project drivabeater

[dusterbd13]

spent the day working on the 3.4. had to pull the upper intake to get to the water temp sensor. who at GM thought that was a good idea??

anyway, its going pretty well. im modifying a harness from a 1993 lumina with a 3.1, which used a 7727 ecm. got the harness and ecm for 50 bucks at pull-a-part. even talked to the PO of the lumina while i was pulling it apart, which is why i bought the ECM. i took his word for it.

anyway, this is very tedious work. start with 3 wiring diagrams, 1 motor, 1 harness. tweak as necessary.

ive got it pretty well sorted till the back of the block. after that, ive still got some work to do. should only take a fe more hours to finish.






after the RX7 and VW bug, im getting sick of electrical.

reason im trying to get this done is that ive got a leaking freeze plug on the back of the 2.8. to repair, i have to yank the trans. if im going to do that, ill swap the motor.

i have also lined up a sale on this motor, and the job of swapping it and the EFI into a 4wd early s10. that should be fun. and pay good.

anyway, im depating on painting the motor cast iron grey, or aluminum. along with the accessories. what do you think?

any other colors that would look good, and be availible from dupli-color?

michael

[dusterbd13]

joe:
well have to run them at one of the events when your done. show all the other guys what these budget built sport trucks will do.

[dusterbd13]

I never really realize how busy i stay until i look back over my threads on days im sick.

anyway, little progress update.

got the harness as finished as i can before install. im not really that happy with the way it looks on the stand, so ill see ho it looks in thr truck.

i also have spent a while checking over the 3.4. it still had the crosshatching in the bores, and the bearings looked good. so i put the 2wd oil pan on it, replaced all the gaskets (except head gaskets), cleaned, and painted it. it looks really nice, now. i did not paint the alternator yet, as i dont know if its any good. i did clean and paint the sanded compressor, as the firebird still had freon in the lines when i pulled the motor, so im assuming its good. evrything else looked great.

the gaskets, plugs, paint, wires, thermostat, etc really ate up a lot of my budget. i dont know if its worth it yet. ill find that out when i stcik it in.

heres pics:




i was going to bolt my craigslist headers on, but cant. reaon being is that the guy that sold them to me was wron in their application, and i didnt know enough about them to know any better. they fit a 4.3 4wd truck. so when i stick this in, ill be running the stock manis for now. anyone wanna buy the headers?

lastly, i dunno if i really want to do this swap. right now, my truck is dead nuts reliable, if a little aggrevating. my time is short lately, and play money is tight. but on the other hand, its my toy and my hobby, as well as a business generator. how long would you figure to yank the 2.8 and install the 3.4? im figuring an additional 10-15 hours to finalize the wiring after the 3-4 to get it spliced in and running.

anyway, no budget update, as im on the couch and dont have my reciepts with me.

michael

[jackfrost]

go for it!!

[Doober]

Definitely watching this... owned 3 S10s in the past ('85 2.8/4wd 700R4, '85 2.8/2wd 4-speed, '91 4.3/2wd 4L60), they have a special place in my heart

[ArtosDracon]

Ahoy, sucks when PTS10 is down and I have to track you all down elsewhere ;) Progress looks good.

[dusterbd13]

so i spent the weekend doing some work.
what started it was looking for a place to put th ECM for the 3.4 swap. glove box looked perfect, except the stereo was in there. and i never liked that in the first place, so i decided to finally fix it.

the total budget update for the weekend is 27 dollars, brining the total investment as it sits to 2298.12

20 for the stereo box, 7 for the headliner material and adhesive.


to move the stereo, i picked up a universal mounting tray from pep boys. cut it down on the bandsaw a bit, and started fitting. i then realized that i did not have enough depth. so out came my trusty dremel and rotozip bit, and away went interfering plastic. i even had to cut my center vent ducting to clear. repaired that with a little of the aluminum HVAC tape my buddy had given me when i was redoing my dryer vent.
i angled the CD player some towards the driver, and mounted it so that if i want to, i can cut the ash tray down enough to act as a trim plate for the corners.



