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87 Ram 50 Engine Swap
I’ve been working on this for the last couple of months and figured I post a build thread.
This started out as my daughters’ first vehicle. To make a long story short, the engine went out and I ended up with it when we got her another vehicle. It’s been sitting in the back shed for the last 10 years or so.
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The truck was really straight and rust free, so I figured it would be a good candidate to put back on the road. The grandkids thought it was a good idea too…..especially Cade! With the seat all the way up and the steering wheel all the way down, he can reach the pedals and see over the steering wheel.
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I’d originally planned about putting a SB Mopar in it but after looking at some similar swaps it became evident that the factory AC would have to be eliminated so the radiator could be moved in front of the core support where the condenser sits. A SBC with the short water pump is at least 3 inches shorter and I figured with a bit of work it would probably fit better and let me retain the AC.
I’ll admit that having the fresh 283 that my grandson and I built last year sitting around also was a factor. Although I like my Tri Powers, It really doesn’t look right to me in something this new, so off it came along with the Mallory dual point and on went an old Offenhauser Dual Port, and a stock distributor converted to electronic with a Pertronix kit.
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The dual port is kind of an odd ball intake that was designed in the early 70’s (Gas crisis time). The primaries feed thru the lower ports and the secondaries thru the upper ports.
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There is/was a lot of mixed reaction to these intakes, people either seemed to love or hate them. The results I’ve looked at seem to indicate they worked pretty well with smaller displacement engines but were too restrictive when the cubic inches went up. It’s just odd ball enough for me to be curious so I figured I’d give it a try.
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So out came the 4 banger and 5 speed.
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The rear end has 3.91 gears so putting an overdrive transmission back into it was pretty much required. I considered a TH 200 4R, but decided on a T5 out of an S10. The truck used a cable operated clutch so instead of re-inventing the wheel for clutch linkage, I dug up a V8 Monza bellhousing which as far as I know is the only one Chevrolet made for a cable clutch.
The engine fits the engine compartment pretty well, but the original 5 speed and bell housing and the transmission tunnel it fit are considerably smaller than the “new” T5. I’m still tweaking the tunnel and firewall before I build the mounts.
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I got sidetracked a bit from the engine and transmission fitment with the gauge cluster which led being side tracked by the fuel system. The original gauge cluster was actually pretty nice and I originally had no intention of doing anything with it. It would be nice to have an oil pressure and volt gauge along with a tach, but I figures I could add those on later.
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The T5 I had picked up was set up for an electronic speedometer and the original plan was to replace the tail housing with an early style one designed for a mechanical cable. After not being able to come up with a cable style speedometer tail housing, it hit me that I could kill 2 birds with one stone by buying an electronic speedometer and building a custom gauge cluster. Besides keeping all the gauges I wanted in the cluster, it got me out of having to make a custom speedometer cable. After years of calibrating speedometers with a couple of road tests then changing out drive and driven gears in the transmission, the idea of setting the speedometer by just pressing a button is kind of appealing too.
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When I had the truck up in the air I decided to go ahead and drop the fuel tank so I could trace the sending unit wire for the new gauge cluster. I would also give me a chance to check the sending unit.
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With the tank out, I found out 3 things.
1. I really wish I had drained the tank 10 years ago when I put the truck in storage. The gas had turned to varnish.
2. The original sending unit was junk and no longer available.
3. In spite of how large it looks, it only holds 13 gallons.
I’ve got the tank cleaned out now, but what a PIA. I’ve had good luck soaking tanks with Acetone in the past and that’s what I used this time….but wow has the price gone up on that since I bought it the last time.
The sending unit was not a big deal as I had a couple of new universal ones on the shelf. Fortunately the tank uses a sending unit that is separate from the fuel pickup and the universal fit with just a couple of little mods.
The 13 Gallon capacity bothered me a bit as I will likely take the truck on long trips. I’ve seen a few truck builds where people have used first/second generation Mustang tanks mounted under the bed behind the axel. I happened to have 58 Chevrolet tank in the back I had set aside years ago. It’s a little dirty on the outside, but absolutely perfect (and clean) on the inside, it also holds 20 gallons. It will be close but it looks like it should fit under the bed (I’ll probably have the fill neck come out behind the license plate).
