04' Colorado LS1 swap (Amy's Truck)

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Some more stuff from Summit Racing, 02 sensors $52.99 LH, $57.99 RH I also cut and extended them 18" to reach down to the headers. I also used FIRE tubes by DEI to protect them, as I had issues on my firebird with these melting on the header.

Spark plug boot protectors $49.00, Ron Francis 4 relay junction block 40/50 amp $80.49. I am going to use 3 of these for the electric fans, and transmission cooler fan plus I will have an extra for whatever down the road.

I could not use the F-body style air intake for obvious reasons, so I went out to my Silverado and pulled the intake off and put it on the Colorado to see if it would fit. It fit perfect, so I bought a Spectre intake for $149.00. The MAF will go in location of where it would be on the Silverado, and I am going to drill a hole and install a grommet and o-ring for the IAT sensor as the Silverado never had it.

I am going out right now to work on installing the electric fans, until next update!!!

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Pics of the 02 sensors with extensions hooked up, front end is starting to come together.

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Got the alternator from Rockauto new for $76.00, bracket came from chevy dealer for $33.00. Then I realized later that there is an idler pulley that goes on that bracket, dealer discontinued it and I could only find it on ebay for $57.99 so I bought it but wasn't happy!! Got the heater hoses on, I was going to buy braided ones but I was worried about them rubbing the paint off the engine cover.

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I got the 98-02' F-body fans installed yesterday, they fit perfectly with the Colorado radiator. There is about 2" in front of the water pump pulley which is fine. It is bolted in place, and very secure. I also hooked up the relays and got it all working and ready to go, we had one bad relay junction block it had a crack in the bottom of it making it short out so I have to take it back. I also brought the transmission cooler wires up front as well, I have to buy an adjustable controller for that. Until next update!!!

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Here's some pics of the intake, we basically had to cut half the tube in half and at first we used the straight piece but that created a problem with the upper radiator hose. So we ended up using the curved end which brought it up high enough to clear the hose. I have to make a small hole for the iat sensor, so that will be the next project.

Looks good cant wait to see it in person.

Nice work... doesn't get much tigher than that! lol

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We went to a couple garage sales last week and came upon this, It's a miniature Colorado monster truck. It has a lifted suspension with big tires. We are going to strip it down take the glass windows out, sandblast it and paint it to match the full size Colorado. Always wanted to do this, so for now It's a side project.

Today I bought Greg Banish's tuning DVD from Summit Racing, I'm going to need all the help I can get. I haven't watched it yet, but I will let you know what I think about it on a later post. That's all until tomorrow, then I will have more to post!!

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Here's some pics of my windshield washer setup, universal pump wired into the factory wiring, Pabst blue Ribbon quart glass bottle mounted in a pcv cap with a rubber isolater underneath.

Also got my power steering brace, I ordered the bracket should be here wednesday. Until then!!!

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We test fitted the engine cover, and it would not seat properly on the fuel rails. The gas line was holding it up, the fuel line was too thick to fit down the slot they had precut in it. We ended up buying an aeromotive 90 degree AN elbow, which also got the gas line away from the header and enables the engine cover to sit flat.

We also got all the fittings and hose for the power steering setup from Summit Racing, they are a mix match of russell, earls, fragola, and aeromotive. I followed a members advice on here about how to use tube nuts and sleeves, and It came out really good I think. I will take some pics tomorrow up close of how it looks. We did both the return and pressure side lines in braided line, total was under $100 which I was happy with.

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Some more pics of the fittings, and the hose. We had a string of bad luck with the 90 degree RUSSELL fittings, we bought 2 from Summit Racing and both of them leaked like crazy. I called them and told them what happened, and they said we must have gotten defective fittings so they sent us another one no charge and so far so good. I also had to buy a flaring tool to flare the lower rack and pinion lines, so that I could use the tube nuts and sleeves.

I also bought an adjustable fan controller for the transmission cooler, It's adjustable from 160-240. I have it mounted under the truck right now, I have to figure something out to put it in. $29.95 and I also wired it into a relay and fuse combination, It uses a probe inserted through the fins of the radiator to pick up the temperature.

We are still working on the transmission, no gears right now going to spend all day tomorrow going through the valve body. Until then...........

Been a long time since I posted, but here's what happened with the transmission.
Condition: no gears
1. Checked line pressure, and had plenty of fluid spitting out of the transmission lines.
2. Went over wiring 10 or 12 times, went to chevy dealer 2 times to verify differences in the two valve bodies.
3. Unplugged all electrical plugs to transmission as instructed, still had no gears.
4. Finally broke down and decided to do a manual valve body swap.
5. We took it back out of the truck, and sent it out to the transmission shop again, thank god we didn't do the valve body swap because the problem was internal.
6. We had the right torque converter, but the wrong input shaft and front pump!!!
7. Dropped another $250 in the transmission, and we were good to go!!

4 hours of hard labor tonight and we got it back in, and we started it up and it went in forward and reverse!!

