Pile of parts
Well-Known Member
- Location
- South Jordan
Agreed. I don't like headrests in the back windows of old trucks.
Here we go... 1969/70 Chevy C10/K20 projects
- Thread starter Greg
- Start date
Spork
Tin Foil Hat Equipped
- Location
- Saratoga Springs, UT
I'm in the it's too much seat, wondering if it's starting to take legroom away.
- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
Yeah, the seat is out... I found a decent C10 bench seat near by that I'm going to look at tomorrow. It's in pretty good shape, but the Mexican blanket will still go on it.
Tailpipes are for old men...
I want it to be rowdy, but not drone. We'll see how it does, the lack of carpet before compounded the issue for certain.The ACC carpet kit is QUALITY, I got this one from RockAuto for $150!
I agree, the seat was cheap but it's not a match for the truck. The headrests don't bother me, but @Spork nailed it... these are thicker than the factory seats and make the cab even tighter than it already is. Hopefully I can pick up that good C10 bench tomorrow and toss the blanket on it, calling it good.
- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
FINALLY, back on this thing! After a 2 week vacation out of the country and a week out of town for work, I've finally had a chance to get on the C10 again.
It still need plenty of work before it's ready to list for sale (totally missed my 2 month plan), but I've made some decent progress. Most of it has been on the interior.... I decided to have the factory seat reupholstered, as the Tahoe seat just wasn't working out. I had a local shop in Fruita do the work and it turned out amazing! He combined Blue (interior color) with Black vinyl in the right places and it looks killer!
I stripped the rust on the seat mounts with a bath in acid, then painted them with black gloss Rustoleum.
I laid out the new carpet and added the new door sill plates, bolted the brackets in place and slid the seat where it was at home. The color of the newly rebuilt seat and the interior color really came together!
It still need plenty of work before it's ready to list for sale (totally missed my 2 month plan), but I've made some decent progress. Most of it has been on the interior.... I decided to have the factory seat reupholstered, as the Tahoe seat just wasn't working out. I had a local shop in Fruita do the work and it turned out amazing! He combined Blue (interior color) with Black vinyl in the right places and it looks killer!
I stripped the rust on the seat mounts with a bath in acid, then painted them with black gloss Rustoleum.
I laid out the new carpet and added the new door sill plates, bolted the brackets in place and slid the seat where it was at home. The color of the newly rebuilt seat and the interior color really came together!
- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
The cheap Amazon (Chinese) starter I bought sh!t the bed and wouldn't turn the engine over anymore, so I bought a new high torque starter from Jegs. I need to get it swapped in tomorrow, then bleed the brakes (again). Then work on some tuning issues and finally the title paper work... so I can get it in my name, the put it up for sale!
Also worked on the brake and turning lights out back, stripping them down and preparing to rewire the entire system. I bought some new lenses, as the old ones were broken out. Cleaned up the reverse lenses too... hopefully I'll get to the rest of it tomorrow!
Also worked on the brake and turning lights out back, stripping them down and preparing to rewire the entire system. I bought some new lenses, as the old ones were broken out. Cleaned up the reverse lenses too... hopefully I'll get to the rest of it tomorrow!
- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
Been working on all these little things that have been kicking my ass for awhile now, wrapped up the rear brake & tail lights with new wiring, bulbs & lenses. Adjusted and bleed the brakes again, greased the zerks, shimmed the starter, etc.
I wanted to go for a longer drive, so I took it down to work (I'm off today, working on projects) and this truck is so rad to drive! The suspension is pretty good for a lowered truck, the engine temp never got over 185*'s even though it's 95* out, the cruising RPM feels pretty good, etc. I did learn that it will squeal those giant 275/50/22 tires from a stop! I wasn't trying that hard either, but got on it at a stop light and the tires struggled to maintain traction! The 12 Bolt rear axle actually has a limited slip and it works pretty well. The resonators, insulation & carpet totally got rid of the drone that I complained about last time I had it out, the truck is still loud but you don't hear that deafening reverb in the cab.
I need to wrap up the title work and it won't be long before the C10 is getting listed for sale!
