Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

My current plan is very cliche I guess. Tentatively looking at 18 inch wheels and a basic air bag job front and rear. And I need to do something better for the engine. I'm keeping my nose down looking for a 4.3 V6 TBI engine for it.

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

So do you feel that the v6 will be a good motor? I guess for daily driving it would be great on mileage but any other thought though? I've been curious about going with a v6 like you're talking about, there's one in a van close by. I like V8s and I enjoy being able to put my foot in it when I really would like to. I have/had a 400 small block and that thing pulled like a freight train, with no end in sight. But I didn't really ever get in it either though.

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

I'm loving the cheap build, Kevin!

I'm a college student, so what little money I have left after gas and tuition, it goes to restoring my '84. Your build shows it can be done. And it doesn't matter whether it's pretty or what others think. All that matters is it's how you want it and it does what you need it to. That's the attitude I use when working on my truck.

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

Kevin............looking for a V6 TBI motor are you. WELL you're in luck. I have such an animal in my storage. I also have a rather rare Holley marine TBI intake and all the roller stuff with a nice Howard’s roller cam. The engine has been sitting for a number of years in that storage place but it's yours if you so desire. No money just bartering will suffice. Springtown is not too far from work so no problem. Need to arrange transport since the truck is down. PM me so I can send you some pictures if you like.

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

PM sent with picture of intake.

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

I've always liked the 4.3. As well all know, it's just a sawed off small block. Mainly I like fuel mileage and low cost. The V8 TBI engines carry a price premium while the V6's are cheap and easy to get. All I care about is cruising 60 miles per hour down the highway and getting decent mileage. I have the dually to pull loads with if I need to do something heavy. I had my phase with hot rods in the 90's and 5.0L Mustangs. I got to explain to the Battalion Chief why I got an exhibition of acceleration ticket. Not good. In my position in my career now (Engineer, I drive the fire truck), getting a ticket is not acceptable. Career > burnouts and racing. So, it's slow and easy for me these last 15 years.

Man, I love building trucks. Seven days a week. It's my passion in life. Just going to work at the fire station every third day gets me down because I want to be home wrenching. When the cash flow isn't there, I can either sit around and act hateful and upset because I can't build trucks, or figure out some cheap way of getting it done. This stepside has been an eye opener for me. I was ashamed to even show it to anyone, but the reception has been so positive that it's overwhelming. I've even had nice trucks that I built over the years, but they didn't appeal to people like this turd does.

Wow. Really, wow. What an offer. Is it an entire engine ? Was it a runner ?

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

I have never had it running and never heard it running. Was going to be an alternate to the inline 6 if that didn't get complete. Was told by the previous owner he had it in a Jeep and sold the Jeep. I don't think he had it as built as he lead on but it only has a hyd flat tappet cam in it now and I got all the roller stuff to change it back. I do have a harness but.......it many not be complete. I have the ECM and sensors. I also have a stock TBI intake too.

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

I'm absolutely interested. I'm just looking for a dead reliable powerplant. If I could put it to stock where the stock EFI was happy, that would be my goal.

....and so begins the groundwork for the next phase of this truck build.....

I shall call it "the little engine that could"

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

I like that title Kevin................do you want the 700R4 I have too????

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

Does this engine have front dress or would I need to reuse my current bracketry and accesories ? Distributor on the engine still ? Exhaust manifolds ?

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

I have serpetine brackets somewhere in my garage or in the storage I don't have the pulleys though. Headers.......I have some Edelbrock headers that need the AIR injection holes welded up. I have or maybe its....Had a distributor somewhere. Have to look for one. Did you look at the Holley intake picture?

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

I did look at the intake picture. That thing looks nice. Are you sure you wouldn't want to sell that on eBay or something ? I'm just grateful for stock parts as it is.

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

Well.......I have a stock intake if you prefer. The exhaust manifolds on it are the tubular van manifolds. The only thing with the roller cam suff is that I don't have the specific roller cam timing chain. I have to do an inventory of all parts I have for this engine and let you know what I have and don't have.

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

I'm definitely grateful for anything, including ugly stock stuff. I was looking at finding an Astro van engine or something off Craigslist anyway so you know I'm not concerned with bling. I just want a cheap little engine to drive around with and enjoy fuel injection drivability and mileage.

