PLAN Your Project and Avoid Frustration - Chevy/GMC Van Upgrades - Stacey David's Gearz S16 E12

foreign [Music] now you're watching gears brought to you by Holley Performance Products fuel your passion and Cornwell tools the choice of professionals hey welcome to gears you know there's an old saying that if you wait long enough what is old and outdated will eventually come back around and be new and desirable again now while that might not be true with that box of pizza in your refrigerator there is some truth to that in the automotive world just take a look at the Crazy Prices the people are paying for stuff at auction that nobody wanted just a few years ago that's a great indicator of how things come back around wow 400 000 amazing what a Meeka moment and one thing that's enjoying a huge Resurgence in popularity is the cargo van Ford Chevy Dodge it doesn't matter people are once again being drawn to these boxes on wheels that are perfect for customizing in a million different ways there's only one problem they stop making Vans like this back in the 90s so the aftermarket pretty much dried up on them nobody really knows what'll fit and what won't fit and everybody's scared to put a modern computer-controlled engine in them they just don't want to mess with it well hopefully we're here to change your mind on that because there are a lot of parts available for these and they make a great project if you plan them out right let me show you what I'm talking about now the first thing that you want to do with any project is plan out the direction of the build and since this is going to be a Hot Rod Van we started with the GM performance LS 427 engine and the matching 6l80e automatic then we added all of these Holley accessories to get a nice tight package to fit in that nice tight engine compartment now we're going to turn our attention back to the rest of the van and get it ready to handle almost 600 horsepower [Music] okay the first area of concern is the front suspension and brakes and as you can see this is the original suspension and by the looks of it it's never been a part so we're just going to replace it all and that is the first big surprise that you're going to find on these old vans the lower control arms the upper control arms the spindles the Springs the shocks it's all pretty much the same stuff as what they used on the square body Chevy truck and you've got a lot of options there so here's what we got this all comes from LMC truck and as you can see we got lower tubular control arms got all the bushings in place the ball joints are in place they're powder coated we have matching upper control arms then we got two and a half inch drop spindles to drop the front end of that thing down a little bit we got some new coil springs we got some gas shocks and we got all the hardware to replace all that nasty Rusty stuff however it's not all square body stuff under here take a look the tie rod ends the Pitman arm the center link The Idler arm these are all unique to the van fortunately they're all available at your local auto parts store so they're easy to get replacements for now since we are on the subject of suspension and steering one area that can be a pain in the butt on these Vans is that steering column because obviously most of us would like to have a tilt column and if you're going to put an automatic in here none of this manual shift stuff is going to work for you now in the past if you wanted a tilt column you had to hunt one down in a junkyard fortunately there's a great solution in the aftermarket check it out now since I did it specializes in aftermarket steering columns we figured that they would have something that we could use on that van because there are no direct replacement steering columns for those vans so we measured out a Full Tilt column just like you would a street rod and then we got it with the Tilt the turn signals the emergency flashers you've got the shifter for the automatic everything is pre-wired then we got some double D shaft we have a pivoting floor Mount the U-joints everything that we're going to need to be put that column into that van okay back underneath the reason we haven't started replacing all of this suspension stuff is because we got to go a lot deeper here if we're going to do an engine swap that cross member has to be dealt with the engine mounts and ultimately that engine have got to come out and if you're going to drop it all out the bottom the suspension has got to be out of the way now what I mean by that is that there are a couple of ways to pull an engine out of a van one you can take it out the front which is a tight fit or two you can drop everything out the bottom which is what GM did now obviously if you're going to do that the suspension has to be out of the way then you just come in here and unbolt the cross member from the frame and then you'll be able to drop the cross member and engine and everything down as one big package obviously to do this you're going to have to have a lift but either way that you do it the ultimate goal is to get this engine out of there and to swap out these engine mounts with those from a V8 then and we can start fitting the new engine and start putting all the new stuff on another thing to look at while you're underneath the vehicle is the structural Integrity of the Body and Frame meaning the rust situation because if it's rotten under here you need to fix that before you go any further and as you can see we really lucked out on this one because it is super solid however you can see where there is surface rust on the floor and the Rockers and on the frame in places so now is the time to kill that and coat the bottom of the van with a rust preventative paint like por15 you can get this from LMC truck now this stuff is designed to paint right over the rust and it'll seal it up and stop it even around seams and cracks another thing we need to modify