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.

 

[07Burb]

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.

Take your time, man, and get healed up as much as possible. Seems like you're always fighting back problems but let's hope that once healed you're better for a while. The truck will still be there when you're healthy

 

[#1taho]

You got one hell of a deal on that short bed. Very nice shape. I can't beleave it's that hard to find a diecent 5.7 there. But sounds like what you have now is good. You have got a good amount done. Once your healed up you will finish "spooky" and finially get to enjoy it.

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[jerryjoe28]

looking good so far!

 

[TheWarBeast]

Take your time, man, and get healed up as much as possible. Seems like you're always fighting back problems but let's hope that once healed you're better for a while. The truck will still be there when you're healthy

I was in a bad wreck back in 2000. Had back problems ever since. Every doctor I have gone too just said I was too young to hurt that bad and blew me off.

I had a doc ( I called hot doc she was awesome) who was at the point of scheduling me for an MRI, but she went into early labor and then decided to stay home with her kids. Can't blame her.

New doc wanted to start the same BS tests over again till I threatened to put him in the floor and show him wat pain felt like. Amazingly enough I was in an MRI machine the next day.

3 herniated disc one that was strangulating my spinal cord (my boys were hurting all the time). no fun. Had to fight the surgeon into get scheduled he wanted to drag it out till December. A loittle screaming and I was scheduled for the 15th of August. Now I just have to heal.

Before surgery I could barely walk 50 yards without being in tears. Now I can go almost 2 miles in circles round and round the yard. - 1 lap is .10 mile.

You got one hell of a deal on that short bed. Very nice shape. I can't beleive it's that hard to find a diecent 5.7 there. But sounds like what you have now is good. You have got a good amount done. Once your healed up you will finish "spooky" and finally get to enjoy it.

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I can sling a dead cat and hit 4 good 5.7s problem is being able to afford them. We have been living on my disability while Steph got through college and got a job. Yippee she has a job. now we just have to survive till her first paycheck. The copay for surgery was rough.

 

[#1taho]

Sounds like so far your on a good road to recovery. I can't wait to see the truck finished as I am sure you do too. You down and out for a few more weeks ?

 

[TheWarBeast]

Sounds like so far your on a good road to recovery. I can't wait to see the truck finished as I am sure you do too. You down and out for a few more weeks ?

Can't do anything (including drive ) till teh doc appt on the 7th IF he releases me.

I stepped in a hole in the yard yesterday and thought I was going to wind up in the ER. It was unpleasant.

I am off all pain meds and muscle relaxers - which I couldn't take during the day anyhow because of being home with the 4 year old. Fortunately he is a good kid and took care of me. He got me food and drinks and anything else I wanted then laid in the bed with me and watched TV.

 

[William Mendel]

Great story and photos. Thanks, please let us know results.

 

[Tonyrodz]

You're doing a great job! Just take your time, no need to rush things. This is great dad and son quality time! By the time he's 10 he'll be building his own engine from all the knowledge he got from his old man ! Damn good job .

 

[Fosscore]

Killer thread and build info. Great quality family time. Get better soon. Thanks for sharing.

 

[TheWarBeast]

Well I now have 4 non running trucks in the infirmary. Spooky (which needs to be finished), a 95 Suburban that needs head gaskets, a 94 S10 Blazer whose transmission shit the bed (again) and my neighbors 98 S10 that blew a rear main seal yesterday while I was driving to pickup Heath from his first day of school. The 655k S10 pickup is still plodding along like a good plow horse.

I did get released from the doc on Wednesday to do light work. That includes head gaskets and transmission removals right?

I moved Spooky yesterday (dragged it backwards with the 95 Suburban. I swear if I had a huge tank for water I could drive it anywhere) and mowed where it had been sitting with my 74 Gravley on its lowest setting. Think of 2 day stubble short. Then put the replacement tarp up on the frame for the old tent building that a tree fell on. It wasn't easy, but I did it.

Dropped a brand new Zippo somewhere while doing it. Can't find it anywhere.

I had called about a 95 Suburban that I was going to use for parts. We went to look at it last night.

We needed gas and I needed to fill the tractor can so we stopped at QuikTrip. We left and hit the interstate. On the ramp I heard something, but didn't see anything that would have made the noise. When I got on 85 a woman in an orange SUV pulled up next to me and said something flew off my truck. I looked at the dash and my heart sunk. Like a complete fool I had laid my wallet - complete with $1000 cash - on the roof.



I snatched the truck to the shoulder, slammed it in reverse and smoked tires backwards. Soon I realized that I could not back to the ramp, nor could I walk because there was literally no shoulder on a bridge.



First gear, clutch dumped, many many laws broken, 2 miles to the next ramp ( solid cement barricade in the center 6 feet tall) raced to the south bound ramp and then played Formula One back to exit 17. There in the center of the on ramp was my wallet, all its contents in tact. If I ever see that orange SUV again I will run if off the road and hug that woman till her eyeballs fall out.

Turns out the suburban was a POS. Full of cigs front to rear. NO spark, blown apart exhaust. NO GO. Maybe if I had another runner, but not now.

I checked yesterday and the baby birds are gone from thenest under spookys battery tray so I won't feel bad about yanking it out and working on the truck.

Now I have to go out and put the hitch back on the 95 so I can go down in the field and get my big trailer to put the 98 S10 up on as a redneck lift. Much easier than crawling on the ground.