My one handed 88 Shortbed build.

[UncleWillie]

I was going to post this in the build threads, but I read Yeagers warning and I was scared he would come set my house on fire.

It is one handed because about 1.3 of the way through my carpal tunnel got so bad it required immediate surgery. It was done several years ago by a doc who screwed it up. When I couldn't even pick up my coffee it was time to fix it.

I am copying this from another forum so hang on for a bunch of posts.


I had a woman call me to come clear some scrap metal out of her yard. Under a tree was an 88 Chevy short bed with about 3 feet of pine needles covering it. I gave her $500 and left with it. It had to work on the way home. We loaded 4 work benches on it. I towed it behind my 94 Chevy Suburban that died shortly thereafter. The little S10 is my wife's 500K mile S10 still doing work.

It sat in the yard for a few weeks with no real hurry to get it on the road. We started it up and it smoked like a house on fire. It also had no brakes. That was a fun test drive.

Then the 454 in the Suburban decided it was time to retire.It has a mystery electrical fault that will not let it go past 2500 rpm. ( and before the suggestions come rolling in on fixing it - yes I tried that) It left me with no work truck. So rather than fix the 11 MPG beast I decided to get the 88 on the road.

 

[UncleWillie]

Pulled the engine.
It was covered in grease and oil and grunge from a massive oil leak. Some Purple Power and a pressure washer and it looks pretty good. Still have some cleaning to do.

Decided to hose the outside off too.
Most of the pine sap and mold came off on the first pass.

I bought an engine.

Guy said it was perfect. Got it home. One cylinder was full of water and it had 60psi compression on 2 cylinders. If I wanted to rebuild one I would rebuild mine (which will happen eventually). Took it back and got my money. I was called every name in the book. I was bigger than he was so I got my money and left.

So if you are not too far from Charlotte NC and have a cheap 350 let me know.

While I am looking for an engine I decided to clean some more

Pulled the bed off and hosed it with degreaser.

 

[UncleWillie]

The under side is covered in oil and gunk.

The bed was full of trash and pine needles.

Propped it up for cleaning

 

[UncleWillie]

Final wash of the engine bay
Next comes paint

Back cleaned up nice too
I am going to lift it up with the crane tomorrow and get under the cab.

Under the bed
Still gunky but getting there. My shoulder gave out so I had to stop.

 

[UncleWillie]

Needed to clean the underside so the gantry crane lended a hand

Flipped the bed. Still have some gunk to clean off it

Better shot of the underside hosed down with degreaser, Bottom on the cab is nasty!

Do you endo?

 

[UncleWillie]

Got an engine for the 88. Compression and leakdown tests showed it has a blown head gasket or cracked head between cylinders 2 and 4. Not a big deal since I wanted to go ahead and do the heads any how and I have 2 sets of heads if these are cracked.
No pictures because I figured ya'll already knew what a nasty 350 looks like.




Hosed down the engine with degreaser.
It was super nasty

My son, Jared and I attacked the frame and engine compartment with Rustoleum rattle cans. Looks a world better.

 

[UncleWillie]

The other engine.

Did a compression and leak down test. Showed blow-by from cyl 3 to 5. I figured it was a blown head gasket - worst case scenario is a cracked head and I have 2 more sets. SO we (my son Jared and I) pulled it down. Here he was using a box for the pushrods

Decided to make something reusable

Took an old drawer and drilled holes in it. Covered the other side in a old metal sign. Everything is numbered. Super easy.

He was pretty proud.

This is the first engine he has ever had apart.

 

[UncleWillie]

Thursday the machine shop called and said the heads were cracked. NO problem I had another set in the shop. Had to dig them out and send them off.

Forecast is calling for monsoon weather so I figured I needed a dry place to work. The carport is full of tractor stuff so no working there.

Saw an ad on CL for a portable building. Got it up just in time on Sunday. It has rained ever since.

Last night I spent some quality time on Rock Auto ordering parts to put things back together.

 

[UncleWillie]

Got the heads back today. Purty

 

[UncleWillie]

I had surgery at this point. It left me with one usable hand for a while.

