73 Shortbed

[bcstingray]

To be honest, it looks like a big block water pump pulley.

[LTZ C20]

To be honest, it looks like a big block water pump pulley.

It may very well be, I have no idea of its origin. I just know it was on my truck when I bought it until I replaced it with a serpentine system. My truck came with and has a small block in it. Who knows, it could be off a 53 Buick RoadMaster haha or 76 vega.

[ROARING 455]

  looks really good!

[bcstingray]

Put a set of 91 Suburban bucket seats and console in the truck today. Will reupholster later. Had to bend the back brackets, drill another hole and will be making a bracket for the inside front. Also bought the rear gas tank, straps, and frame brackets today.

[bcstingray]

Out with the old. Hope to have the V8 installed over Easter.

[bcstingray]

Did some more work on the project. I bought an aftermarket passenger inner fender and a used drivers inner fender. I also tried my had at fixing the rusted out radiator support. I used a piece of sheet metal and fiberglass. The bolts in the picture of the radiator support were used to hold the metal in place. Will sand it down tomorrow.

[bcstingray]

In with the new, and dang if I didn't dent my new inner fender by leaning on it. Also bought new tires and rims for the build. 10" on the back 8" on the front with Cooper Cobra's ad Cragar Delux 69 rims.

[Irish_Alley]

maybe a dumb question but how do you plan on tightening the belt on the WP/crank?

[bcstingray]

maybe a dumb question but how do you plan on tightening the belt on the WP/crank?

That's two belts, one to the power steering and one to the alternator. Both come off the crank and around the water pump pulley.

[Irish_Alley]

lmao now i see it. at first glance it looks like 2 belts one goes around the PS, WP, Alt and crank the other just goes around the wp and crank.

[bcstingray]

I was working on my build today. The aftermarket aluminum radiator is a Champion EC716. I take that the V8 upper radiator bracket is different from the I6. The one pictured is from the 6 cylinder. Can someone post a picture or part number for the V8 bracket. I also worked on getting my wiring ready, installed the trans cooler lines, radiator hoses and few other things.

[LTZ C20]

I noticed that you don't have a fan shroud. Don't be surprised if you have any cooling issues when it's hot outside or when at idle. You have a 60% of the radiator covered by the fans and 40% not covered. That open space means radiator surface area that's not being cooled by flowing air.

I have a Champion aluminum radiator also in my 3/4 ton. My small block is pushing over 425 ft lbs torque. I have the aluminum shroud and dual fans. I can drive around with a trailer in tow in the middle of summer at 106°F with the ac on and the temp never crosses half on the gauge. With no trailer, no ac and not in summer, my temp never crosses half way between 1/4 and 1/2 on the gauge.

You should really look into a shroud. It will save a lot of headaches and will seperate the fans from the radiator which is a plus also because it's never a good idea to have anything mounted directly to the surface were it can vibrate and create pin holes or damage the fins and create a leak. You wouldn't want that now would you?

[bcstingray]

LTZ, did your radiator have the bolt holes to mount the shroud to the radiator? Mine doesn't have any mounting bolt holes for a shroud.

[LTZ C20]

The shroud and the radiator do not have bolt holes. They leave that up to the customer because some people don't want electric fans and some do. Some want to use one large fan and maybe their original shroud or what have you. I did a full install and review of my upgrade with the parts. Let me find it and I'll post it. It covers everything needed for install which isn't very hard.

[LTZ C20]

http://forum.73-87chevytrucks.com/smforum/index.php?topic=31717.0