My '77 K-30/V3500 Monster Truck Build

[BBM3]

Yeah. There are shackles. You may not be able to see them because of the angle at which they are currently resting. Once I get the weight of the body and engine on it the shackles should cycle farther forward.

I see them now.
My apology for the dumb question.

[1967KaiserM715]

I thought it was bad for the shackle to come at an angle like that to the spring? something about when the suspension cycles, the shackle could end up flipping the other way and binding up the suspension. I have always been told on unladen springs, the shackle shouldn't align, and should maintain at least a 40 degree angle(or 140 degree depending on how you look at it). meaning it looks like your shackle should have been moved back about 1-1/2 to 2 inches

but I digress.

Good looking build.

[Engineer]

The way my shackle is designed it can't flip. With no weight on the spring it only tilts inward by about 15°. That, and the frame has the upper end of the shackle barricaded so that the shackle can't travel any farther inward than where the shackle sets with the spring is sitting at rest.

The deep arch of the spring gives it an optical illusion which makes the angles look more severe than they actually are.

[1967KaiserM715]

Cool, thanks for that, I guess what I remember about that type of shackle comes from the jeep Cherokee's I've worked on, many having to use shackle relocation brackets on lifts over 3 inches

[Engineer]

No worries.

I've spent a lot of time with pencil, and slide rule.

[BBM3]

A slide what?
I have a very accurate 1950's vernier caliper if that counts.

[Engineer]

Alright. I have all of the pictures back into page 4. Will do page 3 next, and hopefully soon.

Spent the day washing, and cleaning the transmission, bellhousing, clutch fork, and clutch cover so I can paint those.

I have managed to get a few more small things done lately, and I had a recent experience with a monster truck industry guy that I'm sure monster truck enthusiasts will appreciate. I'll post up about it when I get more time.

Since there has been some new guys looking in on this thread, and asking questions about the frame build, I wanted to get as many of those pictures back so most of these later updates will make sense.

The picture search has given me a headache. Now its off to find the ibuprofen. Darn google.

[Engineer]

I have quite a bit more done on the monster but I want to get a little farther along on the brakes before I post about the progress on that. Since my last update I have been working on the brakes, the engine, and transmission. I'm just about ready to plunk the engine, and transmission in. After I do that I can set the body on. !!YAY!!

I wanted to share with the monster truck guys an experience I had recently.

My son's college was wrapping up its fall baseball season a couple of months ago and on my way home through central Illinois I decided to take a detour to answer an invitation I received from a guy who is, as you might say, "very connected" in the monster truck world. The gentleman's name is Rich Inman. He is the owner of "Concussion Motorsports".

Many may, or may not have heard of Concussion Motorsports but for those who haven't I'll lay out who they are and why I raced to his shop at his invitation.



https://www.facebook.com/concussionmotorsports/

Several of the trucks they have built include Jesse James' Cadaver, Bigfoot 21, there was a feature article on them in Mud Life magazine showcasing the Perrin Motorsports truck High Maintenance, and they built the most recent USA-1.

If I had to choose a favorite monster truck it would have to be, well, mine of course. But if forced to choose which modern racer truck it would be a toss up of the truck Bigfoot 4x4 built for the MLB All-Star game a few years ago. Yes, Bigfoot did build a Chevy monster complete with a big block Chevy engine. Or the latest USA-1 truck.



The pictures in this post are stolen from Concussion Motorsports' Facebook page or are ones that Rich texted me. They are not my pictures per-se, but are used with his permission.

This is USA-1 being built up in Concussion's shop:



One of the many things Concussion does is to build their own components. This is a picture of their own axle housings:



They add the "champagne glasses" that are compatible with whatever planetary you want to use. I'm not using planetary axles but if I were I know who to contact.

Frame:



The following is a picture of an earlier truck built for Perrin Motorsports:



Bigfoot 21:



As you can tell their stuff is legit. Nobody in their right mind would do something like this with substandard equipment. Again, this is Bigfoot 21:



They were laying the frame for Bigfoot 22 when we were there but as requested we didn't take any pictures.


Now, one other cool morsel. Back in the day Rich worked with Fred Schafer, the guy who was responsible for building the Bearfoot trucks. Keith Tood is family to Fred Schafer and that is where this all connects to my truck.

Watch this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEiJw_KLkBQ

There are 2 Bearfoot trucks in this video. The first is the 1987 fullsize truck that was known as Bearfoot 4. It was later rebodied as Bearfoot 5 with a 1988 Chevy body after #4 was rolled over in Anaheim, CA. The second truck is the S-10 Little Bearfoot, also seen in the pictures my wife took of Bearfoot 3 that day in 1985 when both trucks were at the Todd's. The S-10 was rolled over and crunched as well. The S-10 "Little Bearfoot" has the distinction of being the first monster truck to roll over, and wouldn't ya' know it, it was a woman driver. 