Since I can't do much with my hand after the surgery and I needed to clean some parts....

 

[UncleWillie]

This is just one of the many maple tree helicopters that fell out of the bottom end when I pulled the oil pan off. The pan off the junk yard engine got dented. I also found oil bottle cap and foils in the valve covers. Small wonder it smoked. It had been starved for oil. I would imagine the genius that "fixed" the rear main seal with RTV did this to it.

I had to have carpal tunnel surgery on my right hand so things got slowed down a bit. Jared went to AZ to visit his mom so I lost my helper. I recruited my wife to help me set the heads on.

Painted the valve covers

Shot the oil pan
I am not overly happy with how this came out. I may strip it down and do it again.

 

[UncleWillie]

More paint
In between working on the wifes truck I managed to shoot a couple of coats of paint on the engine.

Even more Black paint

Orange paint!
Yes I panted over the gasket surfaces. I will be quicker to buzz it off with the scotch brite wheel than worry with the tape.

Even shot the magnet
Stupid thing keeps getting lost no matter where we put it. Should be a bit easier to find.

 

[UncleWillie]

I got out last night when it was cooler and worked on the engine till about 1am. With doctors restrictions on my hand it was a bit hard to do my myself. Got the rockers, pushrods, and timing chain on. No adjustments yet.

I flipped it over and installed the oil pump

Then I needed the accessory drive off the old engine.

Black is beautiful

Painted the Exhaust

Putting the lineless clothes line to use

Intake and other parts clean and painted

Bottom of breather. First coat.

I painted the distributor hold down orange instead of black because it is always impossible to see when it is all the same color.

When I started to paint the lid it fell into the grass. I hosed it down with oven cleaner to strip it again.

Garagamahal?

 

[UncleWillie]

I got out last night when it was cooler and worked on the engine till about 1am. With doctors restrictions on my hand it was a bit hard to do my myself. Got the rockers, pushrods, and timing chain on. No adjustments yet.

I flipped it over and installed the oil pump

Then I needed the accessory drive off the old engine.

Black is beautiful

Painted the Exhaust

Putting the lineless clothes line to use

Intake and other parts clean and painted

Bottom of breather. First coat.

I painted the distributor hold down orange instead of black because it is always impossible to see when it is all the same color.

When I started to paint the lid it fell into the grass. I hosed it down with oven cleaner to strip it again.

Garagamahal?

 

[UncleWillie]

Looks like an engine
I wrenched my back trying to rotate the full dressed 350 on the stand. I also had Carpal Tunnel surgery so thing have been slow. Today I hobbled around like the hunchback of Notre Dame. Adjusted valves, and installed timing cover, harmonic balance, intake, and valve covers. The gasket set I bought was the only one in stock and it was opened. They marked it on the receipt, Discovered a missing EGR gasket today. I was hurting so it was time to stop anyhow. Wife ran down to get the gasket.

Spooky
Finally the truck has a name, The wife said the black and orange looked like halloween. You can also barely see where I made the timing marks more visible with white paint. I painted over it with a white paint pen then gently wiped it off so it left paint in the letters. Spooky is barley visable in person.

 

[UncleWillie]

Moving day.

I hooked the mobile crane to the Falcon and moved the bad engine out. I have taken all the parts off of it that I am going to. Then I moved Spooky (LOL) over to the middle where it is easier to work on. Less clutter in the tent now.

I got a little more done last night. It was late and I was drenched in sweat and I forgot to take any pics.

 

[UncleWillie]

Moving day.

I hooked the mobile crane to the Falcon and moved the bad engine out. I have taken all the parts off of it that I am going to. Then I moved Spooky (LOL) over to the middle where it is easier to work on. Less clutter in the tent now.

I got a little more done last night. It was late and I was drenched in sweat and I forgot to take any pics.

 

[UncleWillie]

Fuzzy pics. I was tired and didn't realize they were bad.


Looked in the shop and found a brand new AC compressor I bought for another truck. Put it on. Then flipped her over and installed the oil pan.

Turned it over and slapped on a few more things.

No work on it today. I have to attend a birthday party for a 2 year old. Yippee. Might be out late tonight.

