Above 1200 Sq/FT The Warthog Hidey Hole

[dchance]

JB I think the lift is cheating. But it is a great idea. Makes me want to do something similar.

Dwight

 

[1/2 Cup]

JB, top idea...

 

[jbmatth]

JB I think the lift is cheating. But it is a great idea. Makes me want to do something similar.

Dwight

You say cheating, I say improvised winning. If you think you should then you should, even with the mower in the air access was still pretty tough to some parts during the fluid change but at least I was on my feet.

JB, top idea...

Thanks 1/2, I have been thinking about doing this project for over a year, and just this weekend decided to buck up and get it done.

JB

 

[rmalkow2]

No way using the lift is cheating. It's a great idea and way to improve the usefulness of your lift.

 

[driftpin]

Sorry about your accident & I hope you both heal well.

I know there's a lot of S10 to V8 conversions running around but the 355 twins (Colorado/Canyon) began running V8's in 2009. Wouldn't it be a lot easier to pick up a 355 and to drop in an LS-series, since that's what they were designed to run? They increased the brakes in 2009 for them too. Seems like it would be easier and more-reliable to run something designed to take a V8, in the 1st place. They came w/the 5.3 L but dropping in a larger 6.2 LS-series can give you a lot of reliable HP, w/a lot less work, and better reliability, I would think.

Disclosure: I have a 2009 crew cab Canyon 3.7 L Atlas (all-aluminum) inline 5 DOHC that I bought new during Cash for Clunkers. The V8 didn't give me enough fuel economy to be eligible under Cash for Clunkers purchase, but if you remove the speed limiter using HP Tuners with the 242 HP/242 ft-lbs torque stock gearing of the inline-5 DOHC will push it to over 125 mph.

 

[oldironfarmer]

If you've got a lift and don't use it you're just a dumb Okie.

Good job!

 

[shortykorte]

If you've got a lift and don't use it you're just a dumb Okie.



Good job!

Darn I’m an okie.


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[jbmatth]

No way using the lift is cheating. It's a great idea and way to improve the usefulness of your lift.

If you've got a lift and don't use it you're just a dumb Okie.

Good job!

Thanks rmalkow2 and Andy, I'm not a dumb Okie for not using my lift more, I have that covered in many other ways.

Darn I’m an okie.


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Great, when did you move, your first order of business is to buy at least one non-running car and park it in view of the road never to be touched again but refuse to sell it because you will get to it someday. Ouch that actually hit too close to home.

Sorry about your accident & I hope you both heal well.

I know there's a lot of S10 to V8 conversions running around but the 355 twins (Colorado/Canyon) began running V8's in 2009. Wouldn't it be a lot easier to pick up a 355 and to drop in an LS-series, since that's what they were designed to run? They increased the brakes in 2009 for them too. Seems like it would be easier and more-reliable to run something designed to take a V8, in the 1st place. They came w/the 5.3 L but dropping in a larger 6.2 LS-series can give you a lot of reliable HP, w/a lot less work, and better reliability, I would think.

Disclosure: I have a 2009 crew cab Canyon 3.7 L Atlas (all-aluminum) inline 5 DOHC that I bought new during Cash for Clunkers. The V8 didn't give me enough fuel economy to be eligible under Cash for Clunkers purchase, but if you remove the speed limiter using HP Tuners with the 242 HP/242 ft-lbs torque stock gearing of the inline-5 DOHC will push it to over 125 mph.

The thought had crossed my mind and it would fit a little easier but there were a lot of changes from the 4 and 5 cyl. 355's vs the v8's. The cost to get into a 355 would have been higher and I had the S10 already with family history. In all honesty I probably would have had about the same money into the swap either direction or could have been slightly cheaper into the 355's. I know both have been done many times but I really enjoy having the small S10 that never had a V8, the look on peoples faces when they see it and it starts up, you just don't expect it. Brake upgrades are pretty easy on the S10 as well, I can buy relatively cheap (~$100) brackets to adapt the S10 spindle to C5 or C6 Corvette brakes so I could potentially install the carbon ceramic brakes from a C6 Z06 if needed.

