'89 Stepside "Way Cool Jr."

[texas tough]

you will have a great truck, and a sense of accomplishment when done. u will grow to love that truck!!!

 

[Erik the Awful]

Started physically putting the headers on the truck tonight. The driver's side dropped in easy, but the pipe points right at the transmission crossmember. The passenger side is a tighter fit, and I don't quite have it in yet. The crossmember on that side has a thinner section for the exhaust to pass over.

Well, crap. I'm at a stopping point for the night, but I was thinking about hoisting the motor to get the header in, and it dawned on my that I'm going to be taking the transmission crossmember out to cut and weld the driver's side for clearance. How much you want to bet that if I pull the transmission tailhousing to one side that passenger side header will drop in place?

I got the O2 bung welded in and I mocked up the driver's cat behind the header. With the crossmember cut down and a little tweak to the pipe, the cat will go right over the crossmember, then a 90* under the transmission tailshaft, then another 90* to the ball flanges on the X-pipe. Both cats will be hanging about 4" behind the collectors. I got a 4' piece of 2.5" pipe, thinking I still had some pipe left from the Suburban's exhaust. Nope. I'm going to have to cut some short connecting pipes between the ball flanges, the X-pipe, and the mufflers, and I'm hoping there's enough to get the mufflers all the way under the bed. If I mount the mufflers vertically, the X-pipe will hit both of them straight on.

I'll be sure and post a pic when I get everything mounted. Now if I could just fit that NASCAR boom tube I have in the garage...

 

[Erik the Awful]

Took the transmission crossmember out tonight. Can't wiggle the engine over enough to drop the passenger header in. Looks like I'm going to have to break the motor mount loose.

I got the crossmember out to cut it up and found the transmission slot is cracked out. Doh! A previous owner went to the trouble of getting a slotted piece of metal to weld in place, but just used it as a washer instead. It's gouged a bit and the metal in the crossmember is cracked out. I cut the crossmember for exhaust clearance and welded it all up. Tomorrow night I'll finish wire-wheeling the transmission mounting hole area and weld the slotted piece in as it should have been done years ago.

Getting real tired of all the stupid I'm finding on this truck.

As a side task, I built a 10" subwoofer box to put in our race car. The ratty carpeting out of WCJr is going to get glued on the outside for that '80s effect, because 24 Hours of Lemons.

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[Erik the Awful]

I'm on the downhill side of a 12 day work week, and the weather warmed up a bit. I got the passenger side header in, bolted the starter in, and then tried to stab the dipstick. No go. You have to put the dipstick in before the starter. I'd been fighting with the motor mounts and the crossmember, and had to stop to eat, so I didn't make it back out into the shop. Getting the dipstick and starter back in place are priority one. Cutting the heater hose back an inch to stop the dribble on the intake manifold is two.

The modded crossmember is back out. It's no bueno; still interferes with the cat. I have a sketch for a new crossmember from 2" angle iron, some leftover 1.75" x .120" wall DOM roll cage tubing, a short piece of 2x3" .120" wall rectangular tubing, and a few gussets. That's priority three. Four is finishing the exhaust.

While it was cold and rainy this week I got the wiring harness for the seats taped up and ready for when I start reinstalling the interior. I still need to make a wiring extension for the heated seat switches and find a way to mount it in the dash pocket, but that will be after I paint the dash.

The roof console is disassembled. I still need to use emory cloth on the light buckets. The little incandescent mood lights are ripped out - half were dead and I don't care to find new ones. I'm not sure what I'm going to use the switch panel for. Maybe some underglow lights and big LED bars so I can be like all the cool kids? Nah. One of the switches is missing, so I may just replace it with a plate. Some time this weekend I'll sand, stain, and varnish the console, paint the headliner, and finish the paint on the passenger door panel. That should finish all the prep of the interior pieces for reassembly - except the carpet. I'm going to have to get the truck running and take the carpet to a car wash to clean it. I'm not going to put a clean but soggy carpet in either mine or my wife's car. Once the carpet's clean I'll focus on reinstalling the interior.

Oh yeah, I still need to make some finishing touches to the seat mount and remake the driver's side. Ugh. I'm anxious to get the truck running so I can take a load of scrap metal to the scrap yard.

 

[Erik the Awful]

Finally got the headers fully installed. The dipstick tube is slightly dorked because it kinked when I tried to add a bend around the headers. I have a spare one somewhere, but I can still get the old one in and out... sometimes.

View media item 32084I also finished up the new transmission crossmember.

View media item 32080It gives plenty of clearance for the cats on both sides, which allowed me to start fitting and tacking the exhaust.

View media item 32082Remember, start at the headers and work your way back, keeping everything straight and level.

View media item 32083I'm pleasantly surprised how much room there is for the exhaust. I tucked it all up under the body, but inside and higher than the bottom of the frame.

View media item 32081I still have about three feet of tubing left, and I may make a pair of turn-downs, but for now this is good enough.

It took me most of the day since my wife has the welder set up in the garage and I was walking parts back and forth to the shop. Right now everything's tacked, but tomorrow afternoon I'm hoping to do the finish welding and put a second hangar after the mufflers.

 

[Dubs]

Finally got the headers fully installed. The dipstick tube is slightly dorked because it kinked when I tried to add a bend around the headers. I have a spare one somewhere, but I can still get the old one in and out... sometimes.

