Parts Used In This Episode

Summit Racing
Clutch Master Cylinder
Summit Racing
FiTech Ultimate LS EFI System
Summit Racing
Hedman Hedders Exhaust
Summit Racing
ICT Billet Motor Mounts
Summit Racing
Pro LS Series Engine Parts
Summit Racing
Trick Flow GenX 255 Cylinder Heads
Matco Tools
MATCO Tools are the Official Tool Supplier to Carcass
The Industrial Depot
Tools, Hardware, Shop Supplies

Episode Transcript

(Jeremy)>> You're watching Powernation.

(Jeremy)>> Today on Carcass, we start a new project with some big plans in mind. We strap her down to the dyno and see what this old girl has left in the tank.

(Jimmy)>> Then start tearing her apart to make room for all the upgrades we plan on, which includes a major power boost. ♪ [tires squealing] ♪

(Jeremy)>> Hey, Guys. Welcome to Carcass. Well, the sun is shining and we are not in the shop today 'cause we are out driving a new project vehicle.

(Jimmy)>> And you probably can't tell from the inside, but we're in a 1989 Chevy C1500 Pickup. This is what's considered now the OBS Chevy from '88 to '98, and we have some big plans for this thing.

(Jeremy)>> Yeah, this is like a regular cab short box. Guys are starting to call them RCSB's. Obviously for regular cab short box truck. They're super popular. Still a throttle body truck. It's got the whomping 700 R-4 so it's got overdrive.

(Jimmy)>> Yeah.

(Jeremy)>> Must have been a little classier model. I don't know who did the conversions on these, but you know it's got the wood grain center console. It's got the wood grain plastic on the dash and stuff.

(Jimmy)>> I don't like any of it. It just feels cheap to me.

(Jeremy)>> This was classic truck when I actually met my wife believe it or not in 1999. These were the hot truck. She drove a '96 extended cab short box 4 wheel drive Z-71.

(Jimmy)>> Oh yeah. Killer.

(Jeremy)>> And that was their cabin truck. It's what they used to build the cabin her family did at least. Man, those were the hot ticket.

(Jimmy)>> And for my generation now, these are kind of the hot rod, right? Because they're getting more popular. They're getting more expensive, but they're not quite out of that range where it's untouchable, I guess. And like you said, you're really familiar with these. When I was in high school I drove a '97 Tahoe. Z-71 full giddy up on it. There's nothing to not like about this whole series of trucks.

(Jeremy)>> At this point you practically live in a truck like this because you have two of them right?

(Jimmy)>> Yeah I got "Grandpa" which is my '92 GMC long bed single cab. And then I got a '95 K-2500 that will carry me around in the winter time, you know?

(Jeremy)>> Right. 4 wheel drive?

(Jimmy)>> Yeah.

(Jeremy)>> These trucks, they're getting not hard to find, but the prices are creeping up on them with popularity obviously comes from jacked up prices in the market, but you can still find them. And we thought, why not try to put one of these trucks together? Super common to do engine swaps. Everybody now makes wheels and tires that fit it. They make some brake upgrades. (Jimmy).. Suspension stuff. (Jeremy).. All sorts of suspension companies out there. You can start bolting a lot of things onto these trucks, and they can be a lot of fun to drive on the street. But they can also be a ton of fun to drive them on the track!

(Jimmy)>> Yeah, exactly. And like, you still have the utility of a truck.

(Jeremy)>> Right. And they are still usable trucks. We got big plans for this one. We don't like to tell you guys what the plans are right away because we want you to stick around and see what's going to happen. We are going to throw this truck on the dyno and see what it's got left in it. 350 TBI. It's got 247,821 and a half miles on it as of right now.

(Jimmy)>> And it smokes.

(Jeremy)>> And it smokes really bad. So we need to swing into the gas station. We're going to fill this thing up, throw some fresh gas in it, and then we'll get it back to the shop and throw it on the dyno.

(Jimmy)>> And AC doesn't work. So I want to get out of this damn thing anyways.

(Jeremy)>> Right! ♪ ♪

(Jeremy)>> Now, before we hit the dyno, we're gonna fill our truck up with a little better grade fuel and we're going to be adding some Sea Foam Motor Treatment. Now, this stuff helps clean dirty injectors and carb jets. It also helps with your intake valves and your combustion areas. Now, you can run this stuff in your crank case or in your fuel system. And for cars and trucks that are driven regularly, you can put one or two cans of Sea Foam in every 3000 miles. And don't worry if you put too much in. Sea Foam only contains petroleum-based cleaning and lubricating ingredients, and it can't harm your engine or your fuel system. ♪ Now, we only added about half a can of Sea Foam and a couple of gallons of fuel because we're just going to run this thing on the dyno, and then we're going to tear it completely apart and get ready to swap out the motor. ♪

(Jeremy)>> We head down to Engine Power and see what our OBS Chevy has left.

