228 replies to this topic

[jamesmpi]

Excellent. Good effort. Enjoy it as much as you can.

Looking at that photo by the sea makes me think you need a different style of wheel with retro white walls lol proper American

[M44K TS]

Nah, I love the wheels that are on.  Only way it'd get white walls is if it was scraping the floor on air bags.

 

I almost had 200 trouble free miles of running it in, Thursday night, I left my work van in the unit and decided to take the truck home via dropping one of our lads off at home.  Everything had been going great, parked the truck up at home, sorted the idle speed as when the engine was warm, it was idling a little high, about 1100 rpm in park with no load, after adjusting it, it sits around 650 rpm in gear under load and around 700rpm in park which I'm happy about.

 

So, decided to put another 50 miles or so on it.  I was going to head straight up the motorway and head through Newcastle then head back along the coast.  Luckily, I decided to get a bottle of water I had left in the van as I got to within 1/2 a mile of the unit when I heard an almighty hissing noise followed by a lot of smoke.  Fearing the worst, I quickly pulled into my mates unit which is round the corner from ours to fine oil covering the whole engine bay and dripping onto the floor at an alarming rate.  I really thought that somehow, I'd blown a hole in the side of the engine.  Luckily I hadn't.

 

What I did find was this:

 

The oil pressure sender has totally blown apart hence why the whole engine got covered in hot oil spewing out at around 60psi!

 

It left a bit of a mess outside of Si's unit!

 

Now I'm going to have to spend the next day or so cleaning the 'bay down.  Bit of a bugger as I need a hand pushing it in and out of the unit as I can't drive it., I can push the truck out as there's a small incline at the roller door, but need a hand pushing it back in.  It's a good job I have lots of degreaser!.

 

This is what dripped off the underside of the bonnet when it was up

 

This is about half of the oil slick I left on the road too!

 

So, I had planned on wet vac-ing the interior of my Golf over the weekend, but looks like I'll be getting covered in oil instead

 

Ordered a new pressure sender and wiring loom as it's destroyed the wiring plug when it came off, from Dakota Digital, paid the extra for their fast delivery so should have it by Tuesday with a bit of luck.

[surfblue63]

I spotted your truck at the Metro the other night. Nice looking ride.  

 

 

 

[M44K TS]

Cool, you should have said hello.  Were any of your mini's there?

 

As for the engine, it's all nice and clean now.

 

Hoping the new sender doesn't take long.  I just want to drive it!

 

Couldn't resist messing about with the last photo too.

 

My dad took a few shots from a distance of the sort of crowds that were looking round it, I'll upload those later.

[surfblue63]

Cool, you should have said hello.  Were any of your mini's there?

 

As for the engine, it's all nice and clean now.

 

 

Hoping the new sender doesn't take long.  I just want to drive it!

 

 

 

 

I was there in my white Sprite, parked over on the McDs side.

 

Good to see the engine bays all cleaned up.

 

As you can see from the pics you were just pulling out when I took them. If I spot you at a future Metro meet I'll tap on your window and say Hello.

[M44K TS]

Ah, I didn't get a chance to have a wander over that end, I'll keep an eye out for you next month!

 

Couple of pics have surfaced from Wednesday..

 

[sonikk4]

That just looks so right with the rat look and the stance. Shame about the sender but these things do happen.

[M44K TS]

Cheers, I can't pin point why it looks so much different to other Chevy trucks I see, I think it's due to it not having a rear bumper and possibly the wheels.

 

New oil sender turned up this morning, had a spare half hour between appointments this afternoon so fitted it.  I still need to install the wiring for it, I'll try and get that done tonight as I'm back out to work for an hour or 2 now.  Then, I just need to top the oil up and take it for a cruise about.

[M44K TS]

Right, well, I can't believe I haven't updated this for almost a month!

 

New oil sender is sorted, the new wiring loom for it is neatly tucked in place behind the kick panel carpet, it's full of oil again and I've been out in it quite a bit racking the miles up.  Mostly in the blazing sunshine, but did drive it in the wet a couple of weeks ago and it was a bit of a handful, with it having next to no weight over the rear end, the rear wheels just spin up with anything other than light throttle.  Of course, it was inevitable that I had to double check that was the case....

 

Rather impressive smoke in the wet!

 

As the weather improved, I've used every excuse to go for a drive out in it.

 

I had the extra supports put in the seat frame on either side to stop it flexing, it's now really strong, also had it powder coated black.  Just needs the seat base carpeted and the back of the seat trimmed

 

 

That should hopefully be done either one night this week or even next week as I have a week off work.  I have a few jobs to do on the truck when I'm off, one of them being the 500 mile oil change and a few other small bits.

 

Reading an engine run in guide, it mentioned to do a couple of full throttle runs amongst a few other things, so thought it'd be rude not to video it...

 

 

[Spud_133]

Sooooooooo jealous right about now

[M44K TS]

Now there's almost 500 miles on the engine, I think it's safe to have a little fun....

http://distilleryima...a1fb838_101.mp4

That link should work, let me know if it doesn't.

[MrBounce]

I want to do that. In your truck. Now.

[M44K TS]

I'm not sure my rear tyres will cope with much more abuse!

 

No huge updates I'm afraid, only that I've actually managed to hit my 500 miles on the new engine, (already did 24.8 on the old one) New oil is ordered, I have the zinc additive and the new filter, so hopefully tomorrow, if the oil shows up, I'll change it.

 

 

[M44K TS]

The oil still hasn't turned up so whilst I'm waiting for that, I had the stencils applied, they're pretty intricate so didn't want to chance buggering them up myself.

 

 

Slapped some off-white paint on so just waiting for it to harden properly then I can peel off the stencil and weather it with a scotchbrite pad to make it look a bit more authentic

 

Also, got a text off Si who did the welding repairs on the floor and painted the engine bay, he also sorted me the paint for the stencils as he works in a paint and body panel suppliers, he was delivering to a hot rod & custom bodyshop and said there was an identical Chevy pickup to mine having a V8 fitted, I didn't think it would be exactly like mine until I saw the photos he sent...

 

How mine would have originally looked with the steel wheels and original suspension etc

 

And how the interior would have looked!

 

I might have a cheeky drive up and have a nose about it!

[M44K TS]

Well, the stencils came off, pulled some of the paint off the door with it, the white paint didn't adhere to the door properly so I've taken it all back off again, having another pair of stencils made up then going to try spraying it on instead of rollering it.

 

Passenger door didn't look too bad, just the ampersand that peeled off...

 

 

Drivers door was a different story

 

Attempt number 2 should hopefully look a lot better as I'll be able to dust the paint over it which should make it easier to weather.