I did that for a while.Just do what @Deuling does and drive around without the hood
CK5
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Geronimo: 1959 Chevy Apache
- Thread starter muddermilitia
- Start date
1959 Chevy Apache long bed Fleetside with some modern stuff inside. Built for long trips
Messed with it for awhile last night. Radiator fan clearance is extremely tight. I ended up cutting off part of the threaded snout on the water pump, being careful to not build up too much heat while doing so. It allowed the rad support to tilt back farther but I think I still will need to move the radiator forward. There's room in the core support for the radiator to move. But I will have to modify the radiator mounting flanges or cut up the core support
Here it is after the cut
View from above the radiator
Here it is after the cut
View from above the radiator
beags86
Eastbound and Down
Move the fan mounting up on the radiator?
With the radiator mounts loose, just push the radiator into the core support. It'll bend the mounting flanges and maybe gain you the inch you need without modifying anything.
The fan is mounted as high up as it can possibly go. I can try bending the mounts. I put the panel for the hood latch on. It is closer to the radiator than the upper part of the core support is. There's a little room to move before I would have to trim the hood latch panel. I need to set the hood on though to see if the radiator would hit that if I did any of this.
In the meantime, I called the radiator company and they said I could send back the fan and shroud and they would make me a dual fan shroud with staggered fans, then just charge me the difference. So something to consider
In the meantime, I called the radiator company and they said I could send back the fan and shroud and they would make me a dual fan shroud with staggered fans, then just charge me the difference. So something to consider
That's what I did on my perkins equipped blazer there was about 2.5" between the water pump snout and the radiator, so I got 2 electric fans and put them on both sides of the snout
I ended up sending the radiator fan and shroud back. I exchanged them for a dual fan setup. Tons of clearance now.
I cut and fit an upper radiator hose. I started working on the lower hose but was having trouble getting anything to fit. I decided to just order a swivel thermostat housing and make my life easier. I cut up two different lower hoses trying to get them to fit the stock set up. But I should be able to use one of them once the swivel neck arrives.
Steering shaft is painted and installed, of course I scratched it....ill touch that up later. I will probably wait for warmer weather before I paint the steering column.
Worked on the gas tank mounting a little. Rear crossmember is swapped out for a K5 gas tank crossmember. The front one is going to require some mods. So far we just cut the ends off.
And my brother really came through on the throttle body adapter. He made a template and took it to the local water jet guy he knows and got it blasted out. Then my brother drilled and taped for the throttle body mounting studs. I polished it a little and made the upper gasket and put everything together tonight.
Have to figure out something for the upper adapter. I am thinking I will use a mid 50s cadillac/Oldsmobile air cleaner assembly that I will custom paint to go with the theme.
We held up the one off my brothers truck just to get an idea.
I cut and fit an upper radiator hose. I started working on the lower hose but was having trouble getting anything to fit. I decided to just order a swivel thermostat housing and make my life easier. I cut up two different lower hoses trying to get them to fit the stock set up. But I should be able to use one of them once the swivel neck arrives.
Steering shaft is painted and installed, of course I scratched it....ill touch that up later. I will probably wait for warmer weather before I paint the steering column.
Worked on the gas tank mounting a little. Rear crossmember is swapped out for a K5 gas tank crossmember. The front one is going to require some mods. So far we just cut the ends off.
And my brother really came through on the throttle body adapter. He made a template and took it to the local water jet guy he knows and got it blasted out. Then my brother drilled and taped for the throttle body mounting studs. I polished it a little and made the upper gasket and put everything together tonight.
Have to figure out something for the upper adapter. I am thinking I will use a mid 50s cadillac/Oldsmobile air cleaner assembly that I will custom paint to go with the theme.
We held up the one off my brothers truck just to get an idea.
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beags86
Eastbound and Down
Will you be done with this for iron Invasion? Little further to drive this year...
I sure hope so. October will be here before I know it.
beags86
Eastbound and Down
You heard they moved it to the quad cities, right?
Yeah I did. Much bigger venue. Hopefully people are willing to make the trek. Or new local people go to it. From what I heard, it's two buildings and one of them is the size of all the buildings they used at Woodstock location, combined. So plenty of indoor space in case the weather is terrible, which it is practically everytime lol. I heard part of one building is gonna have some 70s stuff like choppers, custom vans, and street freaks. Which I'm excited for that cause I dig that stuff too.
