Category Archives: Cars

1985 Chevy C10 Silverado Squarebody

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This post is about my 1985 Chevy C10 Silverado squarebody pickup, powered by an L98 Tuned Port Injection (TPI) engine from a 1990 IROC Camaro.  This is an old-school conversion, that my late cousin Jim Thompson did many years ago.

I have put about 800 miles on the truck during the last few months and so far, it has been a blast to drive.  The Frost White (RPO 12) paint is not as shiny as it was when new, but it is original.  For a 40 year-old truck, the body is still free of dings.  The interior still has the original blue carpet and the bench seat has a stylish ‘blanket’ cover – oh my!

Short History

The truck was driven by it’s first owner until sometime in January of 1988, when the second owner acquired the truck with 32k miles.  Second owner sold the truck to JIm’s mom in the fall of 1993, with 101k miles.  Since then, the truck has been a member of the family.

According to the RPO build sheet in the glovebox, the truck was born on April 26, 1985 powered by an LE9 5.0L V8.  According to Jim’s documentation I have found, the engine started to give trouble and somewhere around the 130k mile mark, Jim decided to pull the tired engine and update it with an L98 Tuned Port from a 1990 IROC Camaro.  The gearbox is a 700R4, also from the IROC.  From the notes I found, Jim bought the IROC engine with about 32k miles.

Today, the truck shows 175k miles.  So doing the math, the Tuned Port has about 77k miles.  Barely broken in!  Hehe…

This is the RPO build sheet in the glovebox.  Unfortunately, I do not have the window sticker – wonder what that would look like?  No telling what this truck sold for back in 1985.

More About the Truck…

Jim had a thing for Squarebody C10’s.  He had two.  The ‘shop truck’ was a tan 1985 that was once-upon-a-time in the US Forestry Service.  It was a plain-jane C10.  No carpet, no headliner.  Jim put an LSx in that one, and it was a ton of fun.  I could not keep it all, so the ‘shop truck’ has a new owner now.  This is what it looks like:

The Frost White C10 has always been bit special, perhaps because his mom (my aunt) drove it for many years.  After my aunt passed, the truck did not get driven much.  That would account for the 175k miles after 40 years.

The interior is a bit tired…  Blue carpet and blue accents on the doors – all original.  The seat cover – well, can’t beat the ‘blanket’ cover look…Next, high tech from the 80’s…  Dig those power window and power door lock switches.  Too bad the boys from GM decided to run full voltage to the window motors and locks through the switch.  Not so good after 40 years.  I re-wired both doors with relays and now the windows go up and down smooth as they did in 1985.

The dash is still decent under that blue cover too…The radio still works – when it wants to and there are four (4) speakers that still work!  I’ve noticed when it get a bit warm, it will play intermittently though.  Maybe one day, i’ll get a new one.  All instruments work, even the clock.  Speedo is off by about 5 mph.  I suppose the reluctor wheel on the 700R4 is slightly different from the one that was in the original tranny.  No worries, I’ve checked this with the iPhone app and it is consistent across the range.  Lucky it shows under rather than over actual speed….

Tilt wheel works, turn signals, headlights, check.  There is no cruise control though – who needs it?  Ditto for the windshield squirter thinggies.  And there seems to be some malfunction with the dome light.  Oh and the horn won’t work.  I need to add all that to the list of things to fix.

Check this out…  Sliding rear window!

About that Tuned Port Injection L98…

I think the L98 has always been a favorite of mine.  The L98 powered Camaros and Corvettes of the era.  Yeah, it ran out of breath but that intake with those 8 runners each going to the intake ports of each cylinder was sexy as it gets.

But wait a minute…  The photo above shows four siamesed runners.  What’s up with that, where are the 8 runners?  Well, back in the day this intake was special.  This is the SLP high flow version.  This was supposed to gain you a ton of foot-pounds and make the car run better.  This setup was not cheap.  Does it help?  Who knows.

I do have a set of original runners, but they are a major pain in the ass to swap.  Give this stuff has not been touched in years, I will leave this alone thank you very much.

Engine management you ask?  This is controlled by an OBD I ECM.  There was an outfit called Street & Performance in Mena, Arkansas that made a killer wiring harness.  Jim had a contact there that was on speed-dial.  Tony was his name.  We used to call Tony and he would help us out with L98 and LT1 setups.  That guy was a genius.  No telling what happened to Tony.  I don’t think Street & Performance exists anymore.  But back in the day, they where the shit when it came to this kind of stuff.

This photo shows a closeup of the siamesed runners.  They have a partition inside but the first inch or so, is the entire width of the runner.  Towards the back of the intake is a cover that hides the HEI distributor.  The Camaro came with a cheap, plastic version.  What you see in the photo above is the Corvette version – it was all metal and fits and looks nicer than the cheap plastic one.

