86 Conversion Van - Tow Rig, 1986 Chevy G20 Options

[dualdj1]

eh, what the hell. It's an upcoming project so figure I'll start a thread.

Parted out a 92 GMC Yukon 4x4. Engine is on the stand in the garage. It'll be getting refreshed, torque cam, new timing chain, possibly roller rockers (if money allows), rings, bearings, and basic head porting. Have a set of large port steel heads from my boat that i sold, that may go on if they have bigger runners/valve than the ones on this engine. Just going for a torque monster for hauling whatever, and getting decent mileage when not hauling.

The "project" part of this, is that I'm converting the van to throttle body injection from carb. Have all of the wiring and tbi stuff from the 92. After I get the engine pulled down and see what it needs, then will start on stripping down the wiring harness to make an engine only harness. I plan to do as I did with the stang and end up with only 6 wires that need connected back to the 86 harness: Battery, Ignition, Tach, Oil Pres, Water temp, and fuel pump power. I also have an engine break in stand available, so once rebuilt, I can test and verify the harness is working properly.


In comparison to the Mustang project, I really hate GM. Ford has a disconnect for the engine harness, so all engine related wiring is self contained. GM includes everything in one mondo harness, including washer motor, wipers, etc etc. But haven't had a good electrical project to work on in a while, so figured what the hell.

Also the van will get long tube headers (pulled from the yukon), possibly a stronger axle (6 lug from the yukon), and electric fuel pump upgrade. Will post some pics as I get going.

Thanks to Patterson for use of his engine crane!

[dualdj1]

I had the van started again a month or 2 back when it was warmer, and i was hearing a rubbing/scraping noise that I couldn't place, and it was slowly getting worse. So when it was nice yesterday, I decided to fire it back up and see what I could figure out. Well, low and behold, when you install a windage tray, you need to make sure you notch it with a provision for your dipstick. When I put the dipstick in, it caught on the tray and slid in where it was rubbing on the crank. I don't think it caused any damage, there were just some slight rubbing marks on the stick. soon as i pulled it out, no more noise! lol. so gotta drop the pan sometime and notch it for the dipstick.

Other than that, got some work done on the exaust, but am not happy with how it came out so need to buy a premade piece and finish that up. Got the datalogging kinda working, though didn't mess with it yesterday. Aircleaner is fitted and on. Don't think I'm gonna need to hook up the purge system, it seems like it's venting to atmosphere ok so just gonna leave unhooked for now. Just need to get the correct headers for it, get timing reset, and get a chip burned and will be good to go, wooo.