Description

Price: $36.95 - $30.52
(as of Feb 06,2024 23:28:18 UTC – Details)

From the Publisher

Build and modify your 1973-1987 GMC or Chevrolet truck in your garage with step-by-step processes to boost power, add curb appeal, and improve stopping ability, handling, safety, and more. This book covers a lot of territory: how to find a good starter truck, LS-power builds and installs, slammed air suspension and coilover systems, automatic and manual transmission choices (including a 6-speed manual conversion), cooling system upgrades, safely adding a modern alternator to factory GM wiring, modifying a mechanical clutch pedal to use a hydraulic master and slave cylinder, making new fuel lines and brake lines to support fuel injection and big brakes, installing a 4-link rear suspension system, fabricating an under-bed mount to hide air suspension components, building exhaust, adding LED lighting, interior restoration, and more.

Suspension

Air springs offer total adjustability over ride height and spring rate, and they’ve been in use in semi trucks for decades. A properly engineered air suspension system is ideal if you’re looking to build a lowered C10 pickup.

Brakes & Steering

The trickiest part of Baer’s brake install is shimming the caliper. These calipers don’t have sliders, as factory calipers would. Instead, they’re hard-mounted with any runout in the rotor absorbed by the caliper’s pistons. To eliminate noise and wear, the caliper needs to be as close to centered over the brake rotor as possible. This is done by taking four measurements (one at each corner of the brake caliper from the caliper housing to the rotor) and doing a little math to sort out which spacers are needed.

LS Engine Swaps

Once the engine is bolted in place, check for clearance issues, specifically at the oil pan and at the rear of the cylinder heads. You’ll want to be sure there’s clearance for the LS around everything, as that makes later work easier—say, if you need to pull the heads at a later date. You won’t need to remove the engine from the truck to do so.

GM’s light-duty trucks roared into the market in 1973. The all-new design was head-turning then and has aged well. Trucks from this era continue to gain in popularity, and they lend themselves well to modification. This custom truck with a stock theme, done by Joe Yezzi’s Squarebody Syndicate, was a highlight of SEMA in 2016.

Fuel Systems

This is Holley’s conversion fuel tank (part number 19-154), manufactured by Tanks, Inc. It has internal baffling and an internally mounted fuel pump that can support up to 550 hp. This, along with an adjustable fuel pressure regulator, can supply plenty of pressure and volume for a high-output LS engine—or any fuel-injected application—and it bolts right into the factory sidesaddle location.

Transmissions

The 4L80E is a great swap option, as it’s fairly close in dimensions to the TH400. There are several versions of this transmission, and they can be used behind both Gen II and LS V-8s. If towing and hauling are in the cards, this is a good option. Gearstar offers these transmissions in several configurations, with versions capable of living behind 800 hp. (Photo Courtesy Gearstar)

Rear Axle

The heart of a performance axle is the differential. This one is a 3-series Eaton clutch-style limited-slip differential, and below it is the Motive Gear ring gear for the 4.11s. Note its thicker design to work with the 3-series carrier.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ CarTech (May 14, 2020)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 176 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1613255160
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1613255162
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.3 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.5 x 0.75 x 11 inches