'65 GMC 1500 project. From the Netherlands

[Prowbar]

The camshaft has been sent out last week for regrinding. Hope it doesn't take too long.
In the meanwhile, there are smaller jobs that needed to be done:
-Leaking rear axle wheel seal (replaced both sides, those were one old seal and one seal with an adapter ring I made. The adapter ring started to leak unfortunately, so I took it out and replaced it with the correct seal)
Cleaned out the axle hubs and bearings as well. Bearings are from Timken, made in the USA. They look absolutely spotless. Replaced the rear-end fluid a few weeks ago.
-Clean up the alternator to make it match the new engine. Sandblasted and repainted the fan and used steel wool to clean the aluminum housing.
-Repainted the voltage regulator cover.
-Repainted the pulleys and fan. Wasn't happy with the first try.
-Repainted the valley cover, also do touch-ups on the intake manifolds and heads.

Now it is the time to tackle these tasks. Man, I miss driving the old beast. Should be fun with the new engine.

[Prowbar]

Completed all the tasks from the last post. Now onto cleaning up some of the wiring, and installing items such as the AFR meter. Hope to complete the exhaust downpipes this week as well.
Then onto some small jobs, that still needed to be done.

Communication with the camshaft grinder hasn't been too great, still waiting. Companies here are not great to deal with. Wish we had a company like Delta Cam here.
The issue here was that they take apart their camshaft grinder for cleaning every 10 years or so. Guess who wanted to grind their cam while they had the thing apart? So they told me it would take a month to put it back together. That was on the 24th of May. 24th of June has since passed, and more than 2 weeks have passed since then.

In the meanwhile, Steve (tbucketnut) has helped me a great deal by sending out his spare sent of lifters to be reground by Delta Cam for me. Much obliged Steve, and I'm looking forward to them.

If this camshaft grinder doesn't work out, I'll be sending the camshaft to Delta Cams as well... Hopefully, it does not have to come this far.

[Prowbar]

Steve told me that he brought some 305 V6 camshaft cores to Delta Cam. I called them and asked if they could grind one of those for me. About a week turnaround time they told me. Hope this all works out. They do ship worldwide.
I also gave them my custom grind specs to grind on the camshaft.

I canceled the order from the other company.

Man, I can't wait for the camshaft to arrive here.
Running out of small jobs to do in the meantime.

[Prowbar]

Here is the exhaust downpipe work. I reused the old exhaust flanges that I faced on the lathe. I reworked existing gaskets to fit this application. A pipe reducer from the stock 2.5" to 2.25" was then welded on. The rest of the exhaust is 2.25", which should be plenty of exhaust for this application.
In the picture, the left side is fully welded but the right side is only tacked together. This is now fully welded as well. Quite a route getting around this oil filter. Exhaust work is fun to do, once you get the hang of it. It is a shame that when you finally get the hang of it, the exhaust is as good as finished.

I used a pipe reducer to create the slip fit for the rest of the pipes. A clamp is used to create a gas-tight seal.

My welding skills are not quite good enough to lay a continuous bead on a thin-walled exhaust pipe without creating holes... So this is a fish-eye paradise for the welders.

In the second picture, you can see the position of the O2-sensor. The nuts are still to be welded on, someone will TIG-weld these for me. Both pipes have a nut for the O2-sensor but only can be used at a time. A threaded plug is supplied and screws into the nut in place of the O2-sensor.

[tbucketnut]

Coming along nicely. I take it you have a planned electronic FI system planned correct?

[Prowbar]

Originally Posted by tbucketnut

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Coming along nicely. I take it you have a planned electronic FI system planned correct?

Thanks, Steve. The O2 sensor serves as a display instrument only for now. The engine will run most of its life on propane, and this is fed via a mixer to the carburetor. The system is from Impco. It is a dual fuel system, implying that gasoline can still be used.

Here is a video I made showing off my propane system:

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Liquid propane injection with injectors is possible but would require a custom manifold. I like the simplicity of this setup.

[Prowbar]

Another update. Delta Cam should have the camshaft finished today, or Monday next week. Hope to receive it the week after. Lifters are also still on the way.

