Project Copperhead: 1967 Chevy C10 Engine Part 3

Today. If you like small and adorable, then we have the ride for you as we check out the latest little package from the Euro scene. It's tiny. It's cute. It's

what are you talking about? This show's called Trucks

today on Trucks. It's the big show and it's big news when Stacy unveils the biggest baddest crate motor ever to come from the big three. And he's putting it in Project Copperhead.

And speaking of the big, how about 44 inch

Boers rolling on 2.5 ton Rockwells? Now, that's big.

It's the outrageous custom Kaiser MSE

15

and it's all today on truck.

Hey, welcome to trucks. This show is about big stuff, big trucks, big engines, big projects. But before we take you into this huge MSE

15 and show you why. It is so cool.

Well, we need to do some work name.

We need to put a drive train in our 67 Chevy truck. Now, for those of you that don't know anything about this project, let me bring you up to date on what we've done so far.

Now, the first thing that we did is completely upgrade the front and rear suspension and brakes

with kits from early classic enterprises.

Then we put in a huge Dana 60

brakes from DTs. Now

it is time for the drive train but

not just any old drive train. Now, keep in mind

this project is called Copperhead and I've been teasing you the last couple of weeks telling you that that engine is gonna be super nasty

and just how bad.

Well, let's go take a look at it.

Ok. You've probably guessed that the engine I'm gonna use on this project is some sort of Chevy crate engine and you'd be right.

Uh,

but before I show you what it is, I need to tell you how this thing came into existence. Now, a few years ago when crate engines started to get popular. Well, Chevy came out with their huge 502 and it was great. It was the biggest thing out there.

Well, it wasn't long until Ford came out with their 514 and it was great. Everybody loved that.

Well, Dodge decided to get in on the act and they not only reissued the

hemi,

but they punched it out to 528 cubic inches. Everybody was happy about that.

Everybody except Chevy, they were not happy. Matter of fact, they were ticked off because the 502 was now the smallest big block out there. So

they decided it was time to pull out the big stick and kick some butt and this is what they came out with.

What you're looking at is a 572 cubic inch crate engine. It's kicking out 620 horsepower and 650 ft pounds of torque.

Now, wait a minute, let me repeat that to you. This is a 572 cubic inch engine.

It's been dyno

at 620 horsepower at the fly wheel and it's kicking out 650 ft pounds of torque.

Oh,

now I know those numbers can be a little bit mind boggling but wait a minute, it gets even better. This thing is pulling 9.5 to 1 compression and it's pulling those kind of torque and horsepower numbers on 93 octane pump gas,

which means this thing won't overheat in traffic, it'll idle in traffic. It's street legal.

You can buy one in the crate.

Now,

let me put this in perspective for you. Most of the classic muscle cars of the sixties had 4, 450 horsepower under the hood.

The Awesome Shelby Cobra had around 500.

Even the Dodge Viper only kicks out around 500 horsepower.

Am I making my point? Nobody has built a more powerful crate engine. Now, this thing has been in development for over a year and what you're looking at is the very first production engine we got it before any of the magazines. Any of the other TV shows we got the very first one for Project Copperhead.

Matter of fact, most people don't even know this thing exists,

including Ford and Dodge, which means that if they're watching the show, they just spilled their pretzels all over them and they're running for the phone in a state of panic. I love it.

Now, as you can see, this is a gearheads, dream of all the best stuff you got Ford steel crank and rods,

you've got Ford's aluminum pistons, you have huge aluminum heads filled with monstrous valves. You have a special tall deck intake topped with a demon 850 carburetor.

You also have an HE I distributor wires, plugs, everything's installed. This is ready to drop in and go

now. So you don't mistake the new five

72 for any other big block. They come with special valve covers and they're all powder coated orange.

Ok. If you are not weak in the knees yet,

well, just bear with me because you will be. Now, the question that comes up is, what kind of transmission do you put behind an engine like that

motor? Like that would snap most transmissions like a matchstick.

Well, we went to B and M and got one of their super strong turbo four hundreds,

had them put a shift kit in it and we also had them put on their trick aluminum pan

that will help out in the cooling department. Now, to go with that.

It also got one of their 2500 stall torque converters,

new transmission mount,

they're super cooler to keep everything cool for us. And finally, they light truck mega shifter

so we can control the whole thing. Now, this combination

will easily handle the output of that monster motor

to install the torque converter, pour in a quart of tranny fluid. Now, we are using B and M synthetic trick shift because it is specially formulated for performance transmissions.

Now make sure that you're well lubed around this stub shaft

as well as this seal. So you don't rip it when you put the torque converter in,

then take the torque converter,

just slide it on to the input shaft.

There we go.

Now make sure that the torque converter seats all the way in. Now

it needs to sit at least 7/8 of an inch behind the face of the bell housing. Very important.

