7.3 OBS Build: Gloria

Hey Guys,
Bringing this over from another forum, I hang out on here and at FTE equally, so figured I'de post this up for everyone to see. Ill try to keep a bit of a build thread going. I dont think anything I'll be showing is novel. Most of this is just researching and appreciated from other guy's builds.

The truck is a 96 Ext cab, again some of you are familiar with this truck.



The overview for the build is what many others have done:
-PIS 175/80 sticks
-Billet S366 with DIY mount
-Headstuds
-910 Springs
-T500 HPOP
-BTS valve body and likely a racerX torque converter.
-All sorts of maintenance while the motor is out, oil cooler rebuild, orings everywhere, injector cups, blah blah blah..

And the truck is already intercooled with efuel, Hydra with gearhead files at the moment.

Most of this stuff is already waiting for install as this has been in the works for some time. Only thing remaining is the injectors. Engine is getting pulled in a few weeks, and everything is getting done.

Arguably to biggest portion of this task is building the mount and uppipes.

I started with a big piece of angle, like this, 8x8 1/2 inch..



With no plasma cutter or torch to speak of, it was all zipcuts on the trusty Ryobi angle grinder... I had a T4 gasket, along with some of the measurements researched off Bills thread, and was able to lay out the "L bracket" . No pictures of the process but this is the end product.




The turbo holes are not wallowed out quite enough in those ^ pics, but I wanted to mount the turbo first so that I could see exactly where the edges needed to be so I didnt get carried away with the die grinder.

Onto the drill press it went.



And then cutting the threads for studs. I used 7/16'ths NC studs. They are fairly snug in the turbo mounting flange, so I was a bit apprehensive laying the holes out, there isnt a lot of tolerance before one stud prevents turbo from going on..



Studs in



And then with a lot of relief, the turbo slid on. It was a bit tight, one stud needed a bit of coaxing to find the hole, surprising considering all my CNC equipment, bit it went on.





Unfortunately I did not get any pictures making the bottom plate. For that, I did travel to a friends house and was able to use a cutting torch. Essentially I took a stock pedestal and traced the outline onto 1/2 inch plate, adjusted a bit for my liking, and copied the holes as well. Then cut it out.

Once that was done, I got the "L" bracket on the bottom plate where I wanted it on the mockup motor, and tacked the two together so that I could drill press the two together and avoid missing mark by 1/16.

Drilling out the 4 mounting holes for the L bracket



And tapping the bottom plate, 1/2 inch NF in this case.



Once that was done, I was able to mount both plates and get a look at that the turbo was going to look like in place.





That's it for now, currently working on the up pipes. Hopefully some more pictures shortly.

-Andrew[/QUOTE]

I'll do a small update here.

Spent a considerable amount of time working some pieces to fit into the plate. to transition to the up pipes.

Dont mind to tacks, I have a harbour freight gas-less welder deal that dosnt do a nice job. These will be cleaned up on a tig shortly.




Started mocking up the first side.





Then I didnt like how the bellow was right near the one transmission bellhousing bolt, was going to make for a tight fit. Also, I came across some for info that suggested I should keep the bellow higher if I could to help maintain room for the downpipe.

So I moved it up a bit.


Some more nasty looking tacks.


As it stands now, I have the remaining side partially mocked up, but I need to weld out the first side before I tack it in. Adding the other side is going to cut off access for a couple areas that will need to be sealed up with the tig. So I am going to get the first side welded up, come back, finish fitting the second side, and then have that welded up as well.

This is what the second side looks like.



-Andrew

quick update,

Was able to make it out to a good friend's house who is gracefully helping me out with the welding on these pipes. If you saw some of the previous pictures, its goes without saying I left him more than a little contamination and booger tack welds to deal with. But, he did a awesome job with it, and we got the first side welded out so that I can finish fitting the second side.

We aired on the side of caution and he laid down a lot of material. I/we kinda preferred to see larger welds..









This was the nastiest gap I was worried about before hand...





"grinding the crack"





So that is that. I couldnt be happier with how it turned out. I was a little discouraged with how the fitment was shaping up, but after seeing it all get made solid and sealed up, I'm far more confident in it. Unfortunately for my buddy, the limiting factor was having to deal with all my enormous flux core tack welds. They would really wreck havoc with the arch, not fun. But it sure is solid, good penetration into the 1/2inch plate, all good!

-Andrew

Have a short update.

Have been working on the oil drain for the turbo. I want to make something simple and effective with an oring. So I essentially started with a 1.5" piece of solid aluminum.



We have a small lathe at work that hasnt been used in ages. I dusted it off and tried it out, worked some kinks out and got to work. I havnt used a lathe since high school, so it took a bit of familiarizing again.







