mikevanky

Hello All!

So I have been a lurker for years now but I have been recently inspired to start a build thread of my own. The next post or two will be a quick (as possible) summary of my truck up until now...

It started the summer of 2013 when I bought the truck. Its a 1977 Chevy k10. I saw an add on FaceBook while home from college for the summer in North Carolina.



I called a close friend of mine who I went to school with in Massachusets, and that week he went and bought the tuck for me sight unseen. In fact it was months before I got to see it in person.






I bought the truck with intentions of a motor swap, so first thing back to school I went with a few buddies and picked up a 5.3 off of craigslist.




The deal of $350 for motor, harness and computer turned out too be too good to be true. Pulling the heads off, for a top end refresh, I found some flat top pistons.



So, the 5.3 swap turned into a 4.8 swap. Oh well. Motor was in good shape, I did a mild port job and slapped it back together.



Pulled the 400 that the truck came with; that turned out to be a 350.






Sold that motor to the bud in the photo for a good deal.
Then I dropped in the 4.8. With some dirty dingo motor mounts and a flex plate spacer it was a fairly easy swap. I took the time to clean up the firewall and paint the frame up front as well.












Then I took the factory harness and converted it into a stand alone for the motor. I also attempted to bend the hood back and weld it up. It had a kink in it, that is super common on this generation of truck. I found a factory 77 steering wheel on craigslist and put that in too.

mikevanky

So after about 5 miles of driving the old TH-350 succumb to the might power of the 4.8. lol Pulling the pan confirmed that things were no bueno.



So I decided to learn how to rebuild automatic transmission. Tearing down the trans that came with the truck relieved that the case its self was junk. So again to Craigslist and I bought a TH350 that was "built" and in good working order. It was a 2wd unit so I tore it down to swap the output shaft and it didn't look great so it turned into a full rebuild.
















I daily drove the truck for a while (about 6 month) before a improperly set up kick-down cable put second gear into the trans pan. It had a decent stall converter so it actually was pretty fun to drive but not super fast.

After the second TH-350 I decided a 4l60e would be more fun so I bought a junkyard core for $25. I did a full rebuild on that unit with a few goodies that should take care of most of the weak points of trans. Im hoping it will hold 500 to the wheels before I have to move to an 80.

I had always had lots of trouble with the stock fuel system on the truck so it was time to upgrade. It came stock with 2, 15 gallon saddle bag gas tanks. They were mounted under the cab and outside the frame rails so I was always a bit uneasy with them. They also puked rust or got confused about what tank it was pulling from on the reg.





All this was a bit over kill but worked out nice. All this was mounted in the bed in a steel box that was custom to hold the fuel system.

I also buffed the truck. I was told it had a home done paint job in the early 2000's and it showed. I was really surprised to see how nice it buffed out.














Truck was daily driven for a while again then parked when I graduated and stared a Job. A friend of mine was building an 6.0 lp9 motor at the time to swap into his suburban.

mikevanky

So I decided to offer to help put by putting his motor in my truck to get it tuned most of the way. That way when he swapped his daily it would be off the road for less time. I also took this opportunity to do a big overhaul and fix some short cuts that I took in school.

First off the fuel system was re mounted under the bed.









The E- fans that were ziptied in place to my nice new aluminum radiator were mounted properly to an aluminum shroud.






Also the front cross member that was way too close to the oil pan was replaced by a custom one.






Also a trans cooler and power steering cooler were added. And all the power steering lines were replaced by hydraulic crimped AN lines.







Also an ls swap fuse block that was water proof was added to the engine bay.
And to top it all off was a new vbanded tig welded true dual exhaust to get rid of the hack job that came with the truck. (no pictures for now)

So with my friends motor in the truck we started tuning.






I have done a bunch of tuning with HP tuners before this but with the upgrade (3.0) and a motor that needed a tune this far from a factory tune I ended up over my head. I found a friend of a friend who was willing to come by and help me out. It was funny it turned out to be Rob a moderator on here ,hence why I am writing this up now. he was great, super knowledgeable and really boosted the confidence with the program.

Through tuning I found that the corvette fuel pressure regulator was producing in stable fuel pressure readings on the gauge. So I replaced that with an A1000 regulator. Now I have steady pressure but I also need to move the regulator to the engine bay so I can have a vacuum referenced regulator as that is the set up my bud will be running in his truck.

D1SCSS

iTrader: (3)

Very nice build! How long did it take to do all this work? It looks like a ton of time went into the truck.

mikevanky

Thanks!
I have been working on the truck for about 3 years now. Its been a lot of work and It was supposed to be a bit faster by now; but I got caught up restoring a 40 year old truck.

BigBlock90

iTrader: (4)

Nice project. Ive always liked the ol squarebody c/k trucks

mikevanky

Thanks man. Same here, I had wanted one of these truck since high school.



So, I ordered an additional 10 feet of Summit Brand -6 Line and they were out of the Stainless steel braid! I had to order the nylon braid instead but I have never worked with it before so I am a bit skeptical about the product.

Anyone have any tips for working with the stuff?

Vortec350ss

iTrader: (20)

Cool project!

All said and done it'll lift its skirt and run for sure.

mikevanky

Thanks Rob!
Hopefully Ill get there soon.

mikevanky

I got the regulator remounted in the engine bay Thursday night after work, I think it looks pretty good. I ended up tapping the brake booster bracket to 1/4-20 and made an aluminum bracket to hold an regulator.

I also bought a Jiffy Tight 2000 series quick connector for the fuel rail. Pretty stoked about the product, very high quality. I do a lot of custom o-Ring applications at work and it looks like these guys have it down!

As for the nylon braid line I bought I ended up liking it a lot! I could be cut very easily and cleanly with no swearwords from the ss wire piercing your skin. It also seemed much more flexible.

Though I will say I think it would have much less abrasion resistance and I think over time it will not look as good as the ss braid will.

Anyone have experience on the comparison here?










I also visited a local speed shop in Portland Maine this weekend and Picked up a Used 5lb NOS bottle and got it filled! Super pumped about this one.

Once my buddies motor is tuned that is coming out and my 4.8 will go back in and getting a healthy dose of spray!



Any Advice for a first time nitrous user???