Dakota RT/NHRA Trucks

Today on trucks. Project Rolling Thunder already has a performance suspension as well as some go fast goodies under the hood. Today, our Dakota gets a full exhaust system, graphics and Tunno cover. Then we'll drop the hammer with the most competitive class on the nation's premier drag racing circuit.

After that, we'll give you some tips on finding your next project vehicle.

That's all today on trucks.

Welcome to this week's show everybody. Last week, we promised to show you the improved dyno numbers on Project Rolling Thunder and we will. But before we do that, we wanna hang a brand new exhaust system on our dodge to go along with that new super charger performance suspension as well as the wheel and tire combination we've already installed.

Of course, with the addition of a power on super charger. We're gonna have a lot of air blowing into this thing.

Now, we need to make sure that we have a lot of air blowing out. So the way that we gonna take care of that

is with a pair of these JB, a stainless steel headers as well as a corresponding cat forward system. Of course, the first thing we need to do

is get rid of those old exhaust manifolds.

While Stacey is pulling off the stock manifolds, I can go ahead and show you the rest of the system that's gonna complement those headers. And that comes in the form of a stainless steel cat back. We got from MBRP

included in their kit is a muffler and all the pipes you'll need

as well as this really cool pro glass fiberglass roll pan that has openings for the custom tips to exit through

with the manifolds off. I can go ahead and show you why headers are just so important. Now, as you can see, these stock manifolds have a lot of really sharp bends in them which can cause turbulence heck exhaust can actually work against itself. Then it necks it down into a real tight bend here. That's got a lot of jagged edges inside. These don't flow with a squat. Now, these JB A headers on the other hand,

have a lot of nice flowing bends and four separate tubes.

These things are actually worth about 20 horsepower just by themselves. Now, a tip when you buy new headers come in here and check the ports, sometimes there's some welding slag that can get in there and cause some restrictions.

If you've got that, just get in there with a dye grinder and knock it off. But as you can see, these are great right out of the box. So we're gonna go ahead and just bolt them on.

Since our kit comes with a brand new roll pan, we need to lose the stock bumper. The first thing we need to do is disconnect the lights for the license plate, then we can unbolt the bumper itself. Keep in mind it's always a good idea to hit the stock bolts with some penetrating loop to help knock them loose.

Now, the next step to putting on this cat forward system, once you have the old pipes out of the way is to hook up to the catalytic converter, which incidentally is the only piece we're not replacing because these new cats flow pretty well.

Now, the pipes slide right into the cat

and then bolt up to the new headers. Now a little trick here,

take some high temperature silicone,

run a bead around inside all these connections before you put your clamps on,

that'll ensure a leak proof seal. Now, of course, if you got a welder

welding up the seams is always the best.

Now that we have the tailgate and the stock bumper out of the way we can go ahead and get the new piece in place. Now, it's never a bad idea to run, masking tape around everything, so you don't scratch up your new piece during the fitting process.

Now, once we have the pan exactly where we want it,

we can use clamps

to hold it in place.

That's pretty good right there, man. All Right. I'm gonna go ahead and tighten it down. Good deal.

Once we have it secured, we can drill our holes

before mounting the new piece into place.

Now that mel has a new roll pan on, we can go ahead and get rid of the rest of this stock system.

Now, in a vehicle that's been lowered a little bit like this one has. You might as well just figure on cutting this system in half here, makes it a lot easier to get it off over the axle. Also a

little bit of spray lo back here on these rubber hangers and make it a lot easier to get them off without tearing them up.

The new cat back system is gonna connect right up to the catalytic converter. And the first thing we're gonna install is the dual outlet muffler.

We'll follow that up by sliding the exit pipes in

and then loosely clamping everything together so we can make adjustments once we have the entire system into place.

Now, one of the things that mbrp prides itself on is designing a system that allows you to continue to use your stock spare tire mounting location if you decide to.

