LUVTruck.com

Ur truck is gonna be a beast of a truck when done

I don't know about a beast but its going to be a hell of a lot more fun to drive im thinking it should have similar power to a stock 350 which is more than I will ever really need when its running I will get a dyno sheet posted, I realized yesterday I have already spent $3k on it and im still almost a grand from being done

got my heads back from the machine shop, beautiful new exhaust seats installed and intakes ground. new guides installed. kind of confused tho, on one head he narrowed the extruded part the exhaust valve stem seals goes onto and gave me 3 seals that fit them... but not on the other head, im not sure why it was necessary to replace the guides.




should have them assembled this afternoon and on the block my new cam will be here Tuesday, they had issues with their computer system and it hung in limbo a few days. engine will be good to go by next weekend next weekend I will also be getting my transmission from picknpull, have to find one from a 1500 truck and find a np208 case with it hopefully

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Luvless
1980 Mikado-Sold.

1993 Lexus SC400 my Daily
2004 Yamaha WR250F my new love in life
2016 Toyota Camry my girls ride

made some progress today
springs and valves installed

cleaned them up with brakleen


and they made their way home




spent another hour cleaning up all the dirty oily parts im re-using, oil pan, push rods, rocker arms, p/s pump/lines, oil filter adapter/lines, misc brackets etc.

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Luvless
1980 Mikado-Sold.

1993 Lexus SC400 my Daily
2004 Yamaha WR250F my new love in life
2016 Toyota Camry my girls ride

Made some visible progress today
new brakes installed both sides, using the stock calipers so I can move the truck around the garage until I get the caliper brackets off a trooper


cut out the bent up core support

another shot of the core support out and the straightened out passenger side headlight mount




cut out the battery tray, still need to grind parts of it out


spent a bit of time carefully cutting out the sides of the radiator opening to fit the new radiator. going to trim the extra material off and weld it back in place


cut out the ends of the bent support, afterward I smoothed the rough cut edges out


fit the new radiator in the new gaping hole and measured for the new width of the mounting flanges, as you can see the filler neck just barely clears the top (on the left)


it is fit at an angle for the clearance with the radiator cap


the angle of the installed radiator


my dad and I are going to fabricate a new support to replace the one that was cut out, picking up a welder in the next couple days, going to make a U shaped rubber cradle for the bottom of the radiator to sit in and a bolt in L shaped bracket for both of the top sides
didn't get a picture of it but I also mocked up the new grill, headlights, valance and hood and everything clears perfect

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Luvless
1980 Mikado-Sold.

1993 Lexus SC400 my Daily
2004 Yamaha WR250F my new love in life
2016 Toyota Camry my girls ride

cam is in, timing set is installed
need to install the lifters and pushrods in the morning didn't have time today
picked up some vht paint for the headers and hi temp for the engine. did some more sanding on the intake manifold its about ready to go on.

couple more weeks and it should run

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Luvless
1980 Mikado-Sold.

1993 Lexus SC400 my Daily
2004 Yamaha WR250F my new love in life
2016 Toyota Camry my girls ride

Nice progress man

Thanks dude.
I'm hoping to get some more good progress this week. Still needs body and interior work. Picking up a trans when I have time

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Luvless
1980 Mikado-Sold.

1993 Lexus SC400 my Daily
2004 Yamaha WR250F my new love in life
2016 Toyota Camry my girls ride

Th700r, th400, th350, t5?

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My House Is Guarded By A Shotgun 3 Days A Week. Guess Which Days.

NV3500 out of a 90s 1500 fullsize, aluminum case. And an aluminum np208 tcase. Trying to stay light

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Luvless
1980 Mikado-Sold.

1993 Lexus SC400 my Daily
2004 Yamaha WR250F my new love in life
2016 Toyota Camry my girls ride

Well played man.

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My House Is Guarded By A Shotgun 3 Days A Week. Guess Which Days.

thanks man im trying lol, I planned this build for a long time before I got started and have been slightly changing plans to make it the best I can make it.
im hitting picknpull next weekend (12/13th) for the trans/transfer case and possibly some seats if I find a nice set, gonna search some bmws and such.

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Luvless
1980 Mikado-Sold.

