'89 Stepside "Way Cool Jr."

[Erik the Awful]

Doh! Just realized both my Holley FPRs are deadhead. I need a $55 bypass FPR. Screw that. The truck's sitting until I get the Sniper. F* me.

 

[Dubs]

Doh! Just realized both my Holley FPRs are deadhead. I need a $55 bypass FPR. Screw that. The truck's sitting until I get the Sniper. F* me.

Sorry for the bad luck but you'll love the efi on it. Does your current pump push 60psi?

 

[Erik the Awful]

Yup. It's a Vortec pump. A few posts back I checked at the fuel filter and it's pushing a full 60 psi.

 

[Erik the Awful]

Today, in the new adventures of things you can do while maintaining 'social distancing':

Washing the carpet I bought at Pull-A-Part. It's a later carpet, so it's better quality than the stock carpet. I wouldn't use that rag to pad the floor of my dog's house, even if it were new.

$2 worth of low-pressure soap.

View media item 32164$3 worth of high-pressure water. The water was incredibly muddy coming out of the carpet.

View media item 32165Done. It's stained, but I'm painting it, so who cares?

View media item 32166Once the junk started cleaning up I noticed some cigarette burns. WTH? Are you legally required to smoke and drop ash when you buy one of these trucks? I'll comb out the burnt fibers and paint over it. I'm not building a show truck, so it'll be fine, especially considering I only have $15 in the carpet after washing. The paint will probably be another $15, but since it's going black, that was going to happen no matter how good the carpet was.

 

[Erik the Awful]

Yesterday evening the carpet was still damp in places, but I really want to get the interior finished, so I started painting. I used a whole can to put a coat on, used a dog fur pick to brush the carpet, used a whole can to put a second coat on, brushed the carpet again, and used another whole can to put the third coat on.

View media item 32174The camera picked up what the naked eye can't see. There are a few places where the paint is a little thin. It's going in anyways since I'm building a driver and not a show truck. I spent the rest of this evening removing the seats and wiring I'd temp installed.

Tomorrow I'm going to start installing the $38 Soffseal heat shield/sound deadener.

 

[Erik the Awful]

I got the carpet installed this evening. I've been very careful to walk around it as it's been sitting, awaiting installation, but the dog wasn't. I'll have to brush the paw prints out.

View media item 32194The tabs in the center are for the center console. I may have to tweak them upwards a bit because of the thickness of the carpet. I still need to run a power lug through the firewall to power stuff.

Also, this arrived today.

View media item 32190Yeah, buddy! Feel free to start making "diamond in a goat's butt" jokes.

If you look around a bit you can find them occasionally at a $200 discount. I saw it available and talked my wife into letting me buy it. I think she's having buyers remorse. Not me!

View media item 32192View media item 32191The throttle linkage was a bit dinged up, but I gently tweaked them with pliers and installed the necessary lugs for connecting the TV cable and throttle. The bracket I cut and welded a few posts back got yanked, cut, and welded again. It looks like it will work this time.

View media item 32193I bought these AN fittings knowing I would be upgrading in the future. Now I've discovered that instead of straight -6AN to -6AN adapters, I really need a 45* and a 90*. The factory fuel lines are going to strain these fittings and break them.

View media item 32195Bolted down. I still have to reroute the PCV hoses, tie back the factory EFI wiring, find a wire to run the EFI, etc, etc. I tossed all the ESC, MAP, and other crap I'd jankily bolted to the valve cover. As I understand it, the Sniper can control a small-cap HEI without all the stuff. Score! I am ready to yank a fair amount of wiring out of the harness, but I'm going to get the truck running first.

Things I've noticed so far:
The Sniper uses the same coolant temp sensor and TPS as the early TBI.
All that wiring play I did trying to hook up a heated O2 sensor was pointless. The Sniper has its own harness and sensor. I'll take that as a win.
The handheld display/controller has a nice pouch for holding it that will fit nicely in the small pocket in the top right of the dash.
I'm not sure how I'm going to hook up the cruise control.

 

[Dubs]

I got the carpet installed this evening. I've been very careful to walk around it as it's been sitting, awaiting installation, but the dog wasn't. I'll have to brush the paw prints out.

View media item 32194The tabs in the center are for the center console. I may have to tweak them upwards a bit because of the thickness of the carpet. I still need to run a power lug through the firewall to power stuff.

Also, this arrived today.

View media item 32190Yeah, buddy! Feel free to start making "diamond in a goat's butt" jokes.

If you look around a bit you can find them occasionally at a $200 discount. I saw it available and talked my wife into letting me buy it. I think she's having buyers remorse. Not me!

View media item 32192View media item 32191The throttle linkage was a bit dinged up, but I gently tweaked them with pliers and installed the necessary lugs for connecting the TV cable and throttle. The bracket I cut and welded a few posts back got yanked, cut, and welded again. It looks like it will work this time.

View media item 32193I bought these AN fittings knowing I would be upgrading in the future. Now I've discovered that instead of straight -6AN to -6AN adapters, I really need a 45* and a 90*. The factory fuel lines are going to strain these fittings and break them.

View media item 32195Bolted down. I still have to reroute the PCV hoses, tie back the factory EFI wiring, find a wire to run the EFI, etc, etc. I tossed all the ESC, MAP, and other crap I'd jankily bolted to the valve cover. As I understand it, the Sniper can control a small-cap HEI without all the stuff. Score! I am ready to yank a fair amount of wiring out of the harness, but I'm going to get the truck running first.

Things I've noticed so far:
The Sniper uses the same coolant temp sensor and TPS as the early TBI.
All that wiring play I did trying to hook up a heated O2 sensor was pointless. The Sniper has its own harness and sensor. I'll take that as a win.
The handheld display/controller has a nice pouch for holding it that will fit nicely in the small pocket in the top right of the dash.
I'm not sure how I'm going to hook up the cruise control.

You get a y adapter for the TPS sensor to run your cruise. I think Holley sells them. If not Amazon or HGM do.

 

[Erik the Awful]

Actually, I was questioning how to hook up the cruise control cable, but thanks for the heads up!

 

[Dubs]

Actually, I was questioning how to hook up the cruise control cable, but thanks for the heads up!

There is a thread on here that was done about that. I can't remember the gentleman's name. He did a Sniper conversion and hooked up the cruise to it.

 

[Erik the Awful]

View media item 32202Ordered this at O'Reillys yesterday. They had to special order out of Dallas, got it today. Now I gotta figure out the best place to drill a 1 1/8" hole. There's a good spot next to the 'convenience center' where I'd already drilled a hole for the Sniper's display cable, but I think I'm going to enlarge it and move the display cable over.

I got the throttle and TV cables mounted nicely. The PCV got rerouted behind everything. I build connectors for the coil (-) and the ignition on. I still need to wire the fuel pump power on the Sniper to the fuel pump on the truck. Removing the factory fuel pump fuse and relay opens up a spot on the firewall for the Sniper's fuse and relay.

I also put in some serious work on the seat mounts. The passenger side just needs a handle on the drawer. The drivers side is pretty well finished except building and mounting the drawer.

I went rooting through my 'weird stuff' bucket looking for a firewall grommet for the Sniper display, and I realized that's one of my most productive shop tips that I need to share.

View media item 32203
I have buckets of hardware lined up under my metalworking table.
View media item 32204I have separate buckets for bolts, nuts, washers, big bolts, hose clamps, etc. You will not believe how much money and time this saves, not having to drive to the hardware store for every little bit I need.

...but...

For all the stuff I have stashed, I don't have a 5/8" firewall grommet. Here's hoping the store's open tomorrow.