O.K. first things first. By way of intro, My name is Mike, and I've been lurking around here for some time now, and have found this board to be of considerable help, and I'd like to the opportunity to thank Matt (TrooperRS) for his help in the past. I am in the middle of an engine/trans/t-case swap
on my '98 Amigo after the 2.2 timing tensioner F'ed up and caused the belt to snap (again), and I wasn't about to pour good money after bad. So.....
How do I go about posting pics on this forum? Can somebody help me out in that regard? I'd like to be able to share what I'm doing in case some else has the same ideas.

Last weekend, I went to Pick-n-Pull to get the engine I had my eye on for the last couple of weeks. I took home a '90 Caprice 5.7 factory roller cam engine with 140,000 on the clock. It was a former NHP patrol car, so It had reasonable care before it was auctioned off and got T-boned. Sold the TBI unit, manifold, and a couple of other items to my boss for his S10 project. I've got a fresh set of Vortec heads to put on it, and I'm going to freshen the bottom end with new rings and bearings (I got lucky on this one), and swap in a GMPP cam (RamJet spec). When I got home from the wrecking yard, I was so excited about getting started, I had to at least mock this thing up (sorta) to satisfy a few nagging questions I had in the back of my brain, and here is what I've learned so far:

The transfer case needs to go back a considerable amount in order to get a decent driveshaft length for a SAS. I am using a 4L60/NP231 from a 1989 S10 Blazer for simplicity, and because I wanted an overdrive auto anyways...

After cutting all of the IFS stuff off of the frame and grinding the rails down, I have room for the Trans-Dapt crossmember and Energy Suspension motor mounts, and Ford coil buckets for the SAS. I'm using a '79 F150 high-pinion axle up front. (the t-case is a left side drop)

Block hugger headers are the way to fly. They fit awesome in this chassis. I got the Summit brand headers, and discovered they're made by Patriot Exhaust. 5/16" flanges, and good quality construction. I couldn't be happier, and they're only about 80 bucks. I got the raw steel versions in case I need to add A.I.R. inj. later on...

Got the radiator from Summit. Sum-380325 fits good. Double 1" tubes, and louvered fins. $159.95. It wont take much to build mounts, and it fits in the stock location. Oh, but there has to be a problem somewhere, right?

Yes. the upper inlet on the radiator runs smack into the alternator. Well, ok. Not right into it. But I only have about 1" between the end of the neck and the alt. pulley. The long water pump isn't going to work, either, as I have about 3/4" between the rad. core and the water pump shaft. I'll be switching to a short water pump and brackets from Street and Performance. I'll still only have about 2 1/2" to play with, but it's enough to fit a Flex-a-Lite 365 Scirocco double fan in there. If that isn't enough, I can add a Black Magic on the grille side of the radiator. The A/C may have to go bye-bye, but I'm trying to save it.

The reason for going SAS at the same time is that when I was doing some measuring, it appeared that the space between the torsion bars wasn't wide enough to fit even the NP231. I'm considering using the radius arms from Cage Off-Road. Nice pieces, but a little expensive. I may just pop the $700 for them, though, as I have enough crap to fabricate already.

Wiring is going to be a friggen' nightmare.
Tach will have to be re-calibrated by North Hollywood Speedo...
Heater core issue...
Other than those few items, it should be a piece of cake!!:flipoff2:

I'd like to post pics, can someone help me out here with what to do?
I'm not going to post until the drivetrain is mounted permanently, but I'm taking photos of everything...
Cheers,:beer:

Mike

awsome Mike! sounds like an exciting project.

time to pony up for a red star so that you can post pics of this build up :smokin:

Awesome project -- that's gonna be TIGHT in a second-gen truck! :eek:I have a small-block Ford shoe-horned into my 1990 Amigo... and I think you've got even LESS room to work with!

FWIW, here's a pic of the fan clearance (or lack thereof) in mine: http://staff.4x4wire.com/randii/motor/P4020006.JPG

You sold the TBI stuff... gonna go carb or SEFI? I'm guessing you'll be throwing in some body lift to fit that 4L60.

If you haven't already, consider hanging the radiator off the front of the front side of the front bulkhead instead of the back side.

Can you extend the alternator bracket and sneak by the radiator neck that way? If no, maybe you can move the radiator outlet tube -- any good radiator shop can help you with that.

