I may be selling the longtubes out from under my s10. any interest? hell, i may be selling my entire exhaust setup for that matter.

 

yeah, check your PMs in just a minute..

 

Yesterday and today turned out to be a day of almost crying!!


I made a trip to trade some parts, got that done, had a nice steak dinner. No problems right??


So I get home and between last night and today my truck has decided that the ONE bolt that was
apparently holding the whole front end together just was not gonna cut it any more.
Cause it fell out and the picture below is what else fell out/off too!!!

 

I am just kidding. Although the truck is actually in that state right now.
I started the part of the project where it involves removing the whole front
clip to be able to easily access everything necessary to remove the engine
and trans together. I still have to remove the transmission mount bolts,
power steering pump lines, and any miscellaneous wiring/lines that are
necessary to get it to come out. I also plan to remove the fuel tank when
I get home next weekend and start the process of installing the fuel cell
and some of the fuel lines once I get the original lines out of the way.


I dropped off the block and stock crank today at a machine shop in
Poplar Bluff, Missouri to begin the necessary work on those. I have
2 options on this engine (providing the sonic check shows good to
go for 3.905 bore) and those are to either use the stock crank with
new pistons and rods which will give me a 347 ci engine.
Or spend a substantial sum of money and get the 4 inch crank to
make this a 383 stroker. My finances will be the determining factor
when that comes to pass. Cool part of this shop is that they have an
in-house engine dyno. He told me that the cost is $400 for a day in
the dyno cell. Since he is the closest to me, I can accept that or go to
Memphis, which I figure will be more expensive.


That is a ways off anyhow. Pictures below are the ones showing a bit of
progress. More to come next weekend, the 10th of July. Something tells
me that end of August is gonna basically be a pipe dream!! Not unless I
hit the lottery!!


Later guys............

 

Golly gee, that was one important bolt.

 

Plans are to drain the engine and trans of fluids once I get them out so that they will hopefully not be leaking everywhere. I also want to give them a good bath with whitewall cleaner to get rid of already leaked grease and fluids. Once completed I can wrap it up in a tarp or some clear plastic to protect it until it is either sold or disposed of. Hopefully someone will be ok spending a little bit of money for an old engine that still runs good.


Things are starting to get straightened out for the other vehicles Mom and I own. Dropped off the dually and the F150 at shops yesterday to get the work to those done.


I am hoping for some really good news by next Wednesday or Thursday regarding both vehicles.

 

Well today was quite productive.
Got out the motor and trans.
Got majority of the engine bay power washed.
Still have a LONG way to go because of the work needed to be done
on the front end as far as ball joints and tie rod ends.
It cleaned up pretty good but not perfect.
Maybe one more trip around the engine bay with a good soaking of
whitewall cleaner, and the pressure washer will get the job done.
Still have to remove the original 2.8 engine mounts.
The transmission wasn't even bolted to the cross member... figures!!
Also found a missing bell housing bolt, 2 loose bell housing bolts,
and an absolute **** ton of oil and grease and transmission fluid all over this combo.
Between the missing bolt, the loose bolts, and the missing bolts in the trans mount,
I figure my grinding sound was coming from there.


I got my dually back yesterday and figure it needs the rear brakes either adjusted
or replaced because the brake pedal still goes way down, but its smoother now and
no issues!! YAY!!
The O/D light has not turned on once the whole time I have had it back,
and I have beat on it pretty good to try to get it to heat up so I can see if its gonna
fail or act up. I would rather find out when I am less then 50 miles from home than
when I am 700 miles into a trip and hauling a $50k camper trailer on its way to a dealership.

Dually test pic is below.

 

Once I got done pulling the engine and trans, I put the truck down on the
front tires so I could roll it backwards out of my way. I let the jack down and
started to push, that damn truck would NOT move!! I am looking around
trying to figure out why and then I realize it!! FORGOT ABOUT THE DROP
SPINDLES!! I had set the drivers lower control arm down on top of the
engine hoist!! SMOOTH MOVE EX-LAX!!!


As you can tell I got it off the control arm and outside to start the pressure
washing. Wish I had taken before and after pictures of that front frame clip.
Cant call it an engine bay cause its wide open. LOL That thing was just plain
old NASTY... It will still need a really good soak before it gets pressure
washed again.


Well, tomorrow is starting bright and early with a 90 mile round trip to
trade some stuff around. After I get back I plan to start pulling these 243
heads back apart because the valves need cleaning and wire brushing
to get rid of carbon buildup. Plus I assembled the springs wrong so I have
to fix them before it becomes an issue at 7,000 RPM and and 2 stages of
nitrous are flowing at full tilt.


Have a good weekend to everyone!!

 

Original engine and transmission are long gone. Hauled them off for scrap. Realized I should have kept the starter and alternator once they were gone. But then again I have a starter and alternator from a Ford SOHC 4.6 I cant sell to save my life.


The engine bay got a good bath, but it still has one or two more to go. Got the cylinder heads disassembled and got the trunion upgrade done to the stock rockers. Bad part was, I forgot about the lettering needing to be on the outside of the trunion bearings, so now I have to disassemble half of them for either one or both sides to fix that screw up.


Block is getting a bore of 3.880 and I am going to go ahead and get a 4 inch stroke crank since Wiseco has to make the forged pistons. They said 4 to 5 weeks for that.


Using the 4 inch stroke crank the engine will have a 6.2L displacement. And with the ported and polished heads (once I send them off), I should have a very healthy combo to slide in front of the powerglide I just got.

 

Called the machine shop today and they said the block was all done, but the crank would be checked either later today or tomorrow. They had a combo they had to finish assembling yesterday so it could be put on the dyno today.


I plan to get mine dyno'd once I get everything together. They said they have their own headers that fit the dyno cell and they would not use any others. I tried to mention that the ones they use may not be what the customers want to use in their vehicle, and if they had them available, why not use them?


He refused to listen to any kind of reason and said that their headers are the only ones that would be used on the dyno, end of discussion. I can only assume their "one size works the best" will probably be a bit different than what I plan to use.


He never would tell me what size headers they used. Just said "long tubes".


Well, the JW Ultra Bell for the glide should be in tomorrow providing FEDEX doesn't lose this like they did one of my fuel pumps. Brand new fuel pump and they can't find it to save their life!! Bad part is the seller had to ship out another one and that cost him money that FEDEX will probably NEVER give back to him.


The powerglide -6AN fittings for the trans cooler are in also. They arrived today as well. I would love to say I am nearing a "short list" but since my "short list" still has about 60 items on it, I will not even bring that up.


I will be acquiring a square body standard cab this weekend to pull the engine and trans out of and probably scrap out. This time I plan to keep the alternator and starter to try to resell.


The guy at the scrap yard told me a cheap price for a couple turbo 350's he has there that could be rebuilt. Would be good to just resell for cheap with nothing in them for race parts. Cleaned up and fresh rebuild with converter??


I plan to just throw a typical SBC into the S10 and swap the rear end out of it in the same fashion I did mine, minus the Caltracs. May get a couple of cheapo traction bars made up so they can be welded to the stock lower shock arms. haven't decided on that yet. If I do I will have to get a couple urethane snubbers to keep the bars from beating the springs to death. Cheap and easy is about what I am looking for so it will sell fast. Shouldn't be too hard to accomplish. Something that screams "ADD NITROUS FOR FUN FUN FUN!!" LOL Considering I have enough stuff for 2 different kits, I may already have nitrous installed. I have 2 other sets of wheels I can toss used slicks onto, then probably find some cheap steel 5 inch wheels for the front to throw new 165/80-15's onto. Might be able to get it done for less than $1500 all in.