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'56 willys truck

Funds aren’t there for Dyno tuning right now, so I have to fight through it. But with that being said I adjusted the IAC and that looks like that was at least part of, if not the issue, because the stumble is gone and so is the dieing. So once I got it adjusted into range— between 2-10% at idle when the motor is up to temp— I worked on the stinger and installing the front light bar. After that I started it back up and it died and started it again and it stayed running, but the IAC is out of range again, so I’ll adjust it again. It was at 100% before so that’s 90-98% out of range.

So to adjust it you turn off the ignition and go and adjust the idle adjustment screw on the throttle body,(turn screw in to decrease the IAC % & turn it out to increase it) then go and turn the key on(don’t start it) go into the Wizards Icon — hit TPS reset, reset TPS, turn off ignition and then start it up. It will not read right away, so you need to let the motor run a bit until it settles in. You can see the % in the monitors Icon on the handheld and then hit sensors.

So I went from 100% to 0% in like 1 ½ turns and then a couple of more attempts got it to 4%. I will say I was surprised that it went to 0% so fast, so I’m not really surprised I have to adjust it more. I’m shooting for 5-6%.

Here's the video I found showing how to adjust your IAC.

 
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Went and bought the rear speed sensor for the 4l80e since it wasn’t there and to see if that is why the tranny isn’t shifting, but it seems it’s not the problem or there’s no tone ring to allow it to get a reading, so back to the drawing board. I do have the Jake’s Performance part to make the tranny manual shift if it comes to that I’ll hook it up so that I can drive it.

So it looks like if you adjust the IAC at one idle speed and if you change the idle speed on the handheld the IAC won’t keep the setting & I’m not sure if you set it back to the initial idle setting if it will read correctly, so I’m still playing with that. You might ask why do I change the idle? Well I’m trying figure out the lowest idle I can set to keep the coolant temps in check and right 1110 rpm’s keeps it 208-210, so I need to make a decision on an electric water pump or see if I can get a radiator and reservoir to fit up front, which will be sad, but the coolant temp issue needs to go away.

Got the front fenders hanging with a couple of bolts and started to slam a stinger together that ties into the cross bar at the front shock hoops. I’m not sure if I’m done with it or not.
 

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Well I’ve decided to change some things up after taking some measurements. If I remove the intercooler and oil cooler and take the intercooler and mount it on the grill and relocate the power steering cooler and relocate the oil cooler or ditch it I can make the radiator I had in there originally fit in the front. The intercooler reservoir and blowby reservoir will probably have to move also, but that will be figured out after I prelim sit the radiator in there to see what I’m up against.

I figured putting an electric water pump in was just too much money, so the work has commenced to hopefully keep the motor running the optimum temp range when idling.
 
Still need to wire the Taurus fan and hook up the steam line to the upper radiator hose(hoping this time it will work!!) and then figure out where/how to mount the reservoir or run without and just run an overflow tank. I’m not sure what the downside of not running the reservoir is, so I need to do some reading. I didn’t have to relocate the intercooler reservoir or the blowby tank, so that helped speeding things up. The power steering cooler will need some protection, but I had always planned to do some sort of skid plate at the front bumper anyway, but now I’ll need to make it air flow friendly. Oil cooler is out for now.

Man does it pay off to save stuff sometimes. I was able to use an old lower radiator hose and other misc radiator hoses I have to run the upper hose since my radiator is for an old SBC and has the 1 ¾” lower outlet and 1 ½” upper inlet. Hopefully my junkyard parts are up to the task.
 
Pre-hose pics
 

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Ok all plumbing and parts are in & I got the reservoir bottle under the hood, which I thought would never happen due to available space. I just need to tidy up some wires as I had two of them switched and the fan was pushing vs pulling. As a pusher it topped out at 210*, but I’m not sure the system was air free as I’ve added more coolant to it 3 more times as the air is working it’s way out. Ive yet to to give it a test now that it’s wired correctly and that’s because I had 2 other issues. All of a sudden the fan would trip my 80 amp breaker when switching to the high speed, so I replaced it with a 150amp breaker. Why it started doing that is beyond me, but I’m suspecting cheap breaker. The reason I say that is because the 300 amp breaker I have right after the battery decided to stop working too and it’s the same style. It will reset but no power goes through it. Weird, but I did have another 300 amp breaker of a different style and I put that in. Since it was a different style I had to temporarily jury-rig the connection after the breaker to split into two runs. This new breaker is the type where you strip the wire and insert it into the breaker and use an Allen screw to secure it and the old one had posts to attach the cables to. I’ll need to buy a remote terminal block and redo the jury-rig setup here in the new future. Hopefully tonight I can start it and run it to see if it’s better than the rear radiator set-up.
 

