1962 Chevy C10 build

[lnirenberg]

I bought this Truck on BAT a few weeks ago. It’s one of those rare finds that the pics and descriptions didn’t do it justice, the body is a 9 out of 10 with a few small scratches and the frame is as new. Kicking around engines I was intrigued with some low mileage eBay finds such as new twin-turbo 8 or 10 spd tranie combos for 5-7k or there was a 3 mile! 3.0 duramax diesel in the same price range. In the end, we were concerned with fitment given the way the frame rails pinch in the engine bay. Bottom line, we’re working with Tom at 12Bolt to put together a turbo lump port 292 I6 w/EFI and he thinks getting a reliable pump gas 400hp/500ft/lbs won’t be a stretch. My truck has the low tranie hump for the three on the tree so we’re probably going to go with a built 200R4 because of its small size. Still working on suspension/brake mods planning new IFS, power rack, 5 stud hubs, coilovers and disc brakes all around. The truck came with rear airbags in a box which will help loading a race car with shallow approach angle but overall I want to keep the stock ride height. It has 15” steelies but they’ll be replaced with 17” steelies for the wider tire selection and bigger brakes. I’m working on the audio in my garage while we wait for parts and will bring it to a friends shop. Custom auto sound w/blue tooth, dash speaker in awaiting subwoofer, kick speakers and head unit this week & once I get it fired up I’ll decide whether I need to add an amp. Woodworker hobbyist I made a custom ebony radio surround to replace the crappy black plastic surround it came to me with. Also added MagSafe holder/charger in place of ashtray so I have my WAZE always handy. I have a set of classic instrument gauges left over from another project that will go in a auto meter billet insert that I’ll have black anodized. This week I’ll finalize a new bench seat with TMI as I want them to use a wool Scottish tartan I have with red leather. The goal is to have this all put back together by spring.

[Vimes]

Nice truck. You won't have an issue hitting 500+ with a turbo 292, saw them do just that on a TV show, pulled down over 500HP at the crank on a dyno.

[Vimes]

Nice truck. Whatever you paid for it, you got a bargain. You won't have an issue hitting 500+ with a turbo 292, saw them do just that on a TV show, pulled down over 500HP at the crank on a dyno. But, I shouldn't think there would be an issue putting any of the other engines in, those trucks came from the factory with a small block V8.

[lnirenberg]

The prime directive is to do something different than an LS/LT or SBC transplant. Knowing nothing about the GM I6, it didn’t take much time on line to find out they are stout buggers with a lot of potential and more available parts than I would have imagined

[lnirenberg]

Working on cosmetics and creature comforts while I wait for a friend to open up space for me so we can do the heavy mechanical lifting. Inside, I did the door panels and added stock looking radio, kick speaker & sub as well as finishing up the mag safe wireless mount/charger. Been looking at the bed deciding what to do with it and today I took out the wood and ss strips, thankfully I have a lift because, at least at my age, it’s not a job I’d want to do on my back. I took 1 piece down to bare wood to see if it was worthy of restoration but the wood wasn’t finished properly and has too much checking to make me happy. I have a well stocked wood shop in the house to feed my other hobby so Friday I’ll be off to the lumberyard where I buy my furniture wood with the plan to use the old pieces as templates. Currently debating between mahogany and tiger maple but it’ll likely come down to what is in stock. An aside, the white wood on side of the pile of old bed wood is rough cut white cedar that my 2 grandsons and I are going to make bat houses to put in the woods for some natural mosquito control.
194690194689194688194691

[andrewb70]

Cool truck. Have you considered a modern inline 6?

Andrew

[lnirenberg]

I’ve mentally gone through several engine possibilities. I wanted to keep it a 6 so I looked at low mileage cadi twin turbo v6s. Pretty cheap 400 hp, GM V6 diesel, I saw one on eBay with 13 miles on it from a rear ended 1500, both included 8-10 trans, ecu & drive by wire peddles, tempting. Then I looked at the vortec 4200 but in the end I just like the look of the old school I6 it came with. My friend who is doing the drivetrain has spent a lot of phone time with Tom at 12 bolt and we are putting together a parts list for a turbo, EFI 292. There is fairly extensive amount of product support to make some power out of these old chunks of iron and it’s not everyday you see one built to its potential.