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I had to buy a new sending unit for the 58 tank which was reasonably priced, but the sender itself was not compatible with aftermarket gauge. Fortunately it was actually pretty simple to change the sender out to the new pickup.
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Between the 2 tanks I’ll have 33 gallons of fuel. I’ll be using electric switch valves and with a DPDT switch I’ll be able to switch the tanks over and have the gauge read from which ever tank I’m currently using.
I showed Cade how the switch would be wired yesterday and we bench tested the switch, senders and gauge.
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That should be a cool build and I'm assuming it will become Cade's. Are you going to retain the generator? I'm curious to know how the Offy works out, I still have the 360º I had on the 400, found a Ford version for the 289 in the Mustang and also have a dual quad version that might go on the Vette.
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Another very cool build thread, Mike. I admire that you're not only getting Cade and the girls interested in the details, and hands on experience, but also instilling in them how to attack a problem and solve it with solid thinking, planning and execution. You're a grandpa to be admired for sure.
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"....That should be a cool build and I'm assuming it will become Cade's......"
Maybe someday. I'm planning on driving for quite a while (but quite possibly it will be what Cade learns to drive a stick with). My daughter (Cade's mom) is actually my step-daughter, she inherited the truck from her real dad. One of the reasons I think I kept it around all this time is because of her history with it. When I'm ready to let it go it will go back to her. She is probably the one most excited to see it back on the road. I'm giving her a lot of input on the changes I'm making on this build.....personally I think I would have gone with the TH200 R4, but she really wanted it to remain a 5 speed. I suspect Cade might eventually end up with it but I think he's in for a long wait.
The generator will be replaced with an alternator.....I just haven't gotten around to that yet. The re-pop Corvette manifolds look like they’ll clear with no problems.
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You might notice there are bosses on both sides which will actually work out pretty nice it think. The D50s alternator was on the right side and AC compressor on the left. I’ll move the alternator to the right and use the left side as the mounting point to the compressor which will save having to reroute the alternator wiring and AC plumbing.
I’m curious about the intake too. On the stand I can already tell that it has cleaned up the idle quite a bit over the single plane Tri Power setup.
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Just one more question. Are you changing the refrigerant over to R134?
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".....Just one more question. Are you changing the refrigerant over to R134?...."
Probably. For the last several years I'd been using "Freeze 12" which was a drop in replacement for the R12. Unfortunately that has gotten almost impossible to find and expensive when you do find it. I re-did my wifes El Camino to R134 last year due to cost and availability and unless I can find a good deal on R12 or Freeze 12 I'll end up using the R134 in this one too. On a side note, even after sitting for the last 10 years, the AC system was still holding pressure on the little truck.
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I just checked at Amazon and they have a 30lb jug of Freeze 12 by Johnsen's for $172.95 and free shipping which figures out to $5.76 a pound.
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Before jumping to R134 be aware that the Nanny Nazis are at it again: Obama’s EPA To Ban R134A- Most Common Refrigerant Used Today
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“…..Before jumping to R134 be aware that the Nanny Nazis are at it again….”
I missed this when you posted it Bob. I had heard/read about this a while back. It just made me wonder what the less efficient, more toxic and expensive replacement is going to be. I’m sure it will also have to have its own specific lubricant, hoses, and seals. Of course they will have to also mandate new refrigerant compliant fittings and gauges, new recovery equipment and so on and so on…..we’ve been here before as I recall.
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Great project again! My mom had an 87 D50 Ram 4x4 that we used to ride around in all the time until she got hit by a semi. That wasn't cool, the semi won for sure. Any how, there is a guy on Competitiondiesel.com that put a pretty sweet 12v 5.9 cummins in one of these, kept it a 4x4 and races it and mud races it. It's pretty sweet. Anyhow, back to your build... :LOL: Do you plan to make the trans tunnel removable to allow easier trans removal later? Nice work on it too.
I'm guessing dupont's patent ran out on the r-134a just like it did with R-12 and then was outlawed. But they already had the magical r134-a ready to take it's place. :LOL:
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Very cool, Mike! That little truck should move pretty good with a 283. It's really clean looking.
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"..... there is a guy on Competitiondiesel.com that put a pretty sweet 12v 5.9 cummins in one of these......"
And I thought I was having challenges making room for the 283!!!!!
