Soooo...
Now that you have the pattern down, want to make me a set? Should only take you a couple of mintes :) lol
Nice work, as always!
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Soooo...
Now that you have the pattern down, want to make me a set? Should only take you a couple of mintes :) lol
Nice work, as always!
that was all done manually with just DRO on a bridgeport. if i made another set, i would try to program toolpaths on the CNC at work. we talked about making more. he ha a project that could use them, and i will have another soon enough. so i will let you know if we are making any more
Ryan
I could use a set also.
Dave
ok, i finally got the stuff and a chance to work on the exaust. still need to work up the post muffler dump or tailpipe, but its finally queit.
i know it looks like burnt buttholes, but i hate making cut and paste exaust, and i just wanted it done. but at least it is all mandrel
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l8...15/m715422.jpg
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l8...15/m715423.jpg
not one bit hangs below the frame
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l8...15/m715424.jpg
and a little video of how it sounds. BTW its not a flowmaster. it is a thrush.
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l8...th_m715425.jpg
drove to work and back today. massive rainstorm forced me to find replacement WS wiper blades, but other than that there were no issues.
first impressions are that i need a) more engine b) less tire c) more gear. it does pretty good but doesn't like pulling hills in 5th. i feel that some enigine upgrades may be in my future. i also can't find a place in the dash to insert my CDs? any ideas?
hopefully the sun comes out and i can do some top down cruising
Ryan
We had that rainstorm up here too. It was kind of nice for a change.Quote:
Originally Posted by ryanroo
Without going back through all the posts to find the information for myself, would you list your engine, tranny and axle specs? I only remember that you are running a BB, NV4500 and GM axles.
My small block GM motor was built to approximately 360HP/380 lbs-ft torque. I have the same NV tranny and MT tires, but still run stock axles with the 5.89 ratio. Like you mentioned, the long and steep hills prove that 5th doesn't quite have the "muster", but my truck can still pull most of them unloaded without grabbing 4th. I've just always assumed that I was spoiled by the PSTD in the Ford.
However, you just reminded me of my late teenage years when I worked at a lumber yard located at 10,000 feet in elevation. I delivered lumber in a late 80's Chevy 1 ton with a 454 and 5 speed. That truck would haul azz up the steep hills, even over some 11K+ elevated passes; it was a hoot to drive back then, especially when compared to my I6 Scrambler DD. I'm sure that the stock Chevy truck likely had similar torque output as my SB motor, but the horsepower was probably 30% less. Now, I'll assume that my truck just isn't "matched-up" perfectly like was that old Chevy.
Solve any one (a, b, or c) and the other 2 go away. I will personally always vote for A!!
The glove box is a great place for the CD player if you want the stock look - will keep it out of the weather too. Also make sure you get marine speakers - you will get caught without the top some time and paper cone speakers will just melt :(
Or, just use an Ipod/iPhone and save a bunch of money, wiring, and time while still being able to talk on the phone going down the road. Jennifer can hear me ok when I call from my iphone while I am driving the Whistler at full whistle. I can hear her too.
I agree with the ipod approach. CD's are so old school.
Besides, the truck is so noisy it's hard to listen to music unless you are sitting at a stop light.
Ryan, you saw and heard the radio in my M715 last year. Unless the top is on and the music all the way up, I can't hear it over 30 mph. My iphone and ear buds work at all speeds.
Markness, it is an 86 454 NV4500 and k30 axles with 4.56:1 gears. i think my biggest issue is the year that my engine was produced. it is stock minus all of the smog stuff, but it is one of the lowest power outputs ever offered from GM in the 454. i am thinking a cam/intake will help me out a bit. the rain was nice, but it kind of put a damper on my drive home. i waited out the brunt of the storm before i left for my 28 mile drive home. i still haven't hooked up the vacuum to the wipers so it would have been manual wipers and that didn't seem like fun. my boss thought it was funny though.
Kwai hit the nail on the head. cds are old school, but it is technology i can understand and operate well. we have an ipod, but it is to much of a hassle for me to upload download... whatever. plus most of my listening is to NPR or one of the local country radio stations. i like to use the drive time as my chance to keep up on the news.
Tim, i don't think i ever rode in your truck at the FE, but i do remember you saying it was difficult at best to hear the radio. i may be singing a different tune if i install a radio, but i think my truck is quiet enough to manage. i dont have alot of geartrain noise and my exuast dumps far enough away and is queit enough that it is actually pretty quiet. the tire hum is the worst part of the noise.
