ran into an issue early in the week. Put the harness on the truck just to discover i had a no start condition. traced it back to the PCM, found out I had removed a wire from the BJB to BCM that sends power to wake up the PCM. set me back about 2 hours to diagnose it and repair it. But luckily i didnt just hack up the wiring, and I've be actually depinning connectors, so the repair was super quick

got all the wiring sorted out. still may end up thinning the frame rail harness out, but for now its onto other parts of the project....

here's a few pics of the beginning stages of replacing the core support and correctly repairing the damages from the front end wreck from 2009




Ive got the engine all covered up, and started by removing the LH core support area. I've got a junkyard donor core support, RH apron and inner fender structure (upper rail) that will be installed. We will be repairing the cowl area where the hood hinge got pushed back and down into the cowling of the firewall. Stay tuned for more updates

 

 

thanks! that means a lot to me coming from you

 

 

2003, I believe the engine is spoken for, not looking to part out the engine......

 

I got the LH core support removed




Followed by the RH core support, inner fender, and apron



here's the cowl area that needs to be repaired


test fitting. Took us a while to get everything sitting squared up and happy



Cowl repair, and start welding RH inner fender structure to the firewall



tacking in the LH core support





I plan on doing a test fitment of fenders and hood before we finish welding everything completely, then grind welds, and paint over the welded areas

 

This is crazy. Really impressive Pat.

 

over the 3 day weekend I did a rough fitment of the hood and fenders to see how squared up the new core support really is....






I also started to fabricate a bracket for the transmission thermal unit. Attempting to get it to sit about the same location/angle as the factory trucks use

 

ordered a bunch of parts in the last few days

6R80 shift cable and brackets
QuickCar battery relocation cables, remote cut off switch, etc etc

still have more to order, but this will get me going for now.

Next I'm planning to finalize the transmission thermal unit bracket and then I will be able to finish both sets of trans cooler hoses as well

 

decided to try out a time lapse video, this represents about 45 minutes of work




pics to follow.....

 

after fabrication, welded it to the truck



lots of racecar goodies





Built the cooler lines from the transmission to the thermal unit





Underside of the new lines. Used factory connections on the thermal unit, and went from 1/2" Hardline to 8AN to 3/8" braided flex hose






These are the brand new donor lines going from the thermal unit to the external cooler



Going to have to order two more fittings to get the donor lines to play nice with my external cooler

 

Very nice!

 

Overdue on updating. Here's the steering shaft modification process






Ground down the black 2003 shaft so it would slide inside the 2015 shaft





Really tight fitment around the exhaust manifold. Gonna have to grind the shaft to feel more comfortable with this




notching the outer layer of the heat shield





Fully welded and painted. Ready to be permanently installed

 

Ran down to Summit to grab the last 8AN fittings i needed to finish the trans cooler lines up





My old cooling fans on my factory 2003 radiator





set the 2015 electric fans on top of the 2003 radiator, gonna have to cut the corners to fit and play nice. Gonna have to come up with my own mounting brackets to make it mount securely on the 2003 radiator





made some clearance modifications to the fan shroud, fit. I'll also need to modify the 2015 intake tube to get down between the engine and the fan shroud





I think the 2015 intake tube should line up with the 2003 air box...... More to come as I get to that step later on







test fitment of the upper radiator hose. I believe im gonna have to modify this to get it to fit in the same space as the fan shroud.





Really exciting to see it with the radiator, and fans. Its almost starting to look like a real engine bay again

until next time

 

Got the transmission cooler mounted and lines all wrapped up


Started mounting the PCM bracket. Purchased the factory 2015 PCM firewall bracket/holder



made a template of how much I need to cut out to get the PCM to fit inside the cowl








Traced out the template






Im really starting to see my vision coming together. Engine bay is getting crowded, but its getting exciting to see it at this stage of the project