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Old January 28th, 2022, 10:38 PM
LordNatedawg LordNatedawg is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: Sparks, Nevada
Truck: 1966 GMC 1500 Custom
Age: 24
Posts: 67
Rep Power: 62
LordNatedawg will become famous soon enoughLordNatedawg will become famous soon enough
Default Re: "Papa Smurf" - 1966 GMC 1500 Custom

Quote:
Man, just read through your entire thread, ungrateful work it seems like. Fixing the crap produced by the previous owners take a heck of a lot of work. Will be following your thread with interest and I commend you on your ability to just carry on (when you aren't out fixing family vehicles!)

Good luck.

David (also a young guy at 22)
It's only a matter of time before the grandkids grow up and buy their own project vehicle! Lol. And honestly, in a 50+ year old truck, some of this should have been expected. This truck has been someone's beater-with-a-heater for a long time. Only makes sense that several "goodnuff" fixes have been made.

I've been slowly working on Papa Smurf. Winter and work has made progress extremely slow, but here is where I'm at:

I bought a Painless Wiring kit (PN #10112). I've already removed most of the wiring from my truck. I just need to remove the headlight and taillight harnesses. Everything is getting carefully removed and labelled because some parts of the original harness may need to be reused. Obviously the melted parts can't be reused. That would be my ignition connector and passenger side bulkhead connector.

While working on wiring, I decided that now was the best time to solve my overheating issue. I'm going to be removing the current cooling fan and replacing it with some electric fans. I nabbed some cheap fans from a C5 Corvette, a BMW 325I dual temperature switch and wiring harness (91c/99c), a dual fan two speed LS relay kit, a new thermostat housing with a 1/2" port for temperature switches, and a 185F thermostat. All of this will be cobbled together to improve cooling. In theory, my thermostat should open at 185F, my cooling fans should kick on low speed at 195F, and high speed at 210F.

In addition to all of the cooling fan supplies, I had to upgrade my alternator again. The 70 amp alternator wasn't going to be sufficient for the fans. On startup, both fans can draw up to 60A (30A each). Once they are up to speed, that draw will decrease to 30A or less (about 15A each). That is still a significant portion of my current alternators charging capacity. To prevent any issues, I went with a 140A alternator. That will provide more than enough capacity for the fans, and any other accessories I decide to install later such as AC or a new radio.

So far all I have done is test fit the fans. They fit almost as if they were made for this truck. I bought them because the fan measurements were very close to the radiator dimensions. I also found that fans from a Saturn Vue are rather close, but the C5 is even closer. All of the cooling fan supplies cost me about $500. Honestly not bad.

Hoping for some warmer weather soon so I can actually start installation of everything.
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