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Poverty resourcefulness

Still looking for an affordable hit and miss engine for my yard art, and to entertain my neighbor at night while he entertains me with his yapping dogs.:devilish:
Lee
Neighbors, I remember those. Thank you for reminding me why I bought a farm that I’m tired of caring for!
 
in all seriousness if you're asking your muscles to do things they don't do on a regular basis then it can wipe you out. also, folks above 30 need to stretch before anything like this. as a 50+ year old with a history of back and shoulder issues i can testify. let it not discourage you and watch for those injuries! we don't bounce back so fast anymore. :)
 
Yesterday did not turn out to be one of my more energetic days, actually, I pretty much vegetated to videos all day.

Today was a bit better as I tried out my new handy dandy power bleeder to bleed the clutch hydraulics on the donor vehicle I'm snatching the BBC engine from.

After spending a couple weeks trying, without much success, to get one of the guys from work to come by and help me bleed the hydraulics, ( I had recently just installed a new master cylinder, hose, and slave) I went and ordered a Motive Products power bleeder from Amazon so I could do it myself . . which worked out great.

So a little at a time, I'm getting everything ready for when my kit finally arrives.

The big silver Chevy 4X4 is the engine donor, and a couple pics of the trans and rear wheels . . . . kind of wondering if maybe I should of went with the 28 X 8R fronts instead of the 26 X 8R's . . . . guess I'll know for sure when it gets here . . .


P1010917r.jpg P1010922r.jpg P1010930r.jpg Big Truck 2r.jpg


Of course to add insult to injury, since I finally got to drive the truck for the first time in about 6 years, maybe more . . . the dry rotted tire valve on the right front broke off, so now I have to pull the wheel and have a new valve installed, just so I can drive the truck under the crane to pull the engine out, lol . . . Actually, the tires are badly dry rotted too, so I'm hoping I can get that one valve replaced without more failures . . .
 
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my above comment was towards island girl's post. dang i wish this forum had an edit feature.
As a person with severe back and rotator cuff injuries, I agree and can attest your statement to be true... it also prevents our brains from bouncing back, lol! I used to constantly multi task complicated complex matters, physically and mentally, always on the move, several major projects going at a time and being completed. Now I feel like an idiot. I lose my place, forget simple things, struggle for energy... yea, some due to pain management, but mostly, I just burnt it up, it being my life force. All those years dealing with difficult issues and problems, medical problems, injuries, for myself and my wife... it sucked the life right out of me... I used to use the stress and pain as fuel to grab the bull by the horns, lean into it and push through... I accomplished a lot, but it caught up to me in a huge devastating way. Bottom line, staying active, moving, keeping your mind involved, all prolongs the inevitable. there’s no shame in needing a hand or resting after doing tasks... just get it done. Me, I’m my own worst enemy because I think I can do much more than I actually can based on my previous abilities... it can be very self defeating. Being the guy that everyone came to, the self suficient “I’ll handle it” guy also isolated me with little to no help and things can become overwhelming or simply not worth doing now, sorry to say. My previous comment about the gun safes was sort of incomplete. I left out the part about where they were intended to go, lol... no matter, the garage works fine, it’s climate controlled.
 
Yesterday did not turn out to be one of my more energetic days, actually, I pretty much vegetated to videos all day.

Today was a bit better as I tried out my new handy dandy power bleeder to bleed the clutch hydraulics on the donor vehicle I'm snatching the BBC engine from.

After spending a couple weeks trying, without much success, to get one of the guys from work to come by and help me bleed the hydraulics, ( I had recently just installed a new master cylinder, hose, and slave) I went and ordered a Motive Products power bleeder from Amazon so I could do it myself . . which worked out great.

So a little at a time, I'm getting everything ready for when my kit finally arrives.

The big silver Chevy 4X4 is the engine donor, and a couple pics of the trans and rear wheels . . . . kind of wondering if maybe I should of went with the 28 X 8R fronts instead of the 26 X 8R's . . . . guess I'll know for sure when it gets here . . .