I looked it up on google maps, the new iron invasion location is actually just a little bit closer than the Vintage Torquefest location, for me at least
Worked on the transmission shifter last night. I had 3 options for shifter in mind. Gennie, American shifter, and Lokar. Gennie was the most expensive. I heard terrible things about American shifters customer support. Lokar was priced in between the 2 and I didn't really hear anything bad about them so that's who I went with. 23" double bend shifter. I'm not super impressed with it but we will see how I like it once I'm driving the truck. The left side mount bracket didn't have the threads cut very well and I had to clean all those up. Their directions on how to position the shift lever on the trans were wrong. And they say you can position the shifter anywhere on the top mount. I had to move it almost all the way forward because the shift handle was hitting the bench seat in 1st gear. With it this far forward, the shifter rod linkage hits the input speed sensor. We made an S bend in the linkage so that it would clear the sensor. Then we realized the shift lever on the trans was in the wrong position (thanks instructions) and it would bind up. Re positioned the shift lever and now the linkage is too short. So I will go to the hardware store soon and buy more threaded rod.
After we set everything up, I went ahead and grabbed the trans tunnel cover. By some miracle, it actually fits right over the hole for the factory 4 speed trans.
The swivel water neck I ordered showed up last night too. I didn't have time to mess around with that. I cleaned up my cuts to the passenger side inner fender. I need to cut the other driver side inner fender I have. The one on the truck was the rusty one and I was just doing it for mock up. Once the pair of inner fenders are all trimmed how I like, I think I will take those and the radiator support to go get sandblasted and then I'll prime and paint them
After we set everything up, I went ahead and grabbed the trans tunnel cover. By some miracle, it actually fits right over the hole for the factory 4 speed trans.
The swivel water neck I ordered showed up last night too. I didn't have time to mess around with that. I cleaned up my cuts to the passenger side inner fender. I need to cut the other driver side inner fender I have. The one on the truck was the rusty one and I was just doing it for mock up. Once the pair of inner fenders are all trimmed how I like, I think I will take those and the radiator support to go get sandblasted and then I'll prime and paint them
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Got some work done during lock down.
The throttle pedal is mounted.
Got a pair of exhaust head pipes from CPP. They fit real nice in the chassis.
Cut the ends of the frame off and drilled and bolted up the bumper bracket adapters from EZ Chassis swaps.
I got the radiator support and inner fenders sandblasted. The weather hasnt been cooperating so its been a real pain to get them primed and painted.
Here's my attempt at blocking the wind.
The hooks in my garage are quite useful.
I got the steering column painted too.
My brother also really came through and he got the front crossmember for the gas tank modified to fit in the frame. I still need to drill the mounting holes and then clean it up & paint it.
And here's another shot of the radiator. Once the weather cooperates again, I will spray the insides of the inner fenders with truck bed liner and then I can start mounting the front sheet metal back on the truck
The throttle pedal is mounted.
Got a pair of exhaust head pipes from CPP. They fit real nice in the chassis.
Cut the ends of the frame off and drilled and bolted up the bumper bracket adapters from EZ Chassis swaps.
I got the radiator support and inner fenders sandblasted. The weather hasnt been cooperating so its been a real pain to get them primed and painted.
Here's my attempt at blocking the wind.
The hooks in my garage are quite useful.
I got the steering column painted too.
My brother also really came through and he got the front crossmember for the gas tank modified to fit in the frame. I still need to drill the mounting holes and then clean it up & paint it.
And here's another shot of the radiator. Once the weather cooperates again, I will spray the insides of the inner fenders with truck bed liner and then I can start mounting the front sheet metal back on the truck
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It's looking nice! I bet you are excited.
Is that a Champion Radiator?
Superior Radiator out of Michigan
I would say that real custom tuning can't be done in a single day by definition. You have to hit 200 degree underhood temps, -40F cold starts, low and high altitude and every load/RPM combination possible, figure out the right transient adders from MAP/MAF etc. Now when you start with some stock LS file, a ton of that work has already been done by the professional engineers, so you only have to account for what you've changed from the stock setup. But in some circumstances people are quick to consider tuning to just be tweak the fuel and spark tables, which is a lot easier than tuning all of the MAP/MAF/temp transient stuff. Granted, a summer cruiser is easier to get running acceptably than a year-round multi-purpose DD.
CUCV2
5/4 ton fun
I have a 59 GMC that is getting an LS swap as well and have a couple of questions. Was there a specific reason you chose the ICT belt bracket kit that you did? Also, why did you go with the electric fans over the traditional fan? Thanks in advance for the insight.
I chose the bracket kit because I thought the factory brackets were ugly. I stayed with factory locations as I figured that would make things easier down the road.
On my setup, I would have never fit the factory clutch fan. The combination of Tejas engine mounts and EZ Chassis swap frame brackets means there isn't a whole lot of room between the engine and radiator.
If you are staying with the factory frame on your 59, then you will probably have more radiator clearance than I have
