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The Shop Truck

1971 Chevy C20 with a custom flat bed.
Overview Gallery Discussion
Well, in a big surprise to nobody, this isn't going to be a bolt in solution. The pickup tube is beautiful, the pan has more clearance to the crossmember than the old pan, now if only it was all designed to work with a Dart block and a Dart windage tray.
With the pickup tube bolted down to the windage tray mounts it can't bolt up to the oil pump (just barely). I measured the pickup tube and the pan and realized that they were the same measurement (not counting 1/8" for the gasket). On top of that, the oil pan hits the windage tray at the front and back. Even if I tossed the windage tray, I don't have the mounts to correctly position the pickup tube, I'm pretty sure it's designed to work with a factory style windage tray.
Tomorrow, the windage tray will get quite a bit of trimming and I will move the pickup tube mounts 1/4" to give me the 3/8" clearance to the bottom of the pan that I need. I did mock everything up and order the parts I think I'll need to get this all plumbed up, it should all be here tomorrow.
 
r3dd0g said:
Well, in a big surprise to nobody, this isn't going to be a bolt in solution. The pickup tube is beautiful, the pan has more clearance to the crossmember than the old pan, now if only it was all designed to work with a Dart block and a Dart windage tray.
With the pickup tube bolted down to the windage tray mounts it can't bolt up to the oil pump (just barely). I measured the pickup tube and the pan and realized that they were the same measurement (not counting 1/8" for the gasket). On top of that, the oil pan hits the windage tray at the front and back. Even if I tossed the windage tray, I don't have the mounts to correctly position the pickup tube, I'm pretty sure it's designed to work with a factory style windage tray.
Tomorrow, the windage tray will get quite a bit of trimming and I will move the pickup tube mounts 1/4" to give me the 3/8" clearance to the bottom of the pan that I need. I did mock everything up and order the parts I think I'll need to get this all plumbed up, it should all be here tomorrow.
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It’s just more money… this has to be the most expensive project you have done. I thought drag racing was going to be cheaper. :haha:
 
Babaganoosh said:
It’s just more money… this has to be the most expensive project you have done. I thought drag racing was going to be cheaper. :haha:
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The engine is definitely the most expensive engine I've ever built, but the rest of the truck isn't that crazy. The engine and transmission will likely go into something much faster once I build/buy a new chassis. I bought way too much engine for this truck and should have started with something cheaper to learn on. I've always wanted to build a crazy engine like this, so we went all out.
 
The pan is on now, I had to modify the pickup tube mounts and cut a bunch off the windage tray to clear the pan and pickup. I wish the pan was about 1/4-1/2" deeper in the front, it would have simplified the process greatly. This pan has way more clearance than the other one I was using. Tomorrow, we'll start working on the oil filter mount, oil cooler mounting, and running all the hoses. I have all the fittings I need and I'm just going to make my own lines for now. Once I figure out how long they need to be, I'll order some nice crimped ones and keep the ones I make as spares.
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I had to clock the starter to clear the pan, luckily the starter I had could do that, so I didn't need to buy a new one.
 
Brent now that you have a couple hundred miles on the engine do you think the “break in” caused the excessive heat, and maybe it will settle down now? I know Ive seen that in the past with multiple new engines. Just a thought.
Also any thoughts to running E-85… the real stuff, not the 50%-85% they sell at the E-85 pumps.
 
I'm not sure about break in heat. I don't recall having any issues with that last time, however it was winter/spring when I got it running on this engine the first time.
It's fully set up for E-85, I have a flex fuel sensor in it and it has the old tune info info in it still. The tuner wants me to bring it in with 5-10 gallons of 91 octane (that's all we get here), he tunes on that, drains it and puts in e100 race fuel to finish the tune. I have a gas station about 5 miles away that's run by a car enthusiast. He has 100 octane and E85 (always tests at 85%) at the pump. He used to sell E90-95, but got in trouble so now he sticks to 85%.
 
r3dd0g said:
I'm not sure about break in heat. I don't recall having any issues with that last time, however it was winter/spring when I got it running on this engine the first time.
It's fully set up for E-85, I have a flex fuel sensor in it and it has the old tune info info in it still. The tuner wants me to bring it in with 5-10 gallons of 91 octane (that's all we get here), he tunes on that, drains it and puts in e100 race fuel to finish the tune. I have a gas station about 5 miles away that's run by a car enthusiast. He has 100 octane and E85 (always tests at 85%) at the pump. He used to sell E90-95, but got in trouble so now he sticks to 85%.
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I should move back to east valley, the car stuff was so much closer.
 