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

Have you thought about just doing wider rear steelies instead of 18's? I just love the white steelies and caps you're running now.

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

I want the Detroit Steel smooth steel wheels in 18 x 7 1/2. If that doesn't happen I'm going to get the steel rallys from the newer Camaro and buy the 5 to 4 3/4 adapters.

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

I hoping to see the next phase now.....geeezzzz.

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

People.....helping people...... Great to see this, it's why I love this board. Can't wait to see phase 2!

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

I have a lot of TBI harness parts (connectors and such) laying around too, Kevin. I ran across a 7747 ECM this afternoon on a shelf if you need it as well.

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

Looking forward to the "Little Engine that Could"!

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

Def love the build that your continuing. Just saved a 83 lwb with a l6 and a 4spd from the crusher great motivation. Keep up the awesome work your doing.

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

You are inspiring me to do some bad things...

Years ago a friend gave me a running 89 chevy step side with V6 and 5 speed. The motor needed rings (one hole was burning oil) and so I gave the truck to my father. He put another engine in it, had the paint touched up and the clutch done and drove it for a few years. We tried to give it to a friend, but its starting to get a little rusty and needs cab corners and such.

Its sitting, waiting for me. Your ugly truck build is tempting me to start in on this once the dumptruck is done. My biggest problem is that I have about 1 day per month to work on trucks. So progress is slow.

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

Kevin.........I have in my possession a brand new never been installed 2bbl TBI unit still in the original GM package. I'm not going to run that one on my inline 6 so I have no need for this unit. It is for a 350 so the injectors are the 65 lb/hr type but it should still provide the proper fuel with the stock ECM. I have an ECM from the Astro van but you could use Jonboys 7747. I don't have a harness. I will try to make it over to the storage this week if possible and see just what else I have for it.

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

Well it looks like the project is kind of firming up.

First and foremost, I have to finish up the engine job in my 4x4, which is all but done (still finishing cooling system and looking for a couple of serpentine brackets). That way I will have a pickup to drive daily while I build on the stepside. I don't want to go back to hauling crap in the back of my little Honda Element again because I'm pickup-less.

Then I'll dig into the stepside. I was originally figuring to wait until winter, but will probably make it a summer project instead.

-I'm standing by to see what all Randy comes up with on the V6 stuff. Randy, this is no rush at all. It's not like I'm on a timeline. I'm hoping there will be enough stuff to get me towards a stock 4.3 with TBI injection. Randy, I'm gonna have a 4 bolt main 350 sitting around when swap it out. You into small blocks ? If so, I'm your guy.

-Jonboy, I might be interested in the ECM and TBI wiring stuff. I figured I'd do a Painless TBI harness until I priced them. 400 bucks for the harness. So, I can do a ton of harness repair, splicing, combining, or fabricating for that kind of money. Valerie's dad in Richardson has been having some significant health issues so we've been traveling over there pretty frequently.

-I'd very much like to do serpentine when I swap in the other engine. That's pretty much an absolute for me. I'll round up whatever serpentine stuff I need depending on what Randy has.

-Then, there's the air suspension. I've never done one before and I'm pretty bored with the rut I've been in with my truck building. I'm thinking about doing a basic airbag setup. Since I already have drop spindles in the front, it's looking like doing bag cups and plates would be a good option. Porterbuilt looks to have a very nice front kit for 360 dollars. I'm strongly leaning that direction. In the back, with my current flip kit, I'd do a notch and thin out of leaf spring packs a bunch then do an air-over-leaf like Ken used to have on his truck. Seems simple and inexpensive. I don't worry too much about the wheelhop issue guys warn of since I'll be running a very low powered drivetrain being driven by a light footed driver.

-I will paint the truck while I have it apart. Not sure what, but something to make it look more decent. I've been getting undue hassle from the cops while driving this truck. No tickets yet, but every little thing gets me pulled over. I figure it's because I look like a meth tweaker truck or something. I'm thinking probably a mild color with white bumper and top.

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

I have definitely thought about going that direction. I can buy 8 inch wide stock steelies from Summit for like 80 dollars each delivered. A pair of those along with my current skinny fronts would do the trick.

