Project Flexington: 160.3db @ 37hz!! Parallel 6th order walk through, DC Neo Elite 18s, 4 DC 5.0ks, JY Lithium, 12 banks of XS Caps

[the_garynator]

Got my valve covers and alternator bracket back from powder coating!

Got a new breather, oil cap and painted the lettering and emblem black  (rather terribly to be honest but looks ok from a foot or 2 away). I also painted the top of the breather black to match since silver kind of clashed. Considering doing something similar to the oil cap too. What do you guys think?

Picked up misc other stuff like valve cover gaskets, threaded rod to mount the new air cleaner (stock holley didn't work). No need for pictures lol.

Also finally figured out a near perfect solution for running power wire under the truck!  It's waterproof, flexible, extremely easy to install, fits 2/0, 2/0 ring terminals fit through it easily!, and extremely cheap! 

Only $0.65 / foot! Plus about $1-2 for fittings, and like $0.50-1 in heat shrink!

1in Flexible pvc conduit at menards. It's  $6.99 for a 10ft section and $64.99 for a 100ft roll.

Here's a mockup.  You'd drill a hole in the vehicle where the wire will reenter.  Outer grey fitting would go on the inside, other one outside, silicone or similar between the two to seal it.
Adhesive lined heat shrink to insure water tight seal on (not shrunk in picture). Other end would have heatshrink from the blue conduit to the wire to seal the other side of the length, or to a fitting if running back into the vehicle.

About to go out and start hammering out some work on it in a few minutes, more updates will be inbound! Let me know what you think, feedback helps keep the motivation up!

[the_garynator]

Made a lot of progress today!

Almost started but realized it has a solid roller cam not hydraulic so we have to readjust the lash. But it should start tomorrow!

Alternator bracket turned out great!

Extremely happy with how the powder coating turned out! Unfortunately I'm not happy with the look of the air cleaner, going to replace with a carb to 4" intake tube and cone filter eventually.

Rubber valve cover gaskets, studs and stainless nylon lock nuts!

So close. Almost started but realized it has a solid roller cam not hydraulic so we have to readjust the lash. But it should start tomorrow!

More to come tomorrow!

[the_garynator]

Made a lot of progress today!

Almost started but realized it has a solid roller cam not hydraulic so we have to readjust the lash. But it should start tomorrow!

Alternator bracket turned out great!

Extremely happy with how the powder coating turned out! Unfortunately I'm not happy with the look of the air cleaner, going to replace with a carb to 4" intake tube and cone filter eventually.

Rubber valve cover gaskets, studs and stainless nylon lock nuts!

Transmission cooler mounted and ready for a test start:

So close. Almost started but realized it has a solid tappet cam not hydraulic so we have to readjust the lash. But it should start tomorrow!

More to come tomorrow!

[ShadeTreeMechanic]

You are making good progress on this build and I like how the build is not just the stereo but the motor too. Is your battery smoking in that picture?

[the_garynator]

8 hours ago, ShadeTreeMechanic said:

You are making good progress on this build and I like how the build is not just the stereo but the motor too. Is your battery smoking in that picture?

Thanks man, no, just me vaping lol.

Just a little update, we set the lash today and fired her up.  We need to figure out a solution for the valvetrain because the stock rockers aren't going to work with the solid lifter cam. It runs but after adjusting the lash the rockers have too much play so there's a lot of valvetrain noise. We're either going to do roller rockers or say fuck it and tear back into it and do a hydraulic lifter cam. Also found out that my radiator cap isn't going to work with the filler neck and my fuel pump is leaking. So I'm going to convert to an electric fuel pump. 

Other than the valvetrain clatter, she ran great, so overall it was a good day!

[fecupe2001]

looks purdy!

[BP1Fanatic]

Very purdy! 

[the_garynator]

Thanks guys!!!

[the_garynator]

Time for another update!

My new stainless full roller rockers arrived. It worked out nicely because the 993 heads I used have pushrod guides from the factory so I was able to go with non-selfaligning roller rockers without the need for guide plates which would have required new rocker studs and machining. Hopefully these take care of the slop in the valvetrain caused by running a solid lifter cam with stock valvetrain.  

The nice thing is, I can use them with a hydraulic lifter cam too, which I plan on putting in next winter. I would have done that now, but it would require pulling the engine again and buying another set of intake gaskets.

I also bought a pushrod length checker so i can make sure my valvetrain geometry is correct since we did mill off a bit of the heads for a small compression bump. 

In addition I bought a set of reusable aluminum exhaust manifold gaskets as the old ones have a leak and I'll be pulling the manifolds multiple times in the future. 

Did some work on the transmission harness, reloomed some of it and separated the parts I won't be using which cleaned it up a bit.  Just have to solder the new speed sensor plug on and test fit it in the truck.

Pulled my gauge cluster to put in my new speedometer but found out the old one was 3 3/8" and the new one is 3 3/4" so I'll have to bore the hole out bigger. While I was rewiring it I got frustrated with the multiple brands of gauges and said fuck it. I ordered a new fuel gauge and tach and happened to have brand new water temp and oil pressure gauges laying around. Unfortunately they are the tinted versions but other than that they're identical. 

I purchased 100ft of the conduit I'll be running underneath the truck. Unfortunately I realized finding a way to get 15 runs of 2/0 from the engine bay to the underside of the truck is going to be a rather big challenge. The big v8 crammed in the tiny engine bay leaves very little space so I'll have to get creative.  I plan on body lifting it next winter to alleviate this issue as well as some others.

Other than that, I've spent quite a few hours designing the new wall  (much of it spent banging my head against the wall). It's been a huge pita due to space constraints.

The big breakthrough came when I realized that with the stock wheels and tires, one of my biggest obstacles, the wheel wells in the bed, are entirely way larger than they need to be.  So I will be cutting out 3" from the insides of each. This will leave me with 48" between them instead of only 42. I will also most likely cut about 3" off the top of them to make things fit better. Once I body lift it I'll be able to remove them entirely lol.

Anyway, I'm going to go finish up the transmission harness, install it, then probably start replacing the rocker arms.  More updates to come.

[the_garynator]

Got some more accomplished today.

Here are the exhaust manifold gaskets I picked up, they should do the job.

Finished up the transmission harness and put it in the truck.  Still have to hook up the tps, switched 12v, power and tach signal but it's close!

Got 8 of the rockers installed, just have to do the other 8 and set lash and the valvetrain should be good to go!

That's about it for today. More to come tomorrow.