Here's another round of incremental updates. My photos are all starting to look the same, even to me. I think I should just post the photo and see if anyone spots the differences, like one of those pictures from when we were kids. Circle the differences!
Seriously, if you've been following along, you
may have noticed that the wiring harness is installed and all engine side plugs are connected! It took a little finagling to get the harness through the 2" hole I cut in the firewall, but it eventually cooperated. The grommet I found on McMaster worked out as well, although I did end up needing to cut it to get it on the harness. There was no way to force the plugs through it. Ideally, I would have depinned everything and slid the grommet on. You can also just barely see my positive side power feed-through bulkhead thingy on the firewall. This is straight up racecar stuff. My dad works in NASCAR doing wiring and he gave me this. The plan is to run the alternator to this junction point, and then another wire to the starter. More details on this in a later update.
Inside the cab, things are coming together as well. Again, you can just barely see that bulkhead coming through the firewall where I have my LS harness and truck harness power source joined. I am probably going to add a fusible link on the truck side since there was one factory and I lopped it off when rerouting everything. The LS side is fairly well protected by the fuse panel, which you can see to the right. It is easily accessible from below the dash, even after I add a shallow glove box (one day). I also have my PCM mounted up using a GM 15995679 mount. The PCM has been flashed by Brendan at LT1swap.com and should be ready to play nice with my swap configuration. Lastly, note the TAC module for the DBW (thats drive by wire, for those like me who always think, what's that mean!?). I will add more details on the actual pedal later. There are some annoyances associated with that.
For the battery, I decided to move it to the passenger side framerail behind the cab. I had a perfect spot there since my frame is stepped. I wanted to get it off the nose and also clean up the engine bay in the process. Plus, with the air intake needing to occupy that real estate, I had to do something. I got this battery box from Summit (PN SUM-430023) and it turned out to be nice quality.
That's enough wiring for now. Onto something else. While the truck was sitting on the ground at one point I noticed my front brake hoses were very tight, like, guitar string tight. I did a quick search on the forum and found out I'm not the first one to discover this issue on lowered trucks! There were plenty of suggestions, most commonly that C20 front brake hoses would work since they are 2" longer. If you keep digging, it seems most retailers have phased out the real C20 lines and just sell the same part for C10 and C20s. Someone said Brothers has the right C20 lines, so I ordered up a set. Wrong! They were the exact same length as my C10 lines. At one point 67ChevyRedneck posted a nice solution
here using Nova/Camaro brake hoses. So, I ordered up a set. Although they do work, they are too long given my drop! They rub quite extensively on the spindle through the range of motion.
At this point, I had to venture out and come up with my own solution. I noticed that if I could just rotate my original line and reclock the banjo fitting I would get some more slack in the hose. The original orientation has the line coming out towards the top. Problem is, there is a nub that locks the banjo fitting in place. I decided to pull the calipers and grind down the lip that clocks the banjo fitting so I could rotate it to exit the caliper more horizontally. On the left is the modified right side caliper, on the right is the original left side caliper. After doing this, it freed up just enough length and now fits perfectly. There is no rubbing or stretching of the hose in any position.
Last up for this edition of random updates is engine/trans fluids. I learned a little something in that GM changed the threads on the oil filter at some point. I mistakenly grabbed a filter for a 2004 Camaro (PF46), thinking the shortie filter would work with my 302-1 muscle car pan on my '04 engine. Turns out I need a PF48 filter, which is from 2007-later Camaros. I don't know why this was changed, but at least now I know what filter I need. So to my future self, you need a PF48 filter. Top it off with about 6 qt of 5w-30 oil and we are SO close to turning this motor over for the first time (since it was swapped).
My NV3500 transmission was also filled up with some GM recommended ACDelco 75W-80 Synchromesh Transmission Fluid. The drain plug had normal metallic sludge on it which was a good sign (no metal shavings!). After about 2.5 qt it was satisfied. My daughter joined me in the garage for this step. This photo was taken at 6 am. The new puppy I mentioned a few weeks ago thinks 4:30 am is a good time to wake up. I am on morning puppy duty on the weekends, so might as well make use of the extra time!
Since I like to always try and include a macroscopic view of the truck in with all these detail shots, here's another photo. Between my last post and this one I have now crossed over the 2 year mark of owning this truck. In that time I have driven it a total of only 30 miles! Definitely was not my original intent with this one, but I'm happy where it is headed nonetheless. Here it is the day I brought it home.
