project Rentedmule

Bought a cam for the turbo project from an S10F member

I finally finished rewiring my battery relocation and cleaning up the ghetto job I originally did. I routed the main positive cable from the bed and the lead from the MSD box to the junction box on the firewall and then got rid of the extra wires from the original positive cable.

I also figured out a new mount for the MSD using some "L" brackets under the PCM instead of the hacked sheet metal dealy I had started in the last picture. I still need to plug some holes in the inner fender and get rid of the surface rust but there should now be lots of room for charge tubing when the turbo goes in. Also need to mount the new overflow bottle but that shouldn't take long.

Budget is still looking pretty good - I spent $400 on all of that stuff, $250 for the manifolds, and $650 for turbo and crossover pipe. The heads were a bit pricey but I think they'll be worth it. Plus all of that is in Canadian dollars so that's only like $30 US!

Times sure have changed eh? I was looking at buying a distributor on summit and it from 220$ to almost $400 by the time I did exchange and shipping. That hurts eh..

Love the non-ac heater box. Just did the same thing on mine. Is 10lbs the whole system deleted? or just the box?


edit* lulz totally read what you wrote wrong haha. reading>me

Yeah the exchange is brutal now! I can't remember what the weight loss was for the whole AC system but it's probably ~35 lbs. I haven't dealt with the condenser yet, that's the last piece still in there.

I weighed the truck yesterday - 3400# even with a 1/2 tank of gas, after accounting for the weight of the spare, tools, and driver (all of which I actually weighed when I got home). This is according to the incredibly accurate scales at the dump 

It must take some serious work to get one of these down to the low 3000's. I could lose about 40# with the trailer hitch and maybe another 50 with luxuries like carpet and seats but after that it's getting tough!

Carpet and seats will definitely save you more than that, even just in a truck. You could easily shave almost 200 lbs if you gut it down to dash and a lightweight seat or two. You don't need to be hauling around all that plastic, especially as far above roll center as it is when you get to door panels, pillar covers and headliner.

I already have reasonably lightweight seats and would only save 25# tops by going to full on fixed-back race seats. I guess another 200# is possible but not without sacrificing all streetability or insurability (air bags).

Made some more progress on the turbo build over the last while. Manifolds and crossover are on, PS pump bracket has had 3-4# of aluminum trimmed off it, TB diffuser plate is gone and the TB is cleaned up. I need to reclock the turbo and figure out oil and coolant lines it. I also want to delete  the oil cooler lines on the motor. I don't know when I'll start tackling the big stuff like heads/cam...

Looks cool !!

I wish someone made a turnkey  turbo setup for the 4.3.

They do, or at least did, just for the 1500s, not our wee trucks.

I think it's relatively straight forward to do with the syty manifolds and the wynjammer injectors and bonnet. I even picked up a new syty downpipe which I'm told is a pretty good fit on second gens. I've found a few minor clearance issues with the manifold but nothing major. Certainly easier to sort stuff like that out when the engine isn't in the truck though!

The iron man streak is over: after running 120+ events without a mechanical, the truck didn't make it home. I ran a race last night and the starter died after shutting it down to help with course clean up. I thought it may be just heat soaked but it was still dead this morning when I drove back 30 miles to get it and hammering on the starter did nothing. It's been going for a while so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

A video from the event:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS8fsr4AhRE

Starter is fixed but my insurance company ditched the truck because my wife mentioned it was modified...

Anywho, found an aluminum water pump that works with late model vortec 4.3's



On a bathroom scale it's about 5 lbs lighter than the stock iron one and looks 500x better.

Scored a set of acura RSX seats for $60 from a salvage yard. Not sure if they'll go in the truck, the car, or become office chairs but they're damn nice seats!



The car was so rotten with rust that when one of the bolts wouldn't come out I just pulled the floor apart!

Ohhh that is a pretty water pump.  More details?

Sorry, missed your reply. I made a post about it on S10f:

http://www.s10forum.com/forum/f107/bolt-on-aluminum-water-pump-for-vortec-4-3-a-776226/

5 lbs lighter and less rust seemed like a good deal.

Thanks for sharing. I'll definitely be storing the fact that exists in the back of my head in case I ever get around to rebuilding my own 4.3.

I also need to go junkyard seat shopping again for the Blazer. The Civic seats I had got eaten up by animals in the barn :/ That's what I get for letting it all sit around for so long.  RSX seats are now on the potentials list.

oh no! those were nice civic seats too!

Animal damage is a real danger in my barn as well. I was lucky to catch a squirrel in the engine compartment of the firebird last year before it did any serious damage.

No huge updates but I've been doing a lot of cleaning and organizing on the turbo build lately. I also eliminated the oil cooler lines, which aside from leaking were interfering with the crossover pipe. I'm going to order oil supply and drain plumbing now and feel like I have a good handle on that stuff but still don't know how I am going to run the coolant supply or drain lines. I'm open to suggestions if you have them. Can I tap into the lines going into/out of the water pump somehow (I don't even know which one is in and which is out...)?

What is the oil supply and drain plan?

And why do you need an extra coolant loop? Separate oil cooler or?

I'm liking all the small weight saving tricks you're pulling with the engine accessories.