Been busy working on the GMC. The exhaust is pretty much finished. The O2 bungs were welded on for me - beautiful work. If this exhaust ever rots out, I'll let her TIG weld the whole exhaust for me

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The O2 sensor and the gauge are installed and it all works.

Been busy with the carburetor - managed to score a 500 cfm Holley locally for cheap. Basically a brand new carburetor. It has 61 jets now, which are probably too small. I did some looking around on the forum, most seem to use 68s for the 305. Pete said that the stock 73s worked well with the 478, so that's what I'm using as a baseline. Should it run too rich or lean, I can adjust jet sizes according to the O2 sensor readout.

On Amazon, they said that they shipped the jets to the Netherlands, turns out they do not. So have to ask some local guys if they have Holley jets.

It also has a no. 8 power valve, ie. it opens at 8" Hg. From what I've read the power valve should open at half of your idle vacuum, so 8 seems about right. It also has the stock 30cc accelerator pump.

This does mean that I'm plugging off the governor line, which I first intended to keep in place. I am playing around with the idea to hook a normally open oil pressure sender to the governor line, and if it senses oil pressure a buzzer would sound indicating you hit the redline. Though a nice tach would be better. Would love to have a nice vintage tach on the steering column. Any tachometer recommendations, let me know.

Made a nice adapter flange to use the 478 manifold, but am running into hood clearance problems with the propane mixer. Decided to go back to the 305 manifold, and use the available Mr. Gasket adapter. I'll be sure to radius the edges in the manifold to allow for more flow to the middle intake runners. The port size is the same on the 305 vs the older 478 manifolds. The difference is the carburetor bolt pattern and the 478 manifold has a built-in spacer - see picture.

Since the Holley uses the standard 5 1/8 air cleaner base, readily made propane mixer adapters are available, so I bought one and modified it somewhat to reduce the height. I corrected the center bolt hole and also made a bushing to better accept the 1/4 thread diameter and nut on the Holley. See picture.

I am resizing the pictures for the forum from now on, so they should enlarge quickly now. Took a while to load before!

[Ed Snyder]

Originally Posted by Prowbar

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Would love to have a nice vintage tach on the steering column. Any tachometer recommendations, let me know.

Both ISSPRO and Datcon make 3-3/8" diameter 0-4000 tachs that match our speedometers pretty well. First photo is the ISSPRO in my '62 Suburban. Second photo is the Datcon in the '66 pickup that Clyde in South Carolina owns now.

See

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and

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[Prowbar]

Since I'm using the 305 V6 intake manifold, I blocked the heat riser in the intake manifold using the same method as before, which is to mill out a recess for a plate to fit in. They are a light press fit. These block the exhaust gas from the heads from entering the intake to preheat the manifold. This is a modification for propane usage. Though it would work for gasoline as well, but in hotter climates. Cooler air means a denser charge, ie. more power!

The correct Mr. Gasket carburetor adapter is on order, as well as the missing gun rack that was once installed in the truck.

I also removed the governor line.
Scored a nice vintage Sun tachometer on eBay, which was local to me. 15 bucks with 15 bucks shipping. It is a 3000 rpm tach, wish it would have been 4000. Though I should keep it below 3000, the 478 was governed at 3200 rpm.
Old Sun tachometers need a separate transmitter box to work properly. However, I know someone that is pretty handy with electronics, and we're going to see if we can rework one to work directly with the HEI tach signal.

Still waiting on the camshaft and lifters. Still working on all sorts of small jobs that need to be completed.

[Ed Snyder]

Originally Posted by Prowbar

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Scored a nice vintage Sun tachometer on eBay, which was local to me. 15 bucks with 15 bucks shipping. It is a 3000 rpm tach, wish it would have been 4000. Though I should keep it below 3000, the 478 was governed at 3200 rpm.
Old Sun tachometers need a separate transmitter box to work properly. However, I know someone that is pretty handy with electronics, and we're going to see if we can rework one to work directly with the HEI tach signal.

Here's a photo of the Sun tach in my '65 Suburban that Dad bought new. He had the dealer install the tach and clock before he took delivery.