I wanted to go for a longer drive, so I took it down to work (I'm off today, working on projects) and this truck is so rad to drive! The suspension is pretty good for a lowered truck, the engine temp never got over 185*'s even though it's 95* out, the cruising RPM feels pretty good, etc. I did learn that it will squeal those giant 275/50/22 tires from a stop! I wasn't trying that hard either, but got on it at a stop light and the tires struggled to maintain traction! The 12 Bolt rear axle actually has a limited slip and it works pretty well. The resonators, insulation & carpet totally got rid of the drone that I complained about last time I had it out, the truck is still loud but you don't hear that deafening reverb in the cab.
I need to wrap up the title work and it won't be long before the C10 is getting listed for sale!
- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
Yeah, runs great!
I noticed that after long drives (hour or more), the engine would start to loose oil pressure... bad. Down to 2-3 PSI after running around town. Not really what I wanted to be doing, but if I'm going to sell this thing it better be done right. The engine was still warm from a drive this morning when I realized we had an issue.
I'll be tearing the engine down, having a machine shop go thru it, then I'll rebuild it with new bearings, pistons, rings, high volume oil pump, etc. Then work on reinstalling it with a new clutch.
It will get an aftermarket cam this time around, to make better use of the Vortec heads, a high volume oil pump, new timing set, etc. I don't think anything got damaged, but I haven't pulled the crank yet.
I noticed that after long drives (hour or more), the engine would start to loose oil pressure... bad. Down to 2-3 PSI after running around town. Not really what I wanted to be doing, but if I'm going to sell this thing it better be done right. The engine was still warm from a drive this morning when I realized we had an issue.
I'll be tearing the engine down, having a machine shop go thru it, then I'll rebuild it with new bearings, pistons, rings, high volume oil pump, etc. Then work on reinstalling it with a new clutch.
It will get an aftermarket cam this time around, to make better use of the Vortec heads, a high volume oil pump, new timing set, etc. I don't think anything got damaged, but I haven't pulled the crank yet.
- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
Some good news....?? The engine is a 4 bolt main, high nickle block... not too surprising, but good to know. Also, it looks like it's original inside... the cylinders measure 4.00 which is factory. I'm guessing the crank hasn't been touched either, which means both have plenty of meat for machining work. Really good news, honestly. I'll pull the pistons, rods and crank out tomorrow and continue the inspection. The timing set had quite a bit of slack in it, which was interesting... not surprising.
- Location
- West Jordan
What do you think is the cause of the oil pressure being low after an hour of running? It seems to me that the low pressure would show up as soon as the engine is warm, (just a few minutes) but I can't figure out why it would take an hour to show up low.
- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
I'm not sure what was happening there, TBH. When I'd fire it up cold it had a good 30-35 pounds, once it had warmed up for 5-10 min, it would drop down to 20-25 pounds... then after a good hour of driving, oil pressure dropped to almost nothing. I was running 10w30 with a quart of Lucas oil stabilizer (thick as hell), which should have helped maintain good pressure. I let the truck sit for a couple hours after the long drive and fired it back up and it had 20-25 pounds again. All I can guess is that it's just plain worn out and getting it nice and hot exposed the oil pressure issue.
- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
Aftermarket mechanical gauge, it's new and always seemed to work accurately in varying conditions. When it was low on pressure, you could hear clattering... the gauge is accurate.
- Location
- West Bountiful, UT
Parts of the engine that need 10 cents worth of lubrication to stay healthy, only get 2 cents worth of lubrication.
- DAA
- DAA
- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
Oil pressure helps forms a protective layer between vulnerable bearing surfaces and quickly spinning parts, preventing metal on metal wear. Your crank and rod bearings need that layer of oil to prevent major engine damage and valvetrain parts need a healthy flow of oil to keep things moving without excessive wear. There are oil passages in the engine that are fed from the oil pump at the bottom of the oil pan. Oil flows thru these passages to where it's needed, onto the camshaft bearing journals, the lifters and eventually feeding oil up the push rods and to the rocker arms, then it drains back down to the oil pan.
