I have been reluctant to post regarding my project, not because the project is without interest, but instead because my wife has lost interest. (It is nominally her truck...) I've nonetheless decided to continue with the project but still face another hurdle; after moving from OK to the DFW area a year ago, all time, energy, and budget has been spent on rebuilding the house; I still have at least another six months of work before having anything resembling a shop area.
The truck cab is a from a 1938 Dodge 2 Ton dump truck which was discovered under a pile of lumber on the side of Pikes Peak. I discarded the original chassis and drive train, and purchased a '82 Chev 1 Ton dually flatbed with a 292 and a 4 speed as a donor. (Yes, it was a forest service truck... How did you know?)
At this point, the cab has been lengthened 21 inches, a new firewall and floor fabricated, and the cab re-mounted on the donor chassis. I've been relucatant to post much regarding the project because for the first half year I'll be doing nothing but rough bodywork, building a substructure to mount the fenders and running boards, adding Bear Claws to the downright scary door locks, and so on before getting to any of the fun stuff. (The original truck had the fenders and running boards mounted directly to the frame, so fatigue cracks are everywhere; I've mounted the body on polyurethane, but the fenders and running boards need to likewise hang from the body or they would just shake apart again.)
Unfortunately, I do need to finalize body mounting and support arrangements before I can officially locate the motor and transmission mounts. (It was either relocate the engine or the front axle... Early cars and trucks put the axle ahead of the engine, not under it.)
Once rough body work is done,I'll get one of the 700R4s rebuilt, and get the truck running. I've already purchased the turbocharger and waste gate, exhaust manifold, megasquirt kit, and so on. Although I have all kinds of thoughts about rebuilding and improving the 292, I probably should get the stock engine running with the new externals first. I had planned to build a port injection set-up, but with the charge hogging problems associated with siamese intakes suggests that I might be better off using throttle body injection. (I've thought about splitting intake, or even re-grinding the cam to make the intake ports the exhausts and vice versa as siamese exhaust ports wouldn't seem to hurt a turbocharger exhaust gas stream.) But, I don't have unlimited money for development.
Because of the externalities, I'm not doing any real work on the project, just doing the dreaming/thinking/planning part. Right now, I've been thinking about the radiator and intercooler. The '38 grill shell is very space limited. Because intercooler cores and radiator cores are both off-the-shelf components and are essentially of the same purpose, you would think that it would be easy to get a radiator and intercooler built into a common frame to make the best use of the available space and to simplify plumbing. From what I've found, though, intercooler fabricators won't think about radiator cores, and radiator fabricators won't think about intercoolers.
I've also given some thought of late to swapping the 350/400 from my beloved '69 3/4 Ton pickup into the '38 and keeping a freshened turbocharged fuel-injected 292 and 700R4 for the daily driver in case the wife does want to sell her '38. Hmmm... More room for the intercooler, and I could justify a really hot rebuild of the 292... Wonder if I could get dropped 3/4 Ton spindles...
Sorry for the long-winded post guys; I'm frustruated by having to use a framing nailer instead of a TIG. I built a 194 years ago with headers, a 4-speed, and a homemade log intake mounting a couple SU carbs; it ran like a bat and was very different, and I've been eager to do another in-line project.
Last edited by DougE; 02/04/09 05:00 PM.