The reduced area is .850, a touch smaller than the hole from the fuel pump. The large shoulder also shown here will be where a big ol fat o-ring will sit, and it will just seal to the top of the manifold...



Then I got the drill set up





Once it was all finished, it is drilled out to 5/8's ID, and I did a few passes to reduce the top diameter so that it fits on the 1.5" plate a bit better for welding. Made the low shoulder area shiny and that's it. Now I need to dry fit it along with the plate and fitting.





Pretty happy with the drain, was fun to make a custom one-off piece. Ill throw some pics up when it is fitted.
-Andrew

Alright, I have a couple pictures to post. I took more but apparently the flash wasnt working and they are just black smudges. Anyways, have been working on this oil drain.

Here is the plate with fitting that will get welded in.



Here is the oil drain spout I lathed and already posted, this is how it sits in the valley



Plate sits on top, and everything gets welded together



And I also got the passenger side up pipe done and tacked, ready to be taken to friends house to get made solid. Had more pictures of that but they were all dark. This is how it looks now.



-Andrew

Well its finally time for an update. Have been working on the up pipes, I adjusted them from the last set of pictures a bit closer to the head. After taking several measurements, Im confident there will be ample room between the firewall now that they have been snugged up a bit. Then they sat a few days, and finally got made solid today.







My fab work wasnt perfect, so there were some gaps to fill up at the union of everything. Because of that, it looks like there are some goobers here. But considering the gaps I managed to make, and everything being sealed up, Im super happy with them.



A bit of work with the flapper and they will look fine.

Oil drain also got finished, here it is.







And thats it. Next step is to tinker away at getting these parts cleaned and painted.

-Andrew

Truck has not been insured since december, and all of a sudden I had a free weekend, it kinda snuck up on me. So no time like the present.

Pulled in into the garage I am using, which has a really effective industrial heater, thats a win, and a tight fit.



And to try to keep the place warm, I grabbed some plastic from lowes to try and seal it up. This actually turned out pretty funny..



Looks like its coming through a portal or something!


And from the back, the shop is giving birth


And it starts











Riffraff made me do, seriously though..







Shameless plug for Clay and the gang, maybe he will see this and sponsor me with some parts..



And its out



Sitting off to the side




And thats all. I pulled the HPOP off tonight after cleaning up. It is getting sent to Terminator tomorrow. And hopefully I'll pop the injectors out tomorrow night and get them sent to PIS. After that, I'll get to work painting, changing injector cups, and getting the headstuds put in while Im waiting to get things back.

As a side not, very happy I pulled the motor to do this deal. Still not sure how I would have gotten the turbo off. Obviously I know its possible, but I struggled with it with the engine out! Looking forward to a turbo setup I can remove very easily in the future.

-Andrew

Here goes an update before I fall behind on the pics. The box from riffraff shows up on Friday, after that, progress should be fast and furious.

Anyways, I've slogged through perhaps the slowest and most frustrating aspect of all this. Ive been cleaning for a week essentially.

These will serve as a rough before hand baseline set of photos..







Then I went and plucked out the valve train components. This is my first time getting into any of this, a good friend of mine said these really should be put back into their original location.



And injectors came out. These got sent off and are on their way back now! Came out really nicely, this is a veggi oil truck so I had to send them in to make sure they could be used for a build, but they checked out alright and was told they looked really good, so very happy with that.



There she is getting stripped down slowly.



(PS, the BEST 14.99 ive spent on this project was a bag of microfiber towels from Costco. At first I was hesitant to use them, but when I realized there is like 40 of them in the bag, I started grabbing a new one for every job (AKA every injector when I shipped them). Pretty sure it has saved me money vs blasting through rolls of paper towel that rip and fiber up everywhere).

Next came the headstuds.



^Thats a really expensive layout of bolts . Its kinda ludicrous when you lay them out like that and realize they cost more than half a G.

Anyways, the ARP's come with generous sample packs of the torque lube stuff you are supposed to use now, it's very messy, use gloves (or put finger prints all over your girlfriends house for a few hours after completing job, even after washing your hands... ask me how I know).

The torque spec from FORD a final torque of 95 FT/LB's. This is done through 3 stages, and the final stage uses a different pattern than the first two. (These patterns can be found online easily enough, and the instructions from ARP include both of them as well).

How I opted to do it after reading up some:
1. I replaced each bolt one at a time following the pattern used in stages 1/2 (its a center-out theme), and torqued to the factory spec of 95 FT/Lbs. This will hold the head on just as tight as they ever were.

