92 K2500 Revival

[Komet]

Nice IROC-Z. Those were one of the most desirable cars for the cool kids when I was in high school in the mid-1980s.

Thanks! It's also a revival, I did a thread on it over at tgo:

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/members-camaros/774787-1989-iroc-z-l98.html

Those special sockets for rounded bolts are awesome. Worked great when I removed my exhaust manifolds, those bolts were rusted, withered nubs.

Yeah they haven't failed me yet. Apparently Harbor Freight has them for cheap but I've done some violent stuff with the Rocketsockets and they haven't taken any damage. Plus made in USA stuff is more gooder.

 

[Kens1990K2500]

Thanks! It's also a revival, I did a thread on it over at tgo:

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/members-camaros/774787-1989-iroc-z-l98.html


Yeah they haven't failed me yet. Apparently Harbor Freight has them for cheap but I've done some violent stuff with the Rocketsockets and they haven't taken any damage. Plus made in USA stuff is more gooder.

The sockets I have are made by Irwin, are yours Irwin also?

 

[Komet]

The sockets I have are made by Irwin, are yours Irwin also?

Mine are Rocketsockets by Hudson Bearings.

Still making slow progress on the green truck, there's not much left to loot. These are the Rancho shocks in the front:

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These ones are softer than the rears for sure. They still dampen in bound and rebound so I'm gonna use them because I really wanted ranchos. Probably ten years ago now my buddy and I both had XJs. I had like Les Schwab Mountain Spine Crusher shocks or something, they were unbelievably stiff and rode terrible. I swapped the fronts for a pair of junkyard Bilsteins which were nice on the kidneys for the initial hit but I still had the Vertebrae Destroyers in the back so you had to clench a bit to survive them. He had a nice set of Ranchos all around and his ride was way nicer. Plus red shock boots! Full race mode.

I needed a 36mm socket to get the axle nut off, O'Reillys had it. The correct order of operations is:

1. Fully remove 10mm sway bar mount bolts.
2. Pry sway bar over to get deep 14mm socket on bottom of end link. Remove end link.
3. Pull axle out. Don't pry from the inside! Hammer from outside.
4. Shock will pop right out. Don't try to pry the shock out with the axle in! You'll dent it then pretend you didn't see that.

Also made my Summit order with a bunch of npt plugs, adaptalators, whole ignition system, bolts for the engine stand to engine, and a big ol tube of dielectric grease.

 

[Komet]

Got the driver's side axle and shock out. This shock doesn't slowly expand like a fresh one, but it does still dampen in bound and rebound so I'm gonna roll with it. Decided not to pursue upper control arm swap, too sketched out by rebuilt truck and also I got enough stuff to do. Which means, I have fully looted the green truck.

The next step is to swap the old beat up front crossmember and maybe rear bumper. Also maybe the tailgate or at least the passenger side hinge, black truck's hinge is fully flopped out.

I started with grille removal, this was my third attempt at doing it and first time not breaking it. Check out this very premium trans cooler install:

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That's a yikes level medium. Cooler is a nice one though, I think we'll be cleaning that one up and installing some -AN adapters in place of the homemade npt to unbarbed tube fitting.

 

[Komet]

Trans cooler says LONG B6, Made in Canada on it. Sure looks like a Trucool, if I recall those are also made in Canada. Cleaned up ok, the fittings were like, angle grinder compression jammed into it, going to need some new ones. Don't know what kind they're supposed to be or if these were just entirely wrong:

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It's been rainy so I have turned my attention indoors and got the motor up on a stand. Drained the oil, it did appear to have the approximately 2k worth of mileage on it that the sticker indicated. No chunks in the oil filter, but the drain pan do be looking a little glittery, so I'm gonna pretend I didn't see that.

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Btw even Microgard filters have the decency to use metal end caps. Filtration media seems cardboardish so I'd still look elsewhere but its one step above Fram.

Oil cooler lines came out pretty easy, they seem to emanate filth and contaminate every surface they touch. Cleaned up the power steering pump only to get shut down by the 30mm thinnest I've ever seen hateful nut on the back of the EVO variable power steering nonsense:

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Only thing I've got in 30mm is a service wrench and I think this thing is going to require a 6pt socket or it needs turned into a liquid. Maybe I shoulda taken that TPI accessory drive when I was in the yard looting F-bodies. Ah well. Worst case I get a new PS pump for it but I'm invested in this one now that I shot a quarter can of brake clean at it, know what I mean?

 

[Supercharged111]

That looks like a factory trans cooler using not factory mounts.

 

[Erik the Awful]

I'd rotate that trans cooler 90° so the hoses aren't stretched.

Is the o-ring for that trans cooler fitting still in the trans cooler? I'd put new o-rings on when you reinstall unless they look perfect.

You'll need to grind the chamfer off the end of your 30mm socket down so it won't slip on that thin nut on the EVO.

 

[Komet]

That looks like a factory trans cooler using not factory mounts.

I have some factory lines from the green truck, I'll see if they're a fit for this cooler, this one is definitely bigger than what came on the '99 K1500.

I'd rotate that trans cooler 90° so the hoses aren't stretched.

Is the o-ring for that trans cooler fitting still in the trans cooler? I'd put new o-rings on when you reinstall unless they look perfect.

You'll need to grind the chamfer off the end of your 30mm socket down so it won't slip on that thin nut on the EVO.

Oh those hoses are going right into the trash, I'll be redoing the entire trans cooler mount and hoses situation.

I don't think it had o-rings on it lol. I'm not going to use whatever those adapters were, ideally I'd have -6AN male coming out of this cooler.

Thanks for the tip on the socket. What a pain for such a minor feature.

I got to work on cleaning the engine up a bit. It was leaking oil from the valve covers, probably oil pan, definitely oil cooler lines, and also front and rear china walls. Hard to tell if the timing cover was leaking as well but rear main at least was dry. The buildup was pretty intense in places, I had to start off by scraping. I used simple green, a drill brush, and a steam cleaner about twice everywhere after scraping and that got it reasonably clean while not making a huge mess in my garage.

Popped the intake off, minor sludge buildup but not crazy:

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I dropped the TPI setup in the valley to check fitment issues. This is the old lower for L98 heads so it doesn't bolt up but I aligned the injectors with the intake ports and it's enough to see what's going to be a problem:

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F-body fuel rail rams right into the accessory bracket. Absolutely no room for the adapters or -AN fittings.

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Thermostat housing hits the stud. That can be clearanced out easily.

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Bypass tube wants to go where the fuel rails are.

Two options come to mind; I can bore fuel hose clearance through the accessory bracket, or I can change up the fuel rails. I'm thinking it would be nice to have the fuel lines come in from the back anyway, so I might go that route and free up space for the external coolant bypass at the same time.

 

[Supercharged111]

There are 2 sizes that I'm aware of.

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I forget the RPO for the big one. The fittings swapped between the 2 coolers too.

 

[Komet]

You'll need to grind the chamfer off the end of your 30mm socket down so it won't slip on that thin nut on the EVO.

I actually ended up going the other way with it and cutting clearance into the EVO so my socket stayed nice:

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Action shot with dramatic motion blur:

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I did get it off though, whew what a pain.

Also had success with operation 1 of fuel rail mods, I cut off the feed line and tapped the hole:

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Then with heat, a grade 8 bolt and some strategic spacers, the restrictor insert pulled right out:

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Drilling out the hole actually went really poorly, bit augered hard, flipped the workpiece out of the vise, drill whipped my wrist pretty good. Real clownshoes job. Thinking a guy needs a drill press.

But, a win is a win.