(Pat)>> Listen to this sweet sound right here.

(Frankie)>> Aww yeah. I forgot how clean this truck is.

(Pat)>> Yeah, I like it.

(Frankie)>> That's going to be cool.

(Pat)>> I'm not sure if it's gonna set the world on fire on the roller here.

(Frankie)>> Yeah, I've never seen a raked window. Have you ever seen that?

(Pat)>> A what?

(Jeremy)>> Well, boys, this ain't the first time you've seen the truck, but we're back to pull some numbers now.

(Pat)>> No, no, I really like this. It's a good looking rig.

(Jeremy)>> Yeah, super straight throttle body 350. We've gone over this already. You guys seen it, and we're just pretty much here to see what it's going to make for power. It's got like, 247,000 miles on it.

(Frankie)>> So we won't expect much. But I think the real question is, is it going to make more or less than the Honda?

(Jeremy)>> It depends on before or after. I hope it's more than before boost, but I don't know about after boost. We'll see. What do you think?

(Jimmy)>> Number wise? Yeah, like 171.

(Jeremy)>> Okay, I'm going 185. I'm going to shoot a little high optimist.

(Pat)>> I love your optimism. Just because it has a lot of miles on it doesn't mean down on power, but I am going to say, I think it might scratch 170.

(Frankie)>> I'll go with you. I think it's like 178.

(Jeremy)>> Go a little higher. And Pat to your case, it may have had work done to it. We don't know anything about the truck.

(Pat)>> This has got some fancy work done to it. Just last time we've seen it. Pop the hood, we'll take a peek at it because...

(Jeremy)>> Frankie, you wanna strap it down?

(Pat)>> I'm going to say that this isn't stock. And by that air cleaner... (Laughs)

(Jimmy)>> Well, yeah, the taller it is more horse power, you know? And if it fits loose that's even better

(Pat)>> It's loose. You don't want that too tight. Because that's a restriction. And I remember your wiring. This is an addition so the battery doesn't move around. This hot bungee here..

(Jimmy)>> Anything to gain, just fractions of horsepower.

(Pat)>> There's nothing leaking out of it, though. So that's cool. Hey, strap it down and we'll light it. It's on a lie detector. So we'll find out exactly what it made. ♪

(Jeremy)>> All right, we're all hooked up?

(Jimmy)>> Yeah.

(Jeremy)>> Ready to roll

(Pat)>> Go for it.

(Jimmy)>> Let's do it.

(Pat)>> Can you see this okay?

(Jeremy)>> Yeah, I can see that.

(Pat)>> Straight up is 5 grand.

(Jeremy)>> Yeah, because then we don't have a tach in here.

(Frankie)>> Somewhere over here.

(Pat)>> Just go to until it stops.

(Jeremy)>> I just gotta find drive now. That's the tough part. I think that's it. That might be overdrive, though.

(Pat)>> Take the brake off.

(Jeremy)>> Here we go. I hope I'm in driving that overdrive. We'll figure it out here shortly. [engine revving]

(Pat)>> It stayed together.

(Jeremy)>> It made it. It made it through.

(Jimmy)>> What is it?

(Frankie)>> Dang... Somebody had a good guess.

(Pat)>> That's not bad. 172 HP.

(Jeremy)>> No way? Who said 171?

(Jimmy)>> Yeah. Awesome. 171.

(Frankie)>> 239 and a half pound feet of torque.

(Jeremy)>> That's not too bad.

(Pat)>> Back that up. One's a fluke, two is a real number.

(Jeremy)>> All right, we'll do one more.

(Pat)>> It can make 300 or 140 right here.

(Jeremy)>> (Laughs). I don't know about that, but we'll see.

(Frankie)>> All Right. Go again.

(Pat)>> That was a good pull

(Jeremy)>> All right, let's try it one more time.

(Pat)>> A little slow.

(Jeremy)>> Brakes off. I'll go to six grand this time because why not?

(Pat)>> Absolutely. If it will go there.

(Frankie)>> Sounds like it was struggling. [engine revving]

(Pat)>> Two in a row!

