Steve-o-08's Silverado Build Thread

[Steve-O-08]

Belated update from last weekend.

Took the truck out to the NMCA event and got to finally push it. The truck was working pretty well (suspension wise) and didn't do too bad. Still need to spend some time dialing in the shocks, but overall she was working great. Now that all of the suspension issues have been sorted out, the next hurtle is the trans swap. I am signed up for LS Fest West and would really like to bring the truck out with the manual swap done. It's going to be a close one, but I'm going to try.

Here's a few pictures of NMCA shot from my phone. Still going through pictures on the nice camera. Those will be posted when we finish going through the cards.

[Steve-O-08]

Finally got a small break in the action to catch up on this thread. Lots to update on.

A week before going to LS Fest I found a small piece of bearing material in the oil. Not wanting to take the chance of possibly hurting the truck in Vegas I decided to yank the engine and go through it.




Ended up finding a wiped out thrust bearing and a hurt crankshaft... Not sure if the spacers I used with my converter were too big, but I believe the troubles were transmission related.



Never the less. I got the engine torn completely down replaced the crankshaft and had the rotating assembly re-balanced. (in record time) Along with new rings and bearings I did a few other changes. I went with a little bigger cam from Texas Speed, A set of Lunati Dual valve springs, and a bronze bushing rocker upgrade.





















Also added an Autokraft oil pan


Found one of my header flanges were warped to I ordered a set of 1 7/8" Kooks to replace them. Luckily I was able to get the truck all back together in time for Vegas.





- - - Updated - - -

LS Fest was a cool event. It was cool to be able to do all of the different parts of the event. Autocross, Drag Racing, Speed Stop, and Road Course all went well. It was cool being able to take the truck on the road course and see how it did at higher speeds. I was pleasantly surprised. I did feel like the rear springs needed to be higher rate, but I was expecting that. Overall it was a good event and it will be on the calendar for next year.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Sweet, lovin' it!

[Dr G]

That was a snappy engine rebuild. Wish I worked that fast!

[Steve-O-08]

Sweet, lovin' it!

Thank you sir!

That was a snappy engine rebuild. Wish I worked that fast!

I really wasn't planning on doing that much work in the short amount of time that I had, but luckily it worked out. I've had some crazy deadlines before, so that's nothing new. I hate doing things last minute. It's way easier to take your time so nothing gets overlooked and causes a potentially bigger problem.

[cmccuneusaf]

I love this truck! Keep up the awesome work!

[Josh@Ridetech]

Good work man! It looks like it should be a really fun truck!

[Steve-O-08]

Man freakin photobucket... Didn't realize all of my pictures were gone... I was just trying to post an update to this thread. I'll do my best to get them back up. Standby.

[JohnJ@RideTech]

Any updates on the truck?

[Bob in St. Louis]

Man freakin photobucket... Didn't realize all of my pictures were gone... I was just trying to post an update to this thread. I'll do my best to get them back up. Standby.

Photobucket ruined the internet with their "ransomware". :(

[Steve-O-08]

Haven't gotten a chance to update all of the pictures yet, but I wanted to get the new stuff up first.

After my last Autocross I was looking at all of my options to quicken up the steering on the truck. As far as I could find there was nobody that makes a quicker ratio steering rack that would fit the truck (without a lot more fabrication) So I decided to give the quickener route a shot.

I yanked the column out of the truck and picked up a 1.5:1 small body quickener. There are a few different styles out there, but I thought this would work easiest with the stock column. I wanted to have everything 'hidden' inside the truck. Not necessarily to be sneaky about it, but to keep things clean in the engine bay. Now from the engine bay the steering shaft look completely factory.

So I had never pulled a steering column apart before so I just took my time and kept the parts organized.

After a lot to drawing and measuring I came up with a plan on how to mount it. So I cut a few inches off the bottom of the column, Machined a Delrin sleeve to hold the quickener centered inside of the column, Fab'd up a bracket to mount it and cut/welded up the shafts to connect all of the dots. I bought a new steering joint to replace the aluminum one on the stock lower shaft. Once everything was all welded up I got the column put all back together and back in the truck.

Luckily the column fit with no issues. There is a noticeable increase in steering effort due to the gear multiplication. I have one driven the truck a little bit since getting this all installed. Currently I have the smaller diameter Sparco wheel in the truck. I might stick the stock wheel back in to see if the larger diameter will help with effort. If the larger wheel helps I will either stick with that steering wheel or get a larger diameter aftermarket wheel.