1993 Lexus SC400 my Daily
2004 Yamaha WR250F my new love in life
2016 Toyota Camry my girls ride

complete rotating assembly is together



been keeping it wrapped up while im not working on it and replacing the plastic each time... cat hair is the biggest PITA I have ever come across... been using the leaf blower to keep it out


getting my trans/t-case this weekend after I get paid cant wait to get this rollin its been too long since I drove my luv

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Luvless
1980 Mikado-Sold.

1993 Lexus SC400 my Daily
2004 Yamaha WR250F my new love in life
2016 Toyota Camry my girls ride

found an ebay store that sells the lights in sets of 4 2hi 2hi/lo that will send 4 hi/lo bulbs instead of 2 of each so gonna do that payday too
a few 1500 chevys are in each of the 3 Portland picknpulls so will be easy picking for a trans/case should be able to get the trans/case together with flywheel and take the end of the driveshafts with it for the new ones. make it one trip also need the oil filter mount bracket for the remote filter, a old style alternator and p/s brackets, I hate the huge cast aluminum mounts I want something like the stock rod types that take up no space, going to look around for some nice seats and a pair of mirrors... if I cant find mirrors there is a classic American car yard nearby that should have some nice chrome ones around.
need to get some ideas for console shape while im there going to make a wood console and cover it with bedliner along with the floor, tired of carpet getting damp and nasty

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Luvless
1980 Mikado-Sold.

1993 Lexus SC400 my Daily
2004 Yamaha WR250F my new love in life
2016 Toyota Camry my girls ride

Looking good. I did the 4.3tbi swap in mine but not finished yet trying to work around front torsion setup but its in the way of t-case. But if you haven't already ran into a starter problem, the small high torq starter from the new vortech works but if you have the big one it gets in the way.

thanks for the heads up!
the motor will be getting a quick test fit when I get the trans/case tomorrow. the one I have is pretty good sized so may not clear well, did you use the powerbyace mounts too? have you fired it up yet

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Luvless
1980 Mikado-Sold.

1993 Lexus SC400 my Daily
2004 Yamaha WR250F my new love in life
2016 Toyota Camry my girls ride

well didn't have the the truck to use today so I took the car out scouting picknpull for the right trans only found one. so hopefully in the next couple days I can get out there to get it pulled. I had no idea how uncommon 4x4 5 speeds are in the yards. I found a few in s10s but that's useless to me
did get myself some seats from a buddy. they were in some sort of Volvo not sure which. going to mount them on the stock rails the ones they have are oddly shaped and really tall. I like the shape and support of them a lot they are really comfortable plus the adjustable lumbar support will be nice for roadtrips




hoping to pick up a welder In the next couple days I have one im waiting on a response for

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Luvless
1980 Mikado-Sold.

1993 Lexus SC400 my Daily
2004 Yamaha WR250F my new love in life
2016 Toyota Camry my girls ride

Im pretty new to the site but im on here all the time looking. I wish it was more active. Keep up the build man!!! I like seeing the progress. I should be picking up my 4.3 tomorrow for mine

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If the system fucks you. You fuck it back!

thanks man im getting my welder today so i can finally start getting some stuff done
it would be cool if the site was more active but there are only so many luvs people want to keep working on. I keep seeing them in junkyards its depressing I do what I can to help people around here get/keep theirs running, I very rarely see them driving around its like a big event when I spot one

what year of a 4.3 are you getting -91 or 92-95? 96+? good to hear im not the only one in the process of dropping in a 4.3. I went with the 91 non balance shaft block with 97 heads
if your not planning to fab your own the powerbyace mounts are great motor drops right in and sits as far back as it can, perfect fit.

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Luvless
1980 Mikado-Sold.

1993 Lexus SC400 my Daily
2004 Yamaha WR250F my new love in life
2016 Toyota Camry my girls ride

im doing the 87-92 no balance shaft and i cut out the old "fabbed" mounts from the previous owner and ordered my powerbyace last week. if you look down on projects/builds mines title the 1977 my lucky year. i dont have alot of pics but its shows where im at. basically cleaning up alot of previous work lol. i wanted to run the newer vortec heads but maybe on down the road

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If the system fucks you. You fuck it back!

looks like you had a good place to start with that one
the heads cost me $119 at picknpull + 275 (with tax) for machine work. + new valves $70 and ls2 valve springs $80.. so it added up but im sure they wll be worth the cost.

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Luvless
1980 Mikado-Sold.

1993 Lexus SC400 my Daily
2004 Yamaha WR250F my new love in life
2016 Toyota Camry my girls ride