(Frankie)>> It didn't grab that one though.

(Jeremy)>> It smells though.

(Jimmy)>> It's stinky.

(Jeremy)>> It's a little stinky.

(Frankie)>> It was sitting bouncing between 2,500 and 3 grand.

(Pat)>> 175 HP.

(Jimmy)>> Alright.

(Jeremy)>> We are all in the ballpark, right?

(Pat)>> I don't know if we are all just good guessers or we just had low expectations.

(Jeremy)>> I think we're all good guessers.

(Pat)>> I mean, that's actually not far off what these things actually made.

(Jeremy)>> Yeah. I mean it was peppy when we drove it.

(Pat)>> It sounded fine.

(Jeremy)>> And you guys have a motor already built for this, right?

(Pat)>>We might have something that makes a little bit more power than this one.

(Jimmy)>> Just a skosh.

(Pat)>> Just a little bit. Yeah, the one we have tuned up for it. It's spicy.

(Frankie)>> I think it's going to go good in this thing. I think it's going to be like, a really nice driver and also a little bit racy, which I think is what you guys wanted for it.

(Jeremy)>> Yeah, no, we're excited. We got to get this thing back down into our studio. We'll start tearing this thing completely apart and then we'll have to come back down here. We'll pick up the motor that's sitting over there because I can see it. So whenever you guys are ready for it, it's ready to go. And then, you know, you guys can have this one too.

(Pat)>> I'd say don't get rid of this. Save this one. We always there's nothing wrong with having one of these sitting around. We actually have a few sitting around right now, but we can always do things with them. The projects come through here all the time, and basically they're just plain fun and relatively cheap fun to do some stuff and put it on our dyno.

(Jeremy)>> Yeah, yeah. So I think we're good. Get it unstrapped and get her back down to the shop.

(Pat)>> Yeah, that was the most uneventful chassis dyno session.

(Jeremy)>> Hey, we just needed a baseline,

(Pat)>> Nothing was spitting out. It wasn't smoking.

(Pat)>> Hey, now you know where to start? We'll get her unstrapped and we'll get out of here. (Jimmy) Coming up, we start tearing into the skeleton of our Chevy to get to the belly of the beast.

(Jeremy)>> Well, Jimmy, we got this thing back out into the shop, it made a whopping one hundred and seventy three horsepower, which is nothing really to write home about, but I think we just kind of dive into this truck and get started.

(Jimmy)>> And with this truck, we're going to be going for a pro touring style build and with the pro touring movement going on in the last few years, basically that means high performance but also comfortable something you can go out and drive. And so with this truck in particular, we're going to be taking out the stock powertrain, putting in the LS, that Engine Power built for us, matched with a six-speed manual transmission. And up front, we're going to be doing a full front suspension kit. And in the rear, we're actually going to be doing a custom three link setup with some pretty trick stuff on it that you guys will see later.

(Jeremy)>> And at the end of this, we're going to do a little bit of paint work on the side of the truck here to give it a little classier look. And then we're going to dive to the interior and kind of upgrade the seats. So it's a little more comfortable for Jimmy and I to drive. But, you know, I think it's going to be a whole lot easier if we just kind of ditch the whole front clip. So let's just get rid of the core support, fenders, and the hood and we'll get down to that drive train easier that way. And in the back, we'll just get rid of the whole box and we'll just kind of get rolling here.

(Jimmy)>> All right. Let me get some tools. ♪

(Jeremy)>> All right, that should be good.

(Jimmy)>> Ready? ♪

(Jeremy)>> That's going to make a mess. I can't believe that's coolant.

(Jimmy)>> Oh, that's yucky. It's brown, black.

(Jeremy)>> Just terrible.

(Jeremy)>> Probably just cut the cooler lines, right? We don't need those anymore. ♪

(Jeremy)>> Parts and pieces now. How long is a belt? ♪

(Jeremy)>> The extension. Perfect. ♪ [drill humming] ♪ [drill humming]

(Jimmy)>> All right. I think it's about ready to come out.

(Jeremy)>> That's got to finish the AC stuff here. Everything's loose. We just got to get it through the core support. ♪

(Jimmy)>> Yeah, nice. ♪

(Jimmy)>> We got it. [drill humming]

(Jeremy)>> All right. It should be loose since I can't screw completely out of there. Pull the fenders back yours are back already, right?

(Jeremy)>> Oh OK. [metal rattling] Back, go behind. There you go. (Jimmy>> Oh, we got one more thing.

