[57taskforce]

Yesterday we had what appears to be our last nice day for a while, 75* and sunny. Weather came in over night and it’s not looking warm like that again for at least 1.5 weeks out. So I took the time to address an intermittent but gradually intensifying misfire I’ve had since I put the truck back on the road. I replaced the plugs when I put the engine back together but I left the wires and ignition parts alone with the intent to replace them before I started driving it. Well that didn’t happen until yesterday. I scrounged up a set of cut to length ceramic accel wires, and a cap and rotor from my stash. Here’s a pic of the wires, although they definitely don’t appear stock they are high quality wires I’ve had good luck with in the past. Once I swapped the cap and rotor I cut them to length and terminated the distributor ends. If you ever build your own wires this summit crimping tool or similar is a must! It makes quick work of the job and produces a quality connection. I made one side at a time so here’s a pic I took of the drivers side before I put them on. It runs much better now. Another box checked off.

This engine isn’t long for this world though, which kind of makes me sad. It runs good and fires right up every time. It’s got some pretty weak ring seal and is starting to push oil out of the breather so I’ve started to hasten up on the aluminum headed vortec 350 I was building for my K10. I’m gonna get that one ready to swap in over the winter as I’m not ready to begin the LS swap yet.
Speaking of LS swap, that is going to be the next major phase of this build, entailing quite a bit more than the 6.0.

The Plans for that phase at this point are:
6.0 swap using OE ‘72 SM465/205
Front and rear axle swap using the aforementioned freshened up front 60 and disk brake swapped 14 bolt from the square body.
4” lift and 35x12.5 tires
Get factory ac working with 6.0 compressor.

Basically I plan to have the truck complete except for paint after this phase is done. Phase 3 Paint and body will follow. I’m going to build the exterior in its original 557 medium over dark olive scheme and trim when the time comes.
I’m still gathering parts for phase 2, and have a ways to go in gathering hence the reason for the short term use of the vortec 350.

I did also get the cab and chassis 14 bolt steam cleaned and stripped this week and turns out someone swapped both of the 3:73 axles for 4:11. According to the spid on the cab and chassis it was built with 3:73’s.
No worries though as 4:11 will work better with the 35’s. In order to finish the disk brake swap on the 14 bolt I need to round up a set of old style single rear wheel hubs, and get the backing plate mounts cut on the CNC mill. The gears and bearing look good so I will likely run them. I’m debating swapping a Detroit locker in it while I’ve got it apart.

That’s about where I’m at for today! Heres a picture of the plug wires and axles. The closest axle in the picture is the cab and chassis axle the front is the late model Gm AAM 10.5 brake parts donor.