Hackster's 1968 f100 CV Swap

[hackster]

Very nice work! I'm doing a twin turbo 347 stroker motor in my 68. Can't wait to play with it.

Got a build thread? I love me some turbo builds.

Made a little progress the last couple days.

Yesterday I started on the intercooler chopping it all up and turning the outlets back so they fit in the framerails. Got everything ready to weld but again with the lack of a tig welder I am up a creek without a paddle. Gotta wait until next week to get someone to weld this junk for me.



Once I had that dialed in, I got to mounting it, this turned out to damn near an all day event mocking up, core support on then off then on and so on. Finally landed on a location, a little bit lower than the frame rails, but it was about the only place I could make room for both the intercooler and the radiator.





So you can also see that I got a radiator mounted up. This was a total score on the local Craigslist. Believe it or not, its for a 68 camaro. I literally trimmed a little bit off the mounting bracket and bolted it up.







Well, i was able to actually get both inner fenders installed, with the radiator and core support with the intercooler and radiator.

I don't know why but it's a damn good feeling having this look like an engine bay again.

Also measured for a belt and picked one up and I'll be damned if the thing fit first time around.

Started fabbing up the upper and lower radiator hoses tonight but ran out of tube on the upper so it should be tomorrow?

Great thanksgiving weekend!!!

[sargentrs]

That is some great custom work! to you!

[Craigerf100]

I wonder how well a mid 70s stock 302 would fair with a turbo? They're mid to low compression right?

[hackster]

I wonder how well a mid 70s stock 302 would fair with a turbo? They're mid to low compression right?

I had a 93 fox body with a ho 302 that was awesome with a little bit of boost. Laid down just shy of 500 to the rear tires. Was a really really fun car to hoon around in.

Sleep was apparently not in the cards last night so I got an early start today, headed out and hit the eastside to get some tubing for the upper radiator hose.

Stopped by Mac's and left them with my intercooler to weld up the ends. They had it in and out in a half hour and did a great job welding it all up.

Got back home and got to work.

Polished up the intercooler and got it mounted up. Fits great and might be installed for good too.

Built the upper and lower radiator hoses out of .065 wall 1.5 and 1.375 mandrel bends and a little straight tube.



Turbo outlet is 4" v band connection with a short section of mandrel bent 4" then to a reducer and into the intercooler. Trying to keep my runs as short, clean and simple as possible.

Intercooler outlet is a couple more bends and up to the inlet via a 3"x4" 90.



Also fabbed up a little upper filler panel for the top of the radiator.


Piping is all welded ground down and sanded with a da and ready for paint or powder coat.







Hopefully tomorrow will be working on this fun project...

Dual Bosch 044, dual 100 micron filters, -8 from the sumped tank all the way up to the rail. -6 back from the rail to the tank.

[hackster]

Well,

Had a few setbacks today and struggled to keep on task, but I did make a little progress.

Made up a little plate and figured out a good plan for mounting up the pumps, filters and misc crap out of harms way and tucked up near the bottom of the bed.



I got it mounted up between where the driveline will go and the frame and shock.



Built a little bracket for the third 10 micron filter and got it all mounted up to the next crossmember.



All the fittings are tightened up and teflon taped for the pipe fittings.

Bent up one 1/2" supply line and one 3/8" return line and brazed on the -8 and -6 fuel lines onto them. Bending the stainless and getting it all mounted up was way more work than I imagined but they turned out about perfect.



Then did some sheetrock repair and textured the wifes bathroom (we are doing a little remodel )

Spent a couple of hours cleaning and painting the entire underside of the cab before any wires or lines get mounted up.

Back to work tomorrow.....well, the one that pays the bills at least.

Sean

[hackster]

Well, somehow I managed to feel better long enough to spend a good part of the day out in the shop.

Got a bunch of stuff done around the shop, cleaning up and organizing some crap.

Then I actually worked on the truck again.

Made lots and lots of measurements and then finally took the plunge and drilled a 6" hole in the bottom of the bed, hoping that it all lines up.

Trimmed up some stuff from underneath to get the bed to fit and had my buddy Brian come down to help me lift the bed on again.

Hot damn it fits and the filler was right where it should be.



Chopped up more GM parts being a gas filler door from a 2000 c/k pickup and made it work for what I wanted.



