B3000 SHO swap

[pat8703]

I found a source for the crank bolt. I meant to give arp a call today but forgot. I also found a crank under drive pulley.

If you want to not hoard those pulleys, I know someone who is interested.

 

[pjtoledo]

those pullies qualify as antiques now, bought them from "The SHO SHOP" over 20 years ago. they are an MTX set, PS and water are 4 rib belt, alt is 6.
what's the source for the under drive crank pulley? I'm curious about it and if it is less effective as a harmonic dampner.
FYI, you know there's a difference between 3.0 and 3.2 balancers, right?

 

[pat8703]

Yeah I know the mtx and atx have different belt drives. I know the mtx alt pulley can be ran on the atx though.

Apparently shosource still has atx underdrive crank pulleys. I'm not sure if they're solid metal or have a silicone damper ring. They're not listed on the website but Mike, the owner, said they still have them in an email. I'm working on getting hd valve springs and bigger butterfly valves as well.

 

[pat8703]

So after being lost in chicago for a week (not anywhere near where I live), the turbo header flanges finally showed up. Just in time as I am just finishing up a motor swap for a client. Tomorrow I'll be able to start on header fabrication. and yes, I forgot to paint the motor mounts. I'll clean them up and paint everything once I get headers and crossover tube done.

A buddy of mine has a second hand 64mm borg warner turbo I might grab instead of using the HX35 off of one of my other cars.

 

[pat8703]

I had to finish up the motor swap this morning, so I only had a couple of hours today to start on the manifolds. I wanted to make simple log style manifolds because they work, but the steering column on the drivers side doesn't make things easy. So I came up with this contraption. It looks cooler than it is, but it will work just fine and the style actually matches the runner style of the intake manifold. The passenger side is easier, however I hate what I have come up with. I hate it so much that I'm going to remake it tomorrow to somehow stylistically match the drivers side even though what I have for the passenger side will actually perform better than the other side. I also have to try and see if I can get that borg warner tomorrow

 

[pat8703]

Burning through some runners.

I'm on track to have the manifolds "done" tomorrow. I'll be picking up the turbo off my buddy on thursday. I ordered a unique turbo flange that should be here around the same time. I won't be able to complete the crossover tube until that comes in or (obviously) mount the turbo flange until I get the turbo. But the meat of the headers will be done.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Nice looking welds. You've done this before....

 

[pat8703]

Thank you. Yes, actually. I hope I didn't give the impression that this is my first project or anything. I own a custom fab shop where I do swaps, conversations, and build race cars when I not on the road for my main job.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

No, your impression is of someone who has done this before. That's a good thing and I'm glad you're recording it here. I like learning new things.

 

[pat8703]

So these pictures are terrible, I apologize. I'll get some better shots when I get the motor out of the truck for the final time and get the header kit finished up.

I also got the intake manifold spacers back from waterjet. I'm working on port matching them and just about finished here.

 

[pat8703]

The flash really ruined these pictures, but y'all can deal. Turbo on the headers and mounted on the engine. I started on the task of resealing the motor and cracked the oil pan by not realizing the oil pump is built in to the front main housing. I can fix it, but oh well. tomorrow I should have all of the replacement bearings for the idlers and pulleys and final parts order to seal the motor up. I spent a bunch of time sand blasting all the aluminum parts. I thought about painting everything but meh, when I blow up the motor I'll do it. Apparently this motor had a bad waterpump. When I pulled off the timing cover it was NASTY underneath. But yeah, I'll have everything to finish the motor except the harmonic balancer, valve springs, and PS pump tomorrow. I'll get those when they come in.

 

[pat8703]

Customer cars are keeping me busy. I managed to squeeze some time in today to work on the intake manifold some more between working on one of the wife's projects.

This is entirely overkill for this swap, but overkill is how I like to do things. The factory intake is aligned by a single 6x12mm dowel, one per flange. The bolt holes are 9.5mm while the bolt is 8mm. This is fine for stock everything, but with 2x gaskets and my 1/2" spacers, it just won't do to keep things lined up. So I reamed all the bolt holes out to 10mm. This allows me to use precision 10mm shouldered bolts in addition to adding a longer 6mm dowel to keep everything nice and perfect.

 

[pat8703]

Got a little time today to work on the truck again.

I fixed the crack I put in the oil pan. It's driving me nuts how poorly the cast aluminum from this SHO welds up like. This was sand blasted, then wire brushed and alcohol cleaned, then buffed. I just cannot get it to weld clean. It's strong enough, but not pretty. Thankfully the outside welded better than the inside. This is also after a final sand blasting. I also took this time to weld on a 10an bung for the turbo drain.

For anyone interested, these are the part numbers for ARP flywheel and pressure plate bolts for the sho MTX. The flywheel bolts are cozzy, and the pressure plate are LS timing cover, but they work great for this application. They're cheap and you end up with a couple of extra bolts.

The clutch and flywheel are on. The parts for these are:
MTX sho flywheel
MTX sho starter (Ranger should also work)
MTX sho pressure plate
Chevy Lumina z34 clutch disk
Ranger pilot bearing

At this point I would put the motor back in the truck for the final time and start wiring it up, but I'm waiting for HD valve springs to come in. No sense pulling cams with the motor in the truck. I might put it in to finish the fab work. Undecided.

 

[pat8703]

Hey so I know I haven't posted anything in quite some time. I'm still working on the truck. I travel for work and left town in Feb and got back around the end of May. About 1 week ago I finished up some customer work and got a chance to get started on the truck. These photos suck, I know. The camera on my phone is all scratched up and these were just supposed to be quick shots texted to a friend.

Meanwhile, I have a lot of performance bits for the motor. I started the rebuild process and found one of the bores was wiped out with rust. So I now have ARP main and head studs, weisco forged pistons, and cams and adjustable cam gears. Once I get the chassis fab done, the motor is going off to the machine shop .

Lets see if anyone can notice what's changed with the chassis

 

[pat8703]

Frame went to blasting yesterday and is back this morning got everything painted in steel-it. I only ordered about half as many cans as I thought I needed, so some is still raw, but I can easily clean any flash rust off to paint . The dimpled parts are frame boxing plates and will get welded in once the paint dries. I also have to finish boxing the IRS swap plinths in, but I wanted to be able to get the inside painted before I closed them off.

I have a couple small customer projects I have to get done early in the week and then I'll be and to start the tubular secondary frame assembly.