As of now I don't think I've even had the truck over 90 and that only has happened when I'm passing someone which happens pretty darn quick. I'm sure I'll eventually go faster, but I don't have any tickets on my record and want to keep it that way for once. When I was a little more reckless I had a crotch-rocket that I had at an indicated 185 racing a Fox body Mustang, that is faster than anything I own could go for now. So I guess now I need to go to Craigslist and start looking for a Colorado.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

I have been able to get a few things done lately, first I made a grinder/buffer/vise stand:

The base is an old brake rotor from a horse trailer, and the C-channel is from the from of the yellow truck I parted out. This is another free project that should serve me well in the future. I installed the Craftsman block grinder I've had for a while as well as an HF buffer and an old vise I had setting around. I'd like to install a 2" wide belt sander and make a spark shield to keep the buffing pads a little cleaner but that will come later.

I also added some usefulness to my welding cart:

I've wanted to get a plasma cutter and tig welder for some time now and eventually settled on this Everlast unit. So far I've only tested the plasma cutter and it is so much fun and easy to use. Her is the control center:

With my limited research everything I could read was positive on the machine, it isn't a blue or red machine but should really help out in some future projects. Now I just need to add storage for all the small parts that tend to add up with each welder, and clean it, and put better wheels on it, and... You know how it goes. That is all for now.

JB

 

[OutlawDrifter]

I've found a plasma cutter to be a necessary tool! I used to have a free source for semi brake drums, but it has since dried up. Wish I would have stock piled about a half dozen.

 

[jbmatth]

I've found a plasma cutter to be a necessary tool! I used to have a free source for semi brake drums, but it has since dried up. Wish I would have stock piled about a half dozen.

There are hundreds of them at the local scrap yard, but they've changed their rules recently and won't swap out weight for weight so it is a pain anymore. I'd like to have a few of them for stuff just like this but I had these and they were free. If it doesn't weigh enough maybe I'll weld an engine block to the base.

I can already tell I'm going to love playing with the plasma cutter. I kinda wish I hadn't just scrapped so much so I could play some more.

JB

 

[shortykorte]

Well darn, I must really be an okie. I have the car too, the SL I was going to paint....a year ago.
Nice TIG/plasma. I’ve heard good things about the brand.

I have one dump truck drum setup like your new grinder setup and I have some plow discs waiting to get weight added and use for bases. Wonder if Andy has any disc.


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[oldironfarmer]

I swap used discs for scrap aluminum.

If you're a real Okie you need an inoperative refrigerator on the front porch you plan to convert to welding rod storage.

 

[jbmatth]

Wonder if Andy has any disc.

You almost made me spit out my coffee there.

I'm looking forward to learning how to tig, and get better cut lines with the plasma. So far I've only cut some scrap that was already in the recycle bin for no reason other than I wanted to try it out.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

I swap used discs for scrap aluminum.

If you're a real Okie you need an inoperative refrigerator on the front porch you plan to convert to welding rod storage.

You beat me to my reply Andy, I'll bring some aluminum by next Monday, but how about a fridge that works but isn't used, I have one of those. Does it have to be on the porch, I'm a lazy Okie that doesn't want to walk that far for new rod.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

I have a little to update of things I was able to accomplish over the last week or so. For those of you over on Andy's thread you have seen some of this so I'll start with that info first.

I wanted to show off a few things Andy (Old Iron Farmer) helped me out on. First of all I was the lucky recipient of hammer #3 and the optional handle, some assembly required:

He dropped this off last year when we worked on some of my water drainage issues and I haven't needed it so it never made it to the top of the list to work on. Well I still haven't needed it but decided to give it a go, pretty easy all in all. The belt sander did the heavy lifting with just a little cleanup with a knife and then some wedges:

I stopped by for a couple hours last week at Andy's place and showed me some of his casting work as well as give me a couple of discs. Here you can see the master setting everything up:

Then he let me give it a go screening some sand and slowly packing it around the pattern until it was time to flip it over:

More pounding sand:

I didn't get any photos of the melting and pouring but that was a lot of fun too, I cut off the gates and other metal to be remelted later, then took it home for the finishing touches.