Now, one of the most unique things about this kit is the stainless steel tips,

then exit out through the roll pan. Now, if you're feeling a little bit of deja vu looking at these, well, that's understandable because they were designed to look just like those on a 1970 Plymouth Kuda and those are cool.

Now, once you have everything exactly how you want it, go ahead and bolt it down and then start the motor and check for leaks.

Well, now that everything is installed and the engines warmed up, it's time to find out where all this work has gotten us.

Yeah.

Well, the computer is showing us at just over 255 horsepower, which means we picked up 60 horse without any tweaking at all. Thanks to that super charger ignition and full exhaust system. But keep in mind if you're on a little tighter budget, any one of the three are gonna give you some good performance gains.

Now, keep in mind anytime you do a project like this,

after you put about 100 miles on it or so,

you need to pull it in, do some maintenance on it, check, make sure all your nuts and bolts are still tight.

Also, don't forget with the supercharging, you need to run at least 92 octane fuel to keep detonation down. We need to take a break right now, but stay with us. We're not quite done with project rolling thunder

later in the show, Stacy has some tips you can use when you're ready to hunt down your next project vehicle. But up first, we've got the finishing touches for Project Rolling Thunder to show you.

Welcome back to trucks. Now that we have the performance end of project Rolling Thunder pretty well taken care of. It's time to do a few things to it. That'll make it stand apart from all the other Dakotas out there. Now, at this point, you've probably figured out we're pulling from Plymouth

Coa's heritage with the roll pan and it just so happens that Pensar

reproductions makes an a Ar Ka

style stripe specifically for the Dakota.

Now, applying vinyl graphics isn't necessarily hard, but it can be a little tedious. So here's some of the tools you'll need to do it. Right first off, you need a good assortment of squeegee,

some single edge razor blades

and very important. A squirt bottle of water

with just a little dab of dish soap thrown in.

If you're not familiar with the Ka

stripe, we're talking about, it runs right down the side of the truck all the way back. So the first thing we need to do is clean the area where the stripes gonna go

that way, it's not gonna peel up on you.

Now, the first thing that you wanna decide when it comes to graphics is what piece you're gonna put on first. This is important because everything else is gonna line up off of that piece. Now, on this kit, we're gonna start with this one that runs down the hood

because it's got a special cut in it that runs down the gap of this hood and it's got to be exact.

Now with the backing removed. Go ahead and soak down the fender and the sticker with your soap and water solution,

then set it in place. Now, the soap and water will allow you to move the sticker around

till you get it exactly how you want it.

And once you have it in place, take your squeegee

and work out the water and air bubbles from underneath, starting in the center

moving out toward the ends.

Once that's done, go ahead and pull off the cover paper, pulling it back against itself, being careful that the graphic doesn't lift on you.

Now, with the paper out of the way you want to take the time to carefully inspect your graphic

to make sure there's no bubbles left over

after that. Take some straight water, just wipe everything down,

then dab it dry. This is gonna get rid of the film left over from the soap and water solution. You used

to lay your graphic down.

Now, the second stripe is where things get a little tricky because it's all one piece.

Now you'll prep it the same way, put it into place

and then look down and make sure this thing is perfectly straight. There's nothing worse than a crooked stripe

and make sure that you're lined up here on the front

with the front stripe.

Once you have it exactly how you want it,

go ahead and start hitting it with the Squeegee.

Now, the last thing we need to do before we take the paper off is make our cuts here in these gaps between the bed and the door.

Now come in here, cut right down the center

that'll give you plenty of material to roll into the gap for a nice clean look.

Now that we have the stripes in place, the last thing we need to do to project rolling thunder is put a tunnel cover on it and that's where checker products comes in

with their flush mount lightweight cover. Now, the thing that's really neat about this setup is it fits down inside the bed

for a real low profile look and has this lip with weather stripping to keep it from leaking. Let's go ahead and get it on, man. All right. Now, this is a nice cover. Very cool. Now, putting this thing on is really easy. All you do is mount the hinges in the front, the brackets for the gas struts about here

and then these straps in the back that holds everything down. Now, you can see

just how nice that cleans up the back of this truck.

