Hackster's 1968 f100 CV Swap

[hackster]

So, got the tranny x member buttoned up and installed, turned out pretty good too. New poly tranny mount too.

With the weather here descent for a day, I figured it was bout the last opportunity to shoot the inner fenders and core support, so I setup my "Paint Booth".....aka driveway mixed up some paint and finally after too many hours of cutting, welding, sanding, priming, sanding, priming, wipe down clean and then some more of all that above, I shot some paint on them and the core support.





Pulled them inside to dry after they had setup for a few minutes. Bodywork looks awesome for my skillset and background. Paint turned out pretty descent as well, little orange peely on one and some specs in the other but keep in mind that I shot these in my driveway.

Inner fenders will have nothing mounted on them, all the holes were filled along with the battery tray on both inner fenders totally deleted. Should be a good look, nice and smooth.

Worked a little bit on the front of the motor, got the dirty dingo idler relocation bracket bolted onto the freshly blasted and painted accessory bracket. Looks descent.

Moved the steam port a little to make room for the ls1 intake, moved the electric throttle body from the truck over to the ls intake and got it set in place. Water pump installed, power steering pump back in place and got the power steering lines all figured out. Good Progress.





Needed to get the bed mounted up to figure out where to cut out for the gas filler door. So we moved the bed from my driveway over onto the frame to see how she looked for the first time.







Rear stance is pretty descent, According to my preliminary measurements, should tuck wheel in the rear on the 20x11 rears =)

Sean

[Maximus]

not being biased to any one manufacturer, I say the LS platform is fantastic and you will never have a shortage of parts, Awesome truck and fantastic work!

[hackster]

Thanks man, Should be plenty fast and easy to get parts for. Honestly, I figured nobody on here was following along on this forum since its a gm motor, but since at least one person is watching, Ill keep the updates coming.

Managed to stop in at oil filter sales and service this morning and picked up a bunch of fittings.

First up on the to do list was to make some modifications to the fuel rail. Cut off the excess brackets for what I believe was the coil covers. Then I drilled out a -6 steel fitting until it sat right on the inner ridge of the fuel rail return fitting and brazed it on.

Did the same thing on the supply line only with a -8 line on this one.

Rails are early corvette with supply and return lines.

Then what started out as some prep for paint turned into a couple hours with red scotch brite pad, some 320 grit sandpaper and some matte clear and finally think that I am happy with the results. Normally the stock rails are a little less than pretty. Think this is an ok outcome of trying to save a few bucks.





Also picked up some 6x1x110 bolts for the intake, got it all cleaned up, cleaned the heads off and stuck that pig down for good.

Also had to see what the engine bay is going to look like with the inner fenders on.







Good couple of days...

This showed up on Tuesday afternoon.



I laid out a bunch of exhaust parts on the parts table and got to work.



SO I started to get everything mocked up. Its big. Bigger than I thought it would be.

I really wanted it straight in the engine bay aesthetically, but there was just no way to make it fit there. So, it got clocked into this position and I built a mount to hold this big girl in place.

Checking for clearance to the front inner fender. It is close but not really many options at this time. Pretty sure a compressor blanket is going to be in my near future.





Wastegate showed up yesterday.



It, like the turbo is bigger than anticipated, where am I going to fit all this stuff?

Managed to get home at a descent hour last night and started on the fab work, this is what I enjoy doing so it was fun. Both manifolds chopped off, v bands tacked into place and all of the hot side tacked up. Still need some flex pipes, another v band and the wastegate but pretty happy how this all came together.









Exhaust is going to be almost too close to the oil fill on the valve cover, do they make valve covers with oil fill on both sides? Other than that and the wastegate and dump tube, I am pretty good for clearance on everything.

Thinking about just running a dump tube with a muffler on it instead of trying to snake it back through to the exhaust.

Sean

[hackster]

Worked on the downpipe tonight.





Looking for ideas for the wastegate placement now. Ordered a single 60 mm, but now, thinking I should have just done two 44's instead.

Any ideas out there or suggestions?

Got the last v band, and flex connector today. Have a few hours off tomorrow, hope to make a little progress on it then.

Sean

[caseyj10]

Cant you just swap the passenger side valve cover for the diver side?

[hackster]

I can but things don't line up if you do that and it puts the filler cap under the booster, not really much better than where it is now. I am sure I will come up with something. A couple of my buddies are pretty good at welding aluminum, might just move the filler over to the other side.

Little update.

Been busy trying to get stuff done the last few days, running a little low on motivation as my other two cars need work. Steering rack and all new joints on the ls Volvo and rear disc brake conversion on the 79 cummins were done this weekend as well.

Figured out a routing for the wastegate, probably not ideal, but this way was the cleanest I could figure it out without a ton more exhaust under the hood.





Fits god with the inner fender still.



Once that was done I got to business wit the welder and die grinder.