The as cast trivet before much clean-up:

Now all cleaned up and painted, I think it came out great, I'll wait to get my wife's reaction until mother's day.

Thanks again Andy for all the help, little by little I'm getting back some of the aluminum I've given you over the past couple years.

More to come,
JB

 

[jbmatth]

Next on the agenda was to do some work on the Lil' Blue Truck, I really needed to get some better gears for highway use and the 4.10:1 rear in the truck wasn't cutting it. A couple of weeks ago I picked up what I thought was a 3.08:1 ratio rear but was still an open diff and the smaller 7.5" 10 bolt. Well before going over to Andy's shop I went to the pull-a-part in search of an 8.5" 10 bolt with a locker. It took some hunting but I finely found one in a Blazer:
View media item 82447
I had my battery powered angle grinder ready to go and was told I couldn't use it, something about fires and gas. I got it out and it is also supposed to have 3.73:1 gears and disc brakes. Full disclosure I thought I was getting one with 3.08:1 gears but was too excited and read RPO code GT4 as GU4, and only realized this fact as I was typing right now.

One thing to note, the newest rear is almost 9" wider than the old rear and would have looked terrible with the wheels and tires I had, I did some searching around and measuring of the C5 Corvette rims I have on Project Pinky Pi and with their offset I would only make the tires stick out 2.25" wider on each side which to me would improve the look. Sadly the tires are shot on those rims and I don't really have the funds to buy 4 new tires right now so I decided to put the other 3.08:1 open rear into the Lil' Blue Truck:
View media item 82448
Old out and new in, the drum brake and E-brake cable took longer than anything else, a quick bleed and computer reprogram and I'm back on the road. But wait, why is the speedo off so much? I adjusted to tune to fix the speedo output from the computer to match the GPS speed and back calculated and it seems like I may have 3.42:1 gears even though the RPO code said 3.08:1. I'm so confused now I'll just call it a day.

I took the old 2.2L 4 cylinder engine apart that came in the S10 when my brother was having issues with it, and think I found the problem:
View media item 82445
The oil supply to #1 rod bearing is plugged with bearing material, and all of the bearings looked like they had seen better days:
View media item 82446
I fixed a couple of other minor things on L.B.T. but didn't take photos so I guess they didn't happen.

I have an appointment to have the alignment completed tomorrow as well as charge the AC, now if I could only get the O2 sensors reading, troubleshooting is tough alone but I think they are just both shot.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

While I was visiting Andy he let me take a couple of old discs he has been saving for a rainy day:

I put one on the bottom of my grinder stand, it is much more stable now:

I also decided it was time to fire up the forge:

First order of business was to make some tongs:

Hey they look like they might work even if they are uglier than I should "show off". I tried to take a piece of torsion bar to make a knife, but it take a long time to heat it up and even longer to flatten it out, so it may be a bit before actually make enough progress worth showing. That is all for now, and my right arm is dead to the world from using the hammer so much this past weekend.

JB

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Nice progress JB, the 8.5" rear I have in the '49 is holding up well. I've got my shifts setup firm in the 4l80e, it barks the 295 width tires every gear change under full throttle conditions. With a 3.42 gear in that 7.5, and being behind an automatic, as long as you don't get severe traction all of a sudden, it will survive a long time.

 

[jbmatth]

Nice progress JB, the 8.5" rear I have in the '49 is holding up well. I've got my shifts setup firm in the 4l80e, it barks the 295 width tires every gear change under full throttle conditions. With a 3.42 gear in that 7.5, and being behind an automatic, as long as you don't get severe traction all of a sudden, it will survive a long time.