I am going to be bringing the truck into work later on this week to hopefully get going on my manual transmission swap as well. More updates as they happen.

[gots_a_sol]

That quickener is pretty damn slick. Thanks for the write up on it

[Bob in St. Louis]

Sorry to go off topic, but I think you have the same butane torch that a buddy of mine did.
His exploded in his hand and removed his right thumb.
After seeing the photos of his right hand and arm, I showed the photos to the guys in my shop, and it turns out almost HALF of them have the same torch.
I can find and post the photos of the torch if you'd like to make sure.

[KiCKiNaX]

steve nice work it looks great like all of your work always does, how does it feel /work ? have you had a chance to try it with other wheel yet? looking forward to next update

[kingcrunch]

Question:
What is the diameter of the steering quickeners housing? Especially the part you slid into the steering column (i assume you made that black bushing yourself?).
Thank you!

I really like that idea and i am rolling it around my head. Maybe that's something for the D170 as well (the Ram steering rack has 2.75 : 1 steering ratio).

[Steve-O-08]

That quickener is pretty damn slick. Thanks for the write up on it

Thank you very much.

Sorry to go off topic, but I think you have the same butane torch that a buddy of mine did.
His exploded in his hand and removed his right thumb.
After seeing the photos of his right hand and arm, I showed the photos to the guys in my shop, and it turns out almost HALF of them have the same torch.
I can find and post the photos of the torch if you'd like to make sure.

Oh man... We have two of them at the shop. I'll definitely look into that.

steve nice work it looks great like all of your work always does, how does it feel /work ? have you had a chance to try it with other wheel yet? looking forward to next update

Thanks a lot. I just drove the truck to work this morning. The steering is definitely stiffer. I'm not sure if I might be getting some slight binding on one of the u-joints. Going to be trying a larger wheel later today and see how that does.

Question:
What is the diameter of the steering quickeners housing? Especially the part you slid into the steering column (i assume you made that black bushing yourself?).
Thank you!

I really like that idea and i am rolling it around my head. Maybe that's something for the D170 as well (the Ram steering rack has 2.75 : 1 steering ratio).

The Quickener body that slides into the column is 1.250". I did make the bushing myself on the lathe. It's made of a stick of Delrin I had left over from when I made my leaf spring shackle bushings. I would refer you to a picture of those but I haven't had time to update them yet.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Thank you very much.


Oh man... We have two of them at the shop. I'll definitely look into that.

Yea man. Here's an image he found of the one he had that blew up.
Too cheap of an item to risk it.

The pics of his arm where the "napalm" burnt hole in his flesh were on Photobucket, so they're gone.

[Raffman]

Would love to see pics of your harness bar but the photobucket bs is still there. How is the steering quickiner working for you ? I hear they feel a little strange at first.
We are looking at some of these mods for an 02 Silverado for the Autocross. Thanks for posting

[Steve-O-08]

Would love to see pics of your harness bar but the photobucket bs is still there. How is the steering quickiner working for you ? I hear they feel a little strange at first.
We are looking at some of these mods for an 02 Silverado for the Autocross. Thanks for posting

I'll have some pictures of the harness bar back up shortly. I'll also be making one for Claudia's Silverado too. We just got some new seats and harnesses for her and I need to get them installed by the next NMCA event in September.

The quickener is working alright. I do feel some 'bind' in it still. I'm not sure if it might be because it wasn't properly lubricated or not. I've got another stock column I am going to stick back in it so I can drive it. And I'll open up the quickener and see if the resistance I am feeling is in the unit it's self or in the u-joint or maybe the rack.

[Steve-O-08]

Well I finally got the manual trans swapped in the truck. This has been something I've wanted to do way back when I got the truck. Now it's finally in there and ready to play.

I'm not going to post up too many pictures of the swap because there will eventually be a Street Trucks Magazine article about the swap in the upcoming months. But here are a few pictures of the install. I've got a few miles on the truck so far. Still need to wire up the reverse lights and the neutral safety switch on the clutch pedal. Also need to play with the tune a little and get the throttle follower from hanging up and to correct the speedo. Other than that it works great and I can't wait to see how it performs. More pictures and info to come.