The general guideline is that an engine should have 10 PSI oil pressure per every 1,000 RPM. You can often gauge the health of an engine and the quality of the bearing surfaces based on the oil pressure, especially when the engine is hot and has been working hard. The more oil pressure, the less chance of bearing surfaces contacting the crank and really causing trouble, tearing up the engine.
Years ago I built a nasty SBC that had a high volume, standard pressure oil pump... lots of new parts, fresh machine work, tight bearing surfaces, etc. When it was just fired up and cold, it had a impressive 65 PSI oil pressure and once warm, 45 PSI. It had more than enough oil pressure to keep the internals happy.
You can get high pressure, high volume oil pumps, but they're typically for racing applications and you need to make sure you have enough oil (bigger pan) that you don't suck the pan dry and really eff up the engine.
- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
I found the issue.... and it's a strange one. There was a good amount of debris piled up in the oil filter adapter.
Since this truck had been sitting for 40 years, there was all kinds of junk under the hood when I got it. With the engine running, this debris started packing the oil filter adapter until it restricted oil flow. IMO, that's why I still had oil pressure after letting the truck sit, then restarting it. I believe the debris would unpack when it wasn't running, then jam up tight over time and I'd loose pressure.
What created this issue (IMO) is that the screen on the oil pickup had fallen apart and had a big hole in it, it's crumbling to the touch... never seen that before. So this debris got pulled from the pan, thru the pump (debris is in 1/8" chunks) and then piled up, jamming up the oil filter adapter over time.
I'll post pics in a bit... the crank looks fine, but the bearings have a LOT of copper showing. I think it was only a matter of time before this thing needed a full rebuild anyway.
Since this truck had been sitting for 40 years, there was all kinds of junk under the hood when I got it. With the engine running, this debris started packing the oil filter adapter until it restricted oil flow. IMO, that's why I still had oil pressure after letting the truck sit, then restarting it. I believe the debris would unpack when it wasn't running, then jam up tight over time and I'd loose pressure.
What created this issue (IMO) is that the screen on the oil pickup had fallen apart and had a big hole in it, it's crumbling to the touch... never seen that before. So this debris got pulled from the pan, thru the pump (debris is in 1/8" chunks) and then piled up, jamming up the oil filter adapter over time.
I'll post pics in a bit... the crank looks fine, but the bearings have a LOT of copper showing. I think it was only a matter of time before this thing needed a full rebuild anyway.
- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
Pics, you can see the debris... on further inspection, it looks like bits of plastic, not sure what from, I don't see anything missing internally. There was way more than pictured, probably 3x more than in the pics. Something ran thru the pump and piled up at the oil filter adapter. You can see the copper on the bearings and the oil pump screen that has disintegrated as well. The oil pan also had a good 1/2" of nasty sludge in the bottom, looks like oil changed weren't too frequent. I'll add a brand new oil filter adapter to the rebuild, just to cover my ass.
The engine itself looks to be virgin, the crank is still factory size (2.10 rod journals, 2.45 mains) and the cylinder bores are polished totally smooth, almost mirror like... lol. There's hardly a ridge at the top of the cylinders, amazingly... the pistons came out of the block with little drama. Everything else actually looks pretty decent, great builder at least!
I'll add a brand new oil filter adapter to the rebuild, just to cover my ass.The engine itself looks to be virgin, the crank is still factory size (2.10 rod journals, 2.45 mains) and the cylinder bores are polished totally smooth, almost mirror like... lol. There's hardly a ridge at the top of the cylinders, amazingly... the pistons came out of the block with little drama. Everything else actually looks pretty decent, great builder at least!
UNSTUCK
But stuck more often.
We had intermittent low oil pressure in a Cat dozer one time that we had recently purchased. It would go from high to low very randomly. Usually with any mechanical issue it just goes low and stays there, especially after warm up. With fresh paint on the engine we figured it had been rebuilt so we were more perplexed. We decided to drop the pan and look around. Once dropped we saw, that for some crazy reason, they had also painted the inside of the pan. A large section of paint was pealing away from the side of the pan and getting sucked into the pick up. At this point the damage was done. We got lucky though as we just rolled in new bearings and ran it….after cleaning out the pan and pump of course.