I pulled the mockup up motor and transmission out to do some more transmission tunnel massaging. While it was up in the air on stands I decided to go ahead and get the auxiliary gas tank installed.
This is the hole where the spare tire used to live and the home for the “new” tank. The truck will eventually have a bed cover and the spare will be kept in the bed.
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It was a pretty simple matter to add 2 braces to the Ram 50 frame that run the length of the tank at the top like the factory 58 Chevy used. These braces are also what the straps connect to (when I set the tank aside 30 years ago fortunately I also kept the straps). In addition to attaching the braces to the existing crossmember on the frame I welded in an additional crossmember to the frame to provide an additional attaching point for the braces. Unfortunately the picture I took of the braces didn’t turn out and by the time I realized it I already had the tank bolted in.
I remember and miss the old days when we could get good non-ethanol gas and I lived in a bit cooler environment at a lower altitude. I could run a fuel line from the tank to the fuel pump and call it good. After a few times trying to get home with a vapor locking hot rod or hard starts at a gas station due to heat soak, I’ve been adding a fuel return line to just about everything I build.
A lot of the tanks I’ve used didn’t have provisions for the fuel return and I’ve either managed to find a sending unit that had the provision or welded a fitting to the tank. Of course the 58 Chevy tank didn’t have a fuel return line. After looking at this tank, I thought I’d try using a bulkhead fitting rather than weld a fitting to the tank. The only problem was the local hardware store I buy my brass fitting from didn’t have any bulkhead fittings. I had looked on line and found a couple, they were about $15 and would take a week or so to get here.
Being a bit impatient and cheap (something my wife has informed me are not necessarily qualities) when I saw the swamp cooler float assemblies on the shelf the gears started turning and for $5 I figured I could experiment a bit.
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I cut the bulkhead and compression fitting section from the valve. One of the things I’d noticed over the years is that most factory return lines actually extend into the fuel when they return to the tank…….the only reason I can think of is possibly to cut down on aerating the fuel…….I figure the engineers do it for a reason so I extended this one also. All it took was just running a 1/4” drill bit all the way thru the fitting. I doesn’t affect the compression fitting sealing area and only takes a few seconds to do. I even found a couple of fuel resistant gaskets that were the right size in the leftovers from a carb kit. I drilled a hole in the tank and fished the fitting in thru the sending unit hole.
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With all that done it was simply put the tank in place and strap it in. Except for the fresh paint on the straps and new anti-squeak strips it kind of looks like it’s been there all its life. It tucks up nicely into the frame and unless you actually crawl underneath you can’t see it’s there (just as it should be).
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All that’s left now is to cut the hole for the filler neck and add the fold down license plate holder.
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Very cool, nice fit, and great innovation on the fitting, too. It looks factory!
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That came out great.
Swamp Coolers.. I really don't miss cleaning out mine.. or the stain it would leave when it flooded over!:LOL::LOL:
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“…….. That little truck should move pretty good with a 283. It's really clean looking……..”
Yeah. I don’t think the little 283 will have any problem pulling the truck around. I want to run this across the scales when I get it done just to see what it ends up weighing.
I realized I hadn’t posted a decent picture of what the truck looks like yet. It is really solid and straight. I could use a paint job but even as it sits it’s still pretty presentable. My thinking right now is that the paint job may wait a year or two until the grandsons are a bit older and see how they do/like paint and body.
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I finished up the rear tank yesterday. I got the hole cut for the filler neck and could figure out the length for the filler neck. Fortunately a friend of mine had a piece of fuel hose in his “why the hell did I keep this pile” to connect the filler neck pieces together.
Then it was just installing the license plate bracket to finish it up. I glad I went ahead and did this now as it gets one more big part off the floor and out of the way.
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Mike, I'd be curious to see your "behind the bumper" filler neck mods. I did a similar style mod to my '66 F100 using the '68 Mustang style tank. It's a slow-feed when filling up but at only 16 gallons, it doesn't take that long.
I noticed in pics online that the '59-60 Chevy tank is the same size as your '58 but has the filler neck more centered. Sure, most times we use what we have laying around, but for someone else considering this modification, it might be helpful.
