The Shop Truck

[Fastereddie]

Getting the dash bezel installed was a bit more difficult than it should have been.

It's a Holley part (553-419) made by Classic Dash, but honestly I can't find a single review of it on any websites. The whole thing is a bit too small (about 1/4" between the headlights and wipers), I had to drill out the holes to fit and now the chrome trim rings won't fit in the recessed areas. It came with nice black screws to match, however those were too short. Most of the screw holes are somewhat close to where they should be, but you do have to put the screws in at an angle.

I'll probably contact Holley or Classic Dash about it, I'm guessing when they made the mold they didn't accommodate for the shrinkage of the part when it cooled.

Well, if it’s any consolation, it looks good in the pics!

 

[Babaganoosh]

My dash fit the same way in the 82, it's not perfect but it's close enough for me.

 

[ktmoutfront]

Well, if it’s any consolation, it looks good in the pics!

I agree.

I can't see the issue from my house.

 

[r3dd0g]

I think if I ever do this again I'll do an unterminated wiring harness. I feel like whoever put this harness together had never seen an LS based engine before. I have the choice of leaving a ton of wiring just hanging everywhere or tearing it apart and shortening some of the wires.

For instance the cam position sensor connector (rear of the engine) comes out in the same place as the TPS (front of engine) and you can't have them both plugged in at the same time without doing some modifications...

 

[Babaganoosh]

I think if I ever do this again I'll do an unterminated wiring harness. I feel like whoever put this harness together had never seen an LS based engine before. I have the choice of leaving a ton of wiring just hanging everywhere or tearing it apart and shortening some of the wires.

For instance the cam position sensor connector (rear of the engine) comes out in the same place as the TPS (front of engine) and you can't have them both plugged in at the same time without doing some modifications...

Do you have a 58x wiring harness on a 24x gen 3 ls? That could be why. It would explain why the knock sensors are on the side of the block vs under the intake. Also watch the wiring for the cam sensor and crank sensor.

 

[r3dd0g]

So I bought this setup a long time ago (Christmas 2019) from EFISystemPro.com. I talked to the guy and he worked out a deal where I ordered the HP setup that comes with all the wiring, then upgraded the ECU to the Dominator. The HP is not available for the 24x stuff so that's definitely the issue. Now to figure out what else I have to change to make this work, I'm assuming the crank position sensor plug is going to be different...

I really wish he would have explained that to me when I ordered it, but at least I know what the issue is now.

Thanks Ben!

 

[Babaganoosh]

So I bought this setup a long time ago (Christmas 2019) from EFISystemPro.com. I talked to the guy and he worked out a deal where I ordered the HP setup that comes with all the wiring, then upgraded the ECU to the Dominator. The HP is not available for the 24x stuff so that's definitely the issue. Now to figure out what else I have to change to make this work, I'm assuming the crank position sensor plug is going to be different...

I really wish he would have explained that to me when I ordered it, but at least I know what the issue is now.

Thanks Ben!

No problem, sorry I didn’t catch it earlier when you were posting.

 

[r3dd0g]

After getting the dash set up we drilled a hole in the firewall and started running the wiring harness. It didn't fit, and half of the connectors were in the wrong place.

Thankfully Ben pointed out that maybe I had the wrong harness (Gen IV/V LS vs Gen III). After doing some research I figured out that he was correct. Thankfully it's not a huge deal, I had already relocated my knock sensors and I redid the wiring harness so that everything was where it needs to be. I still need to flip the A and C wires on the cam and crank sensor connectors and I ordered the correct knock sensors. When I bought the kit they had a bundle with the HP ECU, I had purchased that and upgraded to the Dominator ECU and saved a bunch of money on the wiring so the extra work is worth it. It will also make it so I can switch back and forth between the different engine types easily if I ever need to.

Here's a shot of the cleaned up wiring harness.

I also took a picture of the main issue with my dash. Since it seems like the whole thing is just a little bit too small the holes for the wiper and light switch are off center and the trim ring can't be installed.

Other than that, the dash looks great.

 

[70jimmy]

I've never seen that beam you used to hang the engine. That's gotta be pretty handy when you're making custom engine mounts.

That does look pretty easy to use, might have to get one of those!

 

[r3dd0g]

We made good progress today. The main part of the wiring is all finished up, we created a base tune, updated the ECU and screen and pushed the tune to the ECU.

The depinning tool showed up a few minutes ago so tomorrow morning we'll be fixing the crank and cam sensor wiring and attempting a first start!