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Yea, she's tighter than ....... well you know what I mean and I still want to add a reservoir for a windshield washer system I'd like to have:eek::eek: and I need to move the air filter, cuz at that location ='s too much heat being sucked in and I also I want to add another crossbar to the rear of the engine bay for more engine protection, but maybe that has to be an exo thing and that I've been trying to avoid. Most important right now is the air filter, well besides figuring out the cooling system.
 
Idling at 850rpms gets me 210* with the radiator in the front. I let it run for at least 10 minutes and then lowered the idle to 750 rpm’s and it climbed to 212 so I set it back to 850 rpm’s and down to 210 it went. That’s all the adjusting I did so maybe setting the idle to 900 will result in a decrease in temps. We shall see. So with the 50/50 coolant mix the boiling point is at 265, so I have enough leeway there but I’m hoping I don’t see it climb much when driving it. Also my tune I’m sure needs some work so maybe when I get it dialed in the temp goes down, but that may be hoping for too much.

Now I need to figure out the tranny and work on the air cleaner position.
 
Does it hold the temp while idling, or does it continue to climb? 200-215 isn't really "hot" for a LS.


You're getting really close now. That's awesome.
 
gt1guy--Yea it held 210* for at least 10 minutes and it may have been 15 minutes.

1Sinner--I didn't put it in gear, so I don't know and maybe tonight I can do that and see and it might be running lean or timing off, that's part of the tuning part I'm speaking of and right now 850 rpms at idle nets me 210*. Would I like it to be 750ish, yes, but the temp climbed instantly when I set it to that. Crazy easy to do that with the Terminator x Max system.
 
Here’s the monitor readings right after I had set it back to 850 from 750 when it started climbing above 210*.
 

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So I need to really start to diagnose timing, AFR and such to get this thing dialed in better.
 
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Still playing with tidying up wiring, but I did decide to remove the OEM black shifter controller thingy-ma-bob that's mounted to the shift arm of the 4L80e to see if that had something to do with it not seeming to shift. It wasn't plugged into anything and I wasn't going to use it, so it didn't need to be there, but I also didn't see a reason to remove it either. But since I needed to diagnose why it wouldn't seem to shift I removed it and now I can manually shift it and it changes gears, or it definitely does when downshifting into 1st and when shifting from 1st to 2nd and I'm pretty sure it does from 2nd to 3rd, but 3rd to 4th I think it does but I ran out of time to keep playing to double/triple make sure. So I was pretty happy that I saw what I'd call some tranny shifting improvement. I so wanted to air up the tires, drop it off the jack stands and drive it, but I really want to get the wires in a better place before I test drive it. Anyway, it would seem that the black box on the tranny was preventing it from shifting, but why I'm not sure because it wasn't hooked up, but I know when I manually shifted it before there was no change in tire speed or no sound from the tranny when it shifts and now I have some tire speed change and tranny shifting sound.

Got the seat heaters wired and I've started it and ran it a couple of times and she tops out at 210*, but it is cooler now, so next summer will be interesting to see if it remains at 210* or climbs.

Going to be a little quiet since I have to pack up for deer hunting that starts this weekend and the Willy's play time will take a back seat for about a week and the temp is changing, so at some point I'll get shut down for winter, but we shall see when that happens and how much more I get done. I do plan to try and drive it yet this year.
 
Back from chasing Bambi around the hills and through the trees and got a lot of wiring cleaned up, if you want to call it that! But at least 90% is in wire loom and zip-tied and clamped down. Put the passenger seat in tonight along with seat belts and seat heater. So the list is getting shorter, but the weather will get me soon, but for another week it'll be in the high 40's except for Turkey Day (43*), so I'll get some more things done or moving forward. I have one tire that holds air another with a good leak and 3 others that leak down, so I have to decide if take time to try and see if I can fix them myself or take them to my tire guy to wrestle with to free me up for other things. It will come down to if my spare tire will hold air or not(will air it up tomorrow) and that will allow me to test drive the dang thing. I still have tuning to do, but it does run and the wheels move, so a test drive or two won't hurt anything and will make me feel really good.
 
So, since the last update, I've got more wiring secured, changed out the bad leaky tire for a slower leaky tire, began the belly pan install which meant I had to modify my mount for the oil pan belly pan section (because I changed the motor mount location--had I just researched more I would've found the adapters that allow you to use your old SBC frame mounts with the adapter plates, but I didn't and thus this forced me to redo the mount at the oil pan) and I think I'll weld the bolt I put through the engine frame mount that holds the oil pan belly pan mount and I bolted my new windshield wiper motor onto the firewall.