That'll be a fun little truck!!! Nice work!:D
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You’re install looks nice and clean Randy. I can’t really get a camera up in there to take a picture of my fill pipe. Basically I just took about a 3 ½” section out of the fill neck and connected the ends back together with hose and clamps. It’s a pretty straight shot onto the tank so it should fill OK. I agree it would have been nicer from an ascetics standpoint if the fill pipe was centered…….I was really wondering if the plate would cover it completely.
I went ahead and installed the now clean original tank…..figured I might as well get that out of the way too as long as the truck is up in the air. I mentioned earlier that the original sending unit was dead and not the right resistance for the new gauge so I’m using an aftermarket sender. I’ve used these a few times in the past and can tell you from personal experience they can be a real PIA to get adjusted properly. After a few tries setting the float and then trying to see where it was with a flashlight thru the pickup assembly hole I figured there had to be a better way to set this up.
After thinking about it a little bit I came up with this idea. I cut the box the sender was shipped in down to the same height as the tank, cut a hole in the top to set the sender in. I marked where the full level was (the line at the top box), and from there it was really simple to adjust and tweak the sender. It should be right on, but I’ll find out when I fill it the first time.
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Seeing how far down the full line is I can now understand why the tank is only rated at 13 Gallons.
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I spent most of the week going thru the rearend in the El Camino so I didn’t get a chance to spend any time on the D50 till yesterday.
I tweaked the transmission tunnel a bit more and set the mockup engine and transmission back in and started on the mounts. I decided to get the transmission mount built first and then move on to the motor mounts.
The trans mount location is about 6” further back and lower than the original mount so some crossmember surgery was needed.
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I cut the original mounting bracket off the front to the crossmember, notched the top and then extended the rear a bit to allow me to get a washer, nut and room for a wrench to tighten everything.
While I was under the truck I also started figuring out how I was going have to run the exhaust. Because of the original gas tank location both exhaust pipes will need to be run down the passenger side of the truck where the original exhaust was. The crossmember was originally designed to allow plenty of clearance for the single 2” pipe to pass over the top but would definitely need some extra room for two 2 1/2” inch pipes although I’m debating on using 2 ¼” (which should be plenty for the 283). So while I had the crossmember out I went ahead and clearanced it a bit more.
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And also on the plus side it gave me a chance to play with the new welder and helmet.
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cool project - Ive got a 95 dak that will be getting a big block Mopar - my winter project - jaxx
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I haven’t been on much in the last couple of months. Once the weather got nice I spent some time doing house stuff; installing and painting new trim boards on the roof, trimming the trees (resulting in about a ½ cord of wood being cut and split for the kids to burn this winter), servicing the swamp coolers, putting new carpet in the family room (that side tracked painting the Franklin stove, redoing the concrete platform it sits on and refinishing the antique liquor cabinet). Now that that’s done I get back to the easy things like stuffing an engine into a truck it was never intended to be in :LOL:
I got started by building the brackets for the alternator and AC compressor. This is just going to be a drivers so I didn’t do anything fancy, just built them with stuff I had on hand.
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It took a while to figure out the sweet spot to set the engine at. I originally had it about an 1 ½" lower…… fortunately before I started building motor mounts I realized that there was going to be an interference problem between the rear spark plug and steering box even with a short header plug. The engine couldn’t go back any further because of the firewall, and going forward would lose clearance on the radiator, that only left going up.
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I had originally intended on using a Delco distributor but even though I can get it in and out and adjust it there is less than 1/32” clearance between it and the firewall, so it looks like I’ll be going with the Mallory Dual point (with Pertronix conversion) after all. With that done I got the motor mounts tacked in. I’ll get some pictures of them when I take the mockup engine out and get them finished.
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It’s going to be close, but I’ll be able to get the radiator and fan in and leave the AC condenser in its original location as I had hoped.
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With any luck I should be able to get some work done on the transmission tunnel over the weekend and start figuring out clutch cable routing.
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Nice work! How's the weather been down your way any how?
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Thanks Ryan. It seems like it's been a bit cooler than usual for this time of year, but it's finally starting to get hot. The monsoon season will probably start in a month or so, then it will be 6-7 hours a week sitting on the lawn mower (yuck).
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We have had an unusual monsoon season here lately. From 12am -7am a lone today we had 3" of rain.