You can see in this picture a pretty direct path from both banks to the wastegate. Piping to and from the wastegate is 2 1/4"



Went over to my neighbor Geno's house who is always a huge help on these projects and he let me loose with his tig machine. To those of you who are killed with a tig torch, you have my respect, its hard to make it look perfect. These are far from perfect, but should hold just fine.

Did the downpipe with the TIG as well as the v bands onto the manifolds. The rest of the hot side piping got treated to a date with the old wire feed, turned out alright.

Last night I finished up with a little dimple died bracket for the turbo brace and added in two o2 bungs and a wideband bung.






Here it is all pulled off and ready to head over to the ceramic coater.




Now I get to get back to other stuff, fuel door in the bed floor, plumbing the fuel system and probably getting started on some wiring, radiator and intercooler.

Sean

[youngone]

Looks really good keep up the good work.

[460 crew]

It's coming together nicely!

[hackster]

Thanks guys, Seems like really slow progress lately on the truck. Been having issues with other cars the last week and trying to keep all this old **** on the road is taxing on a fella

Well, not a lot of progress on this the last few days, as lots of stuff is out of my hands, parts to arrive, powder coating and ceramic coating.

Got the grille, bumper, headlight bezels and buckets back from the powder coater last night.

I am very happy with the results on the grill, the bumper needs to get redone. Finish is spot on though, I wanted a dull aluminum finish and this is what we came up with.







I can get the grille, inner fender and core support bolted in now and see where the intercooler can and cannot fit.

Sean

[guhfluh]

Although I'd rather a Ford Motor and trans in a Ford and a Chevy motor and trans in a chevy, I like both brands for their good qualities, and the ls motors and 4l80e are great performance platforms. I also LOVE turbos...I'm pulling one out of my old 10 second Neon as I type... so, I love where you're going with this and it looks great so far!

[Alstoyz]

I'm not a fan of the "bow-tie" in "blue oval" but I really like your ride and the quality of the work you're doing. I think you will have a very "SAWEET" ride when ur done. Can't wait to see more of it!!!

[Coupe5oh]

Nice work on the turbo setup (as well as the rest of the truck). Couldn't talk you into building one for my 4.6 could I?

[guhfluh]

Couple of things...

I love the look of the grille and bumper. They look great in the pics.
The exhaust piping fit looks very nice as do the welds. What are you using for fitting and cutting? Welding?

It looks like the oil drain may be tricky with the turbo mount, exhaust piping, coolant hoses and accessory belt.
The wastegate plumbing placement isn't ideal. It would be much better right between the two runners. Exhaust gas from the outer bank isn't going to want to make the right angle turn through the other runner. The angle back into the exhaust isn't ideal as well and will disrupt flow from the turbine and hinder power potential. Overall, it will probably be just fine for your power level goal, as long as your gate is big enough and boost doesn't creep.

I can't wait to see updates and final videos, dyno, etc:)

[hackster]

Fitting and cutting is basic, portaband, grinder with a 40 or 60 grit flap disc, thats about it.

Wire feed is an old miller 175. Tig is a thermal arc machine with a water cooled torch.

Turbo drain is easy, pretty much a straight shot from the turbo outlet to the front of the pan. Thermostat housing is going to come straight out, not the one that is on there now. New one should be here this week, nice billet piece too.

Wastegate placement was a compromise, any other location was going to cause other issues and I already had the single gate, hindsight right

It's a 60mm gate with a 2 1/2" inlet and outlet.

Wish I had pushed the outlet farther down the exhaust though for sure, learning as I go with some of this stuff. Been trying to read a lot of other builds and see what others do that are successful and unsuccessful. Think this should work. If I have Boost Creep, well, guess that means I need to run more boost.

Several others running similar setups to this and getting 750+ at the rear wheels. I should be right in that ballpark with meth and a cam.

I am very excited to see it run and on the dyno. Don't worry Ill have some vids of the first run.

Looking at our plans for the summer trip, its a long way from Portland Oregon to North Carolina, about 6,000 miles round trip.

Thanks to the others for following along, good to hear some others are enjoying the build on here.

Sean

[Craigerf100]

Thanks guys, Seems like really slow progress lately on the truck. Been having issues with other cars the last week and trying to keep all this old **** on the road is taxing on a fella

Well, not a lot of progress on this the last few days, as lots of stuff is out of my hands, parts to arrive, powder coating and ceramic coating.

Got the grille, bumper, headlight bezels and buckets back from the powder coater last night.

I am very happy with the results on the grill, the bumper needs to get redone. Finish is spot on though, I wanted a dull aluminum finish and this is what we came up with.

[ Image ]

[ Image ]

[ Image ]


I can get the grille, inner fender and core support bolted in now and see where the intercooler can and cannot fit.

Sean

Holy cow! That's exactly what I want my grille and bumpers to look like.!
If u don't mind me asking, how much did that run you?