Stampie's 1988 K30 3+3 Off Roader

I've always thought these big trucks were cool!

Love crew cab 4x4s...I used to have and old 85 2wd with killer rear tires it was great in the snow...those long wheelbases seam to be very stable on snowy roads..nice truck ya got there

Wow nothing since May. Seems like something came up each weekend and nothing much got done. Sometime in June we mounted the carb.

This week it's just me around. Well Carol said she'll help me later this week. I really want to get this thing rolling on its own before we start on the Q45 again.

Last night I swapped the throttle cable for a gas one. Then found out that my bracket won't work with it. Figure I can make one. Tonight I decided to do the radiator hoses. Got the upper done with the 350 upper hose spliced to some Ford Escort hose I picked up a few weeks back. Thought I could use the 350 lower hose but it won't go onto the diesel radiator. Said berk it and I'll get back on it tomorrow. In the meantime here's a picture showing how I spent my evening.

In my 3 years as an auto instructor i found the term 'pulling hose' to be a comedy gold mine.

I keep a tube of lube in my toolbox for hoses. People always draw a negative inference.

I always use grease from the grease gun on the hoses so they can come apart later. Is there a reason not to use grease gun grease that im unaware of?

Dusterbd13 wrote: I always use grease from the grease gun on the hoses so they can come apart later. Is there a reason not to use grease gun grease that im unaware of?

Because they're more prone to sliding off on their own? Plus having a tube of K-Y in the garage is comedy waiting to happen. Or a quickie.

Plus it's great for dry or raw noses. Being water based it won't dry out the skin like Vaseline will.

conesare2seconds wrote: I keep a tube of lube in my toolbox for hoses. People always draw a negative inference.

Works great for window seals and grommets too.

Gotta love that Kentucky Jelly!

Chris told me that he'd be back home Thursday. Plan was to get the K30 mostly done by then. Today at 1 he said that he's 3 hours out. Nice to have a helper but ruined the surprise.

Picked up a 6.2 lower hose in hopes I could cut off the end and make it work. To short. Looking at the hoses laying around I figured I could cut the end of the 6.2 upper hose and it'd work. Almost looks factory with the bends going over the frame rail.

Hooked up the brake booster to vacuum, attached the alternator ground to the frame, and bought stuff for tomorrow.

Then we sat down for whiskey and all was good.

Had plans to install the starter, trans inspection pan, and the vacuum line for the trans this evening. First we (meaning Chris) cleaned the starter and pan. That's when I discovered the solenoid power lug was broken. By the time we got back with another solenoid it was raining so nothing really got done. To tide you over here's some GM 400 trans porn for you. Factory cast inspection pan.

I was hurting today but Chris cracked the whip so under the K30 I went. Installed the trans inspection cover and starter. Hooked up the vacuum line to the modulator. While I was doing that Chris discovered that I didn't cut out the original alternator plug like I thought. It doesn't plug into the 350 alternator but the wiring seems strange. Here's the original plug.

The ring terminal goes from the back of the alternator to the battery. The black wire goes to the idiot light I assume? Biggest question is the red wire from the plug to the ring terminal. I'm used to that going to the body wiring. What's up with that? Here's the 350 alternator with the plug for it.

The red wire is the "sense" feedback wire for the voltage regulator, it's fine there unless you're running some sort of multiple battery setup with diode isolation. The other wire is the field wire, it goes to the idiot light with switched 12 volts on the other side of of the bulb.

In reply to BrokenYugo:

Ok for some reason I was thinking the red and black wire made a loop through the idiot light and the light bulbs resistance is what got the alternator to "excite".

12 volts through the current limiting idiot light excites the alternator, it starts kicking 12 volts back out when it's up and running, so the light goes out.

12 volts running through this idiot doesn't get me excited. But with 36 volts the other day (working on the golf cart) I got a little excitement after a few seconds.

Didn't do much today. I needed an air cleaner and a throttle cable bracket so I went into the parts stash otherwise known as the hoard to my friends. The air cleaner I don't really remember but from it's location I'm thinking 76 Cadillac 500. The throttle cable bracket I pulled off a 78 Cadillac 425 I picked up for $50 a few years ago.

I'm all happy cause I found them so I headed down to Advance for an air cleaner. This place knows me so that means the normal parts counter people run when they see me. Something about 76 Cadillac air cleaner on a 78 Chevy K10 350 in a 88 Chevy V30 just melts their brains. So I walk in and there's a new lady at the counter. She welcomes me really quick and I think E36 M3 this isn't going to go well. I actually see another parts counter worker snicker as they notice what's going on. This is the point that I fell in love. She glaces at the air cleaner I'm holding and exclaimed "GM!" then walked over to the air filters and grabbed the correct one first time. I'm thinking this is to good to be true so I test her. I've already looked it up and I need 1/4 20 thread wing nut for the air cleaner and the carb mounting studs are 5/16 18 thread. I ask her if she knows and she rattles them off the top of her head. I'm normally not a man loss for words but I thank her, shake her hand, and totally forget about asking if she'll bear kids for me.

So after lunch I take a long nap and then we installed the air cleaner.

One piece at a time and eventually it'll get together right?

I got tied up at work again... I think I am going to pass on the headers right now. Thanks

In reply to pimpm3:

You actually made me look at things and we're thinking not using the headers will be best and easier. Depends on what we find at the junkyard tomorrow but consider the headers on hold for you. NBD on time.

T4 appreciate it I will try to get with you next week

Today shall be called Dusterbd13 deuce day. Looking at the exhaust we figured factory manifolds would bolt right up to the 6.2 diesel exhaust. From the list given to us it appeared that a Chevy G van would work. Instantly I started thinking about Dusterbd13. Here's our van.

Chris choose underneath while I started on top.

The front two bolts were a PITA. Chris ended up using a hack saw to cut the extended stud off so he could get to the nut part easier. At this point I had wondered around and found a 91 Suburban that had the correct manifold. He said too late and got it out.

We thought the Vortec manifold we had at the house would work for the passenger side.

Trip to Ace and bummer cause they don't have the 2 1/4 inch long bolts we need. Did get the phone number of the cute cashier but I think she just wants me for my mechanic ability. I might let her take advantage of me.

So drivers side actually drops in perfect and will bolt up to the 6.2 exhaust. Unfortunately the passenger side Vortec manifold hits the frame rail. Guess we'll pull that off the 91 Suburban.

I love you man.

And considering, i would NOT want to be chris....

I got off work at 4:45. Picked up Chris at 4:50. Checked into junkyard at 5:15. Pulled the manifold including hacksaw cutting the exhaust pipe. Checked out 6:00 right at closing.

I don't know how the Nelson's do it but this working on vehicles every spare minute you have is kicking my shiny.

We took a few days off but Lil Stampie and I got back on it for a bit today. In the junkyard we cut the exhaust because Chris felt the first nut rounding off. Since a 14mm socket is a little smaller than 9/16 I tapped one on and with Lil Stampie standing on the manifold we got the exhaust pipe off.

In doing so we pulled one of the studs out so we replaced that easy enough.

We're looking good going into tomorrow morning. Amazing to me how close I thought it was and how much work we've done since then.