]

Let's pretend the tall grass is helping keep it preserved

Or hidden.

 

[TheWarBeast]

 

[TheWarBeast]

Things are moving slowly, but moving.

Steph started doing her unpaid student teaching so I am at home with Heath 5 days a week. It is about impossible to get anything done while trying to watch him. If he thinks he isn't being watched he puts those little legs to good use.


Some tiny progress.

Made a list of what is left


The work force
Steph and Heath lending a hand.

Got the belt on finally.

Had to try three times to get the right size.

Heath helping out more

Heath added an auxilliary belt
NO word on what it does yet.

Fuel lines hooked up (and a stray piece of tape)

And a roadblock.

The TBI I am using is off a 94 truck. It has all the ultimate TBI mods done to it . Only problem is my 88 transmission has a kickdown (TV) cable the 94 didn't so there is no provision to hook the cable up. I spent some time removing the stud from the 88 TBI.

Not much there to work with.

Good thing is I have a friend who has a machine shop. I dropped it off with him and he is working on it now.

Made an engine primer

This old distributor was locked up and no good. A little work on the bench and I have it freed up and ready to use to prime the engine with oil when we are ready to start it up.

 

[TheWarBeast]

Heath has the spirit.

He spent the morning working on his truck.

My buddy who has his own machine shop made me a TV cable stud.

He said he made it long so I could shorten it.


Stuck it on an old TBI.

It definitely needed to be shortened. A little quality time on the bench grinder and all was right. Not pictured: I got the TV cable installed, hooked up the y pipe with new gaskets, got the fuel lines attached, and removed all the old exhaust.




Had to put the hitch back on

After trying to install the exhaust I soon realized it needed to clear the hitch. I had to put it back on to make sure i got it all in the right place.


Had to move the bed too.

After way too many trips in and out from under the truck to wrangle the 3 year old back into sight; I decided to move the bed that was dangling from the gantry crane.

Much more room to work.

Grabbed some Zip ties and mocked it up.

The "complete" cat back exhaust kit did not have a long enough pipe to reach the factory cat. Now that it is all mocked up I can measure for a pipe and go snag one.

 

[TheWarBeast]

After being diagnosed with 3 herniated discs i have been taking it easy. I couldn't stand it any more so I had to do somethin to Spooky.

I decided that Spooky had sat long enough. So I hooked her to the WheelHorse and dragged her as far as it would. I have got to get some weight in the back of the tractor.

After digging some nice sized holes I decided I need a bigger gun. So I got the S10 Blazer. Spooky came right out of the tent.

I started to hook up the plug wires, but soon found I was missing one spark plug ( thanks Heath) and the coil wire. I used it on CB when the new set of wires for her didn't have a coil wire.

So I attacked the exhaust. I bet I have 8 hours of work into figuring it out. Well today I had an epiphany. It was nearly impossible to get things right with the truck sitting at an angle. So I got both floor jacks out and raised the front end till it was levilish.

Once I had it level I was able to see things a bit more clearly. I used about 15 pieces of rope to tie the pipes up to the frame in the proper position. I needed an intelligent octupus to help. I just didn't have neough hands.

The exhaust kit will not work with the receiver hitch if I want to run it out the back. After some head scratching I turned both rear pipes out to the side. It worked perfectly. I was able to get the measurements I needed for the pipe I need to buy - 29 inches.



I need to do a bit of trimming. Or I could just start a new trend.

And, yes, things in the yard are a mess. I have 3 herniated discs and it is just not a priority right now.

I also bought the Suburban in the pics above and this 88 Longbed for parts.


Brand new tires worth more than I paid for the whole truck.

 

[TheWarBeast]

I had my surgery on Aug 15th. All the doc will let me do now is walk around the yard. So now I walk past Spooky over an over while walking my mile. It just looks at me as if to say," What the heck man, FIX ME."

I want to work on it so bad I cant' stand it. Don't want to undo the surgery and wind up sliced open again.