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With the motor and tranny mounts sorted out I pretty much spent the week working on getting the transmission tunnel modified around the bellhousing and transmission. It took a pretty fair amount of time to make sure I not only had room for the transmission and bellhousing but could get to the bolts to remove them for an eventual clutch change.
Although I’d hoped to avoid it I ended up biting the bullet and pulling the dash. Besides not wanting to set the insulation on fire and melting various plastic components when I welded the trans tunnel, I also figured I’d go ahead and put a new heater core in it now rather than wishing I had 6 months after I get this back on the road (and the dash needs to come out to get to the heater box).
Heater cores are still available for these, so that’s not a big deal. So far I haven’t been able to find the odd ball water control valve that is attached (with a short section of hose under the plastic cover) to the upper pipe. Should this valve leak the dash would also have to be removed. Unfortunately the cable that operates the valve also controls some internal doors in the heater box. I’m thinking it should be fairly simple to eliminate the factory valve, add a second cable to the bellcrank the original cable operates and run a more tradition control valve in the heater hoses under the hood.
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I also had to pull the gas pedal and emergency brake assembly to I didn’t have to work around that. While I was setting it in the back of the truck out of the way, it hit me that this would be kind of neat for a hot rod……..then it hit me I still hadn’t sorted out a gas pedal and emergency brake for the 37 Dodge. A quick trip out to the shed to look at the 37 and it’s almost a perfect fit. Drill 4 holes and call those 2 items done. As I know where a couple of these trucks are sitting out in the wrecking yard it looks like a trip out there is in my future once it cools down.
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I’ve still got to get in there with a grinder to knock the welds down and then get some under coating on it but the tunnel is pretty much done.
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Overall not a bad week.
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I've been kicking around different ideas on the clutch on the truck. The original plan was to use a cable clutch. I’ve already got the V8 Monza cable clutch bellhousing and fork and the truck was originally used cable clutch. Now that the engine and trans are mocked up the using the cable presents some problems I hadn’t anticipated……not necessarily show stoppers but it’s going to be a bit more complicated than I originally thought. Anyway I figured it might not be a bad time to look at alternatives.
I came across this kit sold by speedway
Speedway Hydraulic Clutch Pedal Kit, Swing Mount - Speedway Motors, America's Oldest Speed Shop
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I was wondering if anybody here has used this kit before and how they mounted the slave cylinder? Also you had any reliability problems with it.
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I made a bit of progress this week. I got the welds on the transmission tunnel ground down and shot a bit of undercoating on it. I also got the motor mount perches welded in (not real pretty but functional and solid).
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While I have the dash out I went ahead and replaced the brake booster and master cylinder (makes it a bunch easier to get to the booster bolts). The oil pan on the 283 had the drain plug in the front…..right where it would end up draining straight on to the cross member so I changed that out for one that drains from the side and pulled the canister oil filter off and changed over to a spin on filter.
I ended up going with an adapter to get the spacing right on the T5 rather than extending the input shaft splines.
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I had the transmission bolted and unbolted from the mockup engine a couple of times and came to the conclusion that the spacer (that sandwiches between the transmission and bell housing) was a real PIA to keep in place when I stabbed the transmission, and that was with the engine and trans on the floor…..it would be a major pain if/when I have to pull the tranny to put a clutch in it in the vehicle. After looking at it a bit I decided to go ahead and drill a couple of 1/4” holes thru the bellhousing and tap the spacer for 1/4-20 bolts.
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With all that done I got the engine and transmission bolted together for the final time (hopefully) and got it stuffed into the truck.
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It's good to finally start pulling parts out the bed and putting stuff together.
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I got some quality grandpa time in yesterday. Both my grandsons (Cade and Austin) were over. Cade asked if there was anything out in the shop to work on. I had set aside an alternator with a bad regulator for the D50 for just such an occasion. We had gone thru a generator when we first built the 283 so doing an alternator now just seemed like a natural progression.
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About the time we got the alternator back together Austin wandered out to the shop and wanted to help too. I had given him his starter tool box with a few “real tools” (a hand full of spare wrenches, a crescent wrench etc) a couple of months ago. How can you say no to this?
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The second part of the project was to put the alternator on the old HEMI (which is set up for a GM alternator) and test it out. I have a test harness built just to test out alternators. Cade was great showing little brother what had to be done to change out the alternator.
