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1968 C10 DD, project "New Tricks"

Boy that green one and red one are sexy. Just perfect, lowered one and lifted one. Kinda what I ended up with lol.

I thought about going with tail light bezels to fix the lenses. The metal edges around the lenses arent the straightest either, got minor stamping marks/ripples. So the trim would help hide all that. But, I think not having them will look cleaner since I dont have any other trim besides around the windows. Now that the lights are more to my liking, I think its the right call. :)
 
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Thanks!
And I agree that you got it right with your lights. Adding the whole trim package is pricey too! Not to mention the work! I deleted what trim my C10 on the sides and kept the piece at the back of the cab for the color break.

So I like what you did.
 
I'm considering keeping the color break trim too. Mine is in great shape, but most of me says no since it will be painted a solid color. I just want to keep the trim around the wing, back, and front windows since that was mainly a CST option.
 
I like your plan! I would have deleted that trim, but I wanted to try to cool the cab some while retaining some of the factory look.

FYI I bought new trim for my windshield, and it fit fairly well. I still want to replace the rear window trim. They didn't sell it when I put the glass on my '72.
Do you know the difference between '67-'70 trim and the '71-'72 trim? The older trim has a flange that is tall enough to end up between the glass and the cab. It holds in well, but can be a bit of a pain when trying to align everything. But you have to have the gasket to match the trim. The back window stuff is all the same, from what my memory tells me. .
 
Today I got to drive it to work and back. First impressions are...



















I hate it. I hate almost everything about it so far. I would rather daily drive the Blazer than this thing. The manners are that bad. This truck has a long way to go before I'm comfortable with it. I am so disappointed right now. I want to throttle the throats at CPP.

1) The 4wdb setup I paid close to $2k has tons of stopping power and feels very firm. Unfortunately it takes a little more effort than it should to hold the truck at a red light. Almost like the booster is underpowered, so that needs to be addressed. The brakes are also VERY VERY loud. It squeaks, growns, and howls like a donkey. It also drags some and I can hear at least one disc is not cut true. Nothing like being stuck in traffic and receiving the wrong kind of looks. The truck only has about 100 miles on it. Three discs have equal pad wear on them, one of the rears has good inner pad wear but bad outer wear pattern. I pulled all the brakes apart, re-greased and checked for funkiness, and put back together. (I even swapped pads on the one that was wearing wrong) The noise is the same. I believe the pads are too hard, I think there is too much rotor wear for the mileage and it could also cause the noise. But, I dunno. I do know that the noise is not isolated to that one corner with the bad wear, that is for sure.

2) During sweeping turns, like a chicane, the front growns badly. I hear a combination of brake noise (without braking) that pulses and a sound that reminds me of rusted wheel bearings that are either too loose or too tight. The wheel bearings are brand new, as well as the grease, spindles, races, etc. I checked the spindle nut already and it feels good, the grease still looks good too. I have not pulled the bearings yet.

3) The steering is so god damn tight it's nerve racking. The truck has ZERO return to center. My blazer, with hydro assist, has more RTC. A manhole cover bump will gar the truck and kick it to the side. My alignment is Zero camber, Zero toe, and -5* caster. I can turn the wheel while stopped, but it's not easy. When I got home I checked the fluid. When I pulled the cap off it hissed a little, pressure that is, from the cap. The fluid looked fine. I haven't checked the sector shaft on the steering box yet, maybe it's got too much pre-load. Dunno.

4) GE NightHawk LED headlights are not worth the money. There is little to no distance light, at least not like my S10.

5) ECM controls the fans. Not sure how the tune is setup but the fans run all the time. The engine is always at 205 it seems. I guess that's how they run but I'm considering tuning the computer to see lower temps and run a lower stat. I also hit a trans temp of 210 while driving home. This is what the computer sees, from the OBD port, not a funky gauge readout. Seems awfully high for just street driving an empty truck.

6) Doors need new weather strip sooner than I thought, the rattle is terrible.


Now I have to deal with CPP again.
 
