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What have you done to your CUCV today/lately - Part 2

The FLU farm

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I put the battery tester on the front battery - checks good. Aft batter checks bad so it's on the charger. Likely that's all it is.
Don't overlook that both batteries should ideally have come off the production line one after the other.

In other words, never replace just one in a dual (or more) battery application.
 

CARC686

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Finally got my Supercharged P400/765R4/241 drivetrain finished and ready to swap into my M1028. Now if I could just find the time………
View attachment 932514
Well, my jaw dropped if that's what you were going for. Sweet Jesus.

Edit: Ten minutes later, I'm still studying the picture. Is the thing on the top right a cartridge oil filter canister?
 
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Sharecropper

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Well, my jaw dropped if that's what you were going for. Sweet Jesus.

Edit: Ten minutes later, I'm still studying the picture. Is the thing on the top right a cartridge oil filter canister?

That “thing on the top right” is a Spinner centrifugal oil filter. It is powered from a pressurized oil line. At 35 psi a rotating chamber on the inside of the housing spins at 6,000 rpm and contaminants in the oil are thrown outward against the outer wall of the chamber. The clean oil in the center of the chamber then gravity drains down through the gasketed orifice in the valve cover. I had to fabricate a custom bracket which mounts onto the intake bolts and positioned the Spinner in the correct location. I plumbed the pressurized oil supply from the port on the front of the passenger side head which normally would provide oil to a turbo charger. Because I’m supercharging the P400 instead of turbo’ing it, that port was perfect to power the Spinner. At 6,000 rpm the oil is cleaned to sub-micron purity.
 

CARC686

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I've heard of centrifuge oil filters for making black diesel, but never thought about putting one on an engine. Is there an element on the chamber walls to trap contaminants? There is quite a lot of custom bracketry going on here. You made it yourself? Either way, it's impressive, but even more so if homebrew.
 

Sharecropper

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I've heard of centrifuge oil filters for making black diesel, but never thought about putting one on an engine. Is there an element on the chamber walls to trap contaminants? There is quite a lot of custom bracketry going on here. You made it yourself? Either way, it's impressive, but even more so if homebrew.
There’s no need for an element. The centrifugal force of 6,000 rpms spinning the oil throws all contaminants, even blow-by carbon, against the inner wall of the rotating vessel inside the housing. The oil stays honey colored. Still should change the oil and traditional filter at regular intervals, at which time the outer housing of the Spinner is removed with a single knurled nut on top, then the inner housing lifts off and comes apart so the contaminates can be scraped out. The housing is then washed in a parts washer and reinstalled inside the housing. Google it - Spinner centrifugal oil filter. And yes, I designed & fabricated everything myself.
 

Mainsail

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Installed the two new batteries and the cable set I've had laying around for three years or so. Truck fired right up, but it sounds like absolute crap. Banging noise that went away when getting the RPM above idle. Tightened the belts but it didn't help. The longer I had it running the worse it sounded, like something is about to let go inside the motor. When I left it, it was making a hella racket at any RPM.

Oil is good, maybe a half quart low.

The engine a goner all of a sudden?
 

Sharecropper

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I would think so.

Have had vehicles that only revved to under 5,000 and the only filtration they had was a centrifugal filter. In those it was built into the crankshaft pulley.

The 6,000 rpm is the revolving speed of the Spinner at 35 psi oil pressure, not engine rpm’s. I doubt my P400 will ever see more than 2500 engine rpm’s. Just wanted to clarify that.
 

79Vette

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After years of fighting the rear roll up glass, I'm finally rid of it. I bought a new regulator, new seals, broke 3 hand cranks, and spent tens of hours of making adjustments and it never worked right. It took incredible force to roll up and down, causing the crank handles to break off about once a year. No amount of adjustment, lubrication, or parts replacement made any improvement.

I've seen several people on CK5 and other forums that have installed truck topper window assemblies into a K5, but it always requires major fiberglass surgery because there is no truck topper with exactly the same shape as a K5 topper. I wanted something that would be easily reversible to the factory configuration if I end up not liking it, and cutting the entire back of the topper off and glassing in a pickup topper window is definitely not that.

Last weekend I made this lift gate style rear hatch out of scrap aluminum and some truck shell parts from Amazon. The hinges and hatch to tailgate seal are from a Leer 100 series truck topper, the gas struts and latches are generic parts from Amazon, and the frame, brackets and hatch panel were custom made by me from 3/16" 6061 aluminum. The hatch to frame weatherstrip is from McMaster originally, and was leftover from a other project

The frame is 3/16" aluminum and slides into the factory glass weatherstripping, and fastens to the fiberglass with 6x 1/4" screws. I drilled small holes for bond-in thread inserts to accept these screws.

The hinges are attached to aluminum plates, and the plates are screwed to thread inserts I drilled into the fiberglass. Fiberglass really likes fasters to be loaded in bearing, does ok in tension, and really really does not like bending. Using the plates spreads the hinge load out onto a large area and ensures the fastener loads are primarily shear, which reacts into the fiberglass in bearing.

The gas strut brackets are 3d printed plastic currently, but I'll be machining aluminum replacements next week now I know the geometry works.

Everything is painted 383 green, but the rest of my truck is so faded it doesn't match 🤣. Guess I need to paint the truck someday...

I have quotes for custom glass to replace the aluminum panel and am really looking forward to that, but I think I am going to hold off for a few weeks. I am want to design a similar replacement for the side windows so I can get gear in and out through there too and the shipping charge is a large portion of the cost of the custom glass. So if I order the rear and side glass together it will be a bit cheaper.

I had most of the materials on hand, but buying everything new I think this would cost around $300-400, depending if you do an aluminum or glass rear panel and assuming all materials are purchased at retail prices. I can't believe something like this isn't offered as a kit. I guess the market just isn't there for these old trucks, but I would have paid $1500 for a set of side and rear hatch windows for a K5 and I would probably buy them for all 3 of my trucks
 

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79Vette

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I was just looking at rear window crank handles lol
Haha. I started carrying a spare about a year ago, and have one in my center console.

If I decide to stick with the liftgate mod, I'm planning to swap on a pickup tailgate eventually. In that case I'll probably sell my Blazer tailgate for parts and the handle will be going with it. Good riddance lol
 
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