Well fellas, been busy with the truck all weekend. I tore into it late Saturday morning and finished it yesterday. Everything went smoothly but with all the test fitting and trimming over and over to get it right, it took some time. I had all weekend so I wasn't in any hurry to get it in but I was eager to drive it. I also had 3" 6061 T6 aluminum tubing along with a 3" aluminum intake from Pusher Intakes that was waiting to go in. Because I ordered the intake for a '94-'98 12v, I assumed that it would fit without any clearance issues, with or without the grid heater. Well, I assumed wrong.

With the grid heater still in place, it looked like it sat a little high. So I brought the hood down as if to close it and sure enough, the under-hood light was directly above it. I tried turning the light around (even though it's a mercury switch and doesn't work upside down) yet, there still wasn't quite enough clearance. Well, I ended up removing the grid heater. I wasn't that big of a deal since I had disconnected mine in July when I converted to a factory i/c setup.

I'll skip the before pictures since most of you already know how to remove the grill, bumper, i/c and so on.

Bumper brackets and factory i/c supports cut.



Center support removed and support under the hood latch trimmed.



Core support opened for clearance of the i/c charge ports.



A/C condenser brackets trimmed and condenser mounts.

 

Continued...

A/C condenser mounted and bare metal painted.





Made some studs to hold the i/c up off of the frame. I set 1/4" rubber on the frame as a spacer before getting the studs in place.



I turned the carriage bolt over in order to get the i/c comfortably closer to the frame. Not touching!



As it sits, I didn't have to modify my hood safety latch.

 

The final result...







I cut the lower valance leaving just a portion on either side of the i/c.



Peek-a-boo.

 

Looking good man.

 

Nice job. I wish I could get the money together to do this. What is with your hood? Any chance of a top pic of it if you can?

 

It has louvers in it.

 

Thanks! Looks great!

 

Ya know, I almost jumped into doing my PS IC this weekend too but I was tapped out after doing the kdp. Now I'm so glad I waited your pics will make it so much easier!!! I've had the IC sitting waiting for almost a year, looks like its going in this week!

 

Thanks for the pics that is a cool truck.

 

Thanks. I'm glad I ran the a/c condenser behind the intercooler. There'd be clearance issues with the grill if I had run it out in front of the intercooler.

 

Great job!!!
Thanks for including us! Did you notice any differences?
Jim

 

So far it seems as though spool time has decreased a bit. The additional volume of air has cleaned up smoke a bit as well. Also, it seems like EGT's cool down quicker.

 

How did they louver the hood with the frame of the hood under there? Did they remove the outer skin then louver it and reinstall it? Looks cool either way.

 

Thanks for the feed back!
Jim

 

The framework on that half was removed from the hood skin.