“Does it have AC?”, you ask…  Well yes it does!

“Is it cold?”

Why yes it is!!!  Jim mounted an aftermarket compressor.  This enabled the use of modern refrigerant, not Freon.  Yeah, he added a big-ass condenser in front of the radiator and yes, it works.  Not too shabby for a 40 year-old truck.

Another problem that I recently fixed was the vacuum check valve leading to the vent system in the cab.  The only thing working was the heater vent.  The dash vents did not work.  Googling and watching some youTube videos pointed to a possible issue with the check valve.  Sure enough, a couple of bucks fixed that.  Now all vents work.  Even the defroster works!

A keen eye will notice the absence of radiator fan.  Right?  Well, Jim was very fond of SPAL fans.  This is what the air movement mechanism looks like…

Two 13″ SPAL electric fans keep things cool.  One is wired to a thermostat pickup plumbed into the bottom coolant hose and the other is wired into a trinary switch on the AC side of things.  So when refrigerant pressure reaches a certain point, it kicks the fan on and this keeps the refrigerant happy.

Here is a picture of the red-top Optima battery.  I added the quick disconnect to prevent it from draining down.  Behind is the custom made overflow tank – Jim made that from aluminum.

Oh and check this out…

Lurking behind the grill is a MOCAL cooler.  Its plumbed as a transmission oil cooler.  And, I added the #3 tag.  Long live The Intimidator.

What about cooling engine oil?  For this, we need to check out the oil filter.  Have no idea what this originally came on, but Jim decided to hang the largest oil filter he could find.  Check out this monstrosity of a filter:

This will hold an extra quart I suppose, and is also giving more surface area to keep engine oil cooler.  And we can get away with that because this is a C10 – try this on an IROC…  Yeah right!

The other side of the L98.  Unfortunately the cast iron headers were not JetHot coated.  They are rusty and I can’t imagine how hard it would be to get those bolts off…

In Closing

When I first started driving the C10, it would cut off out of the blue at red lights.  Turns out the intake where the butterflies live was filthy, covered in carbon residue.  I took the idle air controller out and replaced it.  It helped some.  So I took throttle body out and cleaned it in an ultrasonic cleaner.  what a difference that made.  Bought some new gaskets and put it back together.  That solved the problem.

I bought a new set of tires and had them mounted.  The old tires were just unsafe.  Yes, I’ve thought about getting a set of drop-spindles and maybe flipping the rear spring to lower the truck.  I asked Jim about this time or two, and he would always say “leave it stock”.  So for now, it stays stock.

The truck is fun.  I’ve had many thumbs’ up from other folks at red lights.  Yeah, this is a keeper.  It runs decent, just have to remember this is not a modern LSx and the 700R4 is very dated but for what it is, it does the job very well.  I also have to remember the rear-end is a 2.73 and is not a posi.  But, it is plenty fast for what it is.

Does anyone know where this dealership was located?

Customized Dodge Challenger

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This weekend, I made a quick road trip to visit my mom and on the way back, I found this customized Dodge Challenger parked on the side of the road.  This bad boy is another example of one of those things that make you go “hmmmm”…

Mom has a very supportive network of family and friends in the little town where she lives.  She is handling our new “normal” quite well, but she does not drive and she needed to go to the grocery store.  So we took care of that this weekend by going to North Augusta, SC.  Mom is now set for another couple weeks and I had a chance to finally get out on the road and clear my mind from being in lockdown.

So back to the customized Dodge Challenger.  All I can say is that somebody put a ton of money on this Challenger.  The pictures don’t do the paint job justice – it is flawless.  While it is not my cup of tea, I do appreciate the hard work invested.  The Challenger was painted probably with ChromaFlair because as you move around, the thing changed colors.  Somebody then took the time to ghost-in the Mopar logos on the quarter panels.  You can barely see an edge in the photo above.

The hood was also highly customized:  it had the Mopar logo as well.  I’m not a big fan of the color shifting paint but that paint-job did the trick:  it caught my eye.  I had to drive back to this parking lot and felt compelled to take these photos.

And last but not least, the wheels and tires.  I didn’t get out of my car, and inspect them closely, but they are LARGE.  Again, there is no telling how man dead presidents are invested in this set of wheels.  Having said all this…  I have a few questions:

    • With a wheel/tire combo like this, what effect does it have on the drivetrain.  If we go by the relationship of a lever, I would suspect this is going to load up the gearbox and strain it.
    • What effect does a whee/tire combo like this have on brakes?  Suppose you are driving at highway speed, would braking efficiency become compromised?
    • Speedo.  The speedo reading would certainly be hosed.  This is when tuning software and/or a separate box would save the day.  I am not familiar with this type of setup but there is certainly a lot of work here…
    • If you have any info on this, let me know…

Stay safe!