then, i looked around the cab and went, "i really need to finish this. I have all the parts, and i have the night to work" so i pulled out the headliner, overhead console, plastics that were still blue and grey, etc. i taught myself to recover a headliner with 3M adhesive and some wal mart fabric. came out really nice. had to make a patch around my console, and i used part of an edelbrock carb box to do it. dyed all the plastics, reinforced the folded over edge of the headliner with ducttape, and put it back together. i also got the overead working agon. round had come loose.

anyway, here it is. tell me what you think, and if you see anything that looks like crap.






michael

[ArtosDracon]

Looks good, PTS10 is back up BTW, and PTT will be getting underway shortly.

[MonzaRacer]

Heck I usually just adapt the new ecm to old wiring then add in what I need to to continue on.

[dusterbd13]

for as radical as the wiring changes are, i bilt a standalone harness from junkyard parts.

[ArtosDracon]

Starting from scratch on wiring is never a bad idea, too many chances for something little to go wrong and hose everything with a pieced together and spliced harness.

[dusterbd13]

got the inner fenders and core support that i kept from the parts truck cleaned and painted. im using a scotchbrite pad and superclead to get this stuff clean and prep the surface at the same time. what im painting it with is medium gloss black from john deere. 7 bucks a can, but its almost indestructable.
so far, im out 3/4 of a can on these three parts alone.

i also got the old, rusty, and very holey inners out tonight.


and started in with superclean and various implements of grease and crap removal. these are the last pictures you will see of this motor, this far together. sunday i go to get the engine hoist from my father, and next week ill start getting it ready to yank.



total 2395.12

[Doober]

Very cool Is that JD paint the same type as their Blitz Black line?

[dusterbd13]

same type, different gloss level. ive got a can of blitz for soing stripes at some point. bought it in the rattle can variant, since i dont have an air compressor.

[srh3trinity]

Glad to see the progress. This is still one of my favorite builds here, especially since you are going with an off the beaten path power plant. It is going to be cool to see how it all comes out.

[MonzaRacer]

subscribed to this one cause it keeps me focused on getting to my Caprice when weather eases up, your lucky you got garage Im stuck with out even a shade tree!

[12meni]

subscribed to this one cause it keeps me focused on getting to my Caprice when weather eases up, your lucky you got garage Im stuck with out even a shade tree!

+1. Maybe I'll get off my but and get the 64 Chevelle running. Just need to noodle out the harness....

[6spdmalibu]

Damn good work and dedication. Keep it going, subscribed.

[dusterbd13]

thanks for all the encouragement and compliments, guys. it really helps some days. i truly appreciate it, and if i can ever repay the favor, let me know.

[dusterbd13]

so ive been doing a little work here and there this week. monday, i had a half day at work. went to the junkyard, got a throttle cable i think will work. paid 10 bucks. when i got home, i looked at the truck. put it on stands, and started removing, tagging and bagging stuff. started to run out of room pretty quick, until i realized i could put stuff outside and in the bed. made it a lot better.



after about 2hrs of work:


also looked inside the 7727 ECM that dad gave me out of his vette. and guess what i found?


that saved me 50 bucks for an adapter and chips.

throughout the week, ive had a few minutes before work and getting Mary at the daycare to do a little here and there. heres how it looked before tonight.


today i got off work at 4:00. my wife and daughter were with her family, so i came home and got to work. by 5:30, heres what i saw:




the rea main was leaking pretty badly, but what finally caused me to pull the motor now is a leaking freeze plug.


i took a smoke break, put the wheels back on it, rolled it outside, and started soaking with superclean. scrub, soak, scrub, soak, hit with pressure washer. scrub soak, pressure wash. after about an hour....




now im debating with myself. rattle can the frame with john deere paint, or POR15 it? i have half a can left over from painting a roll cage for a customer, so it free..... what do you think?

im also to figure out wether or not i should replace the motor mounts. the look solid, and are pretty firm when pried on. heres what they look like, let me know what you think.



more to come sunday after church.