Bearfoot 4:



And Little Bearfoot:



Here is the cool connection to that video.



This picture of the 2 doors are from these two Bearfoot trucks in the video. These belong to Rich and he showed them to me. Yup, I was giddy. And no he didn't care to sell them. LOL.

And one last picture that Rich sent me. This the early Bearfoot 1. The photo was taken before Bearfoot went to 5-tons, and 66" terras. In this picture the truck wears 48"s, and 2 1/2 ton military axles. This truck later became Taurus after Fred, and his earliest partner Jack Willman separated their partnership. Sadly this truck was destroyed in an interstate highway accident. But parts of it were used to build a 1987 bodied Taurus.






So anyway. Hopefully I'll be done with my brakes in the next week or so and I can fire off an update on that soon.

Until then-
Engineer



Hmmm.....

If I ever win the lottery I wonder what Rich would say to building me a fleet of trucks like the USA-1 truck. Well at least I'd know who my first phone call would be to.    HONEY! what color do you want your monster truck to be? 

[Engineer]

Hahaha!



I'll give a little update since it has been awhile.

Bought a new clutch recently. These are getting hard to find. The ceramic button clutches are just about totally out of favor. And the Borg & Beck covers aren't exactly in every Wal-Mart.

Going to buy a new flywheel to bolt it all on to.



Bought a new one of these:



Thought while I had the engine out I would give the lower end a full inspection, and if need be, bring it up to proper specs.

When I built this engine proper care was given to parts, and assembly. I didn't know what I might find, however, pulling an engine out of a truck that is 12' tall may prove to be daunting. So, I figured now would be the best time to find out what we have.

I have no idea how many miles, or 7,000RPM passes is on this engine, but it is soon going to be 20 years since I first put it together. With that knowledge we'll assume a lot.

Here is the first view of the evidence, clean as a whistle:







Piston skirts still have the radial machining. No evidence of scoring.



This engine hasn't been ran, and has been out of my truck since 2008. Still it has to dump on my shop floor.



Mains haven't even wore through the babbit cover on the bearings. Only light wear marks, and nothing you can feel with your finger nail:



Slick:



Tricks, tricks, and more tricks.....

Or should we say "it's the little things".

In this view you can see the extra hole where I crossed drilled the main bearings the same was Chevy did on their L88 427, and LS6 454. This way the rod bearing get oiled all 360 degrees of crankshaft rotation not just when the oil hole for the connecting rod is exposed to the upper bearing insert with the groove in it:



This view shows a standard rear main cap where the oil pump bolts on and how it is machined for the oil hole through the casting.



Now here is mine. I smoothed the area going into the oil port so that we could limit turbulence as the oil starts it flow through the engine.



My L88 Corvette oil pan with windage tray, sump well, and trap door:



Repainted to look sexy:



When I built this engine I used a 2-bolt main block, and a cast iron crank........the engine originally came with a steel crank but I pulled it out to save for a different build. Many folks said the iron would never hold up. Well I didn't tell them I had the crank ground .030" on the mains, and .040" on the rods.....the max. LOL!  Smaller bearing journals have the benefit of less surface area and a smaller oil film to act as drag on the rotating crankshaft. The loss in surface area is made up by boosting the operating pressure of the oil pump. (pressure x area = force)

Anyway, go-fast theories aside, when I inspected the bearing clearances I found the rods to be .0015". Perfect. And the mains all checked out at .003". A little loose, but IIRC (it has been 20 years) I set the engine up with .0025" mains, so .0005" wear is not even remotely something I'm concerned with. 

I did put ARP bolts in the factory 3/8" rods. Other than that the WHOLE bottom end is a factory 1973 Chevrolet C20 pick-up engine. I guarantee if there would have been a weak link in this engine I would have, or should have found it.

The L88 Corvette oil pump had NO signs of wear. Only some polishing of the machine marks on the pump cover.

If anything is out of spec it is the crankshaft endplay, and rod side clearance. Not worried though, that only serves to oil the flat tappet, solid lifter cam. Which still looks brand new.

This engine has only seen Valvoline VR1 20w50 racing oil (even in the winter ) and AC Delco oil filters. Can't think of any reason to try anything else.

So at the end of the day a new rear main seal, new oil pan gasket, and some new o-rings to seal the dipstick tube and we are ready.



As soon as my new 454 flywheel is here I can put the transmission on the back of the engine and set it in the frame. While I was working on the engine I have been cleaning, cleaning, and cleaning some more on the bellhousing, and preparing the transmission for paint.

Hopefully I can get that done soon. Going to work on the brake caliper brackets some more tomorrow and maybe an update on that phase of this build can follow in the near future.