Chevrolet Volt Fuel Stats

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2013 Chevrolet Volt

My friend Lee purchased this 2013 Chevrolet Volt about 2 years ago.  Lee’s goal from the beginning was to achieve as much efficiency as could be obtained by driving as smooth as possible (more on this later, see below).  He has made it a priority to avoid gas stations!!

I’ve read much about hybrids and from my research there is a mind-shift one must make to meet the highest level of efficiency.  For yours truly, this would certainly be a steep learning curve but I digress.  Back to Lee’s Volt and the subject of this story.

You see, this week Lee texted me the following pair of photos when he filled the Volt’s tank with regular unleaded for only the third time since he bought the car!!  

Mileage since last fill up

This is the first photo of the Volt’s dashboard.  It shows mileage since the last fill up.  Lee explained he only resets the “B” odometer every time he fills up with fuel.  And here is the follow-up on the note in the first paragraph:  notice the indicator with the ball framed between the two brackets on the right of the picture.  Lee explained that is the indicator that helps you drive as efficient as possible:  the goal is the keep the ball in the middle the majority of the time.

Mileage since purchase

And this photo shows the “A” odometer, displaying total mileage since Lee purchased the 2013 Volt.  15,734 miles on exactly 23 gallons.

How the 23 gallons were used is an interesting story in itself.  Once the batteries are exhausted, the 4 cylinder engine kicks in and generates power to replenish the batteries.  During winter months, the engine helps provide heat and during summer months the engine provides help cooling the car.  The Volt’s computer also engages the engine when it “needs to run”.  On several occasions Lee has told me of the indicator that reminds the driver of this.  Pretty cool, huh?

Finally one of the neatest stories Lee has shared was shortly after purchasing the Volt.  You see, he bought the car in Asheville NC and drove around town a bit on electric power.  Then, on the way back to Greenville SC, the steep drive down I-26 provided enough braking (energy recovery) to recharge the battery almost to capacity.  Pretty cool stuff…

Needless to say, driving a Volt takes discipline.  Lee has proven with these results that a hybrid car is a very practical and real alternative.  I am a big offender because my Camaro is the complete opposite to the Volt.  It is downright embarrassing:  Lee has owned his Volt for almost 2 years and has filled up 3 times.  I have owned my Camaro 2 years (on the 10th of December) and I have filled up 70 times to travel almost the same distance.  Granted, we are missing the electric part of the cost of ownership but I think these stats are remarkable.

Thoughts?  Comments?

Can’t Fix Stupid

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I am constantly amazed by the carelessness of drivers around me and in this particular case, that carelessness gets upgraded into the realm of “can’t fix stupid”.

Since I have had some issues with my internet service provider’s billing, I decided to stop by one of their offices.  Yes, I tried the phone but they were reluctant to help.  I thought a face-to-face visit might solve the problem, but no.  I was greeted by a very friendly person, but that is as far as it went.  The experience was a complete waste of time because the person on the other side of the counter gave me her minimum-wage’s worth of help.  But, I digress.

Back to my story…

On the way out of the internet provider’s office I noticed this parked sad and lonely SUV with a flat right-rear tire.  What struck me as odd was the ring on the sidewall showing evidence of severe wear.  It is very obvious, this tire had traveled a long distance completely flat.  So much so, that the sidewall material is showing through the rubber on the sidewall.  Just imagine how hot this sidewall got too!

Cord exposed on the tire’s sidewall due to severe under inflation

I suppose I am overly sensitive to stuff like this because I am very particular about the care of my automobiles.  However, in today’s world there are so many people who ignore the basics of automotive care.  Are drivers so oblivious they don’t notice issues with their vehicles?

Flat or under inflated tires are prevalent these days.  I’ve witnessed on several occasions SUV’s (driven by millennial soccer moms) with kids in tow and yet the tires on these vehicles are either low on air or past their prime (sometimes both!).  Then, I can just hear the conversations blaming tire quality when catastrophic failures like the one pictured above happen.

Can’t fix stupid.

Bedliner Clad Jeep

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The other day, I walked to a little restaurant next door to the place I work at and in the parking lot saw this bedliner clad Jeep.  The olive drab paint job is indeed bedliner.  How cool is that!

I realize this is not something special.  This Jeep’s owner decided to treat this vehicle to an iron clad paint job that will quite frankly last forever.  Truth is to be told, I did the same thing (except in black) to the entire underside of bowtie6.

Think about it, this is one hell of a cool idea!  I walked up to the vehicle and touched it – the surface was far from “smooth”.  It was quite rough but looked awesome.  So much so, the material also covered all the emblems in such a way they could easily be read.

Pretty cool huh?