(Jeremy)>> That line is kind of stuck in there.

(Jimmy)>> There you go. [drill humming] ♪

(Jeremy)>> I got mine. You keep working on yours. [metal rattling]

(Jimmy)>> Here we go. Who needs inner fenders anyway? ♪ [lift humming]

(Jeremy)>> At least it goes high enough. ♪ [drill humming]

(Jeremy)>> All right, so last thing we're going to do before the box off. Is get rid of the electrical. Gonna undo this ground strap and then we'll just unplug this connector up here.

(Jimmy)>> All right, we'll get this thing down and we'll get the bed off.

(Jeremy)>> All right, I'll go get the bed lift and the cherry picker. ♪ I'll maneuver that in there. ♪

(Jimmy)>> Alright, take it on up.

(Jeremy)>> You're out of here. ♪ ♪ Now it should be able to roll the truck right out from underneath it.

(Jimmy)>> All right. That is simple.

(Both)>> Cool!

(Jimmy)>>Jinx!

(Jeremy)>> You owe me a Coke.

(Jeremy)>> The heart of our Chevy is still pumping, but it has to go to make some room for our transplant.

(Jeremy)>> You know, we work on a lot of different cars and trucks here in the Carcass studio and we get asked, where do we find our next project vehicles? Well, a tool we like to use is Auto Tempest dot com.

(Jimmy)>> And what Auto Tempest does is they take a bunch of car listings from dealers and private sellers, from all the top car listing websites, and they compile it in one place. So it's really easy for you to get the car that you want.

(Jeremy)>> You can search your vehicle out by year, make and model, or you can get down to the real specifics and look at interior color and trim packages. And when we were looking for our Chevy pickup, we were looking for a very specific one that was from 1988 to 1998.

(Jimmy)>> So if you guys are looking for your next project or something that you can even daily drive go to Auto Tempest dot com, all the cars one search.

(Jeremy)>> What do you think we get this motor out of here then?

(Jimmy)>> Yeah, I'll take the drive shaft out.

(Jeremy)>> Sounds good. ♪ Well, Jimmy's got the drive shaft out. We got a couple more bolts to get this engine out of here and we're going have to come back and cut the exhaust and we'll hook up the cherry picker, pick this thing out of here. ♪ [saw cutting] ♪ ♪ Right on time. Keep coming, there you go. Let me get out of here. ♪ We got one bolt on that side is still in yet. ♪ ♪ Let's go. ♪ Go ahead. Hang on. AC. There we go. You know what, Jimmy? This isn't even a 350.

(Jimmy)>>No?

(Jeremy)>> Nope. It says it right on the back here. Three... Nope, 5.0 liters.

(Jimmy)>> Jeez.

(Jeremy)>> Three 'o' five.

(Jimmy)>>. I mean, one hundred and seventy horsepower for a three 'o' five. That's actually not too, too terrible. But it's going to be getting a big upgrade.

(Jeremy)>> That LS that's going in here is going to be a giant upgrade.

(Jimmy)>> The engine build started with an iron block six liter LS. It has a four inch bore with four bolt main caps that are also cross bolted. For the internals the Engine Power guys used Summit Racing's Pro LS series parts, including a forty-three forty forged crankshaft with a four inch stroke, a hydraulic roller camshaft, and a double roller timing set. For pistons, they used a forty thirty-two forged style with coated skirts.

(Jeremy)>> To cover the pistons, they went with a set of Trick Flow Gen-X 255 heads also from Summit Racing. And before they ran this thing on the dyno, they topped it off with a FI Tech Ultimate LS EFI system. On the dyno, the LS made five hundred and eighty five horsepower and just over five hundred pounds feet of torque.

(Jeremy)>> You know, Jimmy, that LS is going to be a giant advantage over this tired old, well, three 'o' five, I guess, now that we know that.

(jimmy)>>Yeah. And it's going to take a little bit of work to get this thing in the truck, but all the swap parts are out there. So for us, it's just going to take a little bit of time.

(Jeremy)>> I think before we set that in between the frame rails here, we should take this outside pressure wash underneath the hood here a little bit.

(Jimmy)>> I agree. So if you guys like anything you've seen in today's show, go to PowerNation TV dot com and be sure to check out our build pages where you can see more of our pro touring OBS Chevy, Project Junk Mail, and the Honda Rally car.

(Jeremy)>>All right, let's get these out of the way and push the truck outside.
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