I don't plan to beat on it because I know the 7.5 will be the weak link, too bad GM didn't tag their axles with the ratio like Ford did, it would have made my life easier. Oh well, eventually I'll put the 8.5 in and put on the 'Vette wheels with new tires that are 275 wide, but I'm also on the lookout for C5 Z06 or C6 wheels that will be 295 or 285 wide respectively. I sure hope I don't break anything between now and then, but at least I have a few spare parts floating around.

 

[oldironfarmer]

Good job on the tongs! Glad to see you pounding some hot iron.

 

[1/2 Cup]

I have a little to update of things I was able to accomplish over the last week or so. For those of you over on Andy's thread you have seen some of this so I'll start with that info first.

I wanted to show off a few things Andy (Old Iron Farmer) helped me out on. First of all I was the lucky recipient of hammer #3 and the optional handle, some assembly required:

He dropped this off last year when we worked on some of my water drainage issues and I haven't needed it so it never made it to the top of the list to work on. Well I still haven't needed it but decided to give it a go, pretty easy all in all. The belt sander did the heavy lifting with just a little cleanup with a knife and then some wedges:

I stopped by for a couple hours last week at Andy's place and showed me some of his casting work as well as give me a couple of discs. Here you can see the master setting everything up:

Then he let me give it a go screening some sand and slowly packing it around the pattern until it was time to flip it over:

More pounding sand:

I didn't get any photos of the melting and pouring but that was a lot of fun too, I cut off the gates and other metal to be remelted later, then took it home for the finishing touches.

The as cast trivet before much clean-up:

Now all cleaned up and painted, I think it came out great, I'll wait to get my wife's reaction until mother's day.

Thanks again Andy for all the help, little by little I'm getting back some of the aluminum I've given you over the past couple years.

More to come,
JB

Great stuff JB

 

[1/2 Cup]

Next on the agenda was to do some work on the Lil' Blue Truck, I really needed to get some better gears for highway use and the 4.10:1 rear in the truck wasn't cutting it. A couple of weeks ago I picked up what I thought was a 3.08:1 ratio rear but was still an open diff and the smaller 7.5" 10 bolt. Well before going over to Andy's shop I went to the pull-a-part in search of an 8.5" 10 bolt with a locker. It took some hunting but I finely found one in a Blazer:
View media item 82447
I had my battery powered angle grinder ready to go and was told I couldn't use it, something about fires and gas. I got it out and it is also supposed to have 3.73:1 gears and disc brakes. Full disclosure I thought I was getting one with 3.08:1 gears but was too excited and read RPO code GT4 as GU4, and only realized this fact as I was typing right now.

One thing to note, the newest rear is almost 9" wider than the old rear and would have looked terrible with the wheels and tires I had, I did some searching around and measuring of the C5 Corvette rims I have on Project Pinky Pi and with their offset I would only make the tires stick out 2.25" wider on each side which to me would improve the look. Sadly the tires are shot on those rims and I don't really have the funds to buy 4 new tires right now so I decided to put the other 3.08:1 open rear into the Lil' Blue Truck:
View media item 82448
Old out and new in, the drum brake and E-brake cable took longer than anything else, a quick bleed and computer reprogram and I'm back on the road. But wait, why is the speedo off so much? I adjusted to tune to fix the speedo output from the computer to match the GPS speed and back calculated and it seems like I may have 3.42:1 gears even though the RPO code said 3.08:1. I'm so confused now I'll just call it a day.

I took the old 2.2L 4 cylinder engine apart that came in the S10 when my brother was having issues with it, and think I found the problem:
View media item 82445
The oil supply to #1 rod bearing is plugged with bearing material, and all of the bearings looked like they had seen better days:
View media item 82446
I fixed a couple of other minor things on L.B.T. but didn't take photos so I guess they didn't happen.

I have an appointment to have the alignment completed tomorrow as well as charge the AC, now if I could only get the O2 sensors reading, troubleshooting is tough alone but I think they are just both shot.

JB

That is one sad engine..

 

[jbmatth]

Good job on the tongs! Glad to see you pounding some hot iron.

I almost felt like Thor the first time I hit some red hot metal, then felt like Snoopy after an hour of playing around.

Great stuff JB

That is one sad engine..