under here is the fuel system because that LS7 not only needs more fuel it needs more fuel pressure so we're going to modify this original tank with one of those Holley drop-in electric fuel pumps that's going to give us the fuel that we need and also this rear end is going to snap like a pretzel when we step on that engine so we're going to upgrade the rear end too but not today [Music] a successful Automotive project takes planning and organization but instead of using an old tablet or notebook there's the gears Deluxe project planning book this was designed to help you lay out a project the parts the tools cost and keep it organized with colored tabs a pouch for receipts and even a place to attach photos if you decide to sell the vehicle it serves as a complete history of what's been done if you have a project or plan on starting one the gears project planning book is the best way to lay it out and make it happen foreign [Music] hey welcome back to gears on our classic Chevy van engine swap project now so far we've laid out the LS7 engine and the automatic transmission that's going in the van as well as the suspension and steering upgrades that are going to lower the front and make this thing handle better and we've also addressed any rust issues and the fuel system upgrades that we're going to have to do as well but what we haven't talked about is how exactly we're going to bolt a modern LS engine and transmission into a classic van and is it a bolt-in deal is there a fabrication involved I mean those are the kind of questions that everybody wants to know so let's take a look fortunately for motor mounts hooker has a whole line of engine mounts to allow you to drop an LS in just about anything take a look at this now these are engine mounts for the ls that will allow you to position that engine up to three inches forward or back depending on which bracket you use now of course these are for the earlier style motor mount which we're not going to use but they also have a similar setup for the clamshell style motor mount which is what that van is going to use now they have the engine bracket they've got the cage unit they've got the urethane insert everything that you're going to need to literally bolt an LS into an early van provided you use the engine pedestals we talked about earlier now if you don't have those pedestals for a V8 Chevy van you might be thinking hey how about I use some brand new pedestals from a square body Chevy truck that's a good thought but no that's a completely different design completely different deal they are not compatible you've got to use those V8 motor mounts from a V8 van that you get out of a junkyard at least until somebody decides to repop them now transmission cross member is a little more involved because nobody makes a bolt-in transmission crossmember for those Transmissions so the best that you can do is get a universal cross member like this we got this from LMC truck and it is for a square body Chevy truck so you can just figure that you're going to have to modify the ends so it will fit your van okay another thing you need to plan for when you're doing an engine swap is the exhaust system now obviously underneath the van you got all kinds of room to run dual exhaust out the back or out the sides or dump it underneath or whatever but since nothing says vintage Hot Rod Van like side exhausts that's what we're gonna do check it out we got this crazy zoomy exhaust tip system from a place called two tall interiors and even though they specialize in Old School Interiors for hot rods and sports cars they also have a thing for functional zoomy pipes so they build them in several configurations now what you're looking at here is a fully functional zoomy tip that is designed to bolt after your muffler and then allow you to run your exhaust out wherever you want at the side of the vehicle in the back in the side out the front wherever you think you want to put them now just in case you're wondering these are four functional tips a lot of times only one is functional and the other three are fake not with two tall Interiors now it's all real so you got four pipes bellowing sound and with the kit you also get your choice of tips so you can go nice and low and subtle or you can go big and bold with the pipe organ look which I really like or the straight tip or the flare tip so if you're thinking about putting side pipes on your van or your truck you may want to reconsider because these are going to look so much better and sound so much cooler now since the placement of sight exhaust kind of goes hand in hand with the stance of the vehicle let's talk wheels and tires now on a van you got a couple of choices here you can slam it down on the ground or you can rake it toward the front and put wide tires on the back for that classic Hot Rod Van look which is more the way we're going but with a Twist so we got these wheels from halibrand this is the Sprint wheel it's going to give us that classic polished aluminum mag look but the sizes are a little bit different we're going 19 in the front and a 20 on the rear it's going to give us a modern look and also give us room to put bigger brakes on this thing now halibrand makes these wheels in the sizes and back spacings to bolt right onto your square body Chevy trucks problem is the fitment on the Vans a little different but if you're going to do the raked look with the wider tires you're in luck let's take a look now for Wheels on the front we're using the 19 by eight and a half inch wide with a four and a half inch backspace and we've wrapped them in Mickey Thompson's street comp rubber size 255 40. as you can see it brings the rubber right out to the edge of the fender which is going to look awesome once we get this thing on the ground and get the two and a half inch drop on the front now on the rear we're going a little wider we're using a 20 by 10 inch rim with a four inch