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So the pile of parts on the table is starting to get big:  The NP203/205 doubler is out:  ...and the C6 is as well:  Hopefully next week i can get the engine out, and we can find out just what went wrong! Ok so the very first thing i wanted to do after my junkyard trip, was to get my headliners installed, before i ended up wrecking them in the garage! My front headliner was pretty saggy. It was already starting to droop, and then driving around for a couple summers with the top off definitely made the situation worse:  Being an XL, this thing didnt come equipped from the factory with the liner in the hard top, nor did it have the cargo light (the light is suspended by the liner itself). All it has is this round black plug:  Luckily if you remove it, it exposes the plug for the cargo light so no wiring required to make it work, its all already there!  I dont really have any progress pics, but this is a pretty easy swap. In the rear the liner is actually held up in place by the rear window seals, so you can remove all the trim & even the top w/o the liner coming down. This also made the original removal in the junkyard a little difficult, but the install went quite easy. The finished product looks pretty good too!   I have not installed the rear cargo panels yet. If youll notice in the pic below, the arm pads from the little storage pockets are missing, so i still have to source a set of those.  I also havent swapped the glovebox door yet; i have the lock removed, but i need to drop it off at the locksmith to get rekeyed and havent done so yet. Hoping to get both of these done soon though! Went to the yard yesterday with a buddy looking for parts, and scored! Like 3/4 of the interior out of a 95ish bronco:   Both headliners, the locking glovebox door and the rear cargo panels are all going to go into my 96 bronco once i get them cleaned up (and find replacement armrests for the panels since theyre missing). Also found a 95 F-Superduty, which still had the hydroboost unit!  Got the master, hydroboost unit, one of the high pressure lines (the other was cut), the pedal assembly, the instrument cluster and the intake hoses (7.5L) for a whopping $58! So after 'finishing' the resto on my '88, (plus countless parts trucks & junkyard trips) i ended up with boxes of OEM hardware. Interior, body, frame, whatever. I cant help but save it! But it was super helpful when putting the 88 back together, so thats my excuse for keeping it! It was a bit of a mess though, so i started sorting it. This is just one of many boxes:  Bought some organizers from HF, this wasnt enough:  ...so i ended up building a frame to store them:  The finished product:  Built it so that it would just roll under the workbench for storage  So im pretty happy with how this came out. I figure next time im working on one of the trucks i can just roll this over if i need hardware. Before you ask: Yes, every bin in every organizer has hardware in it. Took me a week to sort it all! So naturally, the night after i finish building this i pop into the lab at work to find out that with the expansion theyre getting rid of all their old cabinets! Thankfully i had driven the truck in to work, because i scored big: cabinet 1:
cabinet 2, a Vidmar! Loaded with partitions & dividers:   cabinet 3:  cabinet 4:
random free sheetmetal, some of which ive already used to build a shelf for the inside of cabinet 4:
black resin countertops for cabinets 3 & 4:  Anti-fatigue mat:  the mother of all anti-fatigue mats, this one 4' x 24'!  So now the Vidmar is now under my workbench:  The other cabinets are still sitting in the center of the garage- im currently trying to figure out where im going to put them or if im using them to replace any existing cabinets, etc. Currently ive got boxes of stuff all over the place! Im kinda nuts for item & tool storage, so ive spent all week just looking at stuff & moving it back and forth from cabinet to cabinet, trying to figure out how i want to reorganize it all. Goal is to get all this sorted next week, and then its back to work on the '88! Somewhere under this mess is a t-stat  intake is now off:  reference pic for myself. Front of motor at bottom:  This one doesnt come across well in the pic, but the pushrods are pretty rusty  Exhaust manifolds are now off. This went well; there was already one broken bolt in each head, but the rest came right out  This is concerning though; on the right head, the forward bolt hole for each port is cracked  #2 plug broke off the second i touched it  ...so did the #3. And the #6. And the #7... Rolled over. The oil pickup is pretty gross  The cam is showing its age:  ...so i decided to pop the #2 main cap.  The bearings are pretty worn, and you can see some scoring  ...which corresponds to scoring in the crank journal  The flexplate is cracked all the way around too  The bores dont look too bad, but i cant truly examine them with the pistons in. The crank needs to be cleaned up and new bearings. Probably just change cam at that point. New lifters, pushrods & rockers. New flexplate. The cracks in the passenger head are concerning though, not sure about those. That kind of seals the deal for me, now thinking i would be better off just using this as a core for a reman. Not sure what im going to do now, but either way this isnt going to be a quick fix.  