Thanks you 1/2, it was a good weeks worth of work, and that engine has seen better days, and will soon be headed for the big scrap yard in the sky.

JB

 

[jimgood]

A coal forge, no less. That's awesome! Nice work on the fire tongs. I'm still using the same propane forge I bought when I started shoeing horses in 1987/88. It's in sad shape but still works.

 

[jbmatth]

A coal forge, no less. That's awesome! Nice work on the fire tongs. I'm still using the same propane forge I bought when I started shoeing horses in 1987/88. It's in sad shape but still works.

Yes it sure is, and a hand crank coal forge at that, talk about an arm workout! It is fun but can really only be enjoyed in short spurts.

JB

 

[Guster]

Those tongs came out great!

Any tong is better than no tong.

A pair of bolt or pick-up tongs are very nice to have after a straight flat tipped one. That or a pair of hammer tongs depending on your style of working.

I recently saw a hand crank forge blower converted to a treadle type which is a really neat way to free up your hands and work those leg muscles.

 

[oldironfarmer]

So you use your new tongs to make more tongs, punches, and cold chisels. There is great joy in using tools you made to make more tools to make things with. After you've made a set of tongs you'll have some blacksmithing skills. I find a hand cranked blower is the best way to avoid burning steel.

 

[jbmatth]

Those tongs came out great!

Any tong is better than no tong.

A pair of bolt or pick-up tongs are very nice to have after a straight flat tipped one. That or a pair of hammer tongs depending on your style of working.

I recently saw a hand crank forge blower converted to a treadle type which is a really neat way to free up your hands and work those leg muscles.

I guess I have some research to do, my training in blacksmithing so far has been watching "How to Start a Coal Forge". Don't make fun yet please.

A treadle crank would be nice to have, or a VFD motor that requires no muscles. LOL

So you use your new tongs to make more tongs, punches, and cold chisels. There is great joy in using tools you made to make more tools to make things with. After you've made a set of tongs you'll have some blacksmithing skills. I find a hand cranked blower is the best way to avoid burning steel.

I need to make more tongs, I learned a little after making those and will start a new set of tongs shortly.

JB

 

[Grumblebum]

You are way ******** JB now waking a 2am to get some QST.

I was going to try for something funny with the cobra rocker cover being added to the welding cart but lost the line of thought. The plasma-tig unit looks cool.

Hopefully will get to do some forging myself at some point. Those tongs came out great.

Must catch up on Andy's thread and find out more about the hammers.

Cheers GB.

 

[jbmatth]

You are way ******** JB now waking a 2am to get some QST.

I was going to try for something funny with the cobra rocker cover being added to the welding cart but lost the line of thought. The plasma-tig unit looks cool.

Hopefully will get to do some forging myself at some point. Those tongs came out great.

Must catch up on Andy's thread and find out more about the hammers.

Cheers GB.

I haven't been getting up that early as often since the Lil' Blue Truck is mostly finished for some reason.

Funny story about those valve covers, the gaskets were leaking on the cobra when I bought it and decided to change them out for some that were much thicker with a metal core and rubber on both sides. I snugged down one end then started on the other when I heard a pop. Broke one of the mount points off of the other end. I was sick and new ones were crazy expensive so I bought a used set and installed these on the welding cart when I built it. Worked out fine as the stands for them are great for wrapping the leads and power cords around.

Forging is a lot of fun but a lot of work and I at least can't just do it for 30 minutes because of all of the setup time so after 2 hours I'm beat.

JB

 

[mybigwarwagon]

Just a thought about the grinder stand. Isn't the grinder going to toss **** into the buffer wheels? I would put a divider between them or find some way to deflect the discharge of the debris. You wouldn't want to try to buff something with grit in the pads.

 

[jbmatth]

Just a thought about the grinder stand. Isn't the grinder going to toss **** into the buffer wheels? I would put a divider between them or find some way to deflect the discharge of the debris. You wouldn't want to try to buff something with grit in the pads.

