77 longbed "overbudget" build

[hotrod_991]

Got the old th350 out and man was that a PITA by myself. after fighting my way through getting the carrier bearing off to remove the drive shaft I started pulling bell housing bolts and was all excited that I was ready to take it out. Well it really helps if you remove the tourqe converter bolts first lol. Of course i do not yet own a fly wheel wrench so it was two teeth at a time with a flat screwdriver. Got all the bolts out finally after alot of colorful words and two new cuts in my hand. and I still was not able to get the tranny to slide back off the posts on the motor so out of pure frustration I haul off and kicked the hell out of it one good time and presto she slid back from the motor...off the jack and straight into the floor nose first!. Not the best idea I have ever had but hey its off right well not I have forgoten to unhook the tranny lines of course and had to spend another 10 minutes just trying to get to hose claps turned the right way so i was able to reach them.

Almost forgot to say that it never registered in my mind that the back of the motor is supported by the trans so when i booted the tailshaft and it came crashing down my motor took a header flywheel first. then i scrambled to get the one jack i own from trans to the back of the motor to support it. thankfully i had already stripped the motor getting it ready to be pulled so nothing was hit or damaged. Got everything leveled and happy again.

Now im sitting here tryn to figure out how I am going to get the truck pushed back into the grage far enough to close the door with a scissor jack under the oil pan and I dont have the cherry picker yet so basically i got into the zone here and worked myself right into a situation. SO I valled my mechanic (dad) to find out another option of supporting the motor. He had a few good idea but as we were talking i leaned against the front of the truck unknowingly and whamm!!! there goes the scissor jack and the motor again. no damage again so called it a solution and shoved the truck int he garage and supported the motor again and that is how it sits at this point. Going to try and find me a cherry picker and get that pulled and set on the stand.

[benoit454]

I need to pull the bed on my 88 and do cab corners and I want to clean and paint the frame, spray cans usually don't last long but I figured the brush on might last longer and be easier, maybe cheaper, no overspray and such. I figured it was a quart or rustoleum but wasn't sure.

[hotrod_991]

i got the quart and a full set of brushes for less than $15 so its deff affordable and i used the gloss black and seems like it will hold up very nicely

[joe231]

Nice build you got going here!
I'm in

[hotrod_991]

thanks man i apreciate the support. I have really been abke to ramp up the work on it recently loving the garage. looking forward to getting the engine bay cleaned up nicely before everything goes back in,.

[hotrod_991]

we finally was able to get some work done on the chevy yesterday. I got the motor pulled out and started clean it back up, going to set it on the stand today then pull the cam out and change the oil pan gasket and check my mains after wiping a lobe and lifter out hoping i dont find too much crap down low. have to change the leaky pan gasket anyway.

Got the trans pan off last night and cleaned it all up repianted it and changed the filter and gasket so will be all fresh when goes back in.

Then before it can go back to gether I have to get the engine bay cleaned up. got 30 some years of grime in there. Oh and thinking I might clip the springs while I have everything already out too. get the front down a few inches then work on the back after everything is done. I got alot of work to do before she is street ready again but finally have a good trans so looking forward to knowing what my motor is really capable of.

[hotrod_991]

more

[hotrod_991]

ok ladies and gents I tore into the heart of my junk today. First off the ancient cherry picker i rented wat a pain to use. i think it came over on the mayflower. I wanted to work on the motor in my workshop attached to the garage so I set then stand in the door way and tried to move the motor to it thinking if I hook it up in the door way i can just wheel it into the corner by the airconditioner. HAHA thought wrong the hoist would not go far enough into the door frame and the stand was jsut wide enough to no come far enough out so i had to fight and curse and fight alil more but i finally got them mated together. unfortunatly i did not get a picture of that cluster.

Got the motor into the corner of the shop and started taking off the manifold and and the timing cover when i realized that I do not own a harmonic balancer puller. Well one trip to autozone and 22.89 later i have a shinner rented puller and and 3/8 drive ratchet to work with cause i dont have a breaker bar iether. lil more fighting and alot more cursing and it came off. For the future when it goes back to gether I will be buying a two piece timeing chain cover so i dont have to do that again to change a cam.

Got the front taken off checked the chain and gears they are still all nice and tight. bolted the gear back onto the cam so it is easier to remove and pulled out the cam. I took a picture of the cam when i got it set on the bench and not sure if you can see but the last lobe in the secdond set from the front is completely rounded and has flat spot on both sides were it ate the lifter. And it was starting to eat the bottom off another lifter already so deff glad i decided to tear it down and fix everything.

[hotrod_991]

after getting the cam out and getting the motor rolled over I removed the oil pan being gentle not to scratch the block with my screw driver. Realised how beat to heck my oil pan is so that is something else that needs to be considered to replace. Anyway so i start pulling main caps cause my cam has a wipped lobe and had eating almost 2 lifteres now so logically the metal has to go some were and since it wasnt in the oil ( I changed out soon as I noticed something wrong with the motor). Well no breaker bar or reverse torque wrench meant me with my trust 3/8 rachet and a box end wrench on the end of it and leaning my body into it. "crack!" they all come lose as i go from one to the other. That is the best wrench I have ever owned when it siezes up i smack it on the concrete and it works again. well back to story at hand. I start pullign mains and low and behold there is some major scaring on the bearings. As you can see in the pics i wasnt far from grenading my pride and joy. The scores are so deep that I can drag my nail across the serface and hook the lines and pull the cap over. Well saw that and emediatly got the flash light and started inspecting my crank. some how I lucked out and there is no scoring on the crank. Thank you bearing for taking one for the team. That is as far as I have gotten tonight I need a 12 point socket to get the rod caps off and will take the oil pump apart next and check the gears and filter for metal also. I am confident that with new bearings cam lifters and gaskets I saved my motor and will be able to enjoy it for some. Thanks for reading all.