So, I bought the two-speed windshield wiper motor hoping that it would clear the top of the supercharger and it does by a 1/2" or so, but only by flipping it over. But having to do that now means I have to raise the hood about an inch so to clear the windshield wiper motor. That will be my focus after work today and this weekend, so that I can test-drive it finally.

I still have the horns to hook up and wire, but I can't find the two different horn buttons I've bought, so the button may end up being a switch for now and I do need to wire in the trailer hitch and I wanted to add some underhood lighting also and finish the panels on the console. Then it's time to dive heavily into learning Holley Terminator X Max tuning parameters, but these things don't stop the thing from being test driven. Once I determine I can drive it I will then take it to the DMV to get it VIN inspected so that I can get it titled, registered and plated.

I do need to remove the radiator from the bed and finish the exhaust routing also and I'd also like to add a windshield wiper squirty system to help with cleaning the windshield, but we shall see where I can mount the tank and how to mount the nozzles and hoses. I have a tank and the motor and I think the hoses & nozzles from my brother's '92 chevy to use. This could get pushed to the spring, but if I'm driving it this winter it may move up to #3 on the list of want-to-do's.
 
Hood adjustment done and then the temp dropped 20 degrees and wind was blowing and the windchill had the temp to 20* & in 5 minutes, while I cleaned up cuz it was too cold it dropped to 17* windchill. Tomorrow won’t be much better, but Sunday it’s to be low to mid 40’s so hopefully I can get the windshield wiper wired up and a few other small things crossed off the list.

I’ll add a piece of angle or something to remedy the gap to the fender or maybe raise the fender. At the back of the hood I’m not yet sure if I’ll do some mesh or a filler piece and probably put some holes in it to help dissipate heat. Thinking process under way.

Started it up and ran it and it goes to 211* and flutters between 210*-211* at 700rpms.
 

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Monitor pic— I’ve got a conundrum with the IAC not staying set after I set it once and then turn the ignition switch off and I’m not sure why, so I’ll need to figure that out. Maybe I don’t have a power wire connected correctly but I was sure I wired it correctly, but something is amiss.
 

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Wow, that was a long read! You certainly had some bad luck along the way. Looks like it maybe paying off soon. From experience, I can tell you it will be fun driving after you have it sorted. (Not that mine is sorted yet)

Anyways, great work and I love all the detail you put into your posts.
 
WaterH--thanks, I try to explain things as detailed as possible, because in the past I've researched stuff and then found out some tidbit was left out that caused issues and that sucks and if someone reading this I hope it helps them. Yea it's close and it's my 2nd build, so I know what you mean "it wll be fun".

gt1guy--yea, it's about to come off the jack stands.

Damn 20* is cold with a bit of wind, but I did have some sun shining, so that helped today for as long as I could stand it. I got the windshield wiper switch installed and wired, but I need to finish putting some wire loom on the wires and install the arms and blades. I got the bolts welded for the oil pan belly pan mount and tightened them down and tightened the motor mount bolts too. Started it up, but E85 sure doesn't like it that cold and ran the heater and checked out the seat heaters and defrost heat and all seems good there, but only a frosty windshield needing defrosting will tell me how good it works. I need to put the interior windshield trim on cuz that may help with defrosting also. Maybe it won't, but I might as well put it on. I was planning on new windshield glass, but that is going to wait until summer because I'm not sure I can put new glass in from the inside due to the roll cage(that's the way it's removed and installed--weird, but it's true) and because of that I'm not sure what I'll have to do to make the glass go in from the front. Also, the tranny doesn't seem to shift, so we shall see what happens on the test drive. I remembered I need to measure and order some limit straps also.
 
Well I drove it up the street and back a couple of times. I’ve got some things to work on: it doesn’t shift, kind of figured that it wouldn’t— brakes aren’t as good as they should be, need to work on the gas pedal location and get the brake pedal moved over an inch or two, but that’s been on the list for awhile. Dang Terminator x Max handheld goes off and on, didn’t affect the motor, but it’s annoying and it shouldn’t do it. And then there’s the rest of the 1% list to work on, but those are the top of the list things that will get attention if the weather permits.
 
Yes, it was a good feeling, but I was disappointed with the brakes, as they should be much better than they are with hydro boost. My Willys jeep that I built the hydro boost brakes worked great. Maybe they need bled more or I have to work on the rod and pedal ratio. I'll get it figured out. Definite tuning needs to be accomplished too, but again I knew that.
 
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