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You should have seen the grins on both boys faces when the old HEMI fired off. We did an output test on the alternator and then it was time to put the original alternator back on the engine. It just doesn’t get any better than seeing my 2 Grandsons wrenching together, especially on an old carbureted HEMI.
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And yes the last picture is my new screen saver.
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Very cool, Mike! And it almost looks like "Christine" watching their progress....
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That's about as good as it can get.
:cool::toocool:
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This was my “ well I’ll be damned” moment of the day.
I decided to get some of the easy odds and ends stuff done today, and among other things I decided to hook up the brake booster. When I was putting the new booster on a couple of days ago I noted there was no check valve in the booster, just a vacuum pipe coming out of it. I just figured the valve was probably screwed in to intake on the original engine. So out to the scrap pile I went and dug out the original intake. No check valve there or in the hose.
I figured if nothing else I'd just install an in line valve (like Volvo uses) but I was curious to find out what the factory did for a check valve so I checked the shop manual. It showed the valve….screwed into the end of the vacuum pipe. Sure enough I checked the old booster (fortunately I hadn’t had to turn it in as a core) and sure enough……
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Yeah I do have too much time on my hands.
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I didn’t get any big stuff done in the last couple of weeks. I did get new heater core and control valve in and the heater box bolted back on the firewall but spent most of the time ordering parts to try to get the 10 pound of crap in a 5 pound bag and waiting on the big brown truck to bring them.
This is one of the tightest swaps that I can remember doing…….
With the engine in I could got measurements for a radiator. I originally ordered a 26” X 16” with two 1” rows. After it came in and I did the first test fit it looks like I can go the next size up and use a 26” X 19” so I’m waiting on that.
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There’s no way a mechanical fan will fit, so it looks like I’ll be going with a 14” electric pusher, Hopefully, that along with the adjustable thermostat and relay will be in next week.
I was hoping to get started on the cable clutch, but to do that I really need to get the head pipes built from the manifolds to make sure I have enough room not to melt the clutch cable housing. The exhaust will run down the passenger side, and it gets tight around the starter. I looked around for something a bit smaller than the original starter…….some of the aftermarket gear reduction starters looked promising, especially the ones that were clockable, but I ended up settling on a mid 90’s GM unit (I used a 96 Camaro with 5.7 for the application) It should give the clearance I need, and I really like the idea of using something that would likely be on a parts store shelf rather than one I have to get mail order.
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I got the starter bolted in yesterday and I’ve got to admit it really spins over the little 283. I which these had been around back in the days when I was doing V8 Vegas.
Even the air cleaner turned into a bit of a issue on this.
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Part of it was I’m using an early small throat AFB, which required an adapter under the air cleaner. I came across an outfit that sales a 14” drop base for the early 4 7/32” throat AFBs so I ordered one of those…….$35 for the air cleaner base or $300 for a new AFB wasn’t a hard decision. I still had to go from a 3” to a 2” tall air filter, but at least the hood closes now.
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Next week looks like more time under the truck getting exhaust built and maybe making the clutch work.....in between the 2 days of mowing the yard and arena and then getting over the allergies that get to me afterward. I sure will be glad when those 2 grandsons of mine get big enough to reach the pedals on the mower and Cade's getting real close :LOL:
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While I was waiting on the larger radiator and electric fans to come in I got the exhaust threaded along the engine and transmission. I brought the driver’s side around under the oil pan and ran both pipes down the passenger side (the clutch cable and gas tank made that necessary). Right now the pipes terminate just past the transmission, I still have to hang mufflers and tail pipes, but that part should be relatively easy.
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The bigger radiator, fans, relay, and thermostat came in and then the real fun began. The dimensions were just a bit bigger than the ad said……just enough that it wouldn’t fit without some major surgery. To get the electric fan to fit would also take some modifications and after looking the fan over I had some real concerns it would move enough air. I did some more measuring and thinking and then bit the bullet and completely re-thought the whole radiator installation. I figured out that rather than moving the radiator in front of the core support as most of the swaps I’ve seen done on these trucks (resulting in losing any room to the AC condenser), I might be able to put the radiator in the core support which is about 3” wide. Out came the cut-off wheel and I enlarged the opening. I really didn’t want to but to get the radiator in I had to remove the entire bottom section.
