Chris9126

Well I picked this truck up from a gentlemen that bought it out of a tow lot. The story is the original owner was an older gentleman believed to have hit a deer blew radiator the blew head gasket truck was towed to a tow lot & sold at auction for $1500. Motor was disassembled then guy lost interest in it. I scored it for $400. It's got no rust, but has few dents in the front fenders/chips in the fiberglass bed. I've located a motor, grill, bumper, radiator, toolbox & whatever else I want for 400$ from a friend parting his truck out. His motor is a crate 350 with 70K miles all receipts lifetime warranty on bolt on parts. Hauled the truck over to his house today so we can swap motor into mine. I'll update tomorrow if we get it running or not. I'm parting out my old '93 GMC I pulled the rear end last Saturday. My plan is to flip the leaf spring perches, & see where that sits the *** end of the truck. Then cut the coils on the front. Anybody got pics of what JUST a flip kit does to the rear end? I'm new to all this but I can fabricate & have a basic understanding. Let's begin...... & that tire in the picture is a 295/55/15 I found real cheap at the junkyard if I find a second one cheap I'll try to run them but looks like it'll be a real hunt...

Chris9126

Well we didn't get it running. I was under the impression his was already pulled & ready to go in. But we spend 4 hours pulling his, mine is just the block already unbolted ready to come out so should have it whipped tomorrow. Talking to a guy about a 96+ chrome grill that is brand new plus I have some black headlight/turn signal housing for the front should look good once I black out corner lenses to match.

Also I'm now tossing around the idea of a flush bed cover, custom made from steel. I love the look of covered beds but can only find ripped bed covers or they want 2K for them. This of course is after it's running, lowered, & painted. What do you think? Need to find a roll pan for rear other than that it is ready for little bit of fiberglass/bondo work then paint. Keeping it as close to the factory green as I can find I hate seeing mismatched paint under the hood in cab etc. My old truck is nearly all parted out & almost full of scrap so she'll be on a trailer behind this truck soon.

Chris9126

Motor is in, bolts are tight. Putting long tube headers on it tomorrow, finishing wiring & coolant system. Maybe it'll finally run again. It's been a week & through weather & health problems it's coming along quite nicely for my first motor swap. Still need a few pieces here & there but all the essentials are done or coming. No pics due to phone being dead!

Chris9126

Couldn't run the long tube headers I've been saving to put on a motor for months, but, whatever. The drivers side fit but the passenger side wouldn't clear the frame for whatever reason, must be for a 4wd pickup. They were swapped out for a set of shorty Edelbroc headers that were hanging on the shelf, came off a '69 Chevy pickup. Tomorrow I will have to run to the parts store to get the remaining stuff to finish the exhaust, wire harness, & few other bits here & there. Everyday I open the garage in anticipation that I will hear it run THAT day. But, for 17, I've learned a lot so far & have had to damn dear do everything the hard way. Lol. I'm pretty sure I have the 4L60E (half ton, two wheel drive) trans I was thinking about putting a transmission temp gauge in it. As soon as it's up & running & reliable I don't want to do it but it'll have to haul my old truck to the scrap yard. I don't even know if the transmission is good or not but will find out soon. Anywhere someone could steer me for some info on trans temp gauges? I've done motor temp gauges but not trans. Thanks!

Chris9126

Motor is in, most of wiring is hooked up but the intake is off of a '92 & the thermostat housing is different between '92 & '95, hopefully I can just swap housings & it'll work. Have to get a new water pump the one on the motor does work but it is leaking out of the bottom weap hole & frankly I'd much rather do it now then later when everything's put together & I'm not stuck on the side of the road.

Chris9126

Another parts store run... Water pump, & a 3" coupler to finish up the exhaust. The thermostat housing I have is off of a '92, but the trucks wire harness is still the '95. So it's either I find the right thermostat housing or this gives me an excuse to run aftermarket gauges. Which from what I hear stock gauges in these trucks are junk anyways. So I'm thinking a temp gauge, oil pressure gauge, & a trans temp gauge. All three mounted on a triple gauge pillar for the side of the windshield. Sounds expensive so it'll be later down the road, just a temp gauge I have laying around will be used for now. Pick up the rest as I go. Working on truck some more tomorrow to hopefully have at least the wiring done, & exhaust. Won't get as much time in tomorrow as I have the past few days but it will probably be cold so I'm not complaining.

Chris9126

Put water pump & header gaskets on today. Got headers bolted down, new spark plugs in. Headers really are a bitch to work around.

On a brighter note, I came across a brand new hood, 96+ chrome grill, bumper brackets, headlights/turn signals, etc all for 100$. Going to pick them up tomorrow!! As for more progress going to work on it Saturday for a few more hours. Hopefully finish up exhaust (cut fit & weld y-pipe) Then few more things on motor of course. Looking for valve covers to paint up & put on but stocks will do for now. Have a plan for the coolant/air intake system up my sleeve I hope I'll be able to do it & show! Looking to replace motor fan to a electric fan, ditch bulky fan shroud, & plumb the air intake over the top of the ac unit & then down close to the fan with a good size filter on the end.

Chris9126

Got the parts last night. Helllll yessss. I think I'm going to wait until spring (snow :/) comes around to drop the truck, paint it & put chrome grill bumper roll pan etc on. Until then it's all motor & interior to work on. Hope to finish the exhaust today maybe couple other things. Just like every day I work on it, don't have much time. Taking my time anyways, I ain't in no rush.

Chris9126

Holy **** it's so close to running on its own, it's not even funny. Fuel pump relay is all I'm needing in order (assuming fuel pump works) to get fuel to this motor & fire it up. Bought a relay today but it was the wrong one! Anyways looks like the grill lights etc will be slapped together so I can at least take it to school on my last day of highschool.

Chris9126

It runs. Popped the fuel pump relay in, turned the key over shot some starter fluid down the throttle body & bam fired right up. There was a knock & a shake at first, pretty bad, so I shut it down to diagnose... Fan was loose. Haha I messed up there. Tightened it down started back up ran so smooth & sounded really healthy. Under the hood is finished for now aside from antifreeze & about a quart of oil. Tomorrow the parts truck hood grill & bumper goes on for temporary use.