BBM715, i agree with your thinking. solving for A seems to be the best solution. with only 100 or so miles of seat time to base my feelings on i can't be for sure but it just seems like more power is a good solution. it will do pretty good in 5th, but with a factory rating of something like 280 HP and im guessing around 350ftlbs if that, it is just less than i am used to in my other 454 trucks. for now it will do fine though.
drove it again today. no issues yet except the napa fuel level guage seems to have crapped out on me. so i stopped to order a replacement and ran into a guy who had recently purchased an M109. it was kind of cool to have the two green machines parked next to one another.
ryan
Mine did the same thing after about a week. You may end up pulling the sending unit. Seems the Chineeze plastic insulator on the top of the sender lets the stud pull through and lose contact on those units. Thats the second one I had do that in two different vehicles.Quote:
Originally Posted by ryanroo
I just replaced all the plasticy junk with a couple of fiber washers and it took care of it permanently and on the spot. Worst part was dropping the tank.
thats not the kind of thing i want to hear Randy... i just bought some tube and i would rather start building a cage as opposed to dropping the fuel tank.
Ryan
brackets hold the troop seats up out of the way and become part of the side boards
At least those tanks aren't so hard to remove. Just drain it if you can.Quote:
Originally Posted by ryanroo
The best thing to do first though, is to try to ground the wire to the sender and see if the gauge registers "Full". If so, there is a fairly good chance that its OK and the sender is the problem. You can just get at the wire without dropping the tank too, so that may help. At least eliminate one or the other.
I mounted a reciever from an 06 tacoma underneath the drivers seat. I can adjust the volume and change songs while driving, i just reach my hand down and change it. I can hear music just fine all the way through the gears. I also have an ipod adapter for the taco head unit so i have ipod/cd capabilities.
I just did a new sending unit/ gauge and its not working, the ohm reading is off the scale. The gauge reads empty but im getting 21ohms. if its 240 empty and 33 full shouldnt the gauge be reading full?
does the guage match the sender? it is possible that they packaged them incorrectly?
i picked up some DOM for the cage today. got ~ 65' of 1 3/4" and 20'+ of 1 1/2" both .120" wall. hopefully i can start on that project sometime next week
Ryan
now to prove i wasn't lieing about the DOM.
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l8...15/m715426.jpg
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l8...15/m715427.jpg
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l8...15/m715428.jpg
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l8...15/m715430.jpg
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l8...15/m715432.jpg
been working on it slowly. finally made a plan for the seat mounts and that will happen soon hopefully then maybe i can start driving it again.
Ryan
do you have enough room to reach the dimmer switch with the bar there?
it is tight, but i can reach it. have to snake around the tube and the clutch and that is kind of hard with size 13 workboots, but doable
Ryan
so, i will dig this up again.
after the trip up the mountain, all of my friends told me that i was really gassy. i knew the thing was running really rich but after doing some investigation, it seems worse than i thought. it will paint a car next to the exaust black in no time and smokes(black like a diesel) when you goose it with no load. all this has led to gas smelling oil and me being concerned about wiping the mains and rods if i was driving it alot. not to mention it gets horrible mileage. so i found a solution today i hope
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l8.../m715/m715.jpg
For the lesser-informed people trying to learn, what is that component you've displayed in the photograph? I often paint the side of my barn black, when I start my 350, and it was a new motor. It's not consistent, but just during initial start-up and cold idle. I assumed that it had a lot to do with the manual choke engagement, and the carb mixture being out of balance during cold weather start-ups.
More educated folks have never thoroughly explained this to me, but simply indicated that it is normal. I don't have a lot of experience with eight cylinder gasoline engines, so I've never debated the issue. I've resided myself to park in different spots alongside the barn, and utilize each start-up as a form of barn siding wood preservative.
looks like an animal cage or maybe a shopping cart.
Ryan, you'll thank yourself a million and one times for doing that conversion. Especially on those side-hills and steep climbs.....
that is a brain box or ECM, wiring harness and throttle body for a 454. i also go the TB spacer tossed in for free. basically it is the big parts of a late 80s/early 90s fuel injection system for a big block.Quote:
Originally Posted by MarknessMonster
if you truck doesnt run to rich when warm it is probably fine. if it is a little smoky with the choke engaged or when it is pretty cool that is not to much to be concerned for. mine was way rich when it was warmed up and driving at normal engine speeds. as opposed to tune the carb for a narrow altitude range i decided to go one step more modern.
Kwai, that is a box for my brother in laws german short hair when they visit.
Randy, i am really looking forward to this. i actually think it will pick up some of that power i was lacking now since it wont be running so blessed rich.