Well, there it is rolling thunder. Not only does our dodge have a unique look that's all its own, but given the suspension and motor upgrades we got from the aftermarket, we should even be able to run with the lightning. Now stay with us. We got more trucks for you right after this

up. Next on trucks we'll shift into gear with the National Hot Rod Association and the Rostock Trucks.

The NR A is best known for its funny car and top fuel divisions, but its most competitive class is the pro stock trucks.

In 98. Everybody was on a learning curve, you know, and then,

and last year it got pretty tough. I mean, there was some, some fields separated by 500 in a second. Now, this year it's starting to become a norm. So, uh there's no room for mistakes. I mean, you know, when you got

3540 guys after the one goal uh makes it tough.

The most competitive class on the premier drag racing circuit got its start in 19 97

when chassis legend Jerry Haass and motor building equal, John Lingenfelter ran the first exhibition season at selected N hr A events all across the country.

John Lingenfelter and Jerry Haass did so much of this class. I mean, they pushed real hard to get this class to, to become a professional category and

man, and what it's come to today. I mean, you look up and down the pitch. There's

35 to 40 of these things in every race and,

and uh

it's really come a long ways and them guys are, are totally

responsible for that first time I made a pass in the truck. I'm thinking, wow, I don't know.

Uh

but we got right down to it, you know, right now, like yesterday, you know, these trucks out here running, you know, 743 at 100 and 80 mile an hour. That's not bad for a 358 cubic inch truck.

First of all, I like trucks. So, uh,

I think it's awesome. Uh,

I like the names that are being brought up to the ranks. Uh,

careers are being built. Uh, Slavinsky naturally with, uh,

Castro and Syntek, uh, excited to be a teammate with him, but uh a lot of great teams out there whenever they run, I get to the stands to watch them.

Now, the truck class is reserved for 96 or later, mid size extended cab pickups and have a wheel base that stretches out to 100 and 25 inches. As opposed to the 105. The pro stock cars run

everything is, you know, basically about 18 inches longer than the cars. And,

uh, it takes a lot to make those work and you gotta make them wheel stand to make them leave.

They make 925 930 horsepower, um,

560 pounds of torque.

They could cross the finish line over 10,000, shift them at 97 9800. That, uh

they're pretty impressive. That was really the first year, you know, that the biggest downfall that they wouldn't rev up like they do now and

now they have no problem. 10 thousands.

No, not a problem one. Thing that's good about drag race in particular is there's a lot of different classes so a lot of people get to see a lot of different things. It's another class that's fun

to the sport. Something else somebody might want to see and that's what it's all about.

Well, I really think they ought to put them on nitro. So they'll go a little faster. Well, maybe someday Kenny, but for now 100 and 80 miles an hour in a truck with a normally aspirated motor still sounds like a pretty good time to us. I've never been rear ended at a stop sign before, but people say

that's gotta be what it's like. I mean, it really is. I mean, you gotta figure, you know, we got

925 horsepower, you're leaving at 7000 RPM. S and, and,

uh,

it's, it's, it's amazing. I mean, I think these things, you know, that the trucks actually probably accelerate as hard in the first three years as a pro stock car do. I mean, with gear multiplications and, uh,

it's really hard to explain because like I said, I've never been rear ended in a stop sign before, but that's got to be a close to what it feels like.

The National Hot Rod Association celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2001. And the pro stock trucks add to that celebration by dropping the hammer in 14 of the 24 shows on the schedule. So if you just happen to be a truck guy that's in the wheel, standing, heads up, flat out drag racing, it doesn't get any better than this.

Just can't get enough of trucks. Check us out online at trucks, tv.com.