I also have a set of wide and narrow rallys at my shop that I've been saving.

But, mainly, tire prices are making my head hurt. I can buy an 18 or 20 inch tire for the same money as a 275/60-15 BF Goodrich Radial T/A for the rally wheels. It eats me up when a 15 and a 18-20 tire are equal in price. With the cost of these cheap big wheels nowadays (Boss, Showwheels, etc), it makes a big wheel package look attractive. We all know a set of big wheels will go a long way towards making a plain truck look killer.

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

Kevin, check your PM.

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

Nice truck!

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

Just FYI, porters stage one front kit is $435 now. For all that's included though its still a decent price...

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

Yep. I just noticed that. I think the price increased this week.

Looks like I can get the same Dominator air bags for 150 from Amazon.com. I can cut the plates and cups out of scrap steel with my plasma cutter for maybe 10 bucks in half an hour or so. Other than that, it's just building shock mounts and shocks. Looks like I'll probably just make my front kit from scratch rather than use the Porterbought kit in the front. No offense to Nathan Porter but when it crossed over 400 dollar threshold (plus shipping) I kind of fell out of interest. I'd like the pride of making my own patterns and cutting my own parts anyway.

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

I did get it. I was looking in my scrap pile and I've got a bunch of 1/4 inch plate. I'll probably wind up making my own. I'm researching the need/benefits of using lower plates/cups/or building recessed wells into my control arms.

I hope you're coming to Decatur this fall. We already have our spaces bought and paid for. Lots of the Louisiana members are getting on board with the Decatur swap meet too. That's a good bunch of guys you'd enjoy meeting.

Thank you for the compliment. It should be a lot better after this next phase I'm planning. Have no fear, I'll get it done. I'm not one to fizzle out of projects very easily.

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

Kevin, if you need a drawing of the upper plate, let me know.
I hope to make the fall one in Decatur. Their web site does not have the dates posted, when is it?

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

Karl, here is the info on the fall meet.

http://www.southwestswapmeet.com

A word about that Porterbuilt kit we were talking about above....

When I'm at work, I do my research on the Internet and print out and compile parts that I want into a notebook. I went back and looked at my sheet for the a Porterbuilt Stage 1 front kit. It was 360 dollars on the 20th of this month. So, in the last week, the price increased by 80 dollars. I'll definitely be sourcing my hard parts and fabricating the bracketry and plates for my truck. That sudden price jump is a little out of my financial comfort zone.

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

Glad to see this going forward, and congrats on the 4X4 progress!

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

Paint it the factory cream color w/white bumpers & wheels if keeping the 15's. Maybe opt for chrome bumpers if upgrading to 18's.

Cup some lower arms & add plates to the x-member. Add some stupid simple upper shock mounts for optimized travel. The reduced leaf pack & AOL sound good. Plan on fabbing rear shock mounts as well to again optimize shock travel/geometry.

Gotta keep the mexican blanket seat cover though to keep it legit.

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

Thanks for the link.

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

Awesome build Kevin!! I really enjoy reading your threads, it's like watching those show on TV but with actual real life affordable fixes! Keep up the good work!

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

Kevin..........going to Branson, Mo for family time so after that I'll dig through storage and the garage and see what all I have for the V6. I did see the stock intake yesterday while in the attic. I think I have a housing and shaft for a distributor but I think the reluctor/pickup coil is toast. Talk with you later about it all.

Randy S. Hager
Venus, TX

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

Its eerie how close you are to what I have in mind.

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

X2.
The issue with the AOL set up for the rear is the offset shocks.
(one points forward, one points backwards)
It's my opinion that you need to swap the shocks to BOTH point forward (or backwards),... and then add the air bags to the leaf springs on the opposite side of the axle.
I believe this is also what n2trux had done on his original AOL set-up.

Re: My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade
 

I haven't taken the bed off yet, but is there any (engineering) reason I shouldn't build a little crossmember and mount the shocks inboard of the rails ?

That's kind of what I figured I'd do. A round tube crossmember from frame rail to rail with studs welded in the appropriate places. Then some tab on the axle down below to mount the bottom to.