But as in normal fashion and luck, we sprung 2 huge leaks!!! First one was oil coming out of the oil cooler block off plate, we retorqued it and had no problems, the other one is a major disaster. The main seal out of the rack and pinion blew out 3 quarts of fluid in 5 seconds, so by chance I found a complete rebuild kit for it for $50.00 from rockauto, it will be here tomorrow as I'm having it overnighted fed ex.

Until the next update!!

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Got the front end back on, and repainted the bullbar, bowtie, battery box, fuse box cover.

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Pics of the power steering setup, finally got the lines to where they don't leak.
Pics of upper radiator hose, which is out of a sunfire/cavalier 2.2 liter engine.
Finished cosmetic pic, I think It looks really nice.

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More pics, still working on it.

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We got the power steering lines fixed, to where they don't leak any more. So we started the truck and after about 5 seconds of running, and huge waterfall was coming out from under the truck. The rack and pinion blew the main seal where the shaft goes into, the only thing we could figure happened is air got into it. We bought a rebuild kit from Rockauto for $40.00, had all new clips and seals and o-rings. Well one thing lead to another, and we messed up 3 of the teflon o-rings trying to get them onto the shaft.

Finally got tired of messing with it, and went to the Chevy dealer, which believe it or not had the lowest price on the rack and pinion $349.00 BRAND NEW not rebuilt.

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Here's pics of the glorious rebuild kit, the shaft with the 4 o-rings we messed up. In the one pic you can see a meta shard that actually broke the seal, and I threw a pic of my newly painted bowtie and V-8 emblem. Until next time!!

You do realize that the little v8 thing you used was mainly used by ford right?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bangbangskeetskeet

You do realize that the little v8 thing you used was mainly used by ford right?

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Long hair don't care.

In the newer fords or older ones?? I am thinking your talking about 30's style model A's, but no I did not know that. I actually got the idea from the v8 colorados, they come from the factory with the exact same v8 badges, but the factory puts them on the front fenders. I just figured I would try something different, I did originally buy 2 to make a clone of the factory v8 but then soon changed my mind.

Nope thats a 30s-50s Ford logo that looks nothing like the V8 Colorado logo. But hey, it matches the rest of your Pep Boys vomited on your truck look.

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In the process of working on the wiring in the steering column, I managed to break the combination switch. Rockauto wanted $260.00 just for the switch, so I ended up buying the whole steering column minus the air bag for $100, It is much better now. Until next time!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TRPLXL2

In the newer fords or older ones?? I am thinking your talking about 30's style model A's, but no I did not know that.

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The Model A never had a V8. :sigh:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bangbangskeetskeet

The Model A never had a V8.

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He was just mentioning it as this is the "conversion" section ... :sigh:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Paulster2

He was just mentioning it as this is the "conversion" section ... :sigh:

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"He" is a she...and go back and re-read those posts pal...I said to her that V8 emblem was from Ford. She said like from the Model A? To which I replied that the Model A never had a V8. Which it never did from the factory so why would it come with a factory V8 emblem? :duh:

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We were out driving it the other day, and all of a sudden the truck just dies. Well we were only 5 miles from the house so I walked back and got the Silverado, and I pulled it back to the house. We found out the fuel pump took a crap, so we got a new fuel module complete through rockauto for $60.00.. Of course it went out when we had a full tank, 18 gallons made it kind of tricky to balance on the jack.

Until next time...................

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I'm not going to go on and on about the last few months, so I'll just list what we have done so far and then I'll post some pics.

Truck kept stalling, and not starting. We pulled the engine harness, and continuity testing revealed the oil pressure sensor wiring had a break in the ground wire. I removed the whole strand of wire and replaced it.

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We have been driving the truck for about 3 months now, no problems with it after I fixed the wiring. The gauges don't work at all, so we are going with an IPAD and the dash command app for our gauges. We're going to fiberglass it into the dash, where the factory gauge cluster used to be. Today we pulled the bed off the truck, and degreased and cleaned it.

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We are going to paint the bottom of the bed floor candy red, and buff out the back of the truck cab. Our current project is the rear axle, currently it has the AAM 8" rear axle. We bought an 07 TBSS 4x4 rear axle complete from rotor to rotor, including shocks, sway bar, panhard bar, and 4 bar thingies? $500.00 from Pick a Part, it had 26,000 miles on the unit and absolutely rust free. It has the 9.5 ring gear, 12" rotors, Eaton locker, 4.10 gears. We are also having a custom 1 piece driveshaft made from Henderson driveline, It's going to take a few months to get this all done but It will be worth it.

We are also pulling the stock gas tank out, and DBRods is going to make a fuel cell for us. I was impressed with his work, we are going to put it up front in the bed by the bulkhead.

Already removed all the brackets from the new axle, purchased new spring perches, Ubolts, shock mounts. Cal Tracs are also on the list of must have's. This is the winter project, until next update!!

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Ordered the perches, but the center hole was way to big so we had some washers welded in because the Colorado has really small locating pins. Waiting on parts and money, until next time!!

Very nice work and a great upgrade as well, and a Merry Christmas to you also.

Truck sounds good. Wish I had some kind of enclosed area to work on my stuff. Alot more would get done

Looks real good