Thanks for staying with us. You know, one of the biggest questions that people ask is what's a good truck to build and what the heck should I be looking for? Well, today, I'm gonna give you some tips on what to look for when you're hunting down a street truck project. Now, the first thing you need to decide is what kind of truck you want. Don't waste time looking at a body style that you don't like. Also, unless you're a pro, don't buy something thinking you're gonna turn around and make some money on it or that you'll even get your money back out of it.

You need to do a project because you love it. So

grab yourself something to write with. Let's go take a look at a truck.

Now, at first glance, you might be thinking, oh man, what a piece of junk. But wait a minute, what we've got here is a late seventies, Chevy

short bed, step side. This is a desirable body style to make a hot street truck out of

and the owner is only asking about 500 bucks for it. So we have a desirable body style and a good price. We'll write that down.

Now walking down the side of the body, you can see that there's almost no damage or dents.

You got a little surface rust, but other than that

not seeing any major problems and keep in mind

any panels that need to be replaced,

need to go on the list.

Now, the interior is obviously shot, the door panels, the seats, the dash,

but all these parts are available through the aftermarket. So, make sure you write down what you think you're gonna need.

Also,

don't forget to check your floor,

your cab mounts

and your frame for rust. Uh huh.

Also another thing on these old trucks, these door jams are notorious for rusting. As you can see, we've got some rust here.

So it looks like we're looking at some fabrication work in the door jams,

new floor pans as well as probably an inner rocker. So we'll write that down.

Now, the engine and tranny are important only if you're gonna keep them,

if you're gonna swap something else in, make sure that you factor in things like motor mounts, headers, cooling system and all the conversion stuff.

Now, once you've given the vehicle a complete inspection,

step back, take a look at your list and compare the pros and cons, but don't forget to add in things like your budget, your time and your ability to do the work. Now, once you've looked at all those areas, you'll be able to make a decision on if this is something that you want to tackle.

So you've just gotten a great deal on a used engine and you've decided you're gonna freshen it up a little bit by throwing in some rings and bearings.

Unfortunately, what you've got is the ingredients of a major oil burner because those new rings are not gonna see to those old glaze cylinder walls. Now, combustion chamber pressures will help

steal that top ring so the engine will run.

But these two lower rings have got to have a properly

honed crosshatch pattern in the cylinder walls and that takes machine work. So if you're gonna go through the hassle of taking out the crank and pistons spend a little extra time and money, get the proper machine work done and then you'll really have something.

The all new Holly Street Avenger, the first performance car with easy to use. No trouble features. Our gen 4 million mile power valve built in fuel filters on vehicle, quick change, secondaries street calibrated metering system,

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and now truck gear parts, tools and equipment for pickups and sport utilities

without a doubt. The most popular engine that people choose the hot rod is the small block Chevy problem is what if you have a hot Chevy

and you want it to stand apart from the crowd.

Well, total performance has the answer with these awesome inglese thin aluminum valve covers. Now they have a very unique shape, which kind of looks like you're running dual overhead cams and they're available painted polished or plated like these are

now, they also have enough room

to clear exotic valve trains like roller rockers

and they have a center bolt design, but they come with adapters so they'll fit any kind of a small block Chevy head.

The scene started about 350 bucks in total performance is the place to call.

One of the easiest ways to subtly change the look of your truck or SUV is to alter the headlights and tail lights and never has that been more easy to do than with these GTs covers. Now, the complete set we have here is for a 99 Silverado,

but you can get them for basically any make or model vehicle out there. Installation is as easy as popping them into place. And the complete set you see here goes for about 100 and 50 bucks.

That's gonna do it for truck gear. Let's take a quick look at next week's show.

We'll bring project workhorse back into the truck shop as we continue to get our F 250 super duty ready to handle just about any job site out there.

Then it's time for a new millennium twist on a tried and true classic from the people who continue to change the rules. The name is still the same, but that's about it.

Well, that's gonna do it for this week's show. We appreciate you hanging out with us. Yeah, we got more trucks for you next week.

Oh dude,

man.

Hey, where you going, man?

Stinks, man,

dude. What is that?

Are you missing the right

man? I ain't going in that thing.

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