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The Shop Truck

1971 Chevy C20 with a custom flat bed.
Overview Gallery Discussion
Today I decided to get the intake manifold bolted down for good. We had decided to run a coolant pressure sensor since we'll be pushing this engine a bit harder. I modified the steam port setup and installed it at the back of the engine.
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I tried to drop the intake manifold in and realized it was hitting the pressure sensor, so this was attempt #2.
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Everything cleared with that setup so we moved on to the fuel rails. I was fairly determined to make my LS1 length injectors work so I didn't have to buy new ones, this is what we came up with.
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I cut the mounting tab off of the ones that came with the kit so I didn't have to try to recreate that bend angle and bolt hole location (I tried once, screwed it up and the steel cracked anyways).
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We made another set for the other side, painted them, and installed everything.
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The adapters I bought for the intercooler coolant temp sensors put the fittings too close to the fuel rails so I'll have to add some 90° fittings in there.
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The fuel rails are a tight fit, but everything clears.
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It checked all the boxes for what I was trying to accomplish at this time, also if I decide to upgrade to the 3.8L supercharger in the future, it will bolt right up and I won't need to change anything else. I like the way it looks and I've seen the performance they get out of them on the YouTube channels I watch so I'm confident that it will work for me.
 
r3dd0g said:
It checked all the boxes for what I was trying to accomplish at this time, also if I decide to upgrade to the 3.8L supercharger in the future, it will bolt right up and I won't need to change anything else. I like the way it looks and I've seen the performance they get out of them on the YouTube channels I watch so I'm confident that it will work for me.
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Luckily for me I'm only looking for around 500 to the wheel and maybe a max of 7psi because that's my favorite number.
 
I was at 500RWHP NA, I'm looking to be at 1000hp with the small pulley. I'll also be retaining the nitrous to sprinkle a little extra on top as well as cool the intake charge. I'm excited to see what it does on the dyno and even more excited to get it back to the track.
I'm unfortunately not going to get any cool weather runs in, so I'll have to do some tuning on the practice day for Michigan Miles. That's not a super competitive event, the only helmet is for the fastest average which I won't be anywhere near. The trophy I signed up for was fastest truck, but that won't be me either. For me it's just entering, having fun, and completing the event. If we love it, a dedicated drag and drive vehicle will get built and this engine will move there.
 
Having fun is all I will be in for obviously. I still kick myself for not entering Sick Smokies on day zero, when it was offered to me. But I had been gone a week already and was ready to be back home.
 
ktmoutfront said:
Having fun is all I will be in for obviously. I still kick myself for not entering Sick Smokies on day zero, when it was offered to me. But I had been gone a week already and was ready to be back home.
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Sick Smokies is definitely way up on my to do list. The footage and pictures from that event are epic.
 
I took it easy today, I've been going non-stop for a couple weeks now and my shoulder is pretty pissed off at me. I got the replacement tensioner from Wegner today, installed it and had the same issue. I swapped tensioners again to make sure I didn't get them mixed up before, same issue. I pulled the pulley off and was able to get the tensioner to move by prying against a waterpump bolt. I reinstalled the pulley torquing it to 36ft-lbs per the Wegner instructions and did some testing.
The tensioner doesn't have a square hole for tensioning, you have to use the bolt that holds the pulley on, I grabbed my digital torque wrench and started turning, it finally moved at 46ft-lbs taking about 55ft-lbs to move it full travel. I swapped the "new" tensioner back on and tested it, it took 41ft-lbs to move it and just over 50ft-lbs for full travel.
That just seems like excessive torque on a cast aluminum part with a M10x1.5 10.9 bolt. I sent the info to Wegner and I'm waiting to hear back from them.

I also heard back from Whipple and I have a tracking number for the other o-ring they forgot.
 
This will be the last update until next week most likely. We're heading out to somewhere cooler for a 4 day weekend. It's supposed to be 107 here already :(.
I finally had everything I needed to bolt the blower to the intake! I also got some fittings I needed to mount the fuel pressure regulator in its new home. I think it looks a lot cleaner this way and it's 1 less hose I need to make! I also made a new boost reference line for the regulator.
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The belt is barely long enough to get around the trim piece on the alternator, I may have to pop that off when I do the belt, it's just a press fit into the front of the pulley with an o-ring in a slot. I still need to swap the alternator too, but I wanted to see it with the belts on.
I need to make a new line for the FPR return, it will just go right into the passenger frame rail between the head and the accessories, you can see I have a fitting screwed on for mock up.
 
We're back, it was nice to take a break, but it's also nice to be back in the shop. It was more wiring today, I mapped out all the ECU connections while we were camping so I'm trying to tackle that this week. The only exciting thing to take a picture of was the SmoothBoost controller.
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This will allow me to control the boost by manually controlling the bypass valve. I'll be bypassing 100% during the break in period, so I wanted to get it hooked up right away.
 
More wiring today! So much fun... I got quite a bit done today, I had to add to my center console accessory panel for the Smooth Boost controller and PWM module.
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The panel is at capacity again, all fuse locations and relays are being used...
I'm about done adding circuits to the ECU, I have 23 custom inputs and 16 custom outputs that I've added.
 
Thanks, I'm just being extra careful on everything I'm doing. I'll probably be doing around 150mph in the 1/4 on full tilt in this truck, so I don't want any issues.
 
I'm really getting sick of wiring. I got a few things done with the wiring this morning and took another break to work on something else. I'm cleaning up the paint on the fenders so I can get them reinstalled. Here's the before shot of the drivers side:
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Unfortunately I ruined both sanding pads I had that went between the sander and sand paper (didn't like wet sanding) so I had to stop because I kept cutting through the OG paint. I'll have a bunch more tomorrow morning so I can finish this fender up at least. It's already looking way better though, it's actually blue!
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My elbow and shoulder were pissed off after all the sanding yesterday so I took a break from the Shop Truck. Of course taking a break doesn't mean I get a break, I had to pull the turbo on the motorhome to get it rebuilt. I suddenly started having a ton of blowby on the CAT C7 and I think its being caused by the exhaust brake and a bad oil seal on the turbo. I also worked on the camping trailer. I've got to be able to go camping whenever I get the urge, so I don't want both rigs down at the same time.
 
Race cars are built to be easy to work on, I am a slave to my stuff because I don't trust anyone else to work on it. Not only that, I couldn't afford the cool toys I have if I didn't do the majority of the work myself.

Now, on to MORE WIRING.... We crossed a major milestone today, we finished the last firewall pass through for wiring. The firewall billet grommet I had and already put rivnuts in the firewall for wasn't big enough. No problem, I own a die grinder and a router! Here's the new and improved too many consonants and not enough vowels Chinesium billet grommet. (I just realized the glare makes it impossible to read the name, but it's FQRANBO)
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Here it is installed.
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For reference, this is what the pass through/grommet looked like originally.
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You still running a terminator? Or did you go dominator?
Looking at that pic it looks like your running a LOT of inputs lol.
Couldn't remember if the terminator handled that many..
 
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