backspace and we've wrapped it in 275 40 rubber as you can see it brings the tire about an inch out past the fender for that fat tire look that we're after then when you keep in mind that those Zoomies are going to exit about here and it's going to look awesome now one other thing that you have to upgrade when you're doing a V8 swap is that radiator because that little six cylinder radiator is not going to cool that engine fortunately the radiator is something that the van and the square body trunk have in common so whatever fits the truck will also fit the van so we went to frostbite and got this three row all aluminum radiator that's designed to drop an LS into a square body Chevy truck as you can see it's got all the saddle mounts it's got the fittings and they are in just the right place to hook up your LS and like we've shown you before you can also get a frostbite aluminum fan shroud dual high performance fans and the electrical relay system to keep everything cool now I know this is a lot of stuff that we've laid out here and some of you might be thinking but you haven't done anything oh yeah yes we have because the reason you want to lay everything out like this first is because all these parts work together for example you have to pull off the old suspension to get the old engine out but you don't want to put the new suspension on yet because you have to fit the new engine in first and you can't fit the new engine in until you get all the accessories in place because those are going to affect the fitment same thing with the radiator got to get the engine in before you can fit the new radiator also the exhaust system you got to have the engine in place and know where your cross members are going to be for your transmission before you can fit the exhaust so you can see everything works together here and the easiest most efficient way to do a project like this is to get as much as you can lay it all out and then attack your work if you do it that way you will be surprised how quickly it'll go together [Music] you know one of the first true freedoms you experience as a kid is that first bicycle man it becomes your transportation to the world or at least the local neighborhood and in my neighborhood man we all had bikes and we'd stick playing cards in the spokes and we'd suck on black licorice make it look like we were big biker dudes and it was magic but a bike wasn't just about Transportation no it became an extension of your personality and there were all kinds of bikes out there there were 10 speeds there were mountain bikes there were stingrays there were BMX bikes and they all had their strengths and weaknesses and that's where the idea for the story of the purple bicycle came from because just like a bike might wish it had the talents or skills of another bike so do we sometimes Overlook our god-given talents and wish we had somebody else's talents skills because they seem to be better than ours it's a simple lesson but something we all need to be reminded of from time to time [Music] and now it's time for another quick tip today's quick tip has to do with crate engines or new engines and more specifically this little tag right there now obviously that means that there is no oil in this engine that's how they usually come from the manufacturers or the builders so the question is what oil do you put in and how do you break a new engine in well one school of thought is that people run out and buy all of the good synthetic oils and all of the additives and put them all in the engine because obviously you want to protect your investment right well the problem is if you do that it's a good chance you're going to end up with an oil burner because that won't allow the engine to break in properly and seal up like it's supposed to so what do you do well most crate engines like this will come with an instruction manual that will tell you what kind of oil to use and what the break-in interval is but if you don't get this A good rule of thumb is to break in an engine with conventional oil or better yet a break in oil now you see it says breaking oil right there on the bottle a lot of people make this stuff it has more zinc in it more protectant to help protect the parts as they're working in then after a break-in period of about 500 Miles drain everything out then you can put in the oil that you're going to run for the life of the engine that's also when you can start putting in additives and that kind of thing if that's what you want to do if you do it this way your engine will be broken in properly and you'll get hundreds of thousands of miles of use out of your new crate engine if you'd like more tips to make your life easier in the shop check out the tips page on the website and now coding Tech brought to you by jet hot high performance Coatings unbeatable protection performance and service since 1982. everybody knows that the exhaust system is a major source of heat not only under the hood but also under the car and there's basically two ways to reduce heat coming from an exhaust system with a ceramic coating like that or with an exhaust wrap like this the question is which one do you use well it depends let's take a look a ceramic coating is a professionally installed coating that's designed to not only protect the surface metal from corrosion but also reduce the surface temperature and add a nice looking coating all at the same time now the only downside to a ceramic coating is you can't do it yourself and they cost more than a wrap an exhaust wrap on the other hand is made out of a special woven heat resistant fabric that you carefully wrap around each individual pipe and fasten with the metal clip now wraps have a certain High Performance Racing look that is really popular but the quality of that look depends entirely on how much time you spend putting the wrap on because if you get in a hurry and put this on crooked it's going to look