S10 Swap Part 6. ZZ3 UPDATE

It came back with 10,000 miles, an unpaid parking ticket, and a Hit-and-Run accident, Stealth Conversions

We left the ZZ3 powered truck with a magazine editor for over a year. The truck racked up about 10,000 miles, an unpaid parking ticket, and a Hit-and-Run accident. To make a long story short, the editor claimed he had nothing to do with the accident, but he paid the owner of the other car cash, within 24 hours of getting informed of being a suspect. Something about the "LEGAL V8" license plate was easy for witnesses to remember. Even more coincidental was the fact that the editor looked remarkably similar to whoever was driving the truck when it hit the other vehicle.

After we got the truck back from magazine-land, we decided it was time to add air-conditioning. As you can see, we installed an engine-driven cooling fan (hidden by the fan shroud). We prefer engine-driven fans over electric fans. With the engine set-back 1-1/4", a 1" thick fan spacer is used, and there is 1-1/8" between the fan and the radiator. A 5/8" fan spacer would work with the accessories shown, so the engine/transmission would only need to be set-back about 7/8" for adequate fan clearance.

The air conditioning compressor and bracketry are from a 1987 V8 Camaro. The accumulator is from a 4.3 V6 S-Truck. The air-conditioning hoses are from a 1982–1984 V6 Camaro and bolt up to the truck with mild tweaking on the end that attaches to the compressor.

The fan is 18" in diameter, and the fan belt to the a.c. compressor must be long enough to clear the tip of the blade, but short enough to keep the compressor away from the upper radiator hose. Also, the radiator must be offset towards the driver's side so that the a.c. compressor doesn't contact the upper radiator hose. In other words, it all fits, but it is tight.