Awesome build up. I was wondering what the hell happened to this thing! I like how you've taken Greg's project and put your own twist on it.
Thanks, after getting side tracked again (its amazing how fast 2 1/2 months can get by) I'm working on it again. I've got the left a-arm done and I'm starting to work out some of the problems that are a result of using the Corvette spindles ( aside from the axle centerline being behind the balljoint centerline, I have to notch the frame for tierod clearance with the suspension at full compression and the steering at full lock and having to make some stops for the steering. It's the old saying in enginerring " if you change one thing, count on changing three others"
I'll have some more pics up soon. (my laptop crashed recently and image processing software was one of the casualites.)
Sorry about the computer. A royal pain in the ......
I do love this thread though. Just a different approach to something cool.
Thanks Tony, the way I'm building the truck has two things going on, first it'll bookend nicely with what I have in mind for my other project, the Grin Reaper http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum3/HTML/000024.html second think what if, what would it have been if GMC got the nod to provide S-10 Blazers as the pace car!!!
I see from the view count, there are a lot of people watching, please feel free to post your comments, thoughts and ideas.
OK, whatever happened to the build. I was talking to johnyrottin about doing this after i picked my Indy up this weekend with my Astro van. This is awesome! And so is my new Indy....LOL
[This message has been edited by danger (edited 12-13-2010).]
It's been too long since my last update. Here's some pics from recent work
One of the problems created by the Corvette spindles, the tierod locations are higher and farther back in relation to the S-10 spindles, this caused an interference when the suspension is compressed and the wheel is turned full lock. (not that I think I'll ever encounter that possible combination while driving, but you have to take all possibilities into account when modifiying suspension)
When you cut a notch that you'll reinforce, you need to allow room for the reinforcement.
Using a piece of scd 40 2" pipe, I made the gusset and welded it in.
That's much better. Onto other problems, an sbc in an S-10 with a short waterpump is a tight fit, using a long pump using and the 4.3 acsesories increases the difficulty factor many times, to make the required room, the ac condenser and radiator need to be moved from their original locations. The ac condenser was set into the rad support and the rad set behind the support, to make room the ac condenser will move to the front of the support and the rad will move to the area the condenser sat, several cutoff wheels gave their life to trim the support to get the rad to fit in it.
Even with all the cutting, I needed to lower the rad to get it in and have room for the top mounts.
I cut some 1" box tube to make the saddles for the lower rad mounts.
The rad in the support.
And the ac condenser in front of the support along with the modified hood latch, I've since finished mounting the rad and adapting a set of fans and the housing from a Dodge Intrepid, aside from a couple of custom brakets you'd think it came from the factory it fits soo good, I'll get some pics this weekend.
Next up on the problem solving channel, How to fit a third gen right side Camero exhaust manifold to Vortec heads, here's a hint as to what the problem is. The Vortec heads don't have the seventh bolt hole that's been on all cast iron sbc heads since '78
BTW have I mentioned that I hate using MS paint to resize pics, can somebody recomend an easy to use program???
Cheers Beers n Beers. Joe
[This message has been edited by motoracer838 (edited 12-16-2010).]
Here's more of how the rad and fans came together.
The fan assembly came from a second gen Dodge Intrepid, to make it fit I had to grind about a 1/16" off each side, cut off the existing brakets and make some new ones. This setup made enough room to allow me to move the engine forward in the compartment, making more room at the back where the exhaust manifold and ecm wire harness were fighting for room. It's truly amazing how well it fits the S-10 rad, it completely covers the core.
On to that little problem I hinted about in my last update.
Notice that there are two bolt holes to the left of the port, the far left hole was added by gm in '78 to allow a manifold that they used on the mid size cars of the time (Monte Carlo, cutlass etc) with the sbc and also used on the third gen f-bodies, this manifold is by far the best fit on a V-8 S-10. Here's the problem, the "seventh" bolt hole wasn't included on the Vortec heads. It could be assembled without the last bolt, but you'd have an exhaust leak in short order. Note this pic is of another sbc in my shop, not the one in the blazer with the Vortec heads.
Here's my fix.
I drew up an adapter flange and had a local shop that does cnc laser cutting make it for me, it has a countersunk allen at the "sixth" hole to complete the seal on the head side and the "seventh" hole is taped for 3/8"-16 to seal at the back of the manifold.
I still have some port matching to do.
And here's how it looks in place, you can also see the room between the manifold and the heat shield for the harness, before I moved the engine forward, the manifold was hard up against the heat shield, unacceptable!!!
A royal pain in the ......
