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'89 R3500 Crew Cab 2wd to 4wd conversion & beyond

Started out with 2wd TBI350 with SM465 to current 4wd with 454, 700r4, NP241
Overview Gallery Discussion
Good write up. By the looks, I'm probably going to have to move my dual battery isolator relay as it's right in the real estate where the 6.2 radiator is going to end up. I do have to move my intended mount point for my onboard air compressor though. That's between the aux battery tray and the radiator.

Just waiting on brackets and I'll do the same thing. Minus the Windstar fans that is.
 
That big ole radiator is greedy for space. My K5 had a 6.2 radiator and I remember when I started the crew cab project how nice it was to have that extra space. Oh well would rather have the extra cooling.
 
Drove the crew cab home yesterday. Of course the day I would like to give it a good heat test we actually get cool weather, lower 80's instead of mid 90's. I think the highest temperature I saw was 182° and at one point the primary fan wasn't even running. Gonna be doing some mountain driving this weekend but the cooler weather is sticking around so I won't get quite the test I would like. Besides I can't complain about cooler temperatures.
 
Another little task I did was to improve the vent connection for the steering reservoir. The hose is always popping off and makes a mess down the side of the reservoir. Mine came with a nipple on the cap like below.

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Even with a clamp, it was coming off all the time.

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The new reservoirs come with push-to-connect fittings. So I drilled out the cap and tapped it for 1/8" NPT and put on a push to connect fitting. We'll see if this works better.

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The fitting on the cap swivels so it's not a problem to spin the cap off.
 
Good timing, I was just dealing with that vent two nights ago. I ended up with a dorman 90 degree rubber fitting from summit into a piece of hose but I like your tap idea.
 
Smokinthehippies said:
I was going to mention the newer psc stuff has a swivel 90 but you clearly figured that out already
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Only by accident. The swivel elbow came with the catch can thing but I didn't realize it at the time. I bought a new one that doesn't swivel and by chance put it on the catch can. When I figured out the other one swiveled I thought, "oh this is perfect for the cap". Never thought about it ahead of time; would have meant pulling the line out every time I removed the cap. :doah:
 
Thinking about where I'm going to mount the power steering cooler. I wonder if it's possible to have a return line that's too long. I could mount it along the top of the core support but that means running enough hose to get around the big ole radiator. Or even just in and back out on the same side.
 
They run radiator fluid through tube chassis's on some units. Hard line would probably be better but I imagine properly sized fiber reinforced hose wouldn't hurt pressure an noticeable amount. It's really not even going to be that long anyways when you really think about it. You could always go under the radiator next to the PS box.
 
stock last few years of our trucks could get a few loops of hard line like a redneck cooler and it was clamped on the bottom side of the core support .
 
Yes I was thinking about those, I think I've seen one of things in the junkyard, kinda crazy looking zigzag of hardline.
 
I had to put hood pins on the K5 because I busted 2 hood latches. I haven't had that problem with the crew cab but the hood seems to flop around a lot so I decided to do hood pins. I suck at installing hood pins.

I made brackets for the pins. You will note there are to captive nuts. That's because the first location ended up right next to where the hood bumps up. So first mistake.

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The brackets bolt into 3/8-16 rivet nuts. I chose this location because I remembered on the K5 they were located on the lower section of the core support and that made for really long pins.

It turned out the upper part of the core support has its own problems. For one the hood gets really close to that area; the inner skin almost touches the bolt heads for my brackets. So then the next problem is the bushings for the hood pins were hitting the bracket when the hood was closed. I used this style:

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I had to cut the bottom off to nearly flush with the top.

The really embarrassing part is the holes I ended up hacking in the hood. Now in my defense I was doing this at home and not in the shop so the tools I had on hand were limited.

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I think at this point I was just frustrated my plans weren't working out so nicely and I just wanted to be done. In the end they may not look great under the hood, but they function like I need.

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I had to add hood pins because I realized I put my trans cooler in the way and didn't want to move it :rotfl:

and the cable is too damn short, not long enough to zip tie up against the fender anyway.
 
LOL I prob wouldn't have even showed pictures of the bottom of that. Nice work though I have never done any. Why not use rivets or rivet nuts for the hood also?
 
I have funny stories for both replies! At least shake your head funny.

skunked said:
I had to add hood pins because I realized I put my trans cooler in the way and didn't want to move it :rotfl:
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So the very first time I installed an auxiliary trans cooler I mounted it where I thought would be perfect. Finished up the install and slammed the hood closed and shortly after noticed a trans fluid puddle forming. I slammed the hood safety latch right into the cooler! :doah:

Truckman4life said:
LOL I prob wouldn't have even showed pictures of the bottom of that. Nice work though I have never done any. Why not use rivets or rivet nuts for the hood also?
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Funny story on this, I had planned on using rivet nuts. I have had trouble with stripping the threads out of rivet nuts with the tool we have. So I figured I would help prevent that by buying higher strength rivet nuts. On the radiator install I put rivet nuts in the radiator brackets for mounting the fans and the top cover. Well I was squeezing down on the tool and broke the 1/4-20 mandrel. :doah: So the rivet nuts are plenty strong now. :whistle:

And of course the 1/4-20 is what I need for the hood pin bolts. Now that it's done, I'm not sure I could use rivet nuts. The holes are too close the big center hole and I had trouble with the bit slipping through into the larger hole before fully drilling the hole, if that makes sense.

I figured I would post my flubs so maybe @Babaganoosh would feel better. I will spray some matte black paint on the underside of that area and the ugliness won't be quite so obvious.
 
Well, at least the tope side looks good. And it's much more "racecar" now.
I made a car seat into a center seat for my side by side last weekend using just a sawzall. Sometimes the toolage limits the quality of the work.
 
Truckman4life said:
Well, at least the tope side looks good. And it's much more "racecar" now.
I made a car seat into a center seat for my side by side last weekend using just a sawzall. Sometimes the toolage limits the quality of the work.
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Yeah, sawzall are rough. To do the above "work" I was using the 1-3/8" HF step drip bit and tin snips. Hurt the hell out of my thumb on some of the sharp pieces of metal. :rotfl:
 
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