Astro van cat conversion

[Snowy Rivers]

Yeah...gotta take care of the kidneys....I only have one of those thanks to a big AZZ tumor ...We got that bad boy (Entire kidney) out back in April of 2013
A rare and slow growing cancer.....Tumor was apple sized....

The issue now the Dr's say can't happen.....Well bet me....
They put me on One of the Statin drugs to get my cholesterol down....My vascular system is clean.....But after the stroke in 2012 they insisted we do this drug.

Less than a week after starting the Statin I could barely walk from the car into the grocery store.....I complained bitterly ....

They changed the drug and things got worse.....I really howled.....Then they told me I needed to get used to the drug.

After about 2 months I took all their poisons and tossed them in the trash.

Things improved for a couple years and then started a slow spiral down....Muscle weakness and fatigue....
Last summer I was able to go slow and rest when I needed and keep going.

Now it is pretty much a no go as far as trying to get anything much physical done....

The canned answer is that this does not happen.....Before I started the drugs I was walking 2 miles a day at the school track (4 blocks from our gun shop) within a few days the few blocks was impossible...Let alone the 2 miles........

A pharmacist friend agreed with me that ...IT CAN HAPPEN....And does...

Auto immune response that there is little help for......

THIS SUCKS....

Oh well....

 

[PJL]

Take care of yourself first. Snowcat or not you are always welcome here.

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Thank you very much
We will see what shakes out....

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Cleaning up and rearranging my "World Headquarters" and was looking through some snow cat parts..

Came across the new oil pump for the 406 SBC that's for the cat.

Pawing through the goodies is a new Melling high volume oil pump with the intermediate shaft and the oil screen assembly that came with the Kevco 7 quart oil pan (Gated pan...Rear sump)

This stuff came in quite a while ago and I had looked at it briefly before putting it away until needed.

I am trying to document everything that goes on this "Mutt" of an engine as it is an amalgam of various parts to get the Vortec heads on the old style 400 block....1991 S10 water pump to use with the old style block and work with the later serpentine belt drive.

All the electrical stuff to interface with the cat.
The hydraulic steering control adaptation using the power steering pump to supply the oil at 400 psi

Main drive shaft assembly
Rear outboard disc brakes
Plus getting all the wiring connected to the rear cabin from the single front cab....
1991 S10 FACTORY GM wiring manual in hand....Great find.....
Building the tracks using a single row of the 41" J grousers....
Pretty much all the knowledge base to finish the build.....

So much materials I have put together over the past few years of working with this 2100 just want to be sure it does not get lost.......

A computer crash could be devastating..... Little travel drive to keep a copy seemed like a smart idea...


Anyway....

Decided to assemble the oil pickup tube to the Melling shark tooth type pump.....

It is a tap fit and has one bolt that secures the tube in the pump body and a tab that goes under one of the cover bolts.

As soon as the pickup was getting close it became obvious that the one cover bolt was going to hit the pickup screen body.....Plus the tab that is welded to the screen body was out of line by half a hole.....

What a POS.....Soooooo

Down to the shop to see what could be done to rectify this mess..

Had to heat up the screen body RED HOT and massage the area near the one bolt head and get things a bit more roomy...

Then with the screen in and the retaining bolt hole workable.....Warmed up the tube and coaxed the tab over so the hole lined up .....

A few pics

Discovered that my Torch fuel tank was nearly empty.....But had enough to gitterdone..

So the unit fits now and will work.

Just need to bolt it onto the main cap and make sure the pan will have the proper clearance on the pickup screen...



A little recap.

Last fall the 406 short block is together.....At least the rotating assembly is all in.....

The Vortec heads are all done and on my shelf all wrapped in plastic.....
We modified the heads to work with the 400 block.....Added the 6 steam holes per side and also added the coolant bypass hole in the pass. side head so the coolant passage to the early style block and early style serpentine drive water pump is compatible.......

A real mutt....but the combination of parts will give us the best of new and old......

Still lamenting on if I want to use a roller cam in this build.

Flat tappet lifters/cams went out of OEM use back in the late 1980's due to the newer oils without ZDDP

Anyway.....