 

[ecoast]

sh*t load of cleaning, fixing, and re-furbing!

I just told my wife how there is all kinds of unplanned project time when one thing leads to another!

 

[UncleWillie]

This is how a Two day project turned out to be a month long endeavor and counting

 

[UncleWillie]

Got more stuff put on today.

After having a tree fall in my work area ( before the tent went up) some bolts got lost. Having to scramble around and hunt for them. Makes things more interesting.

No Exhaust manifold

This engine came out of a van. I didn't realize the difference in the manifolds until I had them both on and the one of the drivers side was a good 8 inches in front of the passengers side. Since the original engine was smogged I had to fight the smog line out of the manifold and I will go find the right sized plug for it. It appears the passengers side is identical except for the bung for the smog line.

Alternator will look better in a while. I put Vaseline over the black. It will wash off and look better.

More stuff on.

I like to have never figured out how those stupid sensors went on the bracket. I played with it for about 30 minutes. Finally I found one picture in the Haynes manual that happened to have the sensors in it.

Passengers side all dressed up.
Gunner inspecting my work.

Waiting on paint to dry.

The original manifold was nasty ( and the other side was already painted) so I painted it. I will get it on later tonight.

At this point it started looking like a monsoon was rolling in on us. I was drenched in sweat anyway and it was about 5:00. Rain never happened. I will go out later and stick more parts on.

 

[UncleWillie]

Got more stuff put on today.

After having a tree fall in my work area ( before the tent went up) some bolts got lost. Having to scramble around and hunt for them. Makes things more interesting.

No Exhaust manifold

This engine came out of a van. I didn't realize the difference in the manifolds until I had them both on and the one of the drivers side was a good 8 inches in front of the passengers side. Since the original engine was smogged I had to fight the smog line out of the manifold and I will go find the right sized plug for it. It appears the passengers side is identical except for the bung for the smog line.

Alternator will look better in a while. I put Vaseline over the black. It will wash off and look better.

More stuff on.

I like to have never figured out how those stupid sensors went on the bracket. I played with it for about 30 minutes. Finally I found one picture in the Haynes manual that happened to have the sensors in it.

Passengers side all dressed up.
Gunner inspecting my work.

Waiting on paint to dry.

The original manifold was nasty ( and the other side was already painted) so I painted it. I will get it on later tonight.

At this point it started looking like a monsoon was rolling in on us. I was drenched in sweat anyway and it was about 5:00. Rain never happened. I will go out later and stick more parts on.

 

[UncleWillie]

Only thing left is installing it.
Ran out of paint on the passengers exhaust manifold. Oh well, it ain't a show truck.

 

[UncleWillie]

I got up today and went to a doctors appointment. Turns out that I wasted my time. Appointment is tomorrow. Heath played with my tablet and changed the date. Oh well. The secretary is cute.
So I came home.

Progress.

After taking care of a few housekeeping items today we got the engine dropped in the truck. Also put the Torque converter back in. All I lack now is finishing.

Lowered the pop up canopy and called it a night.

Came in drenched in sweat and dog tired.

 

[UncleWillie]

Things are moving slowly, but moving.

Steph started doing her unpaid student teaching so I am at home with Heath 5 days a week. It is about impossible to get anything done while trying to watch him. If he thinks he isn't being watched he puts those little legs to good use.


Some tiny progress.

Made a list of what is left

The work force
Steph and Heath lending a hand.

Got the belt on finally.

Had to try three times to get the right size.

Heath helping out more

Heath added an auxilliary belt
NO word on what it does yet.

Fuel lines hooked up (and a stray piece of tape)

And a roadblock.

The TBI I am using is off a 94 truck. It has all the ultimate TBI mods done to it . Only problem is my 88 transmission has a kickdown (TV) cable the 94 didn't so there is no provision to hook the cable up. I spent some time removing the stud from the 88 TBI.

Not much there to work with.

Good thing is I have a friend who has a machine shop. I dropped it off with him and he is working on it now.

Made an engine primer

This old distributor was locked up and no good. A little work on the bench and I have it freed up and ready to use to prime the engine with oil when we are ready to start it up.