Today, we planned out all the hose routing, and fittings we'd need and got those ordered for delivery tomorrow morning. Once we figured all that out, we started working on the mount for the oil cooler. I'm putting it under the drivers side outboard of the frame just like I did with the trans cooler. It's not an ideal location, but the tranny cooler works great there, so this should be good too.
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We still need to drill mounting holes in it and the frame tomorrow, but that shouldn't take too long. These hoses are going to add a couple more quarts of oil. I'm not sure what my total capacity is going to be at when I'm done, but likely over 10 quarts.
 
Well, we're off to a bad start today. All of our orders were delivered, but one of the parts doesn't match the description. I didn't catch that the improved racing remote oil filter mount that I bought didn't come with an oil filter adapter. It's M22x1.5, the same pitch as I need for the oil filter, but I can't find a factory application for that and I could only find the part on Summit yesterday. The one I ordered from Amazon said it was M22x1.5, but it's the factory style one that's either M20 or whatever the standard size was on one end and M22x1.5 on the oil filter side.

The only one I can find is the one from Improved Racing and I can't find anywhere local that stocks it.
 
I think I can make the factory one work, I had one of the S-10 filters laying around and it's the right thread pitch. If I make a spacer to go under the nut on the adapter, I can make this work short term. I'll get the right part ordered and installed when I swap all the lines for crimped ones.
 
I got quite a bit done in the last couple days, but I haven't been able to post pictures because my hosting site is having issues. I don't like hosting them here, because only paid members can see them. It seems to be fixed now, so here we go.
We got the oil cooler mounted up on Sunday, I used bulkhead fittings to get the hose runs through the frame.
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Once we finished that, we started working on the oil filter mount. We were both pretty wiped out so I had it tacked together by the end of the day, but didn't finish welding it until yesterday. I made this one out of aluminum, just for practice. Both mounts are way overbuilt and I'm pretty sure I can hang off of either of them. I know I've put at least 100lbs of weight on them and they don't even flex.
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This got mounted to the front crossmember under the power steering pump. I needed to get the hoses into the frame rail and keep them as far away from the headers as possible, so that's how I ran it.
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Both frame rails now have a mix of 10AN and 12AN hoses running the length of the truck. We ordered some Heatshield Armor to protect the hoses from the exhaust, along with the correct filter adapter. They should be here Wednesday.
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I had to use banjo style ORB adapters to avoid the headers. They're really close to where the oil filter normally would be. It's a dark picture, but I'm looking up on the drivers side at the oil fitting adapter on the new pan. The hoses are routed forward to the oil filter.
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It's going to be pretty hard to get to the front fitting on the block now, but that's really the best place for me to prime the system. It's going to take a lot more oil to prime it this time.
 
I didn't get much done today, but I figured out how I can prime the system. I ordered the parts I need to make it happen, they'll be here in the morning.
Once I was done messing with that, I worked on the cooling stack some more. I notched the upper mounting holes for the intercooler heat exchanger so it could lean back another 1/4" to even out the spacing top to bottom with the radiator. With that sorted, I installed the old fan back onto the condenser and mounted it up. I had to clearance the center grill/hood latch bracket some more to clear the fan, painted and bolted everything up.
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I still need to wire it up, I'm torn on whether I want to steal the PWM signal for the main fans (since I'm just running them at full speed anyways) to trigger the MSD SSR box and soft start the fan, or if I just want to run a new wire or even just wire the trinary switch straight up to the MSD box like it was before. I'll finish it up tomorrow.
I bought some 3" exhaust cutouts that I was hoping I could run off the Holley, but they have a 3 wire motor that is 12V, ground, and signal, so unless I can figure out what that signal needs to be, I'll have to use the stupid wireless box to trigger it.
 
I know it shouldn't make a difference. But the temperature thing ....

The only other change made, was how the steam ports were done. :dunno:
I believe.yoirs is right after the pump on the output line isn't it?
Any other ports on the rad you could temp run it to or something?
Or add a short line and T to a heater hose...?

Just spitballin cause it's weird.

And , because I've done it, but caught it before it was filled.
Any chance a rag or plug to keep crap out / fluid in, was left in a coolant line?
I left a rag in a hose once a long time ago, and remembered as I was filling the system.
Which is why I ask lol.
 
Prior to this, the steam ports were hooked up to the radiator tank right next to the same hose. I don't think there is going to be a significant difference moving it 12" further down the same hose.
The truck cools great when it's moving now, it's only when it's stopped that there is a problem. The "spare" pump I ordered from Wegner just showed up, if I'm still having cooling problems I'll swap it out, but I don't think that's the problem. Now that I have a coolant pressure sensor, I can see the pressure raise somewhat with RPM which would indicate that the pump is working.
If cooling is still an issue, I will be swapping the old fans back on first to test, then I'll be swapping the water pump.
 
What kind of pressure are you seeing in the coolant system? Curious how that works. I know it’s below the rated cap but when I boost mine I will be adding a sensor in.
 
I've got it on a steam port at the back of the engine, I've seen up to 30psi, way above cap pressure.
 
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