79 C-10 5.3/4L60E--MOVING ON TO BODY WORK

[bowtieguy]

Well I got my dose of regeneration this past weekend.  Put about 200 miles on the 79 now, everything seems really good.  Runs really strong.  Had it to a local forum cruise night,on Friday night, lots of friggen ricers, but some did notice the coolness of not having a carb.  On the way home I ate up a late 90's convertible mustang GT with aftermarket pipes.  We did a 65 mph side by side, I let him nose up first, then I let it have it, shifted down to second, my nose went up, and he fell back to my rear  bumper pretty fast, I let off when it shifted to 3rd.  The 5.3 was pulling extremely well.  It shifted out of 2nd at 93mph based on my GPS top speed indicator. 

Then I drove it all day yesterday, and on my way home about 9:30pm the friggen fuel pump seemed to have went out. While I was waiting on my buddy that was using my trailer could come and get me, I made a make shift test light from one of my front fender marker lights, and checked all of my fuses and circuit's all seemed well, you could still hear the pump running, but just no fuel out of the shrader valve on the rail.  So I knew there was a problem in the tank.  I ended up pulling the bed ( I just filled the darn thing! ) tonight, and found that the Aeroquip hose I used on my sending unit crystallized and let the pump slide down.  Going to do an external pump now, don't want this issue again!

[eventhorizon66]

I wonder why your fuel line "crystallized" like that.  Weird.  At any rate, good luck finishing up this project, I'm still really jealous.

[bowtieguy]

well on closer inspection, it did not "crystalize"  It seems the clamp I had on the pump side worked loose allowing the pump to slide, my assumption, is that on its way off, the pump seperated the insde of the hose apart from pressure. 

I plan to put on another piece of hose and use better clamps, and try again.

[Captkaos]

If you using in tank pumps, you need to use high pressure hose.  If the hose didn't come with the pump it will rupture it, as you have found.

[bowtieguy]

The hose did not rupture.  using 300psi Aeroquip.  Clamp worked loose, or was loose.  The inside of the hose came apart.

[Captkaos]

Misread the first time around..  Was it high pressure hose?  What kind of clamps are you using on it?

[bowtieguy]

yes was the high pressure hose that went between the pump and the sending unit.

I used plain old hose clamps.  Should have used my head and got Fuel Injection clamps. 

Here is a picture I took with my cell phone. 

[eventhorizon66]

Yep you should have used something like this.

[bowtieguy]

back up and running, took it around the block just now, no bed and all! Used the clamps show above.  But truth be told, not a big fan...

[eventhorizon66]

This is my favorite type of hose clamp, but they are expensive, hard to find in general, and impossible to find in small sizes.

[bowtieguy]

Those are great clamps.  We use them here at CAT.  Should be able to get those at any Caterpillar dealership. 

[team39763]

I used those fuel injection clamps on all of my connections - fuel, trans, water.  Then I used those T-bolt clamps for my exhaust and they worked good.  The only problem I had with the fuel injection clamps was that some of the screws stripped when I tightened them down.

[bowtieguy]

Just wanted to stab in an update.  So far the 79 has 2 kills under its belt..

late 90's GT stang with a V8 ( had good sounding exhaust ) No clue what it had, ran from 65 to about 100, ate him by 3 car links then lifted.

Just last week had a 07/08ish Eclipse try and pass me, I ran from 30 on up to 110 ( GPS top speed ) and had it with ease.  Let off, tapped my brake and he went on past, pulled off about 2 miles up at a farm house.  I stopped to chat, he had the 240hp engine, and was a little embarassed that a "carburated truck" ate his lunch.  Then I opened the hood.  He about had a cow.  Couldn't believe I had a LS vortec stabbed in there. 

Its fun, if your thinking about doing an LS swap, I urge you to do it!  Truck seems to be getting high teens for MPG's its responsive, its easy to start, and just fun to drive. 

[lowbucktruck]

Just wanted to stab in an update.  So far the 79 has 2 kills under its belt..

late 90's GT stang with a V8 ( had good sounding exhaust ) No clue what it had, ran from 65 to about 100, ate him by 3 car links then lifted.

Just last week had a 07/08ish Eclipse try and pass me, I ran from 30 on up to 110 ( GPS top speed ) and had it with ease.  Let off, tapped my brake and he went on past, pulled off about 2 miles up at a farm house.  I stopped to chat, he had the 240hp engine, and was a little embarassed that a "carburated truck" ate his lunch.  Then I opened the hood.  He about had a cow.  Couldn't believe I had a LS vortec stabbed in there. 

Its fun, if your thinking about doing an LS swap, I urge you to do it!  Truck seems to be getting high teens for MPG's its responsive, its easy to start, and just fun to drive. 

Well, that convinced me!  I am tossing my old 350 sbc aside and buying a 5.3 LS1 motor for my project truck now!  I found a 5.3 complete for $1,150 (harness, ECU included).

[eventhorizon66]

And this is a stock 5.3.   Keep in mind, all LS-based engines respond very well to the inexpensive and very tame LS6 cam.  And cam swaps are easy peasy on these motors.