 

[r3dd0g]

It ran and drove today! After correcting the wiring on the cam position sensor and swapping out the connector on the crank position sensor it fired right up.

We took it for a short drive, it keeps running better the more we drive it so the self learning seems to be functional.

There's still a list of things that need done, I'm waiting on some tools/parts to add some inputs/outputs for the speed sensor on the trans, fan control, A/C input and a handful of other things.

I'm just running the base tune from Holley for a 6.0 truck engine so I'm sure I can add some timing and get more power out of it, but I'm not worried about that for now. I just want it to be reliable, it's already got way more power than the old 350 I pulled out.

 

[miniwally]

That's awesome, I know this has been a long time coming for you.

I've been doing a bit of my own 6.0 work lately and have the Blue truck you drove this summer down to only the Brake/antilock brake light warnings on. New BCM and Knock sensors cured most of the trucks issues. It's the boys daily now.

 

[r3dd0g]

That's awesome, I know this has been a long time coming for you.

I've been doing a bit of my own 6.0 work lately and have the Blue truck you drove this summer down to only the Brake/antilock brake light warnings on. New BCM and Knock sensors cured most of the trucks issues. It's the boys daily now.

It was a spur of the moment decision to work on it when our camping plans got screwed up due to the weather. It will be nice to have a regular truck again, both my other trucks have too much stuff mounted permanently in the bed and don't do regular "truck" things very well.

 

[Babaganoosh]

Soooo when’s the hair dryer go on?

 

[r3dd0g]

That will probably be a while. I want to get all the bugs worked out before I start adding power.

 

[r3dd0g]

Just as an update, we took the truck for a short drive to dinner last night, it drove great, no issues. This truck used to be named the "never fails to fail" truck and I'm hoping to get away from that now that the sniper is gone.

 

[r3dd0g]

We've been working on the truck while actually being able to drive it around and use it as well. I've probably put a couple hundred miles on it with no issues so far!

On the ECU side I got the TCC lockup working which is nice on the highway. I've been working on my "gauge cluster" on the Holley dash, this is what I've got so far.

I actually had to return the original dash and replace it, the GPS was not functioning in it at all and it wouldn't power up after it set overnight for some reason. I contacted Holley and they just told me to return it and buy a new one. The new one has been flawless so far.

For creature comforts we installed new drop seatbelts and a center console that also covers the Dominator and wiring.

I have insulation (sound and heat) and I have a vinyl floor mat on order. That should be a huge improvement on the road once I get those installed (along with the body mounts I ordered).

 

[r3dd0g]

It's been a few months so I figured it's time for an update! We've been trying to make the truck nicer to drive so we started working on the interior.

Step one was to tackle some cancer on the A pillar by the lower hinge. I think at some point in this trucks life it was left with the windows open parked outside for an extended period. There's quite a bit of rust damage on both sides at the base of the A pillar.

I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to be able to see through that...

I figured that added most of the strength back (the door was sagging before) the rest of the rust just got a coat of rust converter.

The drivers side rusted in a different spot but still needed some repair.

I didn't get any pictures of the repair on that channel, I used a 3/4" square tube, cut the top off of it, cut out the cancer and welded the tube in its place. The rest was coated with more rust converter and black rustolium.

Once the majority of the holes were welded up (There was a ridiculous amount of holes drilled through the floor on top of the rust) we started with the sound/heat insulation.

Then the jute pad.

The last step was the vinyl "carpet", new sill plates and door seals.

While I had the interior out I modified the seat mound and made a center console for the shifter, switches, brake controller and whatever else I decide to put there in the future.

The A/C should be able to keep up much better now! Good thing because we just broke the record for most consecutive days over 110F in Arizona.

 

[r3dd0g]

We took it to dinner last night, it's so much quieter to drive now and the A/C was def working better.

Unfortunately the fans that came with that radiator aren't keeping up. I have some brushless 16" fans on order but it says 4-6 week lead time .

 

[r3dd0g]

Well, apparently I never updated this thread about the new fans, so sorry for that. I received the new fans from Delta PAG and got to work installing them and getting them hooked up to my ECU. They're the same size as the fans that came with my radiator/shroud setup so I just modified the shroud for the new fans.

They are controlled via PWM from the Holley Dominator and work fantastic! They also get input from a trinary switch I installed on the A/C that monitors compressor discharge pressure to kick the fans on when pressure is too high.

So far, I'm very happy with the fans, hopefully they last because lead time was quite long.