Turned out pretty good, reused the chopped out bed floor on a modified hinge and put a small indention/ finger grab in the bed floor. Need to add some little tabs to keep it flush with the bed floor when its down and weld on a couple studs to get rid of the screws but it works.

Welded in the bungs for the threaded intake air temp sensor and the spray nozzle for the meth injection in the intake piping.



Cleaned and prepped and primed all the stuff including the upper panel on the radiator. Should be able to scuff and sand tomorrow and get some paint on them.



Back onto some progress now. Trying to get it running in a few weeks.

Sean

[hackster]

Been a while since I updated this thread....

Still no shifter. Cannot find anything that I like that is offered in the 4l80e pattern. I really dont want a notchy funky pull up, weird shifter. Almost want a stock floor shifter from something like my trailblazer has in it. Ill keep looking though.

All the little stuff just keeps holding me up. I need the adapters for both coolant and oil pressure to go in the back of the block for oil and the passenger head for the coolant. Really want to use the stock guages since its one of the rare things that this truck actually came with.

There is lots of other little things, and all of them seem to need to come from outside the Portland Metro area....

Managed to get some 12x1.5 to -8 fittings to get me out of the bosch 044 fuel pumps and up to the rail, they showed up today along with my MSD wires.

The wires were great, they have multi angle on one end and 90's on the other end. I used the multi angle on 7 of the plugs and the 90 on the one behind the down pipe.

Kind of a pain but by the 8th one I had it down to a science. Mark, cut to length, strip, install connector, crimp, install boot and install little clip x 8





Got the alternator wire roughed in across the head, and up to the alternator, but not too sure how comfortable I am running it along the head and the back of the motor, but not too sure about running it behind the water pump and near the crossover and passenger v band flange.

What do you guys think.

Here is where I am at right now, seems like little tiny bits of progress, but this is damn near every wire to make this thing run.



I think if I get all the parts here and have one good solid day of work on the truck and maybe a little help, it will be ready to start up. :nod:

Sean

[Jason Jones]

Awesome work!!

[Jason Jones]

Awesome work!!

[hackster]

Awesome work!!

Thank you Jason!! (Twice)

I guess its probably pretty obvious by now that I am not a big billet/ polished aluminum fan.

So I turned to my wheeler side and ordered up this battery box from Trail Gear. Very happy with it, except that is says TG on it :judge: Its ok, I think its fitting for this project.

Finished drilling and got some paint on it.



And here is the old girl parked in her new home. Passenger side frame rail just under the bed floor in front of rear wheel.





And this is where I spent my entire day. There was about four feet of framerail that never got painted so I wire wheeled that and painted it finally. Looks good and needed to get done before I could get the wire ran and the bolts in for the hold down clamps.



Mounted up a battery disconnect switch in the bed floor with the future knowing that I would need a push pull from the back of the bed, so this should work for that. Its just a taylor single pole disconnect.



Moved onto the relays and power for the fuel system. I know that power makes these pumps run much better, so I gave it lots of power. Small fuse holder, and each pump gets its own dedicated 40 amp relay triggered from the GM ECU.



Installed and wired up.



Wired up the pumps, just waiting on hardware for these terminals but its wired.



Tranny Cooler installed, plumbed and wired up. Fused off the same little fuse block the fuel pumps are fused off of.



Negative battery cable is built and ran, main 12v is run from the battery terminal to the starter and clamped in place.

It doesn't look like a lot of progress by the pics and the end result, but soldering, shrink swpping and sleeving every single wire on the truck, often under the truck seems to take a lot of time.

I think I am almost done crawling around under this.

Need a couple fitting to finish the fuel lines.

Might invite a few people over next weekend and see if we can fire this turd up for the first time.

Sean

[Mancar1]

You are going to have one big smile on your face when you get er on the road

[sargentrs]

Wow! That is some great work!

[fbomb100]

boy oh boy that's going to sh&^T and get when done ..

[Mancar1]

Just my , but it doesn't matter who makes the parts. If they fit/work and ya want it. Go for it. Outstanding work you are doing on your project.
John....Keep on Trucking.

[elgemcdlf]

That is exactly what I have planned for my battery. Clean up under the hood and seems like the perfect spot for it.