terrible however because of their thickness a wrap does a really good job of lowering temperatures and keeping your heat down but there are some weaknesses to a wrap the first is since it is a fabric you can see it can get caught on things it'll start to fray it'll start to wear over time also it is absorbent so whatever you get on there is going to soak in and lay right up against those pipes until it burns off so that can cause corrosion if it's gas or oil that can cause a fire hazard so you have to keep them clean also they start to look bad over time because of the things you spill on them so you can pretty much figure on a wrap probably replacing it about every six months depending on how you're using it now a ceramic coating on the other hand will also lower temperatures but this is a permanent solution you can bang this stuff around it is not going to burn off it's not going to chip off you might put a mark in it but it'll buff right back out of there and also anything that you might spill on it or spray on it will wipe right off it will not discolor they'll stay looking good forever now since these are actually bonded right to the metal as you can see this is a rusty header and it was hit with some jet hot coating about 15 years ago and if you look really close there is no Edge between the two there's no way to separate the coating from the metal this is permanent this is not coming off and that's it you have your ceramic coating and your wrap both are going to drop temperatures and that's good but from there on out is completely different the ceramic coating is permanent you never have to mess with it again the wrap you're going to have to do maintenance on it and you're going to have to eventually replace it however the wrap is designed for the do-it-yourselfer so you can do this in your garage so it's going to be cheaper the coating takes a professional application so it's going to be more expensive also the ceramic coating is available in all kinds of different colors and finishes the wrap is pretty much what you see it's going to be a wrap also for durability the wrap is going to look as good as what you happen to spill on it the ceramic coating most of those come with a lifetime warranty to look good so as you can see you've got some choices when it comes to reducing Heat 66. today's Woody working on comes from Joe and he is from East Alton Illinois and his project is a 1959 Volkswagen bug but not the typical Volkswagen Bug because this is not the typical story because Joe says that he was diagnosed at age 43 with Parkinson's disease man that is Young for Parkinson's and he said that he got to shaking so bad that he couldn't even work on cars anymore and he said his wife told him she said you need to build something unique while you still can man what an awesome wife so he got on some medication and he got with his friend Nate and his wife and they started to lay out a project for a 59 Volkswagen Gasser yeah I've never seen one of those now check this thing out he said he built the frame over four or five years he made the suspension he did the firewall the floorboards and he said everything that he couldn't do when his shaking got so bad his friends came in and helped him do man that is what hot rodding is all about now for the drivetrain I know you're wondering about this it's got a 383 stroker in it 350 turbo he set up the rear end to run at the drag strip now he said he competed in drag week in 2021 and he won the spirit of drag week award also he says his fastest time is an 11-9 but he said the car will run deep into the 11s if he can keep his foot in the gas yeah looking at The Stance of this thing I bet that gets kind of squirrely at the top end guys this is such a great story for so many reasons so to recognize such a great project we went to Woodward Fab and we're going to give you one of these little wheelies now what this is is a fully functional miniature English wheel you've got all the anvils and everything that you're going to need to do all kinds of nice small cool little shaping projects and that'll be great therapy on your Parkinson's too also since you're obviously a real Gearhead we're going to give you one of our gears t-shirts and then we're also going to give you one of these Deluxe project planning books this way you'll be able to keep track of everything that you've done to that Volkswagen then we're going to give you a gift card from Holly to help offset some of the costs of that project and then we're going to give you a stunt double die cast so you can go four-wheeling sometimes now for the rest of you guys if you want to get in on this and get your project featured on the show you got to send it to us go to our website go to gearsnation and submit it into what are you working on the website's also the place to find out more information on any products you may have seen on the show any gears merchandise and how to join gears Nation you can also see gears episodes for free on our YouTube channel and become a channel member that way you get bonus content and you get early access to all the new episodes also don't forget to check us out on Amazon Prime for Gears and the gears restoration series finally don't forget to like us on Facebook and Instagram and if you're a radio person make sure you check out our podcast Tales of a Gearhead all right that wraps it up for us today hopefully this inspires you to get out there and work on something yourself and get involved with the hot rod Community I mean there's nothing better than getting together with a bunch of hot Riders and working on a project so get out there work on something we'll see you next time [Music] [Music]

Channel: Official Stacey David

Views: 69,521

Keywords: staceydavid, GearZ, Hot Rods, Trucks, mavtv, revntv, motortrend, stacey david

Id: LyeyVsxaERw

Length: 25min 33sec (1533 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 15 2022