View media item 32084I also finished up the new transmission crossmember.

View media item 32080It gives plenty of clearance for the cats on both sides, which allowed me to start fitting and tacking the exhaust.

View media item 32082Remember, start at the headers and work your way back, keeping everything straight and level.

View media item 32083I'm pleasantly surprised how much room there is for the exhaust. I tucked it all up under the body, but inside and higher than the bottom of the frame.

View media item 32081I still have about three feet of tubing left, and I may make a pair of turn-downs, but for now this is good enough.

It took me most of the day since my wife has the welder set up in the garage and I was walking parts back and forth to the shop. Right now everything's tacked, but tomorrow afternoon I'm hoping to do the finish welding and put a second hangar after the mufflers.

Awesome job on the exhaust. I'm still thinking about what I want to run.

 

[Erik the Awful]

Thanks!

How strict are your exhaust rules? A previous owner put dual straight pipes on WCJr because we don't have inspections here.

Reading the specs on the ATK Stage 1, I'd recommend something similarly sized, but you might want something a little quieter. I went with Cherry Bomb Salute mufflers because of Engine Masters' $40 muffler episode. I looked for the best power vs best noise attenuation, focused on power.

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[Dubs]

Thanks for the info

 

[Erik the Awful]

The exhaust is finished and installed. The truck's being a real pain when starting and the gas that does burn doesn't smell good, so I may be draining the tank again. The exhaust does sound good, but I've only fired it up in the shop so I don't know if it's too loud yet.

The engine has too much cam for the stock TBI, but I've been using it just to get it running. That may be part of my problem. I don't know my fuel pressure, so I think I'm going to have to order CFM Technologies' $40 TBI fuel pressure gauge adapter. Ugh. I have a tweaked TBI with 454 injectors to put on, so it'll be nice to have.

I pulled the dipstick and the oil doesn't look good. Coolant from the heater hose that was leaking on top of the motor may have found a way into the crankcase. I'm not inclined to fire the motor again until I sort that out.

With all that frustration, and it being about 40* outside today, I spent most of the day inside and in the garage, working on other bits.

All the interior pieces, including the headliner, but excepting the carpet and dash, are finally painted. All the wood bits are finally varnished. I bought some more brass hardware for the ceiling console. There was a busted round switch jammed in one of the holes of the switch panel in the console, so I bought a pack of the correct switches on Amazon and replaced it. Still not sure what I'm going to wire them to. I bought a 20-pack of LED interior lights, only to find they don't fit in the sockets in the console. I'm not inclined to grind the PCB down to fit.

I went to Pull-A-Part with one of my kiddos yesterday, and while he grabbed a Mustang hood hinge and some fender brackets, I perused the trucks. I found a nice condition jack tool cover, a 4-wire O2 sensor and harness (more on that in a minute). Along with the switch and LEDs I'd ordered a jack, because I've never seen any at PAP. Lo and behold, I find an Escalade with a nice beefy jack and a C3500 with two jacks. One of the C3500 jacks was too big; the other was rusted up. The Escalade jack has the wrong turnbuckle, but I can fix that. What I like is that it has the hole for bolting it down in the jack box. I guess the other jack will go in the Sunbeam when I start working on it.

Since I'm running long-tube headers, I put the O2 sensor bung in the driver's side header collector. It's a fair distance further downstream than factory, and headers aren't known for their insulating properties, so a heated sensor is going to be a requirement. I'll run the grounds to the frame, the signal to the original wire, and I'm going to run the O2 heater off the fuel pump feed. Whenever the fuel pump's running, so will the O2 sensor. Mostly I just wanted the harness, but I figured I might as well take a chance on the sensor while I was already there.

The driver's rear tire keeps going flat. Since I'm inclined to replace the wheels at some point, I bought a used tire to get it moving. It looks like I'll have to take it back for a patch.

The city mailed me a notice the other day that my Cadillac is "derelict", so I'm going to have to get the truck out of the shop and get the Caddy on the trailer. Ugh. Too much to do, and next weekend is my last large bit of free time for a while.

 

[Erik the Awful]

Funny, I pulled the dipstick again and the oil didn't seem that bad. I wiped it off and tried again and the oil was nearly clean. Condensation in the dipstick tube? I fired the truck up and although it took some cranking, it ran nicely for about a minute before stalling out. I think some time this week I'll pump out the gas in the tank, put fresh gas in, and switch to the modded TBI.

The truck has under-dash lights that come on when the door is open, so I switched the LED bulbs into those sockets. The upper console parts are all varnished/painted/repaired and ready for installation. I think I'm going to run wires from the switches, but not hook anything up. I do have a row of ultraviolet LEDs and a smoke machine laying around...

The rear tire was fine, the high-dollar metal valve stem in the wheel had a bad gasket. Cost me $10 at the used tire store.

Door panels are fully painted and the new seals are installed. I have a thread in the interior forum about the seals.
View media item 32092
Some time next weekend I need to rework the seat mounts, but I'm out of welding gas. Since I don't have a driveable truck yet, I'm going to have to wait for a nice day so I can drive to the welding supply company with my windows down.

I'm also not sure what I'm going to do for tuning. I don't have a chip burner, and I'm not inclined to spend a couple c-bills for the tools when my end goal is to buy a Sniper or FiTech.