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Went to the shop at about 8pm last night and did some work. After trimming the passenger inner fender, I set the front end back in place. Not a super easy job to do by yourself, but I got it done. Once it had a few bolts into secure it, I set about the task of figuring out how to wedge the intercooler in this thing. For a full size truck, up-front room is at a minimum on these things. The intercooler I bought is probably the biggest anyone could fit without going to a custom made piece. Custom was not an option for me on this semi-low buck build. I had to notch the core support on either end for clearance and modify the hood latch bracket to become the main support for the IC. With the IC just sitting in it's place, it looks like the grill inserts will need little to no modification. I was really hoping that would be the case. Plumbing it may get interesting, but I will cross that bridge when I get to it.
It wasn't super easy by myself. If I had a couple of helpers, it would have been a cake walk. I learned that it is much easier if you extend the lift arm all the way out where the back side of the hood will sit on it That gives you a solid lifting point at the back to lift it into place.
Still pecking away at it. Radiator is in, hoses connected. Looks like there is just enough room between the IC and the radiator to slip the transmission cooler in. That was just dumb luck. Haha.
Oh I know what it's like to R&R the nose, the cab and the bed by myself on 2 trucks to make 1.
Engine hoist and straps are your friend.
Well the wife helped when I put the cab back on the frame as I did not want to scratch the painted frame or the under side of the cab.
Dave ----
Picked up a neat discharge elbow that is for a Dodge that looks like it will work great. It fits the turbo perfectly and aims discharge right at the intercooler inlet. The rest of the intercooler
piping should be here today.
Not much to report. Mostly wiring and organizing the engine bay. I was in Colorado Springs all week dropping my son off at the Air Force Academy so no progress last week at all.
As I looked over your build, From the beginning to now. I just realized something... If my wife walked in right now, I'm not sure how I could explain this erection. She would be checking my search history, probably end up really confused at the lack of **** searches.
Looks like Thursday amd Friday evenings this week I will get some time to finish up some details, light this thing off and finally break in the camshaft. Can't wait ro hear it make noise again!
I made decent progress last night, but it was not without a little trouble. I started filling it with water and noticed it was leaking. Seems the thermostat slipped out of place when I was installing it. Nice.
Converter nuts are on, oil and break-in lube is in, spark plugs are tight, temporary HEI wiring in in, tach is connected, *most* of the water is in it, correct spring is in the fuel pressure regulator. I still need to rob the battery from the Mustang, install thermostat & housing, pre-lube with the drill, stab distributor, put plug wires on, put some fuel in it, turn on electric pump and check for fuel leaks, flip the switch and hope it doesn't catch fire.
Last night I robbed the battery from the Mustang, pre-lubed the motor, stabbed the distributor (which took FOREVER) put the plug wires on it, dumped some gas in it and checked for fuel leaks. It had 2. One at the regulator because a fitting was completely loose and the other at the carb. That Dominator has the ability to feed the fuel bowl from either side, so the other side has a plug. I left the plug out for some reason. Flipped the switch for the fuel pump and fuel shot out of the carb bowl all over the intake!! Yikes! Once all that was corrected, I turned it on, hit the starter button and it roared to life. Almost too easy. At one point it started running rough and I thought “oh no I killed the cam”. Turns out I didn’t have the #2 and #4 plug wires on good and they had fallen off the plugs. Lol. Turbo spins and it makes turbo noises and the 5” open down pipe is fairly thunderous. Next thing to do is to start wiring up the Megasquirt!
I also put some trim back on (had to shorten it from long bed to short bed) and made a shield to keep potential rear mail seal leakage or trans seal leakage from getting on the crossover pipe
05-26-2019, 01:54 PM