View attachment 15172 View attachment 15173 View attachment 15174 View attachment 15175


Of course to add insult to injury, since I finally got to drive the truck for the first time in about 6 years, maybe more . . . the dry rotted tire valve on the right front broke off, so now I have to pull the wheel and have a new valve installed, just so I can drive the truck under the crane to pull the engine out, lol . . . Actually, the tires are badly dry rotted too, so I'm hoping I can get that one valve replaced without more failures . . .
I just had a tire valve bust on one of my old trucks. Rubber products dont last like they used to. Those slave cylinders can be tricky to bleed, the air just moves back and forth due to the slave cylinder moving. Looks like a big candy store, with all of those goodies! I enjoy gathering parts for builds. I spent all day yesterday going after a divorced transfer case for a pending truck project. If I die before getting my projects done, and that’s highly likely, there’s going to be one hell of a yard sale! Lol.
 
kind of wondering if maybe I should of went with the 28 X 8R fronts instead of the 26 X 8R's . . . . guess I'll know for sure when it gets here .

Darlene, is your concern over tire diameter that the front will sit too low? You can always shim the spring perch to raise the front a little. I personally like the look of smaller tires in the front . . . just my taste. :rolleyes:
 
Yea, I was worried I may be a bit low in the front, since the rears are 32 tall.

I like the littles with the bigs, and was hoping to get a slight slant lower in front for the body, so that the headers are level to the ground and not angled down towards the rear because of the 3 degree slant of the engine.
I know it's not too hard to make minor ride height adjustments, I just worry a bit about the proportionality of the fronts to the rears . . .

Ohhh . . I had meant to include this pic of the rears and fronts together so it was easy to see what I was going on about . . . another senior moment strikes . . .

The 6" wide wheels for the fronts should be in this week, as they shipped several weeks after the rears

P1010933r.jpg


I have a half a dozen or so custom computer projects on the back burner, just got tired of looking at them and wanted to have something more exciting. So about a year ago, or more like almost two, I started ramping up to build a T. . . . Started buying the shop tools and supplies I'd need so that when it was time, I'd be able to do a build that I could have pride in. At this point, I've pretty much filled up the house and front porch.

Parts Wash 2r.jpg
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3* slant of the engine ..ARRGH!!! The engine doesn't care if it's at-3 or+3. , that's one old wives tale I wish would be put to sleep - permanently !!!!
 
Darlene,
I hope that's your garage that you have all that stuff stored in. If it is, I'm jealous that you have ceramic tile on the garage floor! Mine is dirty old cement that is full of stains from grease, oil and god-knows-what from 40 years of monkeying around with cars.
Next year it's going to get a floor makeover. (I've been saying that for the last 10 years!)
Bill
 
I Agree, I'm sure the engine doesn't care about the 3* slant, but since it's made into the engine mounts in the frame, it's a reality of my kit, and might need to be accounted for if I want the headers parallel to the ground.
 
My engine is set to an angle that keeps the carb horizontal. That made the headers look kind of weird. I took my floor jack and put it under the collector and slowly raised the jack until the collector was parallel to the ground. Nothing cracked. So far so good.
 
3* slant of the engine ..ARRGH!!! The engine doesn't care if it's at-3 or+3. , that's one old wives tale I wish would be put to sleep - permanently !!!!
Ditto for "the carb must be level" myth.
 
My engine is set to an angle that keeps the carb horizontal. That made the headers look kind of weird. I took my floor jack and put it under the collector and slowly raised the jack until the collector was parallel to the ground. Nothing cracked. So far so good.
If you get it up to running temp, put a soft wood block on the jack and go slow, you can change em without damaging them.. easy does it! I’ve done it in all directions on various builds to make stuff fit better... my trusty port a power is handy for such tasks. Good point on engine position. Engines are designed so they are slanted to allow for oil drainage and the intake manifold is offset to provide a level surface for the carb. When doing swaps, I used to set the vehicle at ride height and locate the engine with a torpedo level on the carb mounting surface before fabricating motor mounts so float bowl levels would work out. Some deviation is ok, but I’ve seen some messes.
 

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