If you don't get it seated all the way in. When you bolt that transmission to your engine, you're gonna destroy the pump inside the transmission. So make sure you do it.

Now, we are ready to bolt this to that big old engine. We'll take care of that during the break. After the break, we're gonna drop it all into the chassis. Make sure you come back

after the break. Stacy gives copperhead its venom when he plants that massive 572 and turbo 400 tranny.

And later, we're along for the ride in this muscle bound version of Kaiser's military cheat.

The M 715.

Welcome back to the shop. Now, if you're just joining us, well, shame on you. You've missed some really important stuff. First, we gave the world its first public viewing of Chevy's humongous 572 crate engine.

Then we bolted a turbo 400 from B and M behind it

for a bulletproof drive train. Now, we're gonna put that whole assembly into the chassis project copper head. Now, obviously, we gotta have some motor mounts and a transmission cross member to hold that combination,

but it's not as tough as you think. Remember the 67 to 72 trucks,

one of their options was a big block. So we made a call to early classic enterprises, got one of their transmission cross members,

a couple of new motor mounts

and their engine pedestals.

All right, the first thing we'll do is bolt the engine pedestals

into the chassis.

Yeah.

Then I'll get this new cross member into place.

I follow that by bolting the motor mounts to the engine.

Then just lower the engine and tranny into place and bolt it in

man. Is that awesome or what

man?

Now, like I said before

that built Turbo 400 tranny is the only thing that's gonna be able to handle that kind of power output.

A 700 R four would not have a prayer. Now, a lot of you guys might be thinking, well, that's too bad because

it'd be kind of nice to have that overdrive. Like a 700 R four has when you're tooling down the interstate.

And that would be right. So we are gonna put an overdrive behind this, but something that'll handle that kind of power output. Come on over here.

This is the gear vendors overdrive. Now, this thing bolts right behind the transmission

and it'll handle up to 1200 horsepower. Now, the kit includes the adapter,

a new Yoke, all the harnesses and hook ups and of course,

the overdrive unit itself. Now, the best part about this is you can shift it manually. Now, let me show you how this thing works.

Ok? With the overdrive in the automatic position, you get a 22% overdrive.

This is like having a whole extra gear on the top end,

very similar to a 700 R four. Now, let's say you wanna shift this thing manually.

Well, you can get this foot switch

or you can get this really cool shifter handle with the button installed

kinda like nitrous. But uh this is a lot better. Let me show you how

say you shift down to first, go to first overdrive, 2nd,

2nd, overdrive, 3rd, 3rd, overdrive. Say you're getting ready to climb a steep hill and you need to go down to second, but second is gonna be too low.

Go to second overdrive. This thing literally turns your three speed into a six speed.

Now, this is great. If you're road racing or drag racing or if you're hauling or towing equipment or trailers or trail riding, even serious rock crawling. Now, you've got some shifting choices.

I'm gonna show you how easy it is to put that overdrive in, but

gonna have to wait till after the break. We'll see you in a few minutes

when trucks returns, we button it up with overdrive and a trick set of headers that's next.

Just can't get enough of trucks. Check us out online at trucks, tv.com.

Welcome back to trucks and our awesome drive train for project Copperhead.

Now, we already have the engine and transmission in. Now it is time to deal with that overdrive. Now to install the gear vendors overdrive,

this stock tail shaft has got to come off,

grease the bushing and the seal in the extension

and then install the extension,

then grease the coupler inside and out

and then slide it into the extension on to the transmission tail shaft,

then

just slide the overdrive unit on

and bolted up.

Ok. That takes care of the installation of this overdrive unit but not the overall installation up to. Now, we have been really lucky that this engine and transmission and stuff is just pretty much bolted into place. But as you can see, we got a little problem here. Overdrive is hitting this cross member,

but the solution looks pretty easy. So we're just gonna jack up the transmission

and we'll just tap this cross member forward

until the tranny mount

sits right down on top of it.

Well, that seemed like a pretty easy fix. Now, in doing this, we have actually raised the mounting point of the transmission about an inch.

Now, there's some things you need to be really aware of when you start doing this first,

you need to make sure that the engines has the proper tilt to the rear about 3 to 4 degrees.

Oh, that's right on.

Number two,

take some measurements, make sure that your transmission assembly is not gonna hit the floor of the cab.

If it is, you need to lower the mount or modify the floor of the cab.

And number three,

take an old drive shaft,

make sure

that you are gonna have clearance through the cross member through the full range of motion. Now, this is gonna be close. We have plenty of room,

ok. Now that we've got everything fitting properly, we'll go ahead and just red drill our holes in our cross member

and we will bolt this sucker on

finally. Now that we have the drive train in, we can lower the rear of the chassis down to ride height

according to the measurements we got from early classic enterprises,

then we'll center up the axle

and set the pin angle to match that of the output of the overdrive. Then we'll just weld these perches onto the axle.