2. The final Torque spec for ARP is 125 Ft/Lbs. So after I had done each one of the 18 studs described in 1, I went through and torqued to 125 Ft/LBs using the 2nd torquing pattern (this is a bottom to top in rows theme).

3. After that, I waited 24 hours for things to settle and set (remember the gasket has never been this tight at this point). Then I set my torque wrench to 127 Ft/Lbs and re torqued according to step 2. I pretty much didnt get any movement on this step, just a couple bolts moved a pubic hair.

Repeat for the other head, and you are done. This isnt a 45 minute job, at least it wasnt for me. I wanted to make sure each thread/washer had enough torque lube and I wasnt missing a bolt/rushing, so it probly took 2.5 hours per head. That said, honestly guys, if this head gasket ever has a problem, wow... I dont know what I would do, buy a chevy?. 125 is TIGHT, and there is headstud every 3 inches or less it seams in every direction. 18 bolts is a lot of clamping power...

Here they are, you'll need a 12pt socket to install. Not that glamorous but look carefully, they are in there.



After that, it was cleaning time, and boy did I clean. I'll shamelessly admit, that I eventually sacrificed a spare head for my Sonicare Electric toothbrush to assist in cleaning the nooks and crannies around the engine :-X21. The Girlfriend wasnt too pleased I was using a 150 dollar toothbrush to clean, but not too mad. She even helped a bit one night !



Got the oil cooler separated, thanks for the help on that, I beat it with a rubber mallet and it came apart.



And after several nights of degreaser, wire wheeling, purple power, repeat, etc etc... This is the one picture I seem to have of it cleaned up before any paint went on it.



I used a DA sander to rough up areas I had access too as well. Any paint that was still around essentially survived a knotted wire wheel, a DA sander, or me sanding with a foam block, so I felt alright painting over what was left. I dont think it will last, but oh well, better than it was. I wasnt bringing this thing down to the bare block, so I did the best I could.

So the first thing to tackle was the oil pan. Mine was in great shape, very minimal surface rust, so I am keeping it in place. For the oil pan, I am using an epoxy paint made by Mastercoat. I wanted to try something other than POR15 a while back, and came across this stuff after Billy had mentioned it. Anyways Im really happy with it, the primer is epoxy based and will seal all by itself. But when you mix up the paint (satin black in this case), holy smokes look out, the smell of this stuff is FIERCE. I always get reminded of Anchorman, "its made from bits of real panther, so you know it's good", pretty much analogous to this, "its made from bits of real Satin, so you know it works."

Primer is a tame aluminum metallic colour, pretty decent looking all by itself (in fact Im leaving the front cover just done in this primer).





And a few of the accessories got this primer too..



Then the epocy black went on. Took the shop about 3 days to air out after this, Im not joking.



Once it had set up for a few days and was hard enough that I was confident tape would pull any off, I got it taped up for spraying.







First coat of primer





Second heavier coat of primer.





And after the colour. After reading another build, I was actually a big fan of the cast Iron he went with. I was originally planning an all aluminum theme, but since most of my piping is getting wrapped with black exhaust wrap, I decided to the monochrome theme with aluminum accents.

This is VHT Cast Iron Grey.





I still need to paint the exhaust manifolds with higher temp paint, but I wanted to put a couple pieces on to get a sneak peak of how its roughly going to look. Still some stuff that needs to go on, I think it'll still come together a bit more.









-Andrew

Good looking motor! Seems like youre doing a good job with this.

No oring groove cut on the oil return?

pullandpray said:

No oring groove cut on the oil return?

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No, the shoulder on the drain is very wide and will seal against the top of the valley with a fat/squishy oring. It dosnt see any pressure or actual oil flow, so I didnt think it needed a grove for the oring. Should do its jub just fine sitting against both surfaces.

O I got yea I know mine has an oring by that's because it doesn't have a shoulder to it.

Looking fantastic bud

I'd get aftermarket harmonic balancer also.

Nice work

looking good.digging the work!

your nuts if your not replacing those 4 big oil plugs in the heads and the 4 fuel plugs. I just did mine and my god what a pain that was.

looking good!

zilla68 said:

your nuts if your not replacing those 4 big oil plugs in the heads and the 4 fuel plugs. I just did mine and my god what a pain that was.

looking good!

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Yep, They are all getting new seals, they are here waiting to be put in.

Magnum PD said:

I'd get aftermarket harmonic balancer also.

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Ahh, is this needed? Cha ching cha ching cha ching… Can they be installed in truck? That might have to be something that waits another month of two or three for some paychecks..

It's recommended. Smoother idle and makes internals run better.

Nice Truck , and very Cool project looks good