Randii (black star member)

The engine will carb'd for now, but I plan on getting a Vortec EFI intake:barf: to make it smog legal at some point. Because I'm doing this on a somewhat strict budget, I've been watching Ebay for the intake setup. There are a couple of them on there right now; I just don't want to "waste" the money on it yet!:flipoff2: My experience with the Vortec CFI is that it isn't all that reliable when the plastic fuel lines get brittle from the exposure to fuel and heat, not to mention they're uglier than all get out. I just freakin' hate the way it looks. I have had a personal struggle with running a carb when I understand fuel injection so well, but I've finally convinced myself its OK to have something low-tech for a change. Mostly an expense issue right now, but I'm concerned about having something that floods out when I'm on a sidehill. I am considering a Road Demon 650 for tunability. I've got a fix for the bracket situation. March makes a bracket system to keep my Saginaw metric pump thats on the engine now, and Street & Performance in Mena, Arkansas has a bracket to mount the alternator low on the passenger side, under the radiator hose. Switch to a short Corvette water pump and run pulleys to match. I should have 2 1/2" of clearance between the water pump pulley and the rad. core. The Flex-a-lite 365 fan is 2" thick, so the pulley will be between the fan motors! This fan setup flows 1600cfm, which may not be enough, but I have more than enough radiator, and I have the room behind the grille to run another fan if I have to. I want to avoid cutting up the core support, because I dont want this to look like a hack job. If I did have to do something to the core support, I'd rather just get rid of it altogether and tube the front clip. Again, more work than I need to do right now. I'm pretty sure I can make it all fit. Maybe I'll finally get around to using that body lift I bought from Matt last summer!:D Other parts I'm using: Lokar flexable trans dipstick, firewall mount. Lokar kickdown cable and SRK 4000 throttle cable bracket. Lokar throttle cable. Lokar hard-mount shifter for the 4L60/700r4, so I can move it whereever I need it to be, and keep my stock 5-spd shifter boot. I'll have to figure out something for a transfer case shifter, but I have a couple of good ideas. I'm one smart Norweigan...:flipoff2: :flipoff2: :flipoff2: I was thinking that if I run a Demon or Holley carb with dual feed (not Dbl Pump), I can turn the fuel line that screws into the float bowls around so it points at the firewall, and I can bring the fuel supply up in the stock location by running longer fuel injection-rated hose from the factory hard lines. Those will have to be modified as well, since the stock trans crossmember won't be used, and the fuel lines attach to it. I plan to run (for now) a Delco points style distributor with a Pertronix Ignitor, and a Mallory male-terminal cap so I can run HEI style boots. Why? Two wires, 45,000 volts, and not terribly expensive. Reliable too. Another plan I have for the fuel system is to keep the stock pump in the tank, wire in a Mallory gerotor style where my stock fuel filter is now, and move the filter up near the carb. This way, if I lose a pump in the middle of BFE, I can flip a switch to turn the other pump on, fix the other one later. Don't laugh. I lost both of the pumps on my '73 F250 a few years ago while ghost townin' 47 miles from the nearest parts store. Pulled the fuel tank out from behind the seat, yanked the hood, and gravity fed the carb. Woulda worked too, except when the carb flooded over due to a F'ed up float, a spark leak touched off the fuel vapor at the distributor, and I nearly lost the whole mess in about 4000 acres of foxtail and cheat grass. And I thought to myself, "yep, I'm in deep shit now..." I'd really rather not have a repeat occurence. I'll Run a Mallory return style regulator to take excess fuel back to the tank via the stock return line. I'm sure I'll run into more snags along the way, even though I think I have it all figured out...

Mike

I got an error message when I was typing my earlier response, and I didn't think it posted. Too many clicks. SORRY! Mike

I got an error message when I was typing my earlier response, and I didn't think it posted. Too many clicks. SORRY! MikeIt's OK, Chief. You can kill off posts you don't want to show up anymore. Just click on the edit button on the posts you want to eliminate. Once you're in edit mode, click on the delete button. Just below the delete button, a "delete options" box appears. Select the "Delete Message" radio button and type a concise explanation in the "Reason for Deletion" field. Finally, click "Delete this message button to the right of the reason field, and it's g1.