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The short list of good things.
While the chicane is noisy and worrisome, the truck handles it really well. It likes to carve a turn. Hardest part is staying in the seat.
Power from the 5.3 is nice. I had some minor work done to the trans while it was getting serviced, now it shifts with aggression :D Before it felt lazy, but I feel that way about them all.
Gauges are nice
Got my stance right, finally. Also go my pinion angle shimmed down. Had a local shop put a 2 degree into some lowering blocks I picked up. So now I'm about 3 1/2" front and 5 7/8" rear. Sits good.

I've got an appointment for a dyno tuner in the area. It's about a 50 mile freeway drive to reach him. That goes down on Saturday. I'm hoping it's done the same day, but I'll grab it early Monday morning before a doctors appointment. It's got some bugs to work out and I'm sure there's more power being left on the table by the mail-order tune.
 
You will get there dude. Just keep plugging along. And remember there's alot of refinement from a 68 to a 2000's s10 your used to. But there is no reason that the 68 can't be a nice refined modern truck. The parts are out there. Just got to make it happen. Good luck.

:popcorn:
 
Sorry you are having to deal with disappointment, but Beags is correct that you will get it!
I had similar problems when I converted my '70 to rear disc. I believe that the pedal ratio on these trucks is somewhat of a pain to get the rest of the system to play well with. I went hydro - boost since it's a 4x4 and so many guys on here had good luck that way. But mine are still a little stiff for my taste.

Hopefully the you can find out how to get the brake noise to quit easily. ...
 
Forgive me if I'm having a brain fart but shouldn't you have 5* positive caster? At least 5 anyway. Also a little toe in will help.

One the brakes you could take the rotors off and have them machined somewhere, shouldn't have to be much just enough to true them and take off any surface rust. Also in not sure what kind of pads you have, metallics tend to be noisy, I always prefer ceramic pads.

The temp and fan issue is kind of odd. 200-210 is what these run at factory so it's weird the fans are staying on unless there's something in the tune set up wrong. They don't come on as soon as you turn the key on do they?

What are you using for a trans cooler? And is he torque converter locking?

On the steering I've seen guys use the factory hydro boost brake setup out of early 2000 trucks with good success.
 
Ok, I feel a little better today but I didnt drive the truck to work either. Major bummer. It goes in for tune tomorrow.

The rotors are the drilled/ slotted type so they cant be turned. Also, they are brand new and clean. I'm not sure what the pads are, I'd like to find another source for them besides CPP. :( Spoke with CPP today and I'll be driving it down some time soon. Then they can go over it all and tell me what they want returned. I'll still have to pull parts off, including calipers :( and drive them back down. If it continues to give me fits I want it all teturned. I'll go with Wilwood instead
 
I've never drove anything with drilled and slotted rotors but I'd imagine they would be a little noisy...
 
Dimpled rotors are worse. Also performance type pads are very noisy. Especially before they get hot which can take a decent amount of heat compared to standard pads
 
yeah, you need some mushy 14 g mile asbesto's pad, not some chattery, ceramic nonsense...
 
haha funny thing though, they are 100% quiet when leaving a parking spot. Which is less embarrassing lol. Not until about 1/2 mile of stop and go traffic do they start raising the dead.
 
Well, put a tiny bit of "toe in" this morning and checked a couple things. Tried to adjust the steering box sector shaft but damn things are metric. Got the lock nut off but couldn't get the adjuster part to loosen from the nut. With it all loose, the steering felt a tiny bit better.

Just gotta figure it out. The no RTC sucks.
Truck is at dyno tuner till Monday but its done. Dude says 290/305. Raised shift points, raised fan temp, and did a little cleaning of the tune since he had it on the dyno.

On the drive out to the tuner the truck drove nice. Cruise control FTMFW!! Drove smooth, no brake noise :D, and had nice power already. It drove straight and nice, but way too tight, like a go cart on the freeway.
 
So the brake noise problem is gone? Did everything just need to be broken in?
 
Well good to know all that about the CPP stuff. I wonder why its so scary and no RTC. That is interesting.
 

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