ilovemybike

LIttle fuel tank holder.

I used a MIG, spot welding slowly. Bit of enjoyment and improvement. Daily driving is great.

Made some door panels, well finished the driver's side anyway. Thinking of using some Dzus fastners to hold them to the door. Opinions? It jumps. Friend of mine made an E brake handle grip and a glove box cover for my dash out of black suede. Check out those bullet snaps.

I plan on running a Racepak IQ3 mounted on the column, with a some alloy console shading it.

I'd go with the NV4500, an SM is so slow to shift. Should be a cool truck.

Made a dash today. I beefed up a HF bead roller and made a few custom dies, couldn't wait to try them out so I played with some alloy. Kinda nice to have a dash. Door panels forthcoming.

I used a 4 pulse per driveshaft revolution AC sine wave sensor from Jags that Run. PCM was tuned and it know reads correctly. Yay!

The shell of one!

The pilot bushing is a GM I believe, and the throw out is AX15. Novak has a ton of info on their site too. I'm running a GM clutch, flywheel and starter. I'm using a Novak slave cylinder kit and a Wilwood master.

Yeah, it wants a 6.0L....

Things are coming along. New panel for the top of my summit heater unit, bit of alloy welding. Some pretty powder coating. Playing with solid rivets, made a little cone filter cover, cuts down on the noise a little bit. Rear shock and bump stop setup is killer, I can wind out third off road and it feels amazing. My friend and I took it down a trail after it was back together and we were giggling like little girls at how awesome it was taking bumps. Stepped up my hydraulic e brake master size to .75" and it works great, seriously want one in everything I own. Such a handy little device. Took it to Granite State Dyno today for a tune. It has been rather flat and I thought it was due to the poly motor mounts causing the PCM to pull timing. The PCM that was in the truck was tuned with EFI live and wouldn't take a HP tuners tune so I ran down the street to a junkyard and picked one up for $50, the joy of having a common vehicle. Got a tune in the ol bastard, still wondering where all my horses are though. I used a VSS from Jags that run and it works!! Alex got the computer to read the correct speed and all is well and good. I do have two O2 sensor codes, I think its a wiring difference between early and late PCM's but I'll look into that later. It only made 186 WHP though, so I am going to do a compression test tomorrow, see what's up. Sounds good though.

Yes sir, works great. I like the feel of it, although I am going to put a larger master in for less lever throw. I couldn't see mounting another set of calipers out back, this setup works excellent without the hassle.

Decided it was time to mount rear bumps and make real shock towers. Sadly I had to make everything out of steel. My interest in alloy is unfettered though, more is coming! Another question, I plan on using a three wire 92+ XJ VSS. On our Snapon brick it says it needs an 8 volt reference signal, which is odd. I bought a Dakota Digital universal speedometer interface so I can change the square wave output into a sine wave for the LS computer, but will the VSS work with a 12V or 5V signal?

It is a heat only box from Summit. Thank you.

Thanks guys! I have more progress!! Thanks to Blake's tip on used NASCAR lines on eBay I made a little catch can setup. I don't really like the little cone filters, so I opted for this chrome unit. I'm pretty happy with my progress on alloy welding, lots to learn still. Despite their amazing offroad ability I decided to ditch the TSL's for tires that are round. I debated on lots of different tires but settled on the KM2's. They look like mini Krawlers, are amazing on the road, can actually be balanced and have a good reputation off road. I am very pleased with the street manners, such a huge improvement. Got my hydro setup install and functional. I plan on upgrading the master from a 5/8" to a 3/4" to shorten my throw a bit. That said it is so much fun to mess with, albeit a bit frightening at times. Nothing like sliding a tall swaybarless truck around sideways.

Thanks guys. I enjoy the learning aspect of the build the most.

Thank you! Started on a hydro e brake setup. Only to be used on low friction surfaces...

Now this is interesting.

I need to finish up my rear suspension before I put some air under the tires. I can't wait, and I will post stuff up as soon as I do it. Let's just say it gets real hot. I'm thinking about my gauge setup now, and the OBD II Racepak cable setup is really tempting. I don't need any of the crazy data logging features but it does look like a really nice layout. I could just run Autometers, or something but I like the look of the digital all in ones. Anyone running one, and who makes the most reasonably priced unit?

I started on my washer fluid reservoir. Since it shares real estate with the heater hoses I decided to run the coolant through the reservoir and heat the washer fluid. Mercedes used to run a coolant through a coil in their washer reservoir and I have always wanted to build one. Nothing like a hot squirt to melt the ice. I haven't done much alloy, but I am pretty happy with how this thing is turning out.

I used a truck harness, they locate the PCM under the hood instead of in vehicle as with a car harness. I had to change the injector plugs to use the LS1 injectors, but that's not a big deal. All superfluous wiring has been removed IE evap, catalyst, downstream 02's, EGR and so on. Used a factory fuse block so the engine harness plugged right in. You'll need to get the PCM tuned to get rid of the VATS, which disables the engine if the body control module isn't correct or is missing, as will be your case. Might as well have your tuner get rid of all the stuff you left out of the wiring as well. I know some people have used a truck intake but I wanted to be able to get as much uptravel as I could so I put the engine a bit higher than some I guess, warranting the use of a car intake. No big deal, plenty can be had for cheap. I also went to F-body accessories, it saves almost two inches on the front of the motor. I have been doing some housecleaning things, got the wipers working, playing with other stuff. Picked up an old Coleman grill and powder coated it to match the truck, for some tail gate cooking.

I painted the front wheel wells with some SEM low VOC undercoating after doing further frame plating, interested to see how it holds up. It did make a huge difference in how the truck looks. I have a video of the bumps tops getting some action that I will post soon. All painted up, much better. I also fixed my heating woes, stuffed a Summit racing heater box in. It's a compact and very complete unit. Mounted easily, it has a three speed blower motor complete with switch and it pumps out 28,000 British warming bits. Next on the list is bumping and strapping the rear, finishing off the bed and having it bedlined, and making an interior. I also really want to put an LED light bar on.

I love driving this thing. I want something a bit more streetable for a tire setup, I feel bad wearing these soft swampers away. Bump stops jammed in there. Bump stop pads that sit on top of the lower control arm mounts. Contact 2.5" before full bump. Perfect. Still clears with the axle fully flexed out. Oh I painted the axle and powdercoated all the links. And gobs of room for activities over here. When the axle is flexed as such, the bump hits near the back of the pad, with the axle compressed equally it hits the center.

I know it would look pretty sweet, but I see two drawbacks. I bobbed my bed so they a factory length wouldn't work, and the trails near my house are tight, wooded, rocky and technical. The fiberglass would have more zip ties than an amateur drift event, after a weekend on the trails.

Soooo, this happened. Can't say I was surprised, but moderately disappointed. I had planned on running a traction bar, just didn't anticipate needing it so soon. Now I have to figure out how to either bend the leaves back, or find a suitable replacement. Neither option is appealing. I would really like to throw the leaf springs away and put real suspension in the rear to match the front, but funding won't allow currently. Bugger. Painted front bumper.