Stay tuned,
Engineer

[Engineer]

Since my last update I have bought a new flywheel specific to a 454. Before I was using a 427 flywheel and a balance weight. Just never was comfotable with that hokey setup so I went with the way Chevrolet intended it to be.

Spent a couple of hours cleaning the bell housing. After I degreased it as best I could I had a local body shop glass bead it for me. Now It looks like NOS.



I had bought a new clutch fork for my slipper clutch but was going to go back with OE. Well my old OE has a flaw in it that won't pass muster, so I'll be using the slipper clutch fork after all. See if you the viewer can spot the reason I don't want to use this piece:



This most recent weekend I had some excellent weather so I spent most of it sandblasting, and painting while I still could. I did the brake caliper brackets, (more on those in a later post) the engine accesory brackets, and the air tank. I didn't take many pictures because I was in a rush for time. Here are a couple of pictures of the air tank.

With epoxy primer:



Painted sitting in the frame:



After I put the engine all back together I decided to give the oil pump a spin while I rotated the crankshaft. I figured I would run the lash on the valves now so it didn't have to be done sitting way up in the air. So I rolled the engine over at the same time I primed the oil system just to make sure all of the cavities were well oiled.

With just a 3/8" drill the oil pump put out 75psi.



I haven't touched the body in eons but I finally installed the windshield lock strip and painted and reinstalled the windshield wipers. I wasn't going to use windshield wipers on the puller but now that this project has become a body restoration I wanted to get it back to factory appearing equipment. There is no wiper motor, only the wiper blades, arms, and regulator placed in the park position.



And I stole these following pictures from google, so if these pictures belong to anyone, well they weren't copyrighted so.....

During the puller project I took out the factory dash to lighten the truck up as much as possible. I have an awesome idea to go back to a "custom", "factory" type interior. My oldest son provided me with a set of charcoal colored S10 Blazer seats. The next step is to find a factory grey dash from a 1995~2000 model GMT-400 full size truck.

I think these look awesome. Whoever did these two are to be commended. Especially the bottom one.





Almost done with the brakes. Just finishing up with painting everything then I'll post how I did those. And that will be worth tuning in for. Right now I am at the pinnacle of multitasking. I would love to start, and then see a task to completion before moving on to another. But like in the case of this weekend's painting I have to pull together parts that I won't need for a few weeks so that they won't be waiting for warm weather to fix up. One benefit to doing this is so I can keep moving forward after the bad weather sets in.

Au revoir,
Engineer

[LTZ C20]

Good progress, your right about the dash from the GMT 400 swap, that looks pretty good. The air tank looks nice.

[Irish_Alley]

Copyright is a federal law of the United States that protects original works of authorship. A work of authorship includes literary, written, dramatic, artistic, musical and certain other types of works.

Copyright attaches as soon as the original work is created, and applies to both published and unpublished works. As soon as you type words, click the shutter on your camera (or, for many of you, hit the home button on your iPhone), apply paint to canvas or paper or lay down tracks for your next hit, you’ve got a copyright (with some exceptions).

Copyright is an automatic right and does not require the author to file special paperwork, as is the case for trademark and patent. Registration is required to enforce the rights, but as a matter of right, an author is not required to register anything to get the right to use the “circle c,” showing the work is copyrighted.

Fair use

the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.

with "fair use" youre ok to use someones picture as long as it falls into the mentioned category/s.

[LTZ C20]

So does that mean that everytime we make a post or start a build thread, the author has copyright? So I have copyright over this post that I just typed?

[Irish_Alley]

in a way yes, but in another maybe. general rule is if you write something or take a picture you own the copyright. BUT you know the terms and conditions agreement you agreed to when you joined? (i forgot them so have to get chris to verify that) well Chris is liable for the things you post since its his website. if you want to say "hey this is mine stop sharing it" he doesnt have to remove it. but if he doesnt want to post your "stuff" then he not forced to. but if someone come on this site and steals a post you posted word for word chris or you can contact that form moderator and say "hey this is mine i wish for you to take it down". also think about how moderators can edit your post. if you truly have a copyright then how can someone change things on a post?

BUT
copyright does not protect facts but does protect fixed original expressions. this is how you can share a book (original expressions) online via a torrent but you cant download it legally. the book is protected but the words in it cant be copyrighted. so if you rip all those words up (like a torrent does) then your ok. but if someone tried to put those words back together (like a torrent does) then thats the illegal part cause youre making a book that has a copyright protection. then your ISP is also liable for what you do online just like chris is liable for what you post on here. they have certain steps they have to take to protect themselves.

this is from yahoo's T&C "posters grant the company the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive and fully sub-licensable right and licence to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such Content (in whole or part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed. There's more useful stuff in there about indemnifying the company as well, which is also worth examining " im sure ours looks something like that

EDIT:im not a lawyer so take this post as nothing more than an opinion

[LTZ C20]

Makes sense.