[hotrod_991]

removed the rear end cover tonight and turns out I have the 3.73 gears that I have been junk yard hunting for lol. sometimes alil work saves alot of money. and i belive it to be a posi. The fluid smelled bad and the cover has a line low on it that says its been low for some time now. going to clean it up real good and fill it with some good synth fluid with the posi aditive cause what was in it was realyl thick so im sure PO just put normal heavy wieght into it.

On another point im tryn not to get to excited yet but i think im coming into a good chunck of change in the next 2 days that will allow me to pay some bills, put some in the bank, and the best part buy everything i need to put my motor back together and get it back on the road. Think happy thoughts for me everyone ill post pictures soon as I can.

[hotrod_991]

well I got the motor rebuilt today. New bearings, oil pump, and every gasket except head gasket. Repainted it red again, looks alot better with the 3 fesh coats of paint than the one coat covered in oil and dirt. Looking forward to tryn out the new cam after a proper break in. Its alittle smaller but more streetable that the Thumper junk I had in there. It moved my RPM power range from 2200 down to 1800 so I have more power at the low end wich is what I want. Also decided to go with a wiend dual plain intake instead of the torker2 single plain I had that should help some too. The I rebuilt my edelbrock 750 and swapped in some smaller jets and mettering rods to try and help with the runnign way rich issue i was having. Now its all sitting on the stand pretty much ready to to go back into the truck. Tomarrow going to try and find a hoist to rent then get the engine bay cleaned up some. Hopefully tomarrow night I will be matting the engine and trans so Sunday morning I can get it all in and hooked up then its time and tune and the best part of all; A test drive with the beautiful wife. Well here are the pictures.

[hotrod_991]

more

[hotrod_991]

last ones

[GMC91]

Nice build man, can you tell me where I can get the bracket that you use to pull the motor with? The one bolted to were the carb is spose to be?

[hotrod_991]

yea man I got it at autpzone for $12

[hotrod_991]

Well this I finished getting the motor/tranny installed last night. ended up being a pretty late night but was deff worth all the sweat and time. The people living on iether side of me probably arnt happy tho haha I was so excited that I got everything back to gether with the new cam and intake that i decided to break in the cam at 9pm with open headers. lol 25 minutes at 2800rpm! This morning I got up early and went out and buttoned up the exhaust, power steering and about a million other things. Then filled the rear end with fluid and posi additive and took her for a drive.

Once I got the timeing alil more dialed in she is running good now plenty of power and very responsive accept I still seem to feel like I have a miss. not sure what it is at this time. But ill iron that out later maybe lifter adjustment. Also bought a new speedo cable since mine was mangled but now the speedo reads way off! lol barely rolling says im doing 20! I have pics but have to take the wife to dinner to help soften the $900 i spent this weekend on the truck lol.

[bakerboys]

nice THANKS FOR WHAT YOU DO How about some engine specs

[hotrod_991]

sure:
350 4bolt bored 40 over, floteck 160/202 alluminum heads, 1.5 roller tip rockers with polly locks, comp extreme energy 270H hydrolic cam with magnumn lifters, mallory push rods, SRP pistons on full floating Eagle I beam rods, wieand dual plane intake, edelbrock 750, skip white distro with 60,000 volt coil, summit long tube headers, lightened crank, high volume oil pump, edelbrock 110 gph fuel pump, and sweet chevy black and red complete engine dress kit.

Also have 2.5 in duals into 2 chamber welded thruch mufflers, 2200 stall. TH350 with shift kit, and 3.73 gears and gov loc positrack.

My dad and I built the motor when i first got home then i overtightened a lifter and flattened a lobe on the cam. had the Biggest thumper cam at the time cause i thought i wanted all noise. This time it was just me and i put in the new cam and am very happy with it so far. The whole truck has been built by iether myself of me and my dad.

[hotrod_991]

Well its been alongtime since I have updated this build thread. Well since last post I have just been enjoying my ride. I updated the interior alil with fresh painted door panels dash bezel, and tried several times to use my B&M floor shifter kept bending cables so went back to the column shifter. Also as the moment my motor is tore apart again and sitting opn the engine stand. Turns out i glazed 3 cylinders the night i took it to the track. Must haver just been too soon. Tho it did pull strong to 6krpm each shift and ran consistant low 15 high 14's all night. Tuesday the block is going to the machine shop for honeing and block prep.
having crank polished, swapping to forged internals, and having everything balanced this time. Will post up some new pics on sunday

[zackary027]

nice truck i have a few questions, when you painted your frame did you leave everything attached? and what was the name of the paint and where did you get it? thanks

[hotrod_991]

yea I left most everything attached due to not having air tools to remove anything. The paint came from ace hardware its a super gloss enamel. was only like $4 a quart i think and it only took about half a quart for the whole cab back of the frame and axle tube and I did one coat it covers really well

[zackary027]

is it a particular type of paint?

[hotrod_991]

rustoleom or how ever you spell that lol

[nbpro]

Nice looking project

[zackary027]

lol thanks man