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After the hole was big enough I tied the bottom of the core support back together with a piece of angle iron (this picture was when I was tacking it in).
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From that point it was pretty simple to make some brackets and mount the radiator.
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With the radiator forward, I tried to get a fixed fan and clutch in, but came up about an inch short. I ended up going with my second choice which is an OEM ford flex fan. I like them a bit better than the aftermarket units because they have a bit more pitch on the blades and they’re a bit stiffer (more rpm to flatten them out) which means they move more air.
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Next on the list was building a fan shroud. I have a bunch of different factory shrouds out in the shed but none were close enough to modify and use. I had an old aftermarket shroud I’d had on another car years ago sitting around, so that was the most logical thing to cut down and use. The chrome was shot, but I planned on sandblasting it off and painting it anyway.
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Rather than use the tabs and thru pins they are normally held on with, I built brackets and made it so the top half of the shroud can be removed for access to the fan and waterpump.
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The next thing was redoing the brackets on the AC condenser to move it forward (it used to sit where the radiator now resides). I’ve still got to run new hoses and install a receiver/dryer, but that will wait till later. For now I’m calling it good.
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With all that done, it still left a couple of issues. Where the radiator sits, the fill neck is level with/slightly below the thermostat. The other problem is the radiator cap is very difficult to remove (and I don’t really want to cut all the way thru the core support top brace). The fill problem is going to be cured by putting an in-line fill neck in the upper radiator hose (it’s on order and should be here Friday), which will be higher than the radiator and thermostat.
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I’m going to run a 20-22 pound cap on the fill neck in the hose and plug the overflow pipe. As I still have to run a radiator cap on the radiator, I installed a 16 pound lever cap on there and that will also connect to the radiator overflow bottle. The lever will let me relieve pressure on the system, and the overflow nipple on the radiator is right next to the overflow bottle eliminating a long overflow hose.
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That just leaves 2 major (and a bunch little) projects left. Hooking up the cable clutch and sorting out a drive shaft to connect the T5 to the Mitsubishi rear end.
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Great work Mike! This will be such a sleeper truck for sure! I'm sure it will be super fun to drive too!
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I went to work on the clutch this week. The truck was originally a cable operated and I figured when I started that it would probably be easiest to try and use a cable setup (of course I made that decision prior to studying everything under the dash :whacked:
Anyway, I’m using a V8 Chevy Monza bellhousing. As far as I know that is the only SBC bellhousing for a cable clutch that Chevy ever made. Surprisingly they are still around and reasonably priced (not much of a call for them I guess :LOL: ). The major difference between them and most standard Chevy bellhousings (besides having the boss for the cable) is the clutch fork pulls instead of pushing.
I had a couple of new V8 Mustang II clutch cables on the shelf from back when I was building and driving those cars. The bellhousing end of the cable happens to fit the Monza bellhousing and clutch fork and it has enough length to snake around the engine, plus it’s a lot heavier duty than the stock clutch cable (the upper one in the picture).
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Of all the left over Mustang II clutch parts I have I didn't have any of the firewall brackets that the cable connects to (I had sold my last one a couple of years ago). I scrounged around a bit and came up with enough bits and pieces to fabricate one that is actually more solid than the ones Ford used.
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That just left building a bracket/lever for the pedal end, which was pretty straight forward.
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It feels like a cable clutch but has good free-play and releases nicely without too much leg effort so I can live with it. The cable should have ample clearance between it and the exhaust pipe but I’ll probably wrap the pipe and may even build a heat shield just in case (melted clutch cables suck).
On a side note, as I mentioned I have another new clutch cable for a spare, but out of curiosity I looked them up last night to see what the current availability is and how much they are going for these days. Seems they are out there and they run between $40-$75 depending on who you buy from. When I checked Rock Auto, they had one left on “wholesaler closeout” for $17.90 …….so now I guess I’ll have 2 spares (you can never have too many spares LOL).
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Nice! The drive train looks like a great fit and I'm betting will really wake that little truck up.
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I like the in-line filler neck for the top radiator hose, and hadn't seen them cast - using the right name for a search helps! Thinking that I may do a little re-routing of my hoses on the '33 to solve the dreadfully slow fill process with the radiator tilted back.... Also like your approach of a 20+ pound cap in-line, and the lower pressure at the fill neck.