[andrewb70]

I’ve mentally gone through several engine possibilities. I wanted to keep it a 6 so I looked at low mileage cadi twin turbo v6s. Pretty cheap 400 hp, GM V6 diesel, I saw one on eBay with 13 miles on it from a rear ended 1500, both included 8-10 trans, ecu & drive by wire peddles, tempting. Then I looked at the vortec 4200 but in the end I just like the look of the old school I6 it came with. My friend who is doing the drivetrain has spent a lot of phone time with Tom at 12 bolt and we are putting together a parts list for a turbo, EFI 292. There is fairly extensive amount of product support to make some power out of these old chunks of iron and it’s not everyday you see one built to its potential.

Fair enough. :-)

Does anyone make a port injection intake manifold? That would be cool with coil near plug ignition.

[lnirenberg]

https://www.12bolt.com/store/p118/Turbo_Manifold.html
https://www.12bolt.com/292-turbo-efi.html
https://www.powernationtv.com/episode/EP2020-02/straight-six-on-steroids-boosting-a-chevy-292-inline-straight-six

[andrewb70]

https://www.12bolt.com/store/p118/Turbo_Manifold.html
https://www.12bolt.com/292-turbo-efi.html
https://www.powernationtv.com/episode/EP2020-02/straight-six-on-steroids-boosting-a-chevy-292-inline-straight-six

I actually watched all of the videos from the Power Nation 292 build before. Here are my thoughts:

Go with port injection instead of throttle body. There are a lot of ugly things that happen inside any intake manifold, and I suspect especially in an intake manifold of that design. Doing a wet flow manifold with a turbo sounds like a recipe for disaster.

I would choose the port injected intake manifold in the above link. I would also use a 4150 flanged elbow with a Gen 4 87mm DBW throttle body.

You can use a dual synch distributor, but if you want better resolution, I would install a 36-1 trigger wheel on the crank and use a distributor body with a single pulse cam signal. This will give you a faster synch, which will result in quicker starts, as the dual synch distributors tend to suffer from slightly long crank times before the crank and cam signals synch up. I would also use LS coils for ignition.

For turbo selection, I would learn to use the BW MatchBot. My guess, off the top of my head, is that a BW S364sxe would work very well, maybe even smaller. Reed at Work Turbochargers can build you a blueprinted version of that turbo for not much more money than off the shelf.

For engine management, I would use the Holley Terminator X Max ECU. They obviously don't have a harness for this particular combination, so I would get the unterminated harness (558-128) and make friends with the Holley wiring schematics.

Andrew

[lnirenberg]

Thanks for all this info and I will definitely follow your blueprint. Have a great holiday

[andrewb70]

Thanks! You too.

Andrew

[andrewb70]

So I watched the Power Nation engine dyne video again, and using their power numbers worked up a Borg Warner MatchBot. The power numbers in the video were a good way to dial in a volumetric efficiency estimates. They used a BW S366sxe with the large turbine wheel and a .83A/R turbine housing. I think the S364sxe is a better match on the compressor side, but I would go with the same turbine housing and wheel. Here is the MatchBot:

https://www.borgwarner.com/go/YNN1UC

Andrew

[short&wide65]

The prime directive is to do something different than an LS/LT or SBC transplant. Knowing nothing about the GM I6, it didn’t take much time on line to find out they are stout buggers with a lot of potential and more available parts than I would have imagined

Awesome truck and it's awesome you're leaning towards the inline 6. I went down that rabbit hole but it's hard to justify the math when an LS makes more power for less money. I still haven't completely ruled out using the original 6 cylinder in my truck but I don't want forced induction so it would be hard to make decent power.

[lnirenberg]

You are correct that forced induction is a requirement for power in these old engines but they are very stout. On a $ to hp/ftlbs it’s hard for me to say it’s the most sensible choice, but I’ve done an LS conversion on a used to own ‘70 Chevelle and I want to try something different. Knowing virtually nothing about the old I6s I have been blown away by their legion of followers and the product support. I’m not building a show truck but rather I need a truck as I sold my SRT10 right before the pandemic shutdown and this seemed the way to go. Go, stop, turn, haul, tunes & at my age a new comfortable seat. I’ll post pictures as we move forward.