Ryan
this was a great read
I agree, Fuel cost does not exceed the pleasure of owning and driving a real piece of history. The memories are priceless!
glad you guys enjoyed my extendo thread.
i collected a few more FI parts this weekend. a trip to the local scrapper netted me a new style remote coil non vacuum HEI and the TPS plug i needed for my harness. later this week i will swing by the yard and grab a few more odds and ends like TB mounting bolts and the air cleaner studs. might grab a knock sensor too. i may go ahead and keep that sensor function.
my buddy Drew went with me and afterwards we swung by his house and located all of his spare parts from when his old burb was still TBI. he had a coil, map sensor and ESTC. he also had an O2S bung, TB to carb intake adapter, and a one of the fittings need to adapt the TB fuel ports to AN -6. i ordered my heated O2S and the CTS from napa. so sometime next week i will have all of the major components with the exception of the HP fuel pump. i will have to order that and the neccesary plumbing sometime.
hopefull next week i can start figuring out the ecm mounts and routing wires etc.
after its all in i will know if i need a custom tune. i will likely have a PROM burned either way.
Ryan
so havent updated this in a while, but there hasn't been a lot to say. we have been pretty busy at work, and finding the time to get stuff done was challenging.
i took my time and ran the wires well, so the required parts of the GM harness are in the truck and the computer is mounted underneath the glovebox on the firewall. i also used a fused junction box to add enough fused circuits to the truck to run the hot and keyed hot 12v inputs to the ECM and the heat cicuit for the O2S and the fuel pump. i also ordered a bunch of stuff from summit 3 different times. of course the fuel filter i wanted is on BO till monday. after that arrives i can finish redoing my fuel lines and then hopefully next weekend i can spent swapping the Dist. and TB on to my motor and try to fire it up.
Ryan
wow, loved the thread. great read.
I really wish I had the skills and tools to do work like that.
As it is, I'm still paying for the custom work I had done to my wrangler.
When I get my hands on a M715, I think you have motivated me to do most of the work myself.
it surely is gratifing, but at times it can be infuriating also. at least if you are stingy like me and refuse to pay top dollar for some stuff that can be had/done for less if you spend your own time doing it.
i am glad that you enjoyed the read. hopefully soon i will have it running and the EFI conversion will be done. at that point i will have a few more interesting things to do.
Ryan
well i havent had much to update lately, but i can say with almost 100% positivity that the EFI conversion is done. it finally runs well.
after several weeks/months of not having it run correctly and several stints of being frustrated and walking away for a while, i decided i was trying to make to many mismatched components work together. i had assembled a slew of parts from a few different years, and i wasn't sure that they were working together as i had planned. i was on my way to diagnosing the issues and making everything work when i got frustrated one night and got on CL looking for a different production year TB and found a complete running pullout 87 tbi 454 and th400 out of a K30 about 30 miles from home for 500 bones. since my impulse to collect BBCs hasnt ebbed and this was a good deal for even just a core engine and the TBI parts i had to go get it.
the following saturday we had dissasembled it, inspected the bottom end, resealed and installed new gaskets, pulled the old engine and had the new one in and running. only took 15 hours. finally it runs right.
i have also started fabbing a new bumper for the front, and i would have pics, but the camera is down, so the will have to wait untill i replace the media cord thingy
Good for you, Ryan. I look forward to seeing your truck in August.
front bumper is done. did a little more fiddling with the timing, but everything seems to be great on the EFI front.
i finally got a front driveline. it is a 1350 CV and 1350 u- joint. i had to swap in a new pinion yoke. i locked in the hubs and drove home at 60 MPH. no extra vibes and all seems well. finally i dont feel like a poser anymore
ryan
Ryan, My name is Morgan Clark and I have been following your thread and I'm jealous of your fab skills. I live south of the boarder from you in Aztec. I have a 68 m715 and would like to get together with you and pick your brain. Give me a call at 505-360-0751.
If you need a new media cord thingy I could mail you one. My wife has a talent for breaking digital cameras, so we have extra cords. I can't wait to see a picture of the front bumper.
so, its been a long time, and we finally got our camera cord. not a bunch has happened that is terribly awesome, except a bunch of seat time. but here is a shot at one of the local reservoirs on the lakebed by the water. and you can see the new bumper, sort of.
Ryan
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l8...5-16-10198.jpg
Not sure if I've posted in this loong thread. Ryan your build has been captivating. If I were to do another M truck I would probably follow along the lines you have chosen. Very nice. I would love to make the National FE and meet everyone. I'm not planning because I probably won't be able to make it. Nontheless I think about it everyday. Great job and finally closer to finished. They are never DONE.
I love those white spoke wheels, and the old paint. Good job.
Did you jump in the bed to get away from that rat-like thing by the rear tire?