Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Things work, when they want to. Did you keep details for the thermostat spacer?
Looks good.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

I bought the spacer from summit racing. It has an o ring style gasket that goes toward the intake manifold and a flat surface at the top to mount your water neck to with a gasket. I used two 2” 3/8s bolts that were the perfect length to go into the intake without going to deep. I put in a high flow 180 degree thermostat that the spacer fit right on top of with no clearance problem. The spacer has 2 open 3/8 npt threaded ports. I Plugged one off. But I may use it later. I really don’t like using spacers. But I have no choice. There are only three water ports for senders on the entire motor. One On the intake for the ecm. One for the temp sender to the gauge on the drivers head and one on the passanger head for the auxillary fan. I bought the dual fan relay kit off summit and it came with one 170 off 185 on 3/8 npt thread sensor. Then just bought a electric fan toggle switch to mount on the center console I built. So if want to run the fans when the truck is off or when I want the fans to run at a different time the the temp sender allows.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

I didn’t like the circuit breakers for the 2 hot wires that came with the summit fan relay kit. Circuit breakers suck when your out somewhere and your fans stop working and you don’t have a test light. So I bought two 10 gauge fused wires with 40 amp fuses.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

I got my Rhodes racing roll cage last week. Went to Home Depot today any picked up some electrical pvc 30,45,90 and 1 1/4 pvc pipe which measure exactly the same 1 5/8 o.d. as the Rhodes rollcage. I think this is one of the easiest ways to work it up.I Don’t care for how the front down tubes look. I haven’t decided if I want to do a single 30 degree bend or a double 45 degree bend.Since I can’t afford a mandrel bender or want to go to a custom shop and have my roll cage built. I am going to take my down tube to my muffler shop down the street and for $40 they will bend them. Here is a rough mock up of my double 45, I just have to slightly clock it and finish glueing it. If this is to complicated of a bend for the muffler shop I will do the single 30 bend.I am also making this cage a true bolt with interlocking tube clamps from summit racing and a 4 point instead of a 10. For all you haters, I know this cage will never pass tech. So please save your comments. For the price you can’t beat it. At some point I will have a correct 10 point built. As soon as I stop upgrading speed parts and interior. Which may be a few years down the road. The nice part is I will just have the down tubes and halo redone because they are the only bars with bolt in clamps . Then add the extra 6 points since I have those already.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Couple pics. First two aren’t mine. First is double 45 and second is single 30. Last pic is of the upper halo

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Nothing better than a good template.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

I had to do the single 30 degree on the down tubes. It actually fit closer to the dash and gave me more leg room. The muffler shop mandrel bender could hardly handle a 30 degree angle. They had to heat the tube up a a little bit with a torch. The bend looks bad but its just the coating on the tube that got crusty. The bend is really smooth. Couldn’t use the sun visor. I will just make a plastic panel to cover the hole in the headliner from the visor. I will have to find one that possibly mounts to the cage. Still have enough room for the hood release. I also hand to remove the emergency brake. I going to switch over to the hand brake on the camaro center console.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

You won’t kick the speakers, lots of measuring has paid off well.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Got roll cage all cut and tacked in. Now it’s time to pull it out and finish welding and paint it. Had to use a couple more interlocking clamp then expected. That ok I won’t use any on the next cage.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Took my valve covers off over the weekend and it turns out this truck has had some good head work already done with some porting and bigger valves. It also looks like the edelbrock intake was put on just shortly before I bought it. I’m not going to do the 396 heads,roller upgrade, bigger cam and chip. I going to sell all that and go with a procharger. The new prochargers are a little pricey. They make them for the 5.7, 7.4, vortec and LS. If you don’t order the 600b procharger,you don’t have to run an oil line. The system actually adds to your existing pulley system so there is no extra crank pulley to install. At least on the 88,89 and 90 models with tbi there is no chip or programming of the ecu. You will get almost 600 horse and you can use your own high flow fuel pump and regulator that is supercharger sensitive. This system has to have an inter cooler that is included and designed to fit. You can also order the kit that adds the fmu fuel regulator and inline fuel pump.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Some pics

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Looks like a map of Bathurst Race Track. Lots of planning.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Kinda looks like a really expensive hamster or gerbil cage. With a running wheel, Instead of a supercharger. Maybe I should go that route. Would save a lot of money. But would go through
alot of hamsters.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Love it!!

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Hahaha!

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

This is the nice part about having interlocking bolt on clamps. Welded the entire cage in the driveway. Don’t have any nasty angle or areas missed because you can’t get the welding tip in. Then I can paint it and not miss the top because the roof. The welds look funny from a distance, but they actually really nice. The clamps and mounting plates are cabon steel. When I welded it, the carbon in the metal left black streaks around the welds. Have to wait for 1 more clamp to show up, to weld the cross brace on the back hoop. While I have the cage out. I going to install dynomat, insulation, new carpet, new seats and paint the floor.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Gee that looks great, but the bends are just like I feel at the moment. Renoing the office and one bedroom. Keep the pics coming.
BTW, are you going to trim the pipe work with material?

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Planning on putting this style red padding on. It’s only $3.99 for a 3 foot stick and it just Velcro’s on the cage. I really wanted the red neoprene wrap around pad with a Velcro Lock down .but they stopped selling it Also bought a firextinguisher base mount. All interior is out and dynomat is installed. Going to install a foil backed padding and a new padded carpet. Big sound difference with just the just mat. a sound difference. It’s so solid. Started raining so I couldn’t paint the cage down switch

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Got the roll cage finish painted before it started to rain. Now it’s going to rain till Friday. Got it done in a couple hours and worked another hour installing carpet pad over there dynomat. Tomorrow glue the carpet in, put in the cage and bolt it down. Then if I have time I will put the seats and console in and tyde up the wires a little more

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Pics

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

More pics

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Finally got the new carpet and roll cage in. Took almost two hours for the carpet and even though I welded most of the cage in the truck it still look a hour to put in. Now I need to bolt in down. Then put the center console, trim and seats back in.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

16 hours from pvc mock up to finish. Cage is done

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

That is looking good. You must be happy with the way it looks.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Went to 2 car shows this year. I would I took home a trophy on the first one, but they forgot to make the trophy and didn’t even announce the muscle truck class. This was a pretty organized show with over 400 cars.For some reason the obs trucks or trucks in general have a hard time in car shows around here. They haven’t really caught on yet. The Second car show I went to, I took home a trophy. But they lost it and didn’t find it till the end of the show. But I don’t go to car shows to win awards, I go to hang out with my friends.