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Looking good sir!

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Transmission sits in there nice. Have you determined which hydraulic clutch master cylinder your going to use?

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I'm using a Hydromax hydraulic thrown out bearing from American Powertrain. I don't know what master cylinder to use.

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After looking at the trans position for a while, I decided to move it forward an inch. This means it it 1” back from the stock ECE mount position. This would have prevented the need for that ugly notch in the floor. It does still require a little extra clearance in the transmission cover. I made the piece out of a piece of 2” exhaust U-bend.

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My Hotchkis rear sway bar (22390R) showed up today. I’m sure glad it’s going on with the bed off. The instructions make it look hard, but this was easy so far. Tomorrow I’ll get the trailing arm connections done.

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Nice project, love the motor

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I decided to weld the spacer to the trailing arm reinforcement plate. Aligning the plates was much easier than I thought. The trailing arms have a 3/8” hole in the correct place. I only had to bore it out to ½”.

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I installed the Aeromotive fuel filter (AEI-12308) and modified the license plate frame for the hidden hitch.

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I’ve been building a shift lever. I started with ¾” steel rod, 17” long. It’s been tapered down to ½”on a lathe, flats and holes milled to mount to the trans. Next came heating and bending it toward the driver about 3” and back 4”. It just clears the seat when it is all the way up. This was done so my wife can drive the truck. All the pictures were taken with trans in 2nd gear. It is very comfortable for me to shift with the seat all the way back. I plan to have the stick chromed.

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Killer work on the shifter rod! I hope to put the exact same engine/tranny setup in my Camaro.

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Very nice shifter!

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I made a little progress on the exhaust. It started with a Flowmaster 2.5” SS tubing kit (FLO-815936). I made a couple of wooden jigs to fit the exhaust to.

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The exhaust work has been going slowly. I just cut down an S bend to get a 2” offset. It positions the mufflers just in front of the sway bar, ½” above the trailing arms and there is about ¾” clearance between the cab and the tubing, Thinks are a little snug. I might have been better with a different sway bay that would not have competed for the space.

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Looks good!!

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Very nice progress

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I got the crossover pipe installed today. First, I shimmed the exhaust to be centered in the cross member cutout. The crossover is positioned slightly in front of the rear seal on the transmission. I used a die grinder to cut 2” holes in the 2.5” tubes. Like the rest of the exhaust, the crossover was tack welded in place.

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Good looking build.

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I haven’t made a lot of progress lately. I keep trying to complete the exhaust, but I have been having issues figuring out various details. I think I now have a plan. I will have some pictures soon.
Today, I got the fuel pressure gage installed. The gage is an Aeromotive AEI-15633 with a Casper CEI-107133 adapter. Installation required removing the cap and Schrader valve. I used Permatex Aviation sealant on the threads. It is supposed to work with gas.

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The first exhaust hangers and the O2 bungs got installed this weekend.

The rubber mounts are from Pypes, TPHV6. They Are for a 2000 something Mustang and have an SS bracket. I made the other part of the bracket from 3/8” SS rod.

The O2 bungs got notched to fit tightly to the 2.5” tubing. The bungs were part of the GM controller kit.

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One more pic:

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Great build. Planning the same motor and trans combo. Subscribed. Looking great so far

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I tacked the manifold flange on. When I tried to remove the H pipe, the trans was in the way. I had to jack up the trans to get the pipe out.

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Time to install the band clamps. Paper was used to shim them so they were properly aligned.

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Awesome work on the exhaust! looks great.

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Looks great!!

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I continue to work on the exhaust. It is going pretty slow. I ended up taking it apart in a couple of places and re-welding to get better fit.
I made a bracket that holds the mufflers from rotating since the band clamps allow rotation.
I also made some more wooden jigs to hold the mufflers in the right position so the tail pipes could be worked on. The passenger side tail pipe is starting to take shape. It’s made it over the rear end, but it still needs another turn to head it out the back. The driver’s side should be easier. I have test fitted the passenger pipes on the driver’s side and they look good so it should be possible to copy the parts.
I still haven’t decided how the pipes should exit the truck. I’ve been considering notching the stock bumper just outside of the frame rails, like the fleet side bumper from LMC Truck. Of course it would be way easier to drop them below the bumper.

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I finally made some progress on the bumper exhaust cut outs. After considering a bunch of ways to cut them, I decided to use a hole saw mounted in a mill. The tricky part was figuring a way to hold the bumper securely at the proper angle. I ended up using some 1X2” tubing with tabs welded on it that picked up six mounting points on the bumper. The tubing was clamped into the mill vise. A wooden shim has you near the cut to reduce vibration. The hole saw wasn’t deep enough to through the edge. Fortunately, the final cut is pretty straight and can be cut with an angle grinder.
At the end of the first cut, the hole saw caught the edge of the bumper and ripped out the threads where the arbor screws into the saw. This weekend I will weld the arbor to the saw so the last cutout can be finished.

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Really like the work that you are doing. Thanks for posting.


Dwight

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One thing you can try is running the saw/drill in reverse once you get going. It is obviously slower but this is what I did when I cut the holes for a/c in the dash of my red step side. Running in reverse still cuts but prevents the teeth from catching on the metal edges.

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Here’s the bumper with the notches finished.
The bottom edge of the bumper has several irregularities.
Since it will need to be re-chromed, I decided smooth to bottom.

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Nice work.

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It’s been a while since my last post. There has been progress though not as much as I would like. Some off the work has involved making things over again. Earlier I pointed out that it was difficult to remove the exhaust because it interfered with the trans and cross member. I could do it with the cab off, but it would be next to impossible with it on. To help I ended up building a new cross member that doesn’t attach to both the top and bottom of the frame. Now the trans can be jacked up slightly, then the cross member can be twisted out. If I had it all to do over, I would move the exhaust crossover behind the trans, but that would be a lot of work thrown away. The cross member will be enough.

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Several months ago when the bell housing was bolted to the engine I notice gaps on each side where the flywheel was visible. These could let water and dirt into the clutch. A couple of weeks ago I discover the solution on EBAY. Hawks Third Gen was selling some plastic dust covers for 98 to 02 Camaros. I haven’t installed them yet, but they look like they will do the trick. The AC Delco part numbers are 24261712 and 24261714.

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One of the big hold ups has been finishing routing the exhaust out the back. As always, the solution will involve some sort a wooden jig. I hope to make some serious progress this weekend.

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Nice work!!

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Today I notched the frame for the fuel inlet. A piece of 2.5” ID pipe was perfect as a filler.

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Nice clean work on the fuel filler relief.

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The tubing for the tail pipe needed a little extension to make it through the bumper. A piece of angle iron makes a great jig for aligning to two tubes.

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What rear end do you plan to run in this? Gear ratio?

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I'm going to run 3.73s. I did a spreadsheet that analyzed the distance traveled per engine revolution in a Corvette and Camaro with an ls3. I then used my tire size and trans ratio to get close to this in first gear. 3.73s did this.