Thanks for looking out for me War Wagon. I do plan to install some sort of deflector behind the grinder to help keep the buffing pads clean, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I really need to find a good place to store it, perhaps down by the lift as I find myself doing a lot of walking from there back to the bench.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

I figured it was time to get my attention back to the namesake of this thread, the Warthog. It is spring and the weather has been nice from time to time so I decided to take it for a spin last week. Or so I thought, I had a no start issue. I initially thought it was the starter but soon discovered there was more to the story.

Turns out the battery connection was a bit corroded, now it would start but not yet. While looking at the starter I noticed something I really didn't like:
View media item 82611
It appears the number 4 primary tube was not happy. I don't know when it happened but it is cracked/broken all of the way around the tube in the middle of a bend of all places, and is very rusty under the header wrap. Looks like this project is going to get bigger. I then decided to at least get it started to hear it for the first time in too long. When I did I knew immediately that something was amiss. Somehow over winter the glass fuel filter (it threads together on both ends) and loosened up and was spewing fuel all over the intake manifold and running down the engine to the floor.

Tightened that back up and needed a victory so I replaced the incandescent tail lights with an LED version. They are much brighter and should work great if I ever get the header fixed.

I feel like I'm at a crossroads, I could scab it back together for the summer and enjoy the driving season or pull it all apart and start header fabrication. Oooorrrrrr the more fun option would be to start buying parts for an engine/trans swap. Anyone have a lead on a good used TKO 600 transmission?

JB

 

[dchance]

JB It seems like a familiar road on the Cobra. I have started to repair/check one thing and it ended up being 10 other things before I could drive it.

What engine are you planning to go with the TKO 600? Will the TKO600 fit without to many modifications?

Dwight

 

[jbmatth]

JB It seems like a familiar road on the Cobra. I have started to repair/check one thing and it ended up being 10 other things before I could drive it.

What engine are you planning to go with the TKO 600? Will the TKO600 fit without to many modifications?

Dwight

It seems like a rarity to ever dive into a project and only work on what I planned to work on. That happened again this morning, I'll tell that story in a bit.

I'm really leaning toward an LS platform engine. I know I know it is sacrilege but the Coyote might fit but would be a huge pain to get in there and work on. The TKO should fit just fine or so I've read, the driveshaft would need to be shortened a touch but as of now the back of the engine is about 4" in front of the firewall.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

I decided today was the day to fix the header on The Warthog, it came out pretty easy with little trouble, that is when I discovered this:

I first wire wheeled all I could reach, blasted both flange faces and the area around the break. I used a file on the flange faces to get rid of a few imperfection, then welded up the crack and hole. Yes there was some bead that made its way to the ID of the pipe but hopefully I'll never notice and no one will know, so don't tell.

While I had it out I decided to clean up some of this:

Not perfect, but much better than before, it looks like something I would have welded together, the headers are very rough and I'm a bit sad by the quality. But hey, they work and do their job even if they are ugly, I'll eventually rebuild them when I do an engine swap in the now more distant future.

JB

 

[Nlped]

LS LS LS!!! I’m contemplating putting one in my 1963-1/2 Falcoon. Or maybe the new Mustang 2.3?, Or....


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[jbmatth]

I'm really a fan of the LS series of engines, perhaps if I hold on long enough I'll be able to swing for an LS7 so I'll have a 427 in the cobra, or go hog wild and go for an LT4 or LT5, 650 to 755 HP would be down right nutty in that car.

The 2.3 would be pretty cool, the sound wouldn't be what you'd expect, but you are a couple of bolt-on parts and a tune away from 500 hp.

JB

 

[oldironfarmer]

Great work JB!

I have no experience with headers, but always figured they should not last as long as a cast manifold: thickness and temperature capacity of the metal.

However, in looking at you pictures, do you think that one tube may have been stressed in tension on assembly? If so, the heating and cooling cycles may have introduced a stress fracture at the crotch of the bend, then escaping exhaust gas did it's thing. If that happened your repair may last longer than you expect since the tube is relieved now.

Pretty decent welding from the 100 mile view.