I wish i could say ive been enjoying driving this thing, but sadly i havent. Not for lack of trying of course, its just that as soon as i got the front-end alignment dialed in, i started hearing it. What started as a mild tap rapidly turned into a pretty loud knock. By the time i burned thru the first tank of gas, it was pretty apparent that my knock wasnt going away. It seems rod knocks never do. So now i have to put a motor in. Back in early March i picked this up  Its another 460, this one out of a 95, with 120k on the odometer. Fired right up, idled smooth, no smoke or anything. So it seems to be a good candidate to swap in place of my tired noisy motor. Got it unloaded, and up on the stand, ready to inspect  You can tell it came out of a plow truck. Started soaking the plugs & manifold bolts in prep for removal next week  Popped the right valve cover, and found a disheartening surprise:   Doesnt look so good in there. Guessing this thing sat for a while before i got my hands on it. Decided to dig in deeper. I like this style of oil cooler as opposed to the older oil-to-air cooler, but ill have to inspect it, and see if theres rebuild kits for them  She's looking a little rough on the outside:  The water pump, while looking awful, appears to be an OEM piece. In fact, everything appears OEM, including all the parts that have obviously been replaced. Im pretty sure this truck was being maintained by a dealer, right up until the frame rotted and broke   The oil does not look good. I suspect coolant contamination but cant confirm.  Timing cover coming off  Chain is at the service limit and should be replaced. But the condition of it is disappointing, as is the condition of the coolant passages:  Cant see much from underneath. Next weeks plan is to pull the intake & heads, roll it over, and inspect the bottom end. Hopefully i find things in better shape down there, because im thinking this motor might need a rebuild as well. Oh well, at least it was cheap. LMC to the rescue!  One new 'diesel' bumper with trim: I also ordered new bumper brackets because one of them was bent  Removed the trim from across the bottom, and the large braces are next:  Original braces cleaned up and painted!  Now weve got to put this thing together!  Before we do that though, were going to carefully trim the corner of the bumper, to make some room for the 35s. Before:
And after:
Its a decent amount of material, but once the bumper is installed you dont even notice its missing. So moving on, brackets, braces & trim installed, next up is the moulding!  ...and the finished product!   Heres a close-up of the corner. You cant even tell it was cut.  Overall this is a decent bumper. As youd expect of the aftermarket, its a little thinner than the OEM bumper, but it looks good, and all the holes were in the right place, so i cant complain too much. I do like the look of this bumper more than the solid XL bumper, i just wish it didnt have to get swapped under these circumstances. I got the front-end alignment adjusted during the week, so we're good to go to drive this thing again! Swerved to dodge a car in the snow this morning, ended up losing it and hitting a guardrail. Shoulda had the hubs locked in, oh well too late now.  Caught it dead in-line with the frame horn.  The whole bumper is twisted, so thats gonna have to go  Frame horn is bent in slightly, as is the bumper bracket   Steering wheel is crooked so its gonna need a front-end alignment. Still snowing so i dug out the diesel (which i never did from the big storm last week) so i can drive that to work tonight. Ive got a plan for tomorrow to straighten the frame horn, and then ive got to come up with a plan for a new front bumper. Its done, i went for a cruise about a half hour ago. It shimmies at 75! It is night & day better than it was before. The slop in the old box was damn near the whole problem. Its a little twitchy, might be toed in a smidge? Its god damned cold outside, theyre (big) old bias plys, and its got a locker in the rear. Its not gonna be perfect! I still want to triple check the toe-in tho and see if i can get dialed in a little better. So just cruising down the road, i cant tell a difference in the power of the box with the way Redhead has it ported, as opposed to the way PSC did it. I always thought porting the control valve was the 'correct' way to do it, but RedHead knows a lot more about this stuff than i do! The real test will be the next time i get a chance to play on some rocks with the tires aired down. Got my old PSC ported box out:  New redhead box, unfortunately ports are in a different place:  Terrible picture!  The box is in. It was sleeting! So i didnt get a good pic. Im working on new hydraulic hoses now, hopefully have both done & installed tomorrow so i can bleed it and resume the front end alignment. |