Ok.

Oh, yeah, that looks good.

All right. Another thing we're gonna deal with today is the issue of headers. Now, for those, we went to Sanderson got a set of these long tube headers for the 67 through 72 Chevy truck with the big block. Now, like all Sanderson headers,

they have a very thick flan, so that's not gonna warp on you.

They have a nice smooth bend. So these things will flow like a mother

and they also have the jet hot coating, so they'll always look good.

Now, the big question is, how well are they gonna fit that new 572 block?

And the answer is, well, like a glove. The engineers at Sanderson did their homework on these and you can see we've got just enough room to clear everything.

All right, that finishes up the drive train for project Copperhead. Is this awesome or what? Man? I told you it was worth the wait.

Now we're gonna take a break, but when we come back, we are gonna unleash that thing. And you don't wanna miss that.

When we come back, it's time to sit down and hold on as we churn up some crop circles in the incredible customized Kaiser MSE

15.

That's next.

And now truck gear, parts, tools and equipment for pickups and sport utilities.

You know, one question that I get asked a lot is how hard is it to put a V8 into an S 10 pickup.

Well, the answer to that really depends on your mechanical ability, but

there is a kit out there that takes care of the hard part of this kind of swap and it comes from advanced adapters. Now, the kit comes with motor mounts that literally allows you to bolt a small block Chevy into an S 10

and all of your clearances with your firewall and radiator are all taken care of. Now, another problem part with this kind of swap is in the exhaust.

So this kit

comes with a special set of headers, so you don't have any problems there.

Now, the best part about this is this kit goes for about 500 bucks

that my friends is a deal. No matter what your budget is,

there is nothing more frustrating than building a totally cool street truck, spending hours on the paint and body work and then the first time that you raise the hood or

Hoel cover,

oh, off comes a piece of paint.

Well, the problem is in your hinges and the answer comes from Sae's

Rod shop in the form of these lightweight built right hinges.

Now, this is an aluminum hinge

and as it pivots it moves the two surfaces out and away from each other, so you never have to worry about scratching or marking your paint.

Now, these come in a couple of different sizes. They're perfect for mounting the hood or a tunnel cover or heck, even a tilt front end

and you can pick these up for 100 and 70 bucks for a pair.

Sae's

Rod shop is where you gotta go,

man. The awesome Kaiser MSE

15

built by the military for just a couple of years in the late sixties.

This is pretty much the ultimate Jeep truck super strong right from the factory,

but

that wasn't good enough for Chad

Motor. Now,

see, Chad does some serious off road so he needed a serious rig.

So using the MSE

15 as a starting point.

Well, here's what he built.

The weakest part of any MSE

15 was the engine. So the first thing that Chad did was dump the old stock engine stick in a 94 LT one

and this gives him a solid 300 horsepower and fuel injection for those steep tough obstacles.

One of the coolest things about these big old trucks though is the removable canvas top and the flip down windshield.

However, Chad added to that by taking the original doors and cutting them down into Roadster style doors. So jumping in and out is a snap.

The interior was treated to a full roll cage that not only protects the driver,

it also holds racing style seats and harnesses so you don't accidentally get thrown out.

One of the biggest changes to the Kaiser though

is the huge axles and tires it sits on.

Now, the axles are 2.5 ton rock wells packed with 671 gears and Detroit lockers.

Now, the tires are monstrous 44 inch

Boers

that are held on with custom bead lock rims

and they have a tread similar to, uh, what you'd find on a John Deere tractor,

but that's not all to help this big old truck go places that say a Jeep can

the rear axle outfitted with hydraulic steering.

Now, one of the incredible benefits of rear steering

is you can put the rear end just about anywhere you want to. This is really cool on tight trails or a big deep mud hole.

The rear steering will also cut your turning radius in half. Now, if you mash down on the throttle,

this will allow you to cut some of the most amazing doughnuts you've ever seen

to increase the departure angle. The rear of the bed was shortened six inches

and yet all the military blackout lights and tailgate were retained for a stock look

and you're right, it's virtually unstoppable. But what you may not expect is how well a rig this big can crawl rocks and tough obstacles.

The rear steering makes it nimble enough to go places that

you normally can only take a smaller rig like a G or a Bronco.

Now, like I said, at the beginning, the Kaiser MSE

15 was an awesome vehicle in stock form.

But when you take one and you put it on steroids like Chad did.

Well,

it becomes one of the most incredible things on four wheels no matter what kind of trail you're on

next week on trucks. Project crazy horses back in the stable and ready for some horses of its own 390 to be exact.

And later, Stacy gives us a taste of the Tundra Toyota style. That's all next week on trucks

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