[mr48chev]

[QUOTE=daveshilling;8995707]Coming from a guy who chopped his truck, which adds only time and money and zero functional benefit whatsoever, I'd think you would wholeheartedly support going the extra mile to do something you think is cool!

To throw my 2c in, the Pontiac 336 is the same exterior size as a Pontiac 389 or a Pontiac 400. Only an eagle-eyed observer will know the difference, they otherwise look identical.

If you're going to keep it Poncho, which is COOL, then I vote you skip the 336 and find a 389 or 400 to build there instead. More torque, and more likely you'll find one in good shape as the 336 is a rare engine.

If you go chevy instead, maybe carburete an LS? They are durable engines, and carburetion lets you skip the PCM, the high pressure fuel line, etc.[/QUOTE


My chopped truck has been driven 300 thousand miles serving as my daily driver and a couple times as the family vehicle. The chop has nothing to do with it's mechanical systems. Simply meaning that over the past100 and something K with the 250 in it I could walk into any Autozone or O'Reilly's in the country and buy any engine related part over the counter then and there and buy any critical electric part then and there.

The hardest to get part on the truck are the stock AD truck front wheel bearings and the only mechanical parts on the truck that I have ever had to wait extra days for the parts house to get.

I even built a new driveshaft to get away from the expensive and hard at times to find combination U joint at the pinion end of the drive shaft.

The truck got driven on a 4000+ mile road trip when it was pretty well worn out engine wise. From Grandview Wa to Bonneville for speed week, then to Pleasanton for good guys and back up 5 and 97 Home. The only problems the whole time were a bad battery that got replaced in La Grande Oregon a 7:30 in the morning at the Les Schwab and a broken wire to the connector to the alternator in Wendover that caused me to have to carry the battery across town on the shuttle bus to have it charged after I figured out the broken wire. Oh there was the bent tie rod in California from hitting a huge pot hole in the toll road south of Oakland.

All stock GMC show trucks that never get driven anywhere are fine, most of the time they probably get trailered rather than driven.
I don't know what 72 K15's budget for rebuilding his truck is but doubt he plans to spend 4K rebuilding a stock 336 engine and is thinking he will find a runner for three or four hundred and stick it in and go. Unless he buys a running driving donor truck with everything on it, some parts are going to be hard to find and seriously expensive.

There is no GMC 336 V8 stick bellhousing on Ebay to even get a price from. Then you have to find the 336 flywheel if it didn't come with the engine.

Don't get me wrong, I usually take at least one photo of all stock GM trucks at shows but seldom spend any real time looking at them because they are boring and all the same. At times the only reason I stop to take a photo of one is to post it here unless the workmanship is outstanding and the attention to detail is top notch. Unless you are at a national Chevy truck show where there is a points judging system the quality of "totally restored" trucks usually is no where near the quality of work on custom trucks.

Now why do "restorers" always think they have to bad mouth guys who modify their trucks? I've put up with that nonsense ever since 1973 when I first drove my 48 to the Street Rod Nationals in Tulsa, I have seldom had a hotrodder or custom car guy say anything bad about it but restorers seem to want to badmouth anything that they see that is modified. The OH you ruined it by chopping it, Oh you ruined it because you took the original engine out, Oh you ruined it by lowering it. Then the nonsense of "oh it would have been worth more money if you had kept it all original. We all know that is total nonsense on